Keepin' Me Up All Night

It takes, on average, 2 hours for me to get to sleep at the moment, even when I'm REALLY tired. Today I wasn't really tired, but I am going out tonight, so wanted a good night's sleep so that I could make the most of my time out. The best laid plans...

At 2:30am I was awoken by a huge ruckus downstairs. Surprise surprise my brother had decided to bring his mates home.... about 6 of them.... in the early hours of the morning, about 30 minutes (probably) after I'd got to sleep.

Oddly enough, I was a bit annoyed. Perhaps moreso than I would have been if, when asked whether he was going to be making noise for much longer, he had wisely replied "Nah, goin to bed!".... But of course he didn't. He said he was. I almost smacked him in the face; in fact, I probably would have done if Mom and my Sis hadn't been standing in the way.

At 2:30am, I went for a walk...

At 3:00am I returned to find him thankfully gone and the house relatively quiet. Mom, my Sis, and two of my Sis's nice quiet friends were having a chat in the kitches, so I sat down to do something on the computer. I figured I'd have a crack at colouring that pic I did yesterday in.

Unfortunately, my mind soon drifted off to what Mom and Co. were talking about - namely the passing away of my Uncle Terry, and the funeral today that I didn't attend cos I figured it would upset me.

And it did... I had to drop all my half-started work and disappear out of sight for a good ten minutes :(

Anyway, after that I returned to the computer, slammed my headphones in, and started working on that picture.

And to be honest, although the original picture was (in my opinion) not my best effort ever, the colour version has turned out to be probably my finest piece of artwork ever. And I mean that! I've done some work that I consider pretty good in my time, but considering I've had almost a 3 month break from any colouring work at all, I'm REALLY chuffed with how this turned out.

It isn't perfect - I might go back and touch up the lighting later today when I've had a break - but its pretty close to what I consider "as good as I get".

It comes in 2 sizes. Click the picture below for the (relatively) bandwidth friendly medium resolution pic.



OR

Click HERE for the SUPER-SIZED version which is half of the original document size. It is also almost 1 MEG in size, so don't try it unless you have a connection that won't die! ~_^

I'd like to dedicate this picture to several people:

a) Leeann - for inspiring me to draw again!
b) Saik - for being an awesome friend and inventing perspective for me to use!
c) Liz - for cheering me up with long MSN chats about random stuff!
d) Kim - for having confidence in me.
e) Marena - for making sure I drew a "sexah elvaan" and not a galka or something...


Please leave comments with any tips/advice/criticism/praise you wish...