HOME | DD
balaa — Life Is a Magic Thing
Published: 2005-02-20 06:14:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 23157; Favourites: 458; Downloads: 3666
Redirect to original
Description
I'm trying to avoid uploading too much tlk themed work on deviant but with this one I can't resist! I adore the way the background came out in this pic. More importantly I feel a need to upload something....uplifting and simply...happy. I've been depressed for some time, some days going better than others and perhaps in an odd way this picture has been my..therapy! Things are getting better and I'm trying to let myself smile more
. So for any of you that are depressed out there, I hope this picture allows you to smile at least for a few seconds! Trust me it would do us all good to smile a little more and frown a little less!A commission for Tenebrous Feline, my friend Nick, of his char Tau with mate Balaa. He seems to take some sort off odd pleasure in tormenting poor Balaa by singing ghastly uplifting songs about enjoying life. This picture is based on a song of equal name"Life is a Magic Thing" from Ferngully. I think I listened to the song 200 bazillion times while working on this pic. The caption for Balaa is "The things I have to put up with".
A little about the bg. I started with a rather plain simple jungle bg..typical greens, yellows etc. Well after getting all the layers down I looked at it and looked at the pose of Tau and couldn't resist but to spice it up a bit. So I went through the layers just randomly changing the colors to something on the more wild part of the color spectrum....until finally this was born!
Size of bg: 114 mb
Final size of psd file with Merged BG layer: 103 mb
Dimensions: 4450 pixels x 5625 pixels
Layers total 20.
Related content
Comments: 88
So wait? I've seen a lot of this Tau character who is he? and I'm assuming Balaa is your character.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Looks like someone tried stealing AND copying this image :U [link]
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Yeah, that background is loovely! XD And colorful. I love the lion's mane for some reason lol
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
*gives a show of jazz hands*
I love that song/movie/your pic! Makes me wanna listen to it as well!
--
"Let's rock the house." ~Beast Boy, "Lost Episode"
"Rob-Rae fans are delusional. They must be Republicans." -Calliopemused
______
-|___|-
-|___|-
-|___|-
-|___|-
-|___| -Put This On Your Page If You LOVE
-|___|-The Joker's Pencil Trick From
-|___|-The Dark Knight!
-|___|-
-|___| -
-|___|-
-\__/--
--\_/---
---\/----
---------
Even when the truth stands directly in front of them, dancing and humming and loving the roses to life, they do not see until it is gone. - Calliopemused, "Sunrise, Ch. 5"
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love the background too
I'm sorry that you're depressed 
here 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
great pic, i love your style, esp love your TLK pics
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I realy loved the art and dialog behind it ,good lord I couldn't stop laughing
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
OMG! Okay, I love the Lion King, and this reminds me so much of that... I LOVE it!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I wouldn't worry about posting TLK themed work, your better at it than disney is!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Its great! It really looks like it has been taken from TLK itself...nice work ^^ the backround is awesome!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I've been watching you for a long while on TLKFAA and just recently noticed your DA account. I love this illustration! 'Tis perfect. All my friends agree too!
One thing, though -- I want to buy this in poster form! Why, oh why, can't I? *Mewling whine*
Hmm, potential customer! *Grin*
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
oh my god!! the're so sexy!!
I've always been secretly in love with scar, u know?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Well, I find this peices absolutely stunning. And I just LOVE the Male lion, Tau. His eyes kill me, they are just, so adorable. Very nice. This picture is absolutely stunning. You do such wonderful work. I'm happily admitting, you have a new fan on your hands.. Oh noooooo...
Keep up the wonderful job. I hope to see more of this Tau, as he is simply a beautiful lion. ^.^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
eeee! I am always happy to have a new fan, stick around for as long as ya want 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hmmm, that male lion is yummy. So cute. Great work. I'm not a fan of Lion King style copies, or similarities, but I like this picture. Its just... nifty. hehe Good job.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
-can almost HEAR the music- He's got to be singing this. It's so amusing. The colors...the shading...the anatomy... Goodness, this is such an overall wonderful picture. Terrific job!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
God your backgrounds are amazing O.O; I wish I could do them like that O.O
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
wow!!!! This is just soooo good! Hey I got a ques for you, how do you get it to look like a screen shot like that? Do you use layers, because I don't know how to..how did you draw those lions, did you outline it in pen then scan it in and color it? Or did you draw it them with the tablet?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Im sorry for the long non reply, got a tad sidetracked!
I use many many layers to achieve an effect like that..in this case the bg was done as a seperate file, then merged down and imported into a new file with the characters and a border was added. I scanned in the pencil sketches of the characters, inked and colored them with my wacom tablet.
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
oo, antother question..srry, did you ink your characters with a pen? or a Rapitograph?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
oooooo, ok. Weel thankyou very much for replying^^ I really apprecaite it Hopefully I will gain some knowledge in this Computer Graphics camp this summer...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The background is incredible. I worked on TLK 1.5 and I saw the background color-keys in the studio, and girl, you are SO on the right track with this. Definite +Fav.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Very nicely done! And that background is /amazing/!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Oh , wow 
Once again , I'm impressed 
Also the BG is wonderful
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I saw this and couldn't help but crack up. The guy's pose... as soon as I saw that I could just imagine him hitting the final note on some Itailian love song or whatever, messing it up horribly, but continuing anyways and holding it out indefiantely or until he passes out.
Bringing your friend out to a special spot -- 2 hours
Telling how much you love her - a long time
Screwing up on the final note and trying to resurrect it anyways -- Priceless.
Actually, my only gripe is that the lines that you used to outline her hair seem almost a little too dark, and the background beyond the detailed forrest is kinda a let down.
Rofl I love her expression sooo much.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
yeah the background is really nice. very colorful. adore their expressions and poses
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love yuor use of colors here! Nice art as well.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Ok.... I'm gonna have to tell you this again.... you make me SICK (in a good way 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
For the outlines..its not that difficult..specially if you haves a tabby. I usually size up my original sketch considerabley...somewhere in the range of 2000 pixels by 2000 or whatnot...then I make a new layer for the lines and zoom in to about 400-500% and start outlining it with a hard 5 pixel round brush. It takes a while..sometimes an hour or two but its worth it in the end.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ahhhh!!!! No wonder I was having trouble..... you've motivated me once again! I can't help but wonder how the heck the movie studios outline and color all of the frames. It seems to me that this method would take them way to long and be way too expensive. They must have some sort of special program that aids with the outlining process. Anyways, thanks for the tip, once I get my friggin' huge torturous school project finnished, I probably give it a whirl.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Im not one hundred percent sure how they did it...but I dont doubt it is a very LOONG time consuming process. I wonder if thats why disney is doing away with their 2d feature film animation department..which I am still completely pissed about. *stews for a moment and then lets it go* Oh well such is life..more and more everything seems to be done by computers...I think a time will come when people will get tired of computer graphics and want the good old days of acting and actual art in movies...but then with the attention spans getting as short as they are..I could be COMPLETELY wrong!! I hate to see feature animation films going all computer generated. In my opinion it loses the artistic hand made quality that I loved about older disney movies.
HEY did I go off on a tangent or what? 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I am depressed- and this did make me smile.
Love TLK and Fern Gully.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
It's great! it certianly made me smile
I really like the end result of the colors -- especially the blue/teal and the crimson -- they really complete the picture.
Tau's mane is excellent; the shading, especially near the top, is nothing short of superb.
the expressions are nice, and overall I'd say it's pretty cute.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
*Grins* It made me smile ^^ I love the expression and the colours in the background
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The colors you chose are absolutely adorable!
You really did a wonderful job on this picture! 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! I am always honored to receieve wonderfluffle comments from an artist like you!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wow, the background looks awesome! The colors are really sweet
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wow...amazing work. Love their expressions and the BG rawks!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you muchly ^_^! *floofs you*
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
| Next =>