Dedicated to Dan and Michal ++Read Below++

Edit: I added a few more details to this work, and also did a little color correcting to try to match up with the painting itself. 12/10/11
----------------------------

Hello everyone,

How are you? Are you doing well? I certainly hope that you are! Happy Holidays, to all of you!

Before I begin discussing this piece, (which admittedly has taken me *quite* a long time to complete! ) I first wanted to state that I am dedicating this painting to my all time favorite voice actor Dan Green, as well as his lovely and equally talented wife Michal Lura Friedman....

Dan Green of course is known for a number of voice acting roles, such as the title character(s) in the anime Yu-Gi-Oh, Descendants of Darkness, Pokemon, and many more.

The beautiful Michal Lura Friedman, also known as "Michal the Girl", was also a talented actress, and a phenomenal singer as well! Though quite gifted in many ways, it was said that her greatest dream was to be a mother. And though her dream did indeed become a reality, sadly she passed away, shortly after giving birth to twins, Reverie Vivian and Jackson James.....

Though I have been working on this piece throughout the last few months, given all the love and effort that I had put into it, I somehow thought it fitting that I make it a tribute to the late Ms. Friedman, and to widowed Dan Green, whom I admire so very much..... Dan of course voiced Yami Yugi, in the English version of Yu-Gi-Oh and truth be told, it is his voice that I often think of whenever I depict my rendition of this character, as seen here.

And though Ms. Michal Lura Friedman did not voice Tea Gardener aka Anzu Masaki in the Yu-Gi-Oh dub, Michal herself was indeed an actress, lending her voice to a number of characters in the voice over world! And given the almost angelic appearance that Anzu has, wearing the fabled dress from the Labyrinth film, I somehow thought it was as if she represented the lovely Ms. Friedman, forever near the one she loved most in this world.... Perhaps that is only my own romantic interpretation, given that I did not know either of the two talents personally, but nevertheless, I thought it was a nice thought.....

Lastly, I also wanted to raise awareness of this tragedy, and to encourage any others who may want to send their condolences or even a small donation to the mourning family at either:

[link]

or

[link]

Thank you very much for reading this, everyone..... As many of you know I have been a devoted fan of Dan Green for many years now, and I was even privileged enough to have met him this summer, as mentioned in a previous journal entry:

[link]

And yet, now I also wish that I could have been given the honor and the opportunity to meet the lovely Ms. Friedman as well..... Though Dan would only briefly speak of her during his various interviews and podcasts, even in those few words, it was easy hear the intense love and admiration that he felt for her, as a person as well as a performer. And after seeing her display her gifts in a number of clips on youtube, I can certainly say that she was indeed a woman with an enormous amount of talent and a lot of heart as well..... It truly is a sad loss for Dan, his family, and for the entire world.... May she rest in peace....

In terms of the image itself, as I mentioned in the sketches posted previously,




I came up with the idea of illustrating a Yu-Gi-Oh and Labyrinth crossover (based on the 1980s cult classic by Jim Henson) one day when I thought about the many similarities between Yami Yugi and Jareth, the Goblin King. I described these comparisons in great detail in the line art above, but in short, I was always intrigued by the mystery regarding both characters, and was somewhat disappointed when their stories were not told in even greater depth. And yet, even without knowing more about the two, I found each king to be quite clever, cunning and majestic; which is why I thought it would be interesting to combine the two together!

To do so, I went to great lengths to be as accurate as I could possibly be in terms of both the outfits and the setting in which I placed the characters. In truth, I only had some photographs taken from the film, as well as a few movie screen shots to go by when painting this. To be entirely honest, I wasn't even sure of exactly *what* I was painting, particularly in regards to some of the background elements. However in the Labyrinth film itself, there was a scene in which a musical number occurred (the "Dance Magic" scene, as performed by David Bowie) and within this scene a rather unique throne room was depicted.

I did my best to render this throne room, as well as the stones and the textures that surround it, with the slight modification of the omitted steps that the throne itself sat atop of. I did this, because I wanted the lovely Sarah or in this case Anzu, to be seated closely to her "Goblin King."

In regards to Yami Yugi as Jareth, as I also stated in the sketch, I wanted the pose that I depicted to be a confident one, one that seemed fitting for either character. I also have him holding one of the lovely and magical orbs that Jareth would often juggle, which had many strange abilities; even housing many of the heroine, Sarah's dreams.

Speaking of Sarah, she was the protagonist of the film, played by a very young Jennifer Connelly. I also spoke in great depth about her character, as well as the character of Anzu Masaki aka Tea Gardener. Though I know there was arguably nothing "official" in terms of a romantic pairing between Yami Yugi and Anzu, the same could potentially be said about Jareth and Sarah as well. And yet, I like the concept of both pairings, and often felt we, as the audience, were teased by the various hints of affections between them. In my image, however, I wanted to solidify my support of both pairings, which is why I have my Anzu aka Sarah, happily posing with Yami Yugi aka Jareth, as if she readily chose to be his queen!

In another scene of the film, Sarah was given a vision of a beautiful ball by Jareth, in which she wore lovely and intricate gown. I attempted to paint this gown on Anzu, though I must say that it was no easy task! There was only limited reference for this dress, and even what I was able to find, was a bit vague in terms of some of the detailing. What I found most helpful was the illustration for a movie poster advertising the film, which had a light pink and red color tone to it. I thought this color scheme in particular would be quite fitting for my piece, and also a nice contrast to the darker, color colors that surround her.

Though I wasn't certain about all of the aspects of both this gown, and even Jareth's attire, as stated previously, I at least wanted to be as correct and as detailed as I was able!

As always, this piece was done by hand, using opaque water color paints. Thanks again for looking everyone! If you can, please support Dan Green and his family in their time of need, and once more I wish you all the happiest of holidays! Until next time then!

Lots of love,
yamigirl21