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Description
Whitepaw took a step into the dark surf. She flinched as the water lapped over her paws. The water was cool, though not cold. She took another few steps forward, screwing up her face as water washed over her legs. She didn't like the feeling of wet fur. She glanced back at Hawkfrost uncertainly, but he just nodded for her to go on.

Before long, the water was almost over her back. A shiver ran through Whitepaw's fur. Being submersed in the dark liquid, even with solid ground beneath her paws, was frightening. 'What am I afraid of?' she thought crossly. 'Fish bites?' Determination searing in her pads, Whitepaw kept walking.

Whitepaw lifted her front paw to take another step forward, but she couldn't find solid ground. She waved her paw around, trying to find a lump of pebbles, but she lost her balance instead and tumbled facefirst into the water. The water swept her forward, and now none of her paws were touching the lakebed.

"Help me!" she screeched.

"Run!" her mate yowled back. "Get flat."

Whitepaw stopped struggling and let her back face upward. Sure enough, the water pushed her up to the surface, and Whitepaw raised her head out of the water, gasping for air. As she began to sink again, she wriggled her front and back paws. Not only was she staying afloat, she was moving forward!

She looked down in amazement at her paws, pushing her through the water. "Keep going!" Hawkfrost called. Whitepaw propelled herself in a circle, waving her front and back paws stiffly back and forth and sticking her tail straight up.

"I'm doing it!" she yelled. "I'm swimming!"

Soooo this is the scene in my WhitexHawk fanfiction Dark Hearts where Hawkfrost teaches Whitepaw how to swim! I really loved this scene, it was so cute! I hoped it would be as fun to draw as it was to write Plus, it seemed like it would be a—er—challenge Anyway, I’ve been wanting to draw this part for a really long time, and I finally got around to it!
I remember when I wrote this scene I based it off of the part in Eclipse where Jaypaw’s teaching Cinderpaw how to swim. What I realized was...all in all, swimming isn’t actually that hard for cats. It’s just that most don’t like to get wet :/ They can “doggy-paddle” by instinct...as can humans. Like most Thunderclan cats, Whitepaw hates the water, but for the sake of appeasing her mate she agrees to take “swimming lessons” After she learns how to swim in about 2 minutes, she and Hawky have a splash battle and then play around in the water for a while. Unfortunately, when Whitepaw goes back to Thunderclan, her nosy denmate Birchpaw is awake and starts asking her a bunch of questions about why she’s soaking wet, as you might expect. Luckily, she tells him off and her secret is safe...for the moment.
HOLY CRAP, you have NO IDEA how proud I am of this! It took forever, but damn, was it worth it! The cats weren’t too hard to reference, and the effect of half of Whitepaw being underwater came out looking much better than I thought it would. And Hawkfrost...daaaaamn, he looks sexy! Just...daaaaaamn! Something about those ice-blue eyes on dark brown fur...very, very attractive Then again, my first love DID have dark brown hair and blue eyes...MOVING ON!
The background was a pain -____- I had to draw the island like 6 times before it didn’t look stupid, and it took me forever to figure out what exactly to put on the lakeshore! I tried to make the trees, bushes, and grass look darker than usual to give it sort of a nighttime effect since the picture is supposed to be, you know, at night. I thought it wouldn’t do any good, but the pic actually looks like it’s at night! Also, I used whiteout for the stars in the lake, but they looked really messy because Im almost out of whiteout and I had to struggle to get dots of it on But then...glowy effect to the rescue! When I went onto iPiccy to make Hawkfrost’s eyes look more icy, I realized I could use the brightness effect to make the stars glow, and then everyone would be so preoccupied with how I used a special effect in my traditional art (which I almost never do) that they wouldn’t realze how tacky the stars actually look! Still, this was the first time I figured out how to make the stars glow and it was SUPER exciting!
I had to use 2 references for this one, since a ref of a cat swimming was REALLY hard to find! Here they are: [link] and [link] . I DID NOT TRACE THESE! I know it looks like I did, but I just have a good eye for referencing and I’m able to reference linearts really closely. I AM NOT AN ART THIEF! Still, I felt a little guilty referencing these because this person is such a damn good artist and I could never ever in a thousand years be as good as them. Sighhhh

Description
Whitepaw took a step into the dark surf. She flinched as the water lapped over her paws. The water was cool, though not cold. She took another few steps forward, screwing up her face as water washed over her legs. She didn't like the feeling of wet fur. She glanced back at Hawkfrost uncertainly, but he just nodded for her to go on.

Before long, the water was almost over her back. A shiver ran through Whitepaw's fur. Being submersed in the dark liquid, even with solid ground beneath her paws, was frightening. 'What am I afraid of?' she thought crossly. 'Fish bites?' Determination searing in her pads, Whitepaw kept walking.

Whitepaw lifted her front paw to take another step forward, but she couldn't find solid ground. She waved her paw around, trying to find a lump of pebbles, but she lost her balance instead and tumbled facefirst into the water. The water swept her forward, and now none of her paws were touching the lakebed.

"Help me!" she screeched.

"Run!" her mate yowled back. "Get flat."

Whitepaw stopped struggling and let her back face upward. Sure enough, the water pushed her up to the surface, and Whitepaw raised her head out of the water, gasping for air. As she began to sink again, she wriggled her front and back paws. Not only was she staying afloat, she was moving forward!

She looked down in amazement at her paws, pushing her through the water. "Keep going!" Hawkfrost called. Whitepaw propelled herself in a circle, waving her front and back paws stiffly back and forth and sticking her tail straight up.

"I'm doing it!" she yelled. "I'm swimming!"

Soooo this is the scene in my WhitexHawk fanfiction Dark Hearts where Hawkfrost teaches Whitepaw how to swim! I really loved this scene, it was so cute! I hoped it would be as fun to draw as it was to write Plus, it seemed like it would be a—er—challenge Anyway, I’ve been wanting to draw this part for a really long time, and I finally got around to it!
I remember when I wrote this scene I based it off of the part in Eclipse where Jaypaw’s teaching Cinderpaw how to swim. What I realized was...all in all, swimming isn’t actually that hard for cats. It’s just that most don’t like to get wet :/ They can “doggy-paddle” by instinct...as can humans. Like most Thunderclan cats, Whitepaw hates the water, but for the sake of appeasing her mate she agrees to take “swimming lessons” After she learns how to swim in about 2 minutes, she and Hawky have a splash battle and then play around in the water for a while. Unfortunately, when Whitepaw goes back to Thunderclan, her nosy denmate Birchpaw is awake and starts asking her a bunch of questions about why she’s soaking wet, as you might expect. Luckily, she tells him off and her secret is safe...for the moment.
HOLY CRAP, you have NO IDEA how proud I am of this! It took forever, but damn, was it worth it! The cats weren’t too hard to reference, and the effect of half of Whitepaw being underwater came out looking much better than I thought it would. And Hawkfrost...daaaaamn, he looks sexy! Just...daaaaaamn! Something about those ice-blue eyes on dark brown fur...very, very attractive Then again, my first love DID have dark brown hair and blue eyes...MOVING ON!
The background was a pain -____- I had to draw the island like 6 times before it didn’t look stupid, and it took me forever to figure out what exactly to put on the lakeshore! I tried to make the trees, bushes, and grass look darker than usual to give it sort of a nighttime effect since the picture is supposed to be, you know, at night. I thought it wouldn’t do any good, but the pic actually looks like it’s at night! Also, I used whiteout for the stars in the lake, but they looked really messy because Im almost out of whiteout and I had to struggle to get dots of it on But then...glowy effect to the rescue! When I went onto iPiccy to make Hawkfrost’s eyes look more icy, I realized I could use the brightness effect to make the stars glow, and then everyone would be so preoccupied with how I used a special effect in my traditional art (which I almost never do) that they wouldn’t realze how tacky the stars actually look! Still, this was the first time I figured out how to make the stars glow and it was SUPER exciting!
I had to use 2 references for this one, since a ref of a cat swimming was REALLY hard to find! Here they are: [link] and [link] . I DID NOT TRACE THESE! I know it looks like I did, but I just have a good eye for referencing and I’m able to reference linearts really closely. I AM NOT AN ART THIEF! Still, I felt a little guilty referencing these because this person is such a damn good artist and I could never ever in a thousand years be as good as them. Sighhhh