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swan-swan — Keep Holding On
Published: 2007-04-14 22:36:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 7228; Favourites: 154; Downloads: 46
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Description
I finally finished this pic!It wasn't really the work, it was more of the mood...the emotion to put into it. Well, I had that emotion, and so I started up the Avril Lavigne playlist and began working....it went through one sit-down session (about an hour and ten minutes) and well into another before I finally finished touching it up--and that was just the touch-up session!
Before I say anything else, though, GAZILLION thanks to for her INCREDIBLE advice on this piece--it turned out a lot better than I'd thought. She gave me so, so much help with this...I hope the arm turned out all right!
Basically, this image is my interpretation of the scene right after Katara escapes with Aang, but before they reach Appa--I wanted to give the impression of her completely blasting her way through the ceiling...and the closest thing to what she would be doing would be screaming. If I could give it more life, complete with sound, she would be giving a shriek of grief, frustration, and any other emotion you choose. She's using her last vestiges of strength.
Apart from her edits to my original drawing, no reference was used, really. Maybe a little bit, but this is pretty much all my drawing and Phee's edits. The good parts are probably hers...
I don't think I did Aang's head quite right, but you can tell it's him. The colors came from screencaps....My main concern with this is that I feel that the lighting takes away from the picture by adding too much to it--it's spectacular, and it really helped some of my weaker points, but I still feel kind of cheated. The lighting took me only a few minutes, and it's easily the first thing to note about the image. Sigh....ah, well, it looks good to me.
I drew the pic by hand....her left arm is digitally drawn, and I think Aang's head is, too....the watermark is mine....DO NOT STEAL THIS IMAGE, I PUT HARD WORK AND HEART INTO THIS.
Colored using MS Paint. The light is thanks to OpenCanvas.
I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS. Viacom, Nickelodeon, Mike, Bryan, and anyone else who works on Avatar: The Last Airbender does.
The IMAGE IS MINE. Again, do not steal. I'm not really worried about it, but you never know....
I also made a music vid to the song: [link] It's one of my best, so please, view that, too. It goes with the artwork....
At least some good came out of Eragon....
FULL VIEW, PLEASE. Comments would be nice, as well, along with critique...I might choose to redo it.
EDIT:
EDIT:
EDIT:
I revised it.
Thanks to and for their critique! I think it looks much better now...the light's not as dramatic as before, but I kind of like it like that. If the lighting needs work, I can do that.
The other girls so far:
Toph: [link]
Jin: [link]
Mai's mom: [link]
Mai: [link]
Koko: [link]
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Comments: 124
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Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed it!
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OH MY GOSH.
BEAUTIFUL.
*jaw drops*
when it gets cold and it feels like the end
there's no place to go
you know I won't give in
no I won't give in
The combination of this picture and that song is just so, incredibly powerful. I just, I'm in awe. The emotion in their expressions, her reaching up and you can just see them spinning up and away out of there. You did a wonderful job. I really think you got across what you wanted to, the whole thing just hits you. Now, to go see the video!
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Thank you!
Do you have a LiveVideo account? [shiftyeyes]
The song is Kataang's theme song, literally....thanks for the comment and praise! Now, to go see your gallery....
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XD No problem at all! Sometimes I see a picture and go OMGAWESOME and erm, that was one of those times. Hehehe. And yes, I'm sydthespy on there...who left the massively long comment. (But I'm glad you appreciated it! I guess I prefer running long than not really saying anything *cough*halfoflivevideo/youtube/dA...) It *is* the theme song, and I was really glad to see a good video of it. Sorry about that other commenter though, that was unnecessary. *rolls eyes* :-\
But wow, thanks for having a look, that's nice of you- probably not much in there that would be your thing as I haven't finished anything Avatar-y in there yet (just a scrap) but I'm trying to get better with the style...it's a bit more, difficult than DP. Heh. There is a Aang/Katara pic I'm working on though ([link] million mistakes) but that'll happen more post-finals. Anyway, I really like your gallery because you acknowledge lots of ships and seem to like all the characters, which is exactly where I am too. So woo. But yes, can't wait to fave/comment some more stuff of yours when I get the chance. 
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Ah, the trollish comment? Heh....those ones are fun.
Yeah, as soon as I looked at your profile and saw that you're in Sydney, I knew it was a match.
This pic was actually one of those ones that I did with the intention of the OMGAWESOME thing....it's a bit more attention-seeking....and it's worked.
It also just clicked.
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When will this bloody war end? Can you see enough blood has been spilled? How many more countless lives will be claimed over this silly debate???
I joke.
Seriously though, it's getting old (sways more towards Kataang...).
You know, the more I observe, Kataang seems to consist of the more logical, older and more mature audience, whereas Zutara seems to consists of rabid teenage fangirls with no sense of reason or restraint. I'm not saying Zutara is bad, as I seem some AMAZING art by some people. Some art I see is bashing on other ships, which seems more like WWII propaganda than art.
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What silly debate?
How is Zutara involved in this???
I agree with your points....
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Because I believe Zutara is the biggest rival to Kataang, and had to be mentioned to get my point across.
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Well, yes, but....it seemed out of place!
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This is beyond words-- Your grasp of the perspective, of the lighting and the poses... the water, the tears, the expression! I am losing my hold on the English language trying to describe it.
Breathtaking. You have come so far in the past few months, and I am genuinely impressed.
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:slaps self silly:
No, I take it back.
:slaps DA silly:
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This is beyond words-- Your grasp of the perspective, of the lighting and the poses... the water, the tears, the expression! I am losing my hold on the English language trying to describe it.
Breathtaking. You have come so far in the past few months, and I am genuinely impressed.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is beyond words-- Your grasp of the perspective, of the lighting and the poses... the water, the tears, the expression! I am losing my hold on the English language trying to describe it.
Breathtaking. You have come so far in the past few months, and I am genuinely impressed.
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Thank you so, so much for that! You're flattering me....[blush]
Yeah, I worked hard at this one. I'm feeling that my Mai Avril Lavigne pic is going to top this one, but only if I redo some of the lineart. Mainly because Mai's pic is going to be one that I've been fooling with for months....
Coming soon is either Mai's, Yue's, Ty Lee's, Azula's, or June's. I've begun gathering ref pics for Azula...already have the June and Yue ones....Azula has a lot of ref pics, though.
I filled up pretty much one ref pic section (the usual size that I use) with Azula pics already. From her first episode.
From before she even meets Zuko and Iroh.
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You're very welcome!
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Check my gallery....
Though any one would actually fit Mai pretty decently.
Eventually, I'm going to have to double up. But I'll get there.
Just wait until the underrepresented girls start popping up....
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[smacks self AGAIN]
Slipped Away >.< I saw it, just didn't realize it was an Avril song. I am so slooowww today.
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wow! i really love this pic- the lighting is so well done! good work!
ZUTARA FOREVER!
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Thanks for commenting! I was startled when I saw your name in the message box by one of my pics....
Zutara's gonna have a rough ride, but keep holding on, I guess!
It's going to have to defy every single odd there is....
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wooooooooooow......!!!!! I think this is one of the best things you've done ever!!! 
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Thank you very much!
It took a LOT of work....
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I can tell!! It looks friggin' awesome
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The water is fabulous! I don't know how you did the light, but that is incredible two. I envy you people with photoshop
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I don't use Photoshop....I use OpenCanvas....an expired copy of it.
I'm far from skilled and very limited. But I'm learning.
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fine...but I have no idea what that is or where to get it
I think I'll just stick w/ my MSPaint...which I rarely use anyway
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You can download programs from quite a few sources online....for free....if you do some searching, you can get something.
Paint works for the basic, but it doesn't save .jpg files well, and even the slightest bonus features on other programs work....
Here, have some fun with this one: [link]
IrfanView.
Simple, VERY small, and incredibly helpful.
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ok I have no idea how work it
I guess computers don't like me...
How do you color something you've scanned?
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Um, I use Paint....
IrfanView....
Okay, here's what I use IrfanView for:
1. Changing scanned drawings into black and white images (Decrease Color Depth or Enhance Colors....usually the latter, AFTER converting the image to grayscale)
2. Resizing images to a manageable size when I've finished (works a lot better than Paint's)
3. Cleaning the image up (Sharpen or Median Filter, usually)
4. Sharpening the image
5. Rotating an image quickly (you can just press "R", "L", "V," or "H" to rotate/flip)
6. Some other things using "Enhance Colors"
I use it for some other things, too, but....just play around with it for an hour, take some random pictures or Avatar screencaps and just start selecting different options.
Oh, it also works well for slideshows.
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I converted it into greyscale, but I can't color it now
how do i go back?
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Um, you'll have to do undo....
You can just quit without saving....
There's a tutorial back in my gallery, lemme fetch it for you....well, a semi-tutorial....
I do all of my coloring in Paint. IrfanView is just used for the setup.
My specifics:
1. Draw the image with pencil.
2. Go over the image with a black marker.
3. Scan it into the computer.
4. Take the scan, copy it, paste it in IrfanView.
5. Decrease the color depth to two colors, black and white.
6. Copy this image.
7. Paste the image in Paint.
8. Paintbucket the black lines that are going to be used red.
9. Select the whole image and cut it.
10. Paste the image again, but set black as the secondary, transparent color. This will make anything black disappear, matching the white background--since the outline has been paintbucketed red, the outline will be left in red.
11. Select the whole image again, and cut it.
12. The background will be black now that it has been cut--set RED as the secondary color and paste. Now, all of the red should be black, leaving me with a fairly clean set of black lines--no miscellaneous scribbles.
13. Use Paint's tools to close any gaps, and then just use the Paintbucket feature to color.
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eheheh...I accidentally saved it.
Is there a way I can still cancel it?
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Oooooh, I dunno....<
Do you still have the hard copy?
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nope, but i'll just rescan it
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Yeah, that's what I meant. Good luck with that!
Make sure that you've inked it enough.....
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I'll do that when I find a good marker. Mine keep dying.
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Ooooo Looks quite nice, not that it didn't before, but the revision is effective
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Thanks!
Is the head better?
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Yes, it looks much younger
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Wow! That was a mighty difficult perspective to tackle, what with the hand reaching up towards the viewer!
Anyway, I love that everything here contributes to the emotion of the piece . . . everything just absolutely "reaches up," from the water tentacle to the perspective of her arm to the shaft of light to the lack of background (contributing to the idea of a consuming grief/shock). The shafts of light were a stroke of brilliance, by the way! And all of that combined with her facial expression really, really captures the spirit of that whole scene from Katara's point of view.
Also, nice shadows on her face, and nice hair.
Minor note: the perspective on Katara's index finger looks a little off. It forms a wedge shape, but the wedge probably shouldn't be that drastic. Also, the fingers feel as though they are a might bit too small compared to her hand.
Anyway, great job at capturing Katara's reaction to what happened to her best friend.
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I'll check the fingers, thanks for the long comment! ^_^
I never really took the lack of a background to mean that, but....I did have the basic idea that I wanted all of the focus on the characters....
My main problem with the light, but there is still something I like.
Maybe the light not belonging can be taken to have a symbolism....thanks again!
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Very pretty. I like the coloring and the effects.
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Thanks.
Any critique?
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