Edit** : To my great relief, the compression turned out to be the fault of my dad's laptop. Joy. ^^

Well. There. Despite my best intentions, I finished it. ...kidding, largely, I actually worked pretty damn hard on this - stupid, considering that I think I messed up his face, and the whole thing is - what? 500x726... -_-;;; I'm never doodling in Painter again...

I really had a specific feel in my mind for this image, so I nearly killed myself trying to achieve it. ;;; I think in the end I did kinda achieve a bit of what I wanted to see... ;

Technical bits :
Lineart done in Painter7, colour+effects in Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Shogi wall, kimono/yukata/bedspread prints manipulated from fabric/furniture catalogue samples. Lyrics from Dir en Grey's 'Drain Away'.

Character bits :
A mood piece for young Sanada and Yanagi [Rikkai - TeniPuri]. If we follow likely geographical and historical routes, Yanagi would probably have enrolled into Rikkai after 'moving' away from whichever area the tennis school he attended with Inui was. In the 4 years 2 months and 15 days since [assuming that they did not already know each other], he met Sanada and somehow came to be close enough to him to call him Genichirou [it's debatable whether Sanada calls him Yanagi or Renji - the former has been documented in 20.5, the latter during the All-stars camp]. For what seems to be two emotionally stunted guys, there sure seems to be something there... For the record, my usual stance is a graceful, dignified, largely unrequited Sana<-Yana. As far as the garb goes, both Sanada and Yanagi [Yanagi especially] are ridiculously traditional. Sanada's garment, especially, was hazily based off a memory of his kendou training outfit. [Yanagi had pretty girly hair when he was younger, so the kimono-esque wear isn't all that out of place. ;]. As an extra tidbit - Sanada teaches Yanagi shodou. How cute is that? ;;;

...Ah hell.

Music done to :
lineart - forgiveness [Ayumi Hamasaki]
colouring - 1000 no Kotoba [FFX2]
finishing - Drain Away [Dir en Grey]

Lineart here : [link]