Patreon reward, Time together

A reward for one of my patrons and longtime supporter . She asked to combine a couple months of her rewards to create a more complicated drawing of her character Vikki spending time at an onsen with two my characters Rosemary Parker Just Accessories and her demonic friend Ka-Rilka Rosemary and Ka-Rilka

    Now some of you maybe familiar with Vikki's high tech nano/techmagic rubber bodysuit Patreon reward: Do as I say that is literally a part of her body now. When I got the request for this piece I asked my patron whether they wanted Vikki in hot water with Rosemary and Ka-Rilka. After all hot water, rubber body suit, overheated vixen. However she said not to worry the character was in no danger of heat stroke etc. But I did wonder whether other viewers would have the same questions.

    There is a saying that goes. "If you have to explain a joke you've failed in telling it." To a certain extent that is also true about illustrations. In theory the ideal illustration should tell a story all by itself without needing any additional material to explain what or why things are happening in the picture. In a perfect world it should be able to stand alone on its own merits. Especially cover illustration.

    Now we don't live in a perfect world, and very often an illustration does count on supporting elements, like the book title, to provide context to the image. But the more you have to count on those elements the more it becomes like explaining the joke. Worse, the viewer only gets to experience an image for the first time once. Any spontaneous, excitement, magic, intrigue, or surprise are spent in those few precious seconds. So if the viewers first thought at looking at a piece is "Why is she wearing a wet suit in a hot tub?" Not "Oh! Isn't this just an adorable moment!" Then no matter how careful and enlightening the explanation is you never get that first time again.

    If this was an interior illustration located 40 pages inside a book and I knew the viewer was familiar with Vikki's backstory I might have handle it differently, but treated this image as if this was cover of a book you've never read before and your looking at it for the first time in a store.

    My solution was simple. Rosemary and Ka-Rilka are taller, 5'.2" and 5'.3" respectively, than Vikki who is even shorter at 4'. So I put her low in the water and had Ka-Rilka put her arm around the little vixen. Result, you can't see her body suit with the steamy, reflective water hiding the other details. It might seem like I worried about a relatively minor detail a lot, but it is often why I get paid what I do for my illustrations.

I hope you like what you see. Please help make more art like this possible by supporting me at Patreon