Secret Santa piece for Clueless101! I realize I should probably draw something happier for a Christmas thing, but I saw Neji on their wishlist and this was the only image I could see in my head.

Neji is my second favorite character of the show, so of course he gets killed off (all my favorites do T_T). I didn't like the look of his final scene though. So this is my version - maybe him waking up in the afterlife? Heroes die with a smile on their face.

I actually already made a piece about him on the same basic theme back in 2008 or something, when he almost died but survived. Comparing the two is a reminder of how far I've come, art-wise. Gratifying, and also a little embarrassing as I look back at how bad I was (you can find it in my wallpapers gallery, but I ain't linking it here >_>).

My first attempt at digital painting, as well as my first attempt at painting a human...ever, actually. Also my first time attempting to draw a semi-realistic human being with shading and such from memory, instead of from observation. Also my first time painting a feather...this drawing contains a lot of firsts, is what I'm saying. So if you have any tips on digital painting, please share.

Things I learned - premade swatches, brushes, opacity control, layers, and ctrl-z makes digital painting feel like painting with haxx. Makes everything so much faster, and much less messy. Also being able to position/rotate/stretch/add perspective to something after you've already drawn it - major haxx. But even so, faces are hard to get right. I need to study up on human anatomy.

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Tools: Wacom Tablet, Photoshop CS5
Time: 6 hours. Half of it was spent trying to get the nose to not look like an alien's.