Stranger Meetings

I know you posted this way back in September and I am just getting around to commenting on it now, but at least it didn't end up being over a year to comment, right? It's still pretty horrible to have taken so long. It was actually the posting of your other little jewel, that beautiful little springtime treat, that prompted me into action. It is a COMMENT OR DIE situation now. It needs to be done or the guilt will probably make me break out in hives or some other somatic manifestation of guilt.

So, to start, I still recall the utter joy and elation the moment I saw this little jewel. It was similar to the usual joy and elation I experience when seeing that you have posted fanart/illustrations, but this feeling was very special this time. Can you guess why? Can you? Huh? Huh? Huh? Well, it's a mushy answer, but here it goes:

Stranger Days was still relatively new back then, my love for it was still bubbly and new, and the fact that you noticed the story at all was the best thing in the world. You do happen to be my best friend, after all. Every time you read something of mine, it's a thousand times better than anyone else reading it. It's even better when you like what you read. You were the first person to do fanart for Stranger Days. For my birthday. It's like you were able to reach into my brain and pull out the one thing I loved most in that very moment.

And then there was the second piece of fanart for Stranger Days... THIS picture right here.

This picture is more perfect than I could probably ever completely express in a comment. I adore all the art you do, but in doing Stranger Days work when it was new and special... It's extra special art to me. It just goes to show how wonderful you are as a friend... and how incredible you are as an artist. Though you don't need a lot of proof for that, since awesome is stamped all over every single masterpiece you've done. Like... your pinky finger contains more artistic talent than my whole body. _{To be fair, I accept any and all glory for my writing abilities. I leave the technical visual stuff to you for a reason. You complete me.}

I go back to this picture all the time just to smile at it. It lives in my inbox where I can never forget about it. It's there when I wake up in the morning so I can love it. It's there when I go to sleep. It watches me with Teeki's terrified eyes, as if piss-scared that I will leave it hanging forever and never comment on it. Not that I would leave it for ever. I would only leave it for... seven months. Yeah...

How is it that you create such wonderful portals into the fantasy world? You has magic fingers, is all I can say. The colours, the lines, the way you capture their looks and the story behind it all... How you take words on a page and turn them into heaven for the eyes. I love it when you use this style. The super-saturated colours and easy cell shading. It's not overly complicated or entirely time consuming, but it shows off your talent and yet is both fun and funky at the same time.

Plus, I have a secret to admit- I love these fake screen shot things. LOVE THEM. When I see the occasional one around dA, it's like a thrill to peer into them and get a taste for what an anime like that might be like. Like when you did No One's here. Remember that? It was... last year? No, two years ago now. I think. That was just like a screen shot, except without the words along the bottom. This picture right here is a real screen shot with the words, and it makes me all happy and thrilled inside because it's not just a picture, it's an idea that the screen shot belongs to a non-existent cartoon where the characters have voices, they can move around, they can touch one another. In a way, they're alive. That's what I love about fake screen shots- all pictures bring characters to life, but screen shots offer that thrill of feeling like that really are from a show, that they really could move, that anyone could see them on TV.

The fact that you did this picture in this style... it's like I'm never going to stop crying tears of joy.

The back of Annabelle's head... Well, I'm not sure how to gush about the back of her head. You're not giving me much to go on here. But you know what? Challenge accepted. Looking at her hair- the colour, the little waves, even that little curl of hair curving up on the right side... It's everything I pictured about her hair at the age of eight. The cuteness and curliness. The blondness and shine. It's utterly perfect in everything. From the very first moment of seeing the back of her head, there was no mistaking who this young creature of beauty was. There is only one being who could possibly be so adorable without even trying, without even needing to show her face, and that would be my dearest Annabelle. Oh, how she manages to be so perfect, I don't know!

But then there is the focal point of the picture. The figure who has wrested our attention onto himself, even if he looks like he would like nothing more than to slink back behind his mother.

Teeki! Oh, dear Teeki! COME HERE AND LET ME LOVE YOU

The poor little bubblegum boy looks scared out of his tree. Does he not know who he is meeting for the first time? Does he not comprehend that he is gazing upon the face of the girl who will soon become the centre of his world? This is one of the greatest moments in his life, and he can barely manage to let go of his mother's leg, let alone pry his tail out from between his own legs. My dear sweet Teeki, how I want to take you in my arms and scream in your ear that you are staring destiny in the face. Man up!

You, dear Fish, do a very good scared Teeki. I love him to bits, and if I were not fully aware that his heart will soon belong to Annabelle, and he is a ten-year-old boy in this picture, I would be more than happy to steal him away for my own devious pleasures. I love the colour you chose for his skin. That light pink colour that's a bit pastel- not too strong, not too faded. It's a really nice shade for him. Very suiting. His ruffled mane and shivering little tail are adorable! I want to play with his mane so badly, putting little flowers and ribbons in the bright red fuzz. I wanna take his tail and wag it like a pom pom, maybe tickle him with it. He's just too cute to leave alone!

He's so adorable that i am having a hard time imagining him growing up to be a ruthless predator. Oh. Wait. He never does grow up to be a ruthless predator. A predator, he is. Ruthless, he is not. He has too big of a heart for that kind of nonsense!

And may I say that Liah looks especially stunning for a woman who only has a little more than half her body on display. No head or shoulders or upper torso or anything. Nope, just the bottom half. It's a nice bottom half. Even though, at the time this picture was made, Liah had only been mentioned once or twice, and her appearance had not been elaborated on, you did a wonderful job creating the perfect shape for her!

Believe it or not, this is the body time that i really did imagine for the dear Miss Liah Mophat. She's not a skinny mini by any means, but she's not one of the rounder Uma women either. Maybe it's because she's a dietician/ nutritionist, so she's super health-conscious and goes for jobs nearly every morning to stay fit. Or maybe it's because she no longer has a mate she wants to impress, nor does she have any plans (at this point in time) to ever take another mate, so she lost all the regular love-muffin squish and went for slim trim shape. As slim trim as her body shape would allow.

I love her round thighs and the considerable bulge of her calve muscles. I don't know why I do, but every time I look at the picture, i just smile at them. Perhaps I am loosing my mind.

Her colours are so nice, too. The pinkness of her skin nearly blending with the shade of her hair on the tip of her tail. That's a really nice touch. It's almost like you read my mind. Liah is one of the more monochromatic Uma, possessing a pink mane and pink skin. I guess that's sort of mentioned in the writing itself, saying she has pink skin and neon pink hair, but you took those side comment descriptors and brought it too life in your usual awesome fashion.

Every element of this picture is a dream come true. The warm, bold colours of the characters draw your eyes right to them. It makes me feel like I'm falling right into the scene, my words come to life with your beautiful art. It makes it even more neat with the cool colours of the airport around them. It's empty-looking, orthogonal and a bit foreboding... it's the perfect setting to emphasize Teeki's initial discomfort with the situation. Every single detail is so perfect.

Thank you so much for this, Tasha. I know I say it at the end of every comment I leave when you pull awesome out your...fingers, but believe me when I say thanks you is the highest form of thanks I can come up with because every time I look at your work, you blow my mind.