Featuring: Boreas (dBear), Keto, and Malleus
For last year's Valentine's Day gift, the idea and theme was all of us together, traveling almost like gypsies, helping people and building life experiences, and just having a good time playing music together.
It was hard not to want to continue the same idea, but in a different world, while still conveying the same basic emotion I feel being with dBear and Malleus; just happy and like I want to go on adventures.
The idea and story that developed in mind was something along the same tone and feel of a Miyazaki film — whimsical, fun, hopeful, grand in scale, adventurous, feel-good, exploration, and discovery.
On a lazy summer afternoon, a weekend after feeling exhausted from hard days of work, Boreas, Malleus, and Keto got together and decided to make something for the sake of making something. It was a chance for all of them to feel satisfied for once instead of always trying to please the higher-ups.
Combining their skills and talents over a few weekends, they managed to build a little quaint airplane made of wood, metal, hard work, and christened it with paint and a name.
"Fancy" is what Boreas came with, to describe the kinds of flights they'll go on. Malleus and Keto happily agreed, and Boreas slapped it onto the side of the plane with red paint... impossible to miss.
And that was that. The project was done. It might not have been the biggest or most efficiently build plane, but it worked and it was theirs.
There was never any real expectation or plan that even closely resembled what would soon become a big part of their lives. They couldn't possibly have known that this little project would turn into something so big.
And now, years later, long having had left their old jobs, they travel the world by sky, having adventures and helping people along the way. Good word about the trio's travels and how they've helped so many people, has gotten around after years of travel, and now they're happily greeted by many towns, large and small.
The trio worked in harmony to build the plane, and they fly the plane just the same. Boreas is the pilot, Malleus is the navigator, and Keto is the communications.
Boreas has become a natural self-taught pilot using his natural instinct and intuition, able to get through any storm and land or take off under any condition.
Malleus has become an expert navigator with a telescope and compass, or even without it if he must. He can use the stars, the skies, and the earth around him as point of reference and can find his way any place from anywhere.
Keto has learned many forms of communications, from morse, to smoke signals, even training delivery birds. If there's a message that needs to be sent, Keto can make sure it gets there. On the plane he handles the horn, most often to alert the townspeople that they're getting ready to land. But sometimes, his exploding husky side takes over, and seeing all the people below happy to see them causes Keto to lean up and out almost out of the plane, and honk the horn a few extra times like a big giant happy "Hello! It's so nice to see you again!" with his tail wagging behind him.
They all had a role. They didn't just have each other, they needed each other. The team was missing a piece without all three of them there.
Being greeted by many towns didn't make them feel like celebrities. They always felt like friends, returning from a trip.
It wasn't complicated, and it was simply a happy life and such a big world to see.
Below is a detailed close-up shot.
So that's the general backstory that came to mind as this was being drawn. I gifted it to dBear and Malleus, and left it unfinished for dBear to help me finish it and wrap it up, that way it didn't have only my paw in it. It makes it ours.
This is probably one of my favorite pieces we've ever done in every way, from a technical standpoint to the concept.
I tried to make the lines a bit more fluid and colored it with an approach similar to how I'd paint something with traditional mediums. I tried to make the characters a bit more animated and tried to incorporate a lot of complementary colors for a nice dynamic contrast between warm and cool tones for a little extra depth.
All drawn with the Wacom Companion using primarily Paint Tool Sai, Photoshop, and I believe dBear also used Illustrator for the logo.
There will be a work-in-process video uploaded soon.
Happy Valentines Day to you and the people you care about. Make sure to always make them feel as special as they are to you. :)
