Fan Art Collab with @suezoe #4: Ai no Kusabi (Part 1)

Hello friends and anime lovers! Mi amiga Hive account@suezoe and I are back with another fan art collaboration. This is the fourth one, and it actually comes in two parts.

We decided to make two fan arts for the BL anime Ai no Kusabi. To be honest, I don't really follow this story, but I remember watching the OVA back then. I believe it was the one with just a couple of episodes. haha I do recognize and like the characters, though... so even though Sue told me to choose another character I'm familiar with, I insisted we do it. It's her favorite, after all... and I love the references she suggested we do.

As I mentioned earlier, this fan art comes in two parts. For this one, Hive account@suezoe made Iason, the seme, while I'm in charge of drawing the doll version of Riki. The second part would be the opposite, so I look forward to seeing it in the coming days. :)

Let me show you how I made my part... but before that, please check Hive account@suezoe's post first by clicking HERE.

Now, let's start! :)

First, I opened the file she sent me in the Medibang Paint app to add my part. It's only a small doll, but the challenge for me is to draw it between Iason's fingers. Sue initially told me just to draw the doll over his hand, and she'd try to edit afterwards, but I told her I'd like to challenge myself and try to make it work.

I just used her line art as a reference... and while I was scribbling, I noticed there was a layer where she drew the doll on paper, so I used it to adjust the doll's size.

I adjusted the opacity of the doll so that I could easily paint the base color over it.

I took my time with this one so I could blend it with the initial drawing as accurately as possible. I did a lot of trial and error, and I finally pulled it through. I'm not well-versed in digital drawing, so I'm always doing trial and error, which is actually a fun process for me.

And since I successfully completed the base color with Iason's fingers properly positioned, the rest of the steps were pretty easy.

The next thing I did was the shading and highlighting. They're just small things, but doing these details is making the drawing more lively... despite it being a doll. Hahaha

Finally, I added my signature on Riki's arm. He's so tiny and such a cutie!!!

Then, I made all the other layers of Sue's drawing visible. After saving and exporting the images, I made a fun GIF comparing the drawing with and without the doll and sent it to Sue. She then made some final adjustments by editing it to look more vintage~y.

I thought it was a good move since our reference was from a magazine cover. The second part is also from one, so I'm excited about how it'll turn out. I already gave her the file, and she has sent me some sketches of her part... but I've never seen them in a single photo, so I'm giddy about it! :)

Collabs with Hive account@suezoe have always been fun and inspiring. We have many fan art collabs lined up! It's an excellent way for both of us to improve further and stay motivated in creating art.

I'm also working on a different project with another Hiver, but that one is traditional-style painting of nature... I haven't started it yet because I don't have the proper paper to paint on. But once I have it, (my father is in our previous house, so I hope there are still some of my watercolor or canvas pads that are usable) I'll start with it as well.

Anyway, that's it for this post. Of course, I'm giving 50% beneficiary to my lovely friend for creating this fan art with me.

Cheers to more collabs in the future! :)

Thanks for checking this post out. See you around! (^^,)/

PS: Check out our previous collaborations!

• Dr. Stone X Jojo's Bizarre Adventures
• Junjou Romantica
• Gravitation