Hey Hive!
We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my drawings and the process behind them. A behind-the-scenes look at my artwork, if you will. This is not to say that I'm very good at art, or that I'm a professional in any way. In fact this is the opposite, and serves as a reminder to how I first started, and lets me track my progress too!
So back in August 2020, or 25 Aug 2020 to be exact, Google changed its logo for that day in celebration of the Qixi Festival, which is kind of like Valentines' Day in China, and it falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. I actually didn't know this was a thing until I saw the Google logo, which I thought looked so cool! I really loved the colour scheme they used!
But anyway, there's actually a story that accompanies this picture which I read about long ago in my primary school Chinese textbook. But I mainly remember it from a similar story that was told by Raj on The Big Bang Theory. Basically, the Qixi Festival celebrates the meeting of two lovers (represented by the stars Vega and Altair). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. On that day, magpies fly up and make a bridge with their wings for the lovers to be together.
Source: Retail in Asia
This story kinda reminded me of Sokka and Yue from Avatar The Last Airbender, and how Yue became the moon, so I thought I'd dedicate this piece to them!
Source: CBR
But first, a quick sketch! I was initially thinking of having a river of stars as well, and draw the magpies actually making a bridge, but since I wanted the characters to be in the middle it would be kinda difficult.
Then I thought of changing the colours to blue instead, to mimic the water tribe blue but decided against that in the end.
I mean, the whole reason I was drawn to the logo was the colour, so I decided to go with that.
Clip Studio had some pretty nifty starry brushes, so I used that to create the background. I initially tried to draw Sokka and Yue as they looked like in the show. But I traced this from a reference image.
Ultimately, I gave up on that idea, and decided to draw the magpies first and figure them out later.
To mimic the Google logo, I just drew one and duplicated smaller copies to simulate the bridge.
Then after that there was no more avoiding, and I decided to draw Sokka and Yue as Animal Crossing characters instead since those were easier to do and I knew I couldn't do them proper justice if I tried to draw them as they are in the show, which look like this btw:
Source: Pinterest
Source: Tumblr
And yes, I did ship them but I respect Suki a lot too.
I think the reference images I had mostly favoured Yue on the right, so I had to change angles.
Eventually, I got this sketch!
I thought that looked pretty good, considering I didn't trace it and used screenshots from the show, some fanart and a couple of screenshots from Animal Crossing New Horizons (because some people actually did dress up as them in the game).
Next step was the fun part - colouring!
I did colour sourcing from my reference images just to make things easier, and with digital art it's so much more convenient! It still blows my mind how awesome the dropper is!
I actually kinda liked them without outlines, but I felt like Yue needed some lines to distinguish her shoulder from her body, so eventually we get this!
I actually thought this looked really good! Especially since I don't have a lot of experience drawing characters, even Animal Crossing ones! And on top of that, this was only my third attempt at digital art! I really liked this piece, and I think Sokka and Yue looked so cute! And the background turned out pretty great too!
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to actually complete this on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. I started it on the day but it took quite a while so I ended up posting this on instagram a week or so later, when there was a full moon! I thought it was still fitting anyhow.
I think the only thing I would change is probably make the outlines a little thicker, so it looks a little smoother, but other than that I think this piece is pretty perfect the way it is. And the important thing is I like it, and I hope you do too!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
