"By fate I met you, by choice I will stay." - Illustration by LuckyEd · 12:59am June 22nd
This illustration was made by the talented and incredibly lovely LuckyEd, whose work you can find over on Deviant Art. For anyone following me for a while, then LuckyEd is an artist you might remember, as she did me the honors of drawing two wonderful illustration's for Chrys' story. This art piece we created together was the first time in a long, long time since I've entrusted the design and creation of one of my characters over to someone else, and I am very happy that I did. It depicts the moment in the second chapter of my story Know That I Lived, when Cozy is saved, both in mind and in spirit, by one perpetually ornery looking elk by the name of Víss ør-grandr. A mysterious and enigmatic individual who appeared as if by the work of fate.
Let me begin by talking about how much I enjoyed working with Ed. She's a truly wonderful person to work with through and through, and has proven to be a great friend. I've mentioned it a couple times that commissioning artwork or even the simple thing of meeting new people can be a harrowing experience. When there's something on the line or stakes to be had, interactions have to be so painfully calculated. At some point, it doesn't even feel like you're having a genuine human conversation. It takes the humanity, dignity, and decency out of our connection to the other person. It creates hollow words and fake smiles. I'm sure a few of you can relate to what I'm saying. But every now again you meet a truly honest, sincere, and genuine person. Someone who goes out of their way to do the best they can do for you. Someone who went back and watched several seasons of the show just for my sake! Who read my story with an earnest desire to understand it better, even when she didn't have to. Someone who had a lot of thoughtful things to say about all of my ideas and all the extra bits she didn't have to concern herself with, like the lore behind the characters I was asking her to draw.
I don't know if she agrees with what I repaid her efforts with. Even now, I have a feeling like she still thinks she's not worth what I gave her. But I genuinely believe she undervalues herself. Or at the very least, she doesn't understand how valuable that kind of genuine, earnest effort is. At least to someone like me! Whose dealt with all manner of people in suits and ties who only look at your potential for investments. You can't put a price on heart and soul. And if I'm paying for beauty here then I call that money well spent! Both on the illustration that was made and in the person who made it.
Well, direct personal compliments on a public forum are bound to embarrass anyone, so I'll stop torturing her for now. Let me finally get on to talking about the art itself!
Ed's art is truly so unique and wonderful. Following her on DA since I discovered her has been a real treat since she often draws in a wide variety of styles. Thanks to this, she has often created some whimsical and beautiful art as a result. I cannot understate how much I loved some of her recent artwork, like Sospeso (whose art style I asked her to adopt for this illustration), Plenilunio, and Piccola Luce among many more.
She's also wonderful at expressions and emoting the characters she draws. Waini is a fantastic example of this, and this illustration we drew together is also great proof! At a glance, that might not seem like the case though, since on the surface without looking any deeper, the expressions seem to be almost... contradictory. Viss looks angry, and Cozy looks scared.
But look closer, and the magic of Ed's expressions shine! In the same way we wanted to mirror Cozy's initial understanding of Viss' facial expressions through a misunderstanding lense, Ed managed to do a great job of creating that surface-level illusion. Zooming in and actually taking the time to appreciate the art, you might find that the expressions on the two take on entirely different meanings. While Viss has an eternal mean resting face that looks angry all the time, his actual personality is anything but. He's rather a gentle and noble soul who only wants the best for Cozy. And Cozy only ever realizes this once she herself finally stops to take a good and honest look at him. What she once thought was a mean and glaring mug turned out to be an empathetic and caring one.
And for Cozy, her expression does a great job of shrinking that little villain to the child she was always meant to be, but you'd be remiss if you think her expression is one of fear. My stories place a massive emphasis on the ideas of the goodness within the heart. Friendship is Magic itself did this too, all throughout its run time, and even with much worse villains like Starlight and even Chrysalis. So then why not Cozy Glow too? The writing in the show just wasn't solid enough. It didn't feel right. Not for FiM, and not for all of MLP as a whole. My story just made a slight recontextualization. It made Cozy grapple with the heavy weight of what true evil looks like, and not the pretend one she had no clue about. She falls into a deep despair, but is then saved as if by fate.
Cozy is saved from herself. From the foolishness of her actions. And then she is saved once more from meeting a truly lonely and sad end. A fate that would've been distasteful and awful for a child to bear. She is saved by Viss when he stops her plans, and again when he offers her a future and a home. So look closely. That is not an expression of fear. That is one of hope!
As you can imagine, these were all slight details that I could only imagine were really hard to pin down in order to create that illusion. But that shined through perfectly in Ed's art. There's still so much to talk about, as I haven't even touched on the illustriousness of the art style she drew in! It's so very wonderful. Ed's shading technique here is a work of art, with each brushstroke adding layers of complexity to every detail which is especially noticeable on Viss' thick coat. It gives everything a unique visual effect of depth, which is something that skilled artist use to get a 2D image to look closer to a 3D one. This is especially noticeable on Cozy's shading and shadow work, as well as the floor tiles below them. And there's all sorts of wonderful effects to give the piece more flare, like the blurring of anything that's not meant to be focal point (the characters in this case!), the lens artifacts, and the motes of light. All to compliment the feeling we wished to invoke.
Subjectively, I'm enamored by this art style, since her broad brushes on low opacity have a wonderful way of mimicking watercolor paintings. So much so I did a double take on the background thinking she might've mixed digital and traditional drawings together to make this.
Anywho, this ran on quite a bit! I'm sure I can keep finding things to say about it, but I think I got my point across. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then this beholder is certainly quite happy with the work that Ed made. I hope she is too!
Until next time guys! Ciao for now.
Golly, this sure is a swell drawing!
Seriously, I adore the contrasting colors and emotions on this piece.