[ The Champion ]

It's about that time of the year again... May 17th!

Last year, my anniversary surprise was a total ass mess! But like... in a fun way! In a silly way! I enjoyed it, and I'm pretty sure Tae did too.

This year, I decided to keep it simple...ish? For our third-year anniversary together, I wanted to have just one simple and fun post. No mysterious post dump, nothing too... too dramatic. I'm sure Tae will have the dramatics part covered.

... you know, I suppose this is the part where I would be all dramatic and sappy, showering you with words of love and affection and admiration? But honestly, this year I don't have much to add as opposed to years prior. Tae's the same strange, lovely woman she was last year (just a little more wild? And primal. and- /j), so anything I could say would be a bit redundant.

But, yeah! We're moving on before I start repeating myself and repeating myself.

Anyways! This year, I actually planned a theme out ahead of time! Last year, I didn't have a theme perse? I had a vibe I wanted to go with- that theme being nostalgia and growth- so I ended up using a lot of old sonas, including the oldest variants of our sonas from when we first met each other.

I wanted to do something new and somewhat opposing! So, I ended up using more recent pairings and even included OCs in the possible lineup. This is why I went with the idea of a stained glass exhibit, where each drawing would be its own exhibit that people could walk past and visit.

We've had a lot of new characters in the past year alone, let alone the three years we've been together. (And we've been friends even longer!) It made it really difficult to narrow down what I was gonna do, and unfortunately, I'm very indecisive! So, I left the hard thinking up to Tae with a simple question.

What are your top five duos from the past year?

And using her answers, I made a total of five (5) stained glass portraits! This shit was.......... really hard. It was a bit of a labor-intensive project, much, much more than I thought it was gonna be. But, I think overall, everyone came out super nice!

I ended up having to take a major break in between the sets, though... to avoid injuring my hand/wrist, I took a week break in between each set. You might be able to tell which ones were done in the same timespan; you might not be. I don't fully know!

Anyways, Tae's answer to my question was this: Marell Dean and Rarity Chappel, Holly Eastman and Dahlia, Rue Jackson and Twilight Serene, Remi and Fleur, and Geno and Clover.

Because these were the duos Tae had chosen, these were the duos I decided to work with! Similar to last year, I had an underlying story for this art set. The story for this one is pretty simple. actually... its just a museum filled with stained glass portraits of "famous" people from the distant, distant past, with a couple of friends visiting the museum together and looking at all these famous people.

As for the five (six?) people I chose, I crafted little stories in my head about their "famous" role in the past. But, before I can get into that, I should reveal the art, and by extension, all the people I used!

Of the five duos, I turned three of them into completed stained glass portraits! This also comes with accidental design reveals for a couple of these characters below. Oopsies!

Tada! Holly, Dahlia, Rue, Twilight, Marell Dean, and Rarity were the six characters I chose! Four of which are getting their full designs revealed for the first time! Can you tell Tae made my life severely difficult? (/j)

Besides having to figure out colors and adjusting designs in the process, this project was really fun! (And taking breaks in between sets gave me the time to figure out the design optics off the clock.) I had a lot of fun with this project too, experimenting with my own artwork in ways I haven't before. Especially the coloring!

Having my coloring composed of many smaller blocks of similar shades of the same colors, rather than one large chunk of color, was a unique but fun experience! It gave me a chance to use colors I've never used before, and honestly... I think I found some nice new colors!

Additionally, I have alternative renders of the artwork! I think this set might have the most alternative renders of any artwork I've done in a long time! Each piece has four different versions of it, including the complete version, version A with Blossom and Noel, version B without them, and its portrait background. You've already seen the completed versions above, but what about the other versions?

The Nightshade Detectives: Rue Jackson and Twilight Serene

"The detective duo who uncovered the Nightshade scheme and saved Rondo City from its mutually assured destruction."

This one is the only portrait to depict two people in it, rather than one person. I decided to pair Twilight and Rue together in one drawing together, because I wanted them to act as the "center" piece in a larger illustration. Besides that, I imagine the museum paired them together due to the fact that they were two detective partners who were always together. Version A has both Blossom and Noel in it, and it's the only artwork where the two visitors are paired together on the same piece.

Similar to Holly, the story that accompanies Twilight and Rue is about the Nightingale Nightshade Case that they cracked together, saving Rondo City from its destruction. This case would end up becoming super famous, causing Rue and Twilight to become famous heroes in the history books as a result. (Additionally, Twilight would become more famous for her involvement in the Frosthelm Befallen case.)

Drawing-wise... this one was probably my favorite one to actually color? I like the composition of the piece, and the two interactions are really cute. Their background also reflecting their opposing aesthetics and their dynamic also looks really nice, as... I kind of wanted to use the Moon and the Sun vibes Twilight and Rue have going on.

Below, I also have drawings of their Boardwalk outfits, if you wanted to see those. (Lore-wise, Rue and Twilight's exhibit is special because it actually is supposed to be animated.)

The Arknight Doctor: Holly Eastman

"A survivor of the Sleep Room incident and the original founder of the Arknight Revival project."

This one is Holly’s portrait! Doctor Holly Eastman <3 Version A includes Noel looking at Holly's portrait while traveling through the museum.

So, the story that accompanies Holly's portrait in this museum is basically what he was famous for. That is the Arknight Revival Project, a project Holly started after leaving the Sleep Room and his father, Dr. Eastman. This organization would become famous for providing medical support and medical care, and it pretty much revolutionized proper healthcare in a war-torn region. So, Holly is pretty much famous in-universe for being the founder and the main driver of this organization.

This one was an interesting piece to color in, due to Holly's hair having a gradient from light to dark, and a gradient isn't something I could quite do with the way I went about coloring this set! So, I was forced to figure out a different way to represent it. I think it came out nicely, though it is a bit subtle?

Overall, fun experience, fun experiment, oh Holly, my beautiful princess with several disorders. Normal stuff.

The Dreamer: The Black Dahlia

"The mysterious young woman who emerged from the ashes of the Sleep Room."

Dahlia's exhibit... this portrait is made to match Holly's portrait, since Holly and Dahlia make up one of the three duos. Version A has Blossom in it to match Noel in Holly's version A.

Story-wise, Dahlia isn't as famous as she is infamous? She's the most well-known as the mysterious young woman who emerged from the ashes of the Sleep Room experiment, an experiment that Holly's father had personally overseen in the past, the same Sleep Room that Holly left. And when I mean ashes, I mean quite literal ashes. The Sleep Room caught vicious fire one day, and everything was reduced to ash. Dahlia had emerged from those ashes. She is seen by history as both generally villainous in nature, but also a tragic figure as someone who took revenge on the system that hurt the man she loved, even if it meant burning herself and the world surrounding her away in the process. (Although it is highly debated if Holly really loved her back, or if she was simply a means to an end.)

I'm in love with Dahlia's portrait. Dahlia's always been a fun muse/sona, and I was always sad I never had a proper design for her. But now I do! And, I love everything about her... the heart-shaped curls in her hair, the gothic attire, the candle she used to (allegedly) burn down the Sleep Room. I also like the way she looks next to Blossom, someone who is such an opposite to her yet so similar. A lover and a fighter, but they love and fight for very different things in very different ways. (And Blossom isn't an arsonist.)

The Thread Cutter: Rarity Chappel

"The young woman who saved herself and her planet from the Silent Rapture's destination."

Rarity design reveal? For our anniversary? Couldn't have timed it better myself, actually. Version A includes Noel looking at Rarity's portrait. Rarity's portrait matches Marell Dean's portrait! They're the other set I went with... obviously.

Story-wise, Rarity's portrait focuses on the story of her sacrifice in order to save Planarcadia from becoming the next victim of the Silent Rapture, which is the name of the event that destroyed Marell's home planet. She did this by severing her own thread of life in order to sever the Rapture Seed's anchor to Planarcadia after realizing it had attached itself to her, like it had attached itself to someone else on Marell's planet previously. By cutting her own thread, she severed herself and the Rapture seed, preventing it from completely destroying the planet. This self-sacrifice is seen as extremely heroic and selfless by history, causing Rarity to get a portrait in this museum.

I love Rarity's character, and I love her official design even more! I love the purple, off-white, and black design... I hope this design reveal is worth the wait.

The Scales of Justice: Marell Dean Mariana

"The young man who shattered the Scales of Justice and reshaped the meaning of divine law."

This one is the last one I did, and this one is for… Marell Dean Mariana! He matches Rarity Chappel, and together, they make up the third and final duo I did! Version A includes Blossom in the foreground as she looks at Marrel Dean in (quite frankly) confusion. Of all the portraits, Marrel Dean is the one who interests her the most.

Story-wise, Marell Dean is similar to Dahlia in the sense that he is more infamous than he is famous. The story behind Marell Dean’s portrait surrounds how he shattered the scales of Justice and Harmony, a set of self judging scales that are used to justly measure the weight of someone’s crimes. Through shattering these great and powerful scales, Marell Dean forced the divine law the intervene and ended up reshaping the meaning and human view of the divine law itself. In a way, Marell Dean completely shattered “Justice” and “Order”. This made him a popular but controversial figure in the history, causing the museum to add him as a stained glass portrait.

This one is another accidental design reveal, just like Dahlia and Rarity! Similar to Holly, Marell’s hair is also a gradient from dark to neon, which means this Marell Dean inherently will look different from future Marell Dean drawings… oopsies? He’s very cute though! I like the way his portrait came out.

Extra Portraits

I did mention in Twilight and Rue’s portrait, that I had made two alternative versions with younger versions of Twilight and Rue. Those are right here! I didn’t do the full coloring cycle since, frankly… I kind of forgot. But I did have them colored in. These designs will definitely change in the future, but, they’re here now?

And then, I have the backgrounds for my five portraits, each one tailored to the person in the stained glass! It’s nothing special, but it’s nice to look at the full background every once in a while.

And then the last thing I had was this portrait mock-up! Originally, I wanted to have a version of the stained glass museum where they were all side by side. I only got as far as the mock up though… before deciding I wanted them all to be separate.

… that’s pretty much it for this year’s anniversary celebration! From me, at least. I had a lot of fun drawing these stained glass portraits (despite having no clue what I was doing) and I hope you guys and Tae had fun looking at them!