NOTE: I wasn't sure which category to put this in so I put it under "Personal" as this artwork is very personal to me.

To be honest I wasn't sure if I wanted to submit this particular piece into this challenge. Partly because I wanted to do another piece for this challenge. But as I do most of art in the traditional format anyway, I figured why not.

Materials: 8 1/2 x 11 sketchbook paper, pencil,ballpoint pen, colored pencils,

This took a couple weeks to complete, not the drawing itself but mostly my motivation to color it. I have been going through a bit of an artblock. I finally got around to coloring it a few days ago, and then of course I took a picture of the drawing on my Blackberry (I lack a scanner unfortunately), and then took it into Photoshop to touch it up and to try to improve the quality a bit. The most I did was maybe slightly enhance the colors because my camera washed them out with its dumb icky flash. Now I want to talk about the drawing itself.

The drawing is of me (well an "anime" version of myself) and Judai Yuki from Yu-Gi-Oh GX. The concept was kind of to create this "one and the same" type of theme, hence why I sort of merged their hair together. I see myself a lot like Judai in terms of personality, appearance (brown hair and eyes, and just the stuff we've gone through.)

The story behind this art is a bit of a personal one. But to put a long story short I've experienced pain, loss, and trauma similar to Judai's. In the storyline of GX he's lost and gained his friends back, felt guilty about his past, I have too, even though I knew certain events weren't really my fault. But all and all I've become stronger for it. That's pretty much the story that lead to the creation of this artwork.

This artwork was created using traditional methods as most of my artwork is. I've done a few digital style pieces here and there. But I prefer drawing out my own work and coloring it with my colored pencils. There's something about picking out the colors and shading and I've learned so much.

And yes I drew myself as a Sailor Senshi. What can I say? I love Sailor Moon.

But I love digital style as well. It always blows me away. I would like to get better and make more digital pieces someday. :)

That being said, I hope everybody enjoys the artwork and I would appreciate your feedback on what I could do to improve. I know I still have a long ways to go.

Dedicated to toyotami kun
For creating this awesome challenge. And because your art inspires me to become a better artist.
~Judai