Hello again everyone! ^_^

Well here it is! I finally finished the piece that began with the sketch that I posted in my scraps section: [link]

As I mentioned then, though I worked very hard on my piece "Tsuzuki Possessed," ([link]) I did get a bit overwhelmed by all the techincal aspects, like the perspective, light source etc; things that I didn't particularly enjoy in the end. Aside from that, it was also my first attempt at depicting a character from this series and though I was satisfied overall, I still felt that I was a bit off in my portrayal of the character of Asato Tsuzuki. And so, given the fact that I love his character so much anyway, I wanted to try again, but this time I wanted the piece to be more fun for me to paint.

Like I also mentioned in the sketch, I ultimately decided to depict Tsuzuki with another character, or to be more precise, a female version of himself!!! In volume #5 of the Descendants of Darkness/Yami no Matsuei manga, Tsuzuki stumbles upon a book in the Count's library. Without warning he is then sucked INTO the book and transported into another world altogether!! In terms of setting, this world reminded me of an old English town, but what made it really bizarre was the fact that Tsuzuki ran into many people that he recognized, though they were all part of this world, as characters in the "story." In addition to that, he even ran into "himself" as a girl!

The girl (who he later names Luka/Ruka after his older sister) is "him," yet she isn't. She claims to have lived her entire life in this little town, along with her father who greatly resembles Tsuzuki's boss Chief Konoe. This is confirmed when she tells Tsuzuki even more about her life as the volume progresses.

It was she was stumbles upon Tsuzuki, in fact, as she witnessed him falling out of the sky! Believing him to be an "Angel" she then takes him to her home to rest until he is fully healed from the fall. Feeling gratitude for her kindness, (and deciding that he needs some purpose to be there, until he figures a way out ) Tsuzuki then decides to help Luka with her own problems, namely caring for her sick father, and avoiding being forced to marry the lord, who just "happens" to resemble the Count.

Anyhow, I won't give away much more of the story but it really is a very charming tale, one of my favorites in the manga! It was definitely a lot of fun and when reading it, I was immediately inspired to depict Tsuzuki and his female counterpart who he does sort of see as a sister after a while. The interaction between them was actually very sweet, as even she seemed to help him in a way, in terms of dealing with his intense guilt over his past, which is a common element throughout the manga as a whole.

My only complaint about Luka's character was that I never really thought that she looked like Tsuzuki in the manga, though everyone (except for her) seemed to see it. She had similar hair I suppose, but aside from having much larger eyes, she was also very feminine and pretty; all of that combined made it very diificult to see the resemblance at all! So in my interpretation (which is more anime based) I decided to make the resemblance a bit stronger. I do still hope that Luka looks feminine and what not, but I hope that she now looks as if she could be related to Tsuzuki in some way.

Another slight alteration that I made regarded Tsuzuki's clothes. This is indeed the outfit that Luka and her father dressed Tsuzuki in after he agreed to help them with their troubles. (There is actually a colored version of it in one of the creator's art books, as well as the back of the manga.) However, I didn't particularly care for the yellowish orange that the creator used so I adjusted the coloring of his clothes to a more yellowish brown. It was my hope that it would look a bit more natural that way, yet while also retaining that old english type look to it as well as still being in the spirit of the original design.

And finally the background. Though I will say that the pose that I used is based off an image that I found in a magazine, I wanted a background that would help illustrate the type of world that Tsuzuki had entered. I thought maybe having him and Luka sitting on these steps, near a door of some official building (perhaps a church or the gates of the lord's estate) would help in depciting that. Regardless, I must say that I rather enjoyed painting the background anyhow. It was a lot of fun for me and I can honestly say that I'm rather please with the way that it turned out ^_^

So there you have it everyone! I really hope that you like it! Thanks for stopping by and seeing the piece too! Oh! And as always this piece was completed using opaque water color paints! ^__^ Take care now everyone!