One step towards tomorrow by @zenphoenixa (Annabel Lee)

This here is my half of a trade with Mel Baldwin at long last, Lord knows how late I am… @__@ an interesting type of trade this time around since we agreed on an interactive one where we’d draw one of each of our characters in the same pic. ^^ Mel chose Survaaner (a very neglected character of mine indeed!) and her spunky character Zar, so ‘twas time for me to get the girls strutting their stuff! (Figuratively speaking of course, for all you pervs out there!) ;)

Back to the comic format again, as you’ve no doubt noticed... =P This little comic outing features my Keepyr character Hydrya (first on the left of the top panel) and Mel’s character Sandra, or Sandy for short. So uh, why and what I hear you ask? (Or am I just hearing voices again? XD)

Personality wise, Hydrya and Sandy seem to be pretty much complete opposites in that Sandy is a friendly and happy sort while Hydrya is a frowning grump in comparison, so I couldn’t see them getting along too well as friends, but what about as teacher and student? Hydrya from time to time acts as a ‘Mentyr’ by schooling would-be Keepyrs (Hydrya is a Mentyr to Gale, for those who are interested), so I decided it would be interesting to make Sandy an honorary Keepyr for a day! ;) Hence Sandy doesn’t normally own a staff, but she needs to have one if she’s going to able to pass the tests… =P it’s cross shaped because Mel gave Sandy a distinctive cross marking on her chest, so I decided to capitalise on that point. =P

So, as for what’s going on in this very short skit, Hydrya’s basically teaching Sandy how to walk on water but it requires a bit of a leap of faith. Hydrya’s a Keepyr of Blud (water), so it seems fitting that she should be trying to pass a couple of tricks onto Sandy. Gasp Water? Did someone mention water? @@ You mean that weird blue blob in the last panel which is supposed to be a sad excuse for water? XP Bah, as you can see I still have a long way to go before I can get used to making water effects... TT Also something worth pointing out in the last panel, Sandy technically is supposed to be stepping onto the water, but I made a mistake in drawing the rock too close to her foot so it now looks as though she’s still standing on the bloody thing! Doh!

Anyway, to wrap things up, this pic was coloured with Prismacolour pencils and ink (for the foreground) while the background/editing was done in Paintshop Pro 5 and a bit in Photoshop 6. I also leave you all with this tip: never never NEVER use Tombow Brushpen ink to rule straight lines because it’s so damn smudgy that it’ll ruin your nice white spaces! O___Oxxx I’ve definitely learnt from THAT experience! ^^;