Starry Eyed

Evie and I were discussing the idea that, for as good of friends as they become despite their huge age gap, Vahaadi and Spark would not much care for one another if (in some weird time-jump) Spark managed to meet him when he was closer to her age. He was a sullen little jerk at the hormone-tormented age of fourteen. Evie suggested that a shocked and disappointed Spark might even take it upon herself to "turn his frown upside down!" which she illustrated here!

Naturally we had to consider the reverse situation, wherein Vahaadi meets Spark's younger self, and we quickly realized that while Spark's approach toward re-befriending (or pre-befriending?) Vahaadi as a teen would be funny, Vahaadi's approach to fourteen year old Spark would be basically terrifying. Not intentionally, but Vahaadi's sauntering charisma often pushes the threshold of creepiness. Thus, their meeting would look a great deal like a cliche shojo anime scene: An attractive, mysterious, unsettling older male appears like a shadow out of the darkness, stares deeply into the young female protagonist's glossy, mesmerized eyes, and murmurs something terrifically eerie that should definitely not be directed at a girl as young as she. Such scenes are supposed to be somehow romantic, I guess, but I think they're scary. However, the idea of such a scene happening between Vahaadi and Spark was amusing enough to me that I thought it warranted a spoof. While working on this I did lots of "research" (ie watching Shugo Chara, reading Tokyo MewMew, cautiously surfing the web for anime pics, and this fantastic tutorial) to create what I hope looks like a passable screencap!

(( of course, if this ever happened, Spark would not do the typical shojo-heroine thing and stand there blushing and gaping. She'd probably do something more like this XD

Spark: DaaaaaAAAAAAAADDDDDD!!! There was a creepy guy on my balcony! I PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE.
Spark's Dad: Atta' Girl!
Vahaadi: *holding his broken nose after falling from the second story window* D:!!! Was it something I said??!!))

Creating art this sharp, flat and shiny was actually way harder than it may look. Cel shading (the blocky, clear cut distinction of shadows vs blending) doesn't grant a lot of room for mistakes, and I'm sure my lighting is off. Good practice though! And hey, I finally have a pic of Vahaadi in color. The ridiculously shiny highlights in their hair, the fuzzy blur, and the grainy texture all make me cringe, but the pic didn't look "anime" enough without them!

This was fun to do. So fun, I never want to try this again. :P However, I think it's worth mentioning that it was actually working on this pic that inspired the Loose Canon project.

Credits: Background was yoinked from wild-thang on dA, used with permission.
Title comes from Ellie Goulding's song "Starry Eyed", which could well serve as the anthem of all shojo series ever.