Gift: Serena and Loki

Hello everyone,

How are you? Are you doing well? I sure hope that you are! Happy St. Patrick's Day, to anyone who may celebrate the holiday! I also have a few friends here on DA with a birthday today, and though I wished them well already, I wanted to do so once again! Happy Birthday to you all! You know who you are!

As for me, I'm doing ok I guess.... I was feeling a little under the weather this week and due to that, I wasn't nearly as productive as I would have liked. Aside from just not feeling well in general, I suppose some of the stress is still getting to me in terms of life and work situations.... But no worries everyone.... I'm hanging in there and I'll be sure to muddle through, one way or another. But I did want to at least offer a partial explanation for my recent slowness in terms of productivity, especially for those who are patiently awaiting commissioins! The good news is that I am feeling better, healthwise now, so hopefully I can move forward without anymore delays! To those who've contacted me for a commission piece, please note that I'll be in touch very soon! And not only that, but I'll be sure to give your piece my all when I am able to immerse myself into it! You can count on it!

As for what I have here, however, this piece has been a work in progress for several months now! It was a piece I was working on little by little, between comissions, and even between works that I had been doing for my own sake! Though I wasn't sure if I'd be able to, I was finally able to finish the image! At long last! As for the reasoning for this piece....well....let's see.....

Firstly, many of you have heard me mention some difficulties in terms of monetary endeavors; most notably in my last few journal entries. >< It began at the end of 2012 and though things have slowly begun to pick up. It is still an issue to this day unfortunately. -_-; As a result, I've been rather short in terms of being able to present my close friends with gifts, for both Christmas and birthdays. And though I've said that in the past, with the amount of money I needed to spend on repairs a few months ago, it's truer now more than ever before.....

As a result, I may be extremely delayed in giving even my very closest friends something that I consider acceptable as a gift, for either of the occassions I mentioned previously. I always find that rather saddening, as I truly do love trying to find the perfect gift for those I care for....<Sigh>..... So for now, I wanted to try and give my friend Serena another drawing as I did in previous years:




This time however, I thought that I'd try something a little more personalized, and hopefully creative it.....

Heh, where to start.... My friend Serena has often heard me gush about meeting my hero and very favorite voice actor of all time; the esteemed Dan Green! In fact, I've gushed quite often here on Deviantart how much this wonderful man's performance has meant to me, and how incredibly happy I was to have met him!



Similarly, my friend Serena has often told me that she feels the same for the talented performer, Tom Hiddleston, who portrayed the Marvel Comics (and Norse Mythological god) Loki, in both the movie "Thor," and "The Avengers." She has told me many times how she hopes to someday meet the man, and hopefully have an experience like I did, when I was lucky enough to meet Dan Green.

If it were possible for me, I would gladly give her that opportunity to do so myself.... But sadly, that isn't something that I can do. So instead, I thought that I'd try giving her the next best thing; portraying her in any image, embracing her star!

The idea came to me when I had been portraying other more realistic works as of late.... Truth be told, realism isn't my specialty, but I like to at least believe that I am improving in the venture with every attempt that I've made! I think I am most successful when I have very clear reference materials to work with, as I am fairly confident in my ability to render what I see. But given that this was NOT going to be something that I would simply look off of, such as working with a photograph, it proved to be quite challenging, hence the very very long time it took to finish!

When I did decide on attempting this piece, I first asked my friend Serena for an image of her. I had to be careful though! I didn't want her knowing what I had in mind exactly, though she did seem to guess that I would be using the image that she provided for some artistic endeavor. Still.... I hoped she didn't guess what I was planning, as I did want it to be a surprise!

The image that she provided couldn't be more perfect, as she was almost "fangirling" in the captured embrace within the image, as if the image was meant for what I had in mind! Next, was the even more challenging part.... Looking for an appropriate image of Tom Hiddleston's Loki.....

Though there are many images online, I needed an image that would not only work well with the one my friend provided of herself, but also something big enough and clear enough for me to work with. Many images proved much too small to work from, or again, they didn't appear to work well with the photo my friend had given me.

In the end I had to combine a few different images of Loki/Tom to make this image work. My only regret was not being able to find an appropriate piece of him looking down at her, but I reasoned that if there ever was an opportunity to take a photo with the real man, that more than likely he would be looking outward or towards the camera man anyhow, so many in a strange way, it is realistic.

Loki's outfit especially took QUITE a bit of time! There were so many details! Even after all the work that I did, I STILL don't know if I captured him or even my friend Serena completely..... But I did the very best I could, and I hope that that will be enough; in terms of the image, and as a sort of gift to celebrate my friend's upcoming birthday!

I hope you like it Serena! And I want to thank you for being my friend! As corny as it may sound, that truly is the greatest gift that anyone could ask for and I hope you know how much it means to me! I hope to hear from you/talk to you/see you soon! Take care now everyone, and thanks for looking!

Love,
Yamigirl21