*Update* I was looking at the original painting again and decided to touch up the colors in the scan to match it a little bit more closely to the painting. Sometimes its trial and error but I think it looks more like it now....
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Hello everyone ^_^

It's been a while, hasn't it? I hope you're all doing well! Ok then! It's finally done! ^_^ I've been working on this piece for a little while now and here it is! The finished product! Some of you may remember the sketch that I posted before:

[link]

I mentioned then that I'd talk about the reasoning behind this piece so here goes....

Where to start.... Well I suppose I can start by saying that I had originally wanted to do some Vampire Knight fan art in itself. I did greatly enjoy the anime and manga and I had hoped to portray the characters in the show one day myself (and I still might)......

And yet, for some reason I just couldn't muster up the inspiration to follow through. Perhaps it was because I LIKED Vampire Knight very very much, but I didn't LOVE it. (No disrespect to anyone who does, mind you).

But then I suppose I compare those feelings to things that I have loved deeply in the past like Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Please Save My Earth etc; anime and manga titles that spoke to me, and touched me on an emotional level in ways that others haven't. And as much as I did really and truly enjoy Vampire Knight, it just didn't reach me in that way. It's the love that's usually the inspriation and drive behind my works in the first place after all.....

Still, I have nothing but good things to say about the title of Vampire Knight, and I especially admired the art work for it; most notably the lovely clothing designs within the series. I guess that element in particular did manage to inspire me! ^_^ Now the question was how to utilize that inspiration....

I think it began when I started on a sketch of Yuki (which again I may finish one of these days....). When I wasn't able to feel the desire to continue onward with it, at that very moment, the idea to put Sailor Moon characters in Vampire Knight clothing just hit me; completely out of the blue! I don't know why it did, but I decided to run with it and, after some consideration, it seemed to make a lot of sense.

Firstly, there was the roses and the moon elements found in Vampire Knight. That alone held connections with Sailor Moon; hence the reason why I painted real roses in this piece, as well as rose designs, and even the Vampire Knight symbol within the painting.

Then I thought about putting Mamoru aka Endymion in the white suit that the Night Class, the male vampire students, wear. The reasoning behind that, initially, was simply because I liked the outfit and I thought that Mamoru/Endymion would look interesting while wearing it.

But then I remembered back to the original broadcast of Sailor Moon all those years ago, when I was DYING to see the ending of Sailor Moon R in America; especially the storyline that took place in the future with Endymion and Serenity as King and Queen. I remember very clearly trying to imagine what the two would look like in the future (before I had the internet, mind you) and in my mind, I always envisioned King Endymion wearing a white suit as opposed to the lavender colored one he wears instead. Maybe that's another reason why the Vampire Knight clothing spoke to me; because it was more like what I had initially imagined back then. That's my analysis of it anyway.....

As for Serenity, I always liked the ball gown that Kaname had picked out for Yuki in book 4 of the manga and the first season of the Vampire Knight the anime. I actually thought that it had "Princess Serenity" feel to it so I thought it fitting to have Usagi/Serenity actually wear it in my image.

As I mentioned in my sketch above, I wanted to go with a more mature feel for this piece, so I opted to have Serenity loose the "meat balls" or "odango" on her head and wear her hair down in my painting instead. I felt doing so would add to the piece, making her more elegant and mysterious in a way.

I suppose that's about it for now..... though I may think of other things to say at a later time as I continue to collect my thoughts on the subject. Overall I had a great time painting this image! It was definitely a lot of fun and I like to think that it came out rather nicely. ^_^ Thank you for taking the time to view my image and if you're reading this in the present, perhaps you'll come and see me in Artist Alley for Otakon 2009? Take care now everyone! ^___^ Until next time!

Love,
yamigirl21