AT LAST -- IT IS FINISHED!

This drawing has been the single occupation of my soul this past week. I think it's quite literally the best thing I've done in my life. And wow, am I so glad it's done. It looks a bit better in real life, but you know, I'm not a Photoshop genius, so I just get the job done as best as I can.

The point of this piece is to capture the fact that, even with these tainted bodies they own and the ghastly history behind them, the Elrics can still manage to find fun in their lives. They can still enjoy life and other simple things, like being with each other, regardless of the pathways they've tread upon. I think it's a point that deserves a little spotlight (=. Originally, even though the piece had this same title, Ed and Al weren't actually posing for a camera. But in my search for a background, it became literal.

Well, after going back through my gallery, I bet no one ever knew the extent of my skill with colored pencils. In reality, they're my favorite medium. 'Tis indeed difficult to break my old colored pencil habits -- after finishing the lineart for this picture, I knew that it had to be in pencil. And I was so excited! ^o^

This is another piece that I began a year or so ago and never finished -- actually, I found this one at the same time I found the sketch for "Freefalling" ( [link] ). Back then, my skill wasn't so great and I was a little too afraid to attempt to do such a picture that, in my mind, needed to be perfect. I had drawn Ed's face and the guidelines for Al's, but I never got farther than that. A year or two later when I dug up this picture, I remembered in a blast of nostalgia the feelings and vision I had had for this picture. It was so cute; it had to be done. So, when I finally finished "I'm Back, Bitches!" ( [link] ) I got to work on this one. There wasn't too much "dirty work" to do -- I really only had to fix some tiny issues on Ed, like the placement of the nose and part of the hair. After that, though, everything else was brand-new and smooth-sailing.

If you ever want to color a piece with colored pencils like this, keep in mind that it's very tedious work. If you get frustrated with it, you HAVE to stop, otherwise you'll easily ruin the product. It's a necessity to be calm when working with this style of shading. I generally had good results with this piece because I found working with it very fun and relaxing, but once I got to the background, my mind was short circuiting a little. I literally had to tear myself away from the page because, even though I really wanted to keep working, I knew I was messing it up terribly. I really hope that the background looks just as fine as Ed and Al >_<". Of everything in this picture, Ed was definitely the easiest. He was SO FUN to color! Especially the eyes 8DD. Al was fun, too, but more taxing than Ed. I had trouble with the contrast on him -- first he was too light, then he was too dark. I got it all fixed, though. Phew! I just hope he looks like he has armor and not blue skin.

Is there anything else to say? Uhh, I think I'm going to be coloring like this more 8D I forgot how fun it is, especially now that my skill is a lot greater than before. I swear, I have learned more about art this school year than any year before. I'll have to remember to thank my teacher a million times over.

GAH I'm so excited 8D now I need to rest my brain before coloring like this again. Brr.

Done traditionally with graphite and Prismacolor colored pencils; touched up for the Internet in Photoshop.

Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, and Fullmetal Alchemist belong to Hiromu Arakawa.