Completed some time ago (after a considerable amount of time working on it) here is my latest creation, dedicated to my friend Timber. I hope you enjoy it!

When I first watched Haibane Renmei, the style of art and setting struck me immediately. As a result, when I made this, I had Van Gogh's "Starry Night" (and other works of his) in my head. You almost imagine that somewhere in that gigantic building, the Old Home, where the Haibane live, there's a couple of Van Gogh paintings on the wall or stored away.

I didn't use "Starry Night" as a direct guide, but thought of it more of an emotional influence on what I was doing with my own work. This was painted primarily with thinned-out acrylic paints, also using some watercolors for the character. The acrylic paints consisted of many layers painted on one after the other. I can control the texture and "depth" better when I work with thinned acrylics put on in gradual layers. Considering the linework, I didn't keep them as clean as I usually do, but decided to make them more scratchy looking. To do that, I used a fine-tip nib for my Deleter pen and went over the lines more than once, deliberately keeping it sketchy. Lastly, I used some cross hatching in the shading, which is very faint. These two techniques I drew inspiration from Yoshitoshi ABe himself, one of my primary influences. (I should note that I took an artistic liberty: you would see a wall behind Rakka, not the sky; but that wouldn't have captured what I wanted. So, I added the star-filled sky.)