My entry into a contest on DeviantART. It's a vs. style, with this round's theme being songs. The song me and my opponent were given was Who You Are by Jessie J.

This round was...complicated, to put it lightly. I spent the majority of the alotted time on a completely different drawing. As I am completely unfamiliar with Jessie J (never even heard of her before now), I did not realize until much later that the youtube video provided for me and my opponent was not in fact the same song we were supposed to do. Which I am happy about, actually. The previous song was one called "Domino"...and that one's basically about sex. Not something I can portray and make it acceptable for dA.

As it was, "Who You Are" was a pretty tough one, too. I wanted to do something with mirrors and a reflection. But it wasn't working out. So in the end, I settled on this. Even if the image requires some explanation, I am pleased with how the details came out. I'm actually satisfied with my shading work, and the blue reflects off the flower.

"Who You Are" by Jessie J

I stare at my reflection in the mirror.
Why am I doing this to myself?
Losing my mind on a tiny error.
I nearly left the real me on the shelf.

Don't lose who you are
in the blur of the stars.
Seeing is decieving,
dreaming is believing.
It's okay not to be okay.

Sometimes it's hard, to follow your heart.
Tears don't mean you're losing
everybody's bruising.
Just be true to who you are.

All her life, Sheba believed she was human. She was born just the same way as everyone else. She was a happy child, a typical teenager, a young adult...nobody could look at her and say she wasn't normal.

But now...now was this. Now she knew the truth. She wasn't human. Her father...her demon father...had come for her. Against her will he had shown her exactly what she was. The face she saw in the mirror now was not her own, but that of a monster. Her mother tried to tell her that what she looked like did not change who she was inside. It was all going to be okay. But how could she possibly believe her? Sheba could sit now in the fires of her father's realm and not feel their licking flames. Everyone who saw her turned and fled. Where wounds had once bled with pure blood, now her claws could dig into flesh and draw nothing.

Sheba almost gave up hope. Until the moment the tiny flower bud her mother had given her, picked from the garden they had planted together, suddenly began to bloom in her twisted, clawed hand. Sheba felt tears, real tears, flow down the sides of her horrid muzzle as she watched the delicate petals open wide, shining a soft blue glow against the fiery red.

And then...she had to think. She looked like a monster. But flowers could not bloom in a monster's hand. So maybe...just maybe...what she saw in the mirror was only skin deep....