Artwork done for the @akatsuki-gift-exchange event - I was tasked to create a gift for @spoop-geist! For him I drew this Hidan and Deidara piece based on the powers and ability swap prompt given.
Some discussion on the thought process behind this under the cut:
Hidan and Deidara as characters both have a lot of interesting symbolism and imagery to play with, particularly in relation to life and death as intertwined concepts. So I really did feel like this prompt was going to be fun to create from!
I decided to work with a fusion in what we have from both Hidan's curse mark, and Deidara's C0, or his ultimate art. See, while Hidan's curse mark is meant to mimic the skeletal structure, Deidara's ultimate art when it activates can be seen manifesting in the veins of his body itself. So when bringing that more forward with Deidara's curse mark design, it made sense to evoke that circulatory system imagery more.
The two become complimentary parts in what they're representing from the body's structure in that way. It's interesting that between the two of them though, it's the skeleton that endures the longest after death - given who's evoking what, it kind of fits both their philosophies when it comes to the concepts of life and mortality.
It was something I was thinking about a lot, since I took inspiration from the artist you see Deidara paying homage too - you can read a post going more in depth about all that here. Specifically, I was looking at okamoto’s tower of the sun, which is what Deidara's C0 is based on. The imagery here as you'll notice is based more on what's seen in the inside of the tower:
It's honestly so interesting to me how much the piece Deidara's final art is based on is such a celebration of life, whereas with Deidara it's....well, it's a suicide bomb, lmao. But I do kind of see the parallels, because what is it that Deidara does in general, if not bring his creations to life, before they snuff themselves out? His bombs move, they are 'alive' as creatures in a sense for the brief moments they have before they die - so Deidara taking that to its logical extreme with himself makes sense when you really think about it.
It's also why I liked the idea of fusing it with Hidan's curse mark; I've had thoughts about how it functions and how he uses it in the past, like in this post of mine where I was looking at the parallels between Hidan's religion and Pain's. This concept of 'sharing' pain, and of understanding it. We can sort of see this manifest with Deidara as well, and his relationship to his art. Deidara brings his life into this work, and takes it out just as fast, but its nothing he is unwilling to do to himself. Hidan revels in causing pain and inflicting it - but he never does so in a way that he is unwilling to do to himself. The ultimate form of pain, that being death itself, is something meant to be shared. And Deidara, to the bitter end shares in that with his creations - the ultimate art, the ultimate pain shared together.
Anyway please clap for the fusion of the C0 bomb imagery with the Jashin symbol I did there, it was a real bitch to get it looking right, thanks thank youuuu lmao
Pose reference I used too while I'm here, definitely check out the rest of their catalog if you're an artist looking for some good pose refs.
