Yeah, I haven't played Persona 4 in a while, and won't in a long time, but the thing is that my new laptop sadly had installation problems (which were in fact resolved yesterday, but nevermind that now... ) and I was looking for different stuff to kill my free time with, which wasn't all that hard with college and having gotten started on a new Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force game, but STILL... I decided to finish off some old unfinished pictures and this one was in my "Work-In-Progress" folder for a loooong time! It must be around 2 and a half years in work! Way back when I was in trade school (which started Autumn 2008 and ended summer 2010) working on the title of computer technician, which was another terrible mistake in all of itself, but mah, had some good sides, at least I did finally get some papers beyond high school after such a failure at the university... BUT NEVERMIND THAT NOW TOO!

I had some programming or computer graphics classes where I was almost snoring from the tasks at hand. HEY! 2D Computer Graphics were my right hand even then and the programming languages we did, I've known before! So I've tried using the Photoshop soft ware there to create some classy pictures of which barely any were ever finished, but one or two were really promising ideas, so I've kept them and when leaving school, I've made sure to send these files onto my computer in hopes of finishing it someday.

The picture I wanted to do was based on this Persona 4 picture:
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/_.....tagonist_2.jpg
The protagonist of the game with his Persona, Izanagi. Since the beginning I always thought I looked very much like the Protagonist (except hair colour), so the idea of putting myself in his shoes and putting my made-up person in Izanagi's place came natural!

But as you can see from the way the pic looked when working on it during trade school:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7258166/
It was mostly traced over and CHEAP! I recall that the computers at the school were really SLOW and stuff took a while to even happen and I guess I didn't have my tablet at school too, hence the lines have firm constant thickness (which is a problem that with time I've learned to solve, but nevermind that, with a brand new laptop and new tablet, I'll have pressure sensitivity again anyway!) and the protagonists hair was just HUEd into the proper color, plus Vertumnus just doesn't look right there.

So on my own laptop I gave it a new go and even if I have a new tablet, the pressure sensitivity will likely only work on the new laptop, so I basically had the exact same stuff to work with as I had back in trade school, and yet... LOOK AT THIS!!!

I do realize it's not perfect, I do realize there are flaws here and I know it could be better, BUT.... I made this! It's me whom created it, it's me who came up with it! So what if it's heavily inspired by a much better work, this is me, a nobody from Poland that worked on this picture for hours, doing proper shading, several layers, adding a faint skin texture, plus adding all the details on the leafs... I've made this! And this is especially satisfying when compared to what I've achieved a few years back with the exact same tools! This is sooo much better! This isn't a step forward, it's a real jump! I didn't copy it or trace it, this is MY picture, I've made it and I feel proud!

Side Note: I would add details to the eyes, but the original pic didn't have that, so I've stick to it the way it looks now. AND as a second side note, I figured that perhaps in the future, I COULD think of something based on this picture:
http://images.wikia.com/megamitense.....%26Izanagi.jpg

I DEMAND OPINIONS AND CRITIQUE!!!!

Persona 4 (great game), original artwork concept @ Atlus
Myself/Vertumnus, artwork, design @ Me!