After I'd submitted my piece for the hot spring category, I was suddenly hit really hard with the inspiration for this piece. Why did I think 'Disk Driver' was a hilarious parody of 'Baby Driver'? Who knows. But I spent several days making this poster, based heavily on the Baby Driver poster. I even hunted down the font they used. The dedication was unreal.

I attempted OCtober in 2018, but never finished the month. Day 3 was Belinda Faith. Belinda was an original character I made for Ace Attorney, back before AA5 was even thought of. She worked at Nightshade & Co. for a brief while as part of her internship, and considers him a good friend and mentor. Cheerful, kind and confident, Belinda works very hard to fight for her clients, even though she'll sometimes say or do things that give away how incredibly naive she is. Being legally blind, she cannot rely on her sight to help win trials, but she has excellent hearing; so good in fact she can often hear when a witness' heartbeat has quickened. When she gets super excited, she'll sometimes smack her cane against the bench, but always apologizes sheepishly afterward. Her favorite meal is deep fried fish and beer.

I attempted OCtober in 2018, but never finished the month. Day 7 was Frelia. There isn't much to say about Frelia: she was originally created for a closed RP set in a fantasy/steampunk setting and was part of a clan descended from dragons. Frelia recklessly charges head-first into battle and usually refuses to retreat. She has an aversion to technology and dislikes the idea of flying on an airship.

I tried experimenting with different styles I'd never used before, and the results were mid. I did have a lot of fun coloring the coral though. (merman!Taka is from an au of Defrag...which is an au of Battle Network. I have no idea how deep the layers go.)

I got the urge to try drawing Taka and Saki in Shigenori Soejima's art style. He did the character designs in modern Persona (3,4, and 5), and there was always something appealing about his art to me. I focused on emulating his style from Persona 3 since I liked a lot of the simpler lineart and subdued colors. The style he used in 5 is amazing, but much too bright for me. At the time, I had been toying with yet another au but never got anywhere with it. It took a bit to try and translate Saki's hair into the style, and I thiiiink I got pretty close to something that worked. Taka borrowed a lot from the more feminine traits since the masculine ones weren't working for me. I also think that Taka would use elements of the girl's uniform for his outfit, which is why he's wearing the bow instead of the tie. I'm still pretty proud of how this turned out. ~~Kaneko's black upper lip is still very iconic though, and I adore his art a whole lot. Maybe I'll try his art style next.~~

There's something about the outfit Subaru would have worn in the cancelled Star Force 4, but it really looked fun to draw, so I put him and Taka together (because of course I do). I should really draw Subaru more often...

Remember when I said that I tried to transition Umi over to FFXIV, and how she became a separate character? This is Hanami Shimizu. Her canon class is supposed to be Dragoon but she ended up as a Dancer main before I knew it. (Dancer makes brain go brrrrr). I didn't ever draw her again after this. I suppose the horns were a bit intimidating for me.

One day, I was seized with the desire to do this piece. I had a clear picture in my mind of how I wanted it to look, and since such things are rare I hurried to make it a reality. It's almost exactly how I imagined it, and that makes me super proud. I really wanted to play with color blocking in this one, and the idea of suits (and, in Saki's case, the fusion of suit and kimono) was really appealing. I really enjoy drawing fashion! The suit Saki wears is actually based on [the designs of T-Michael in collaboration with Y. & Sons](https://aworkstation.com/stylish-kimonos-blend-traditional-japanese-silhouette-with-scandinavian-minimalism/). He wanted to incorporate Scandinavian minimalism into the timeless design of kimonos. When I first saw them, I was very impressed, and I knew I had to put Saki in one. The title "red oni, blue oni" is a reference to the trope in media where the main character and the rival have opposite personalities--red characters have fiery, emotional personalities while blue characters are cool and composed--but in Enzan and Netto's case the traits of the blue and red oni have been switched. The idea was based on the tale of the red and blue oni, who were close friends. The red oni wanted to get along with humans, but was so big and scary that the humans would just run away screaming. Seeing how miserable his friend was, the blue oni hatched a plan where he would play the villain and the red oni would save the humans from him, thus making him a hero to them. But this meant that the blue oni could never return, so in the end the red oni was still sad, even though he'd gotten his greatest wish.

While I was making examples of my art for my commission sheet, I needed an example of Black and White + Screen Tone. I made this based on a pose I'd found. Unfortunately, I cannot locate the original artist even though I would very much like to credit them for the original picture. I don't imagine Taka to be the overly jealous type, but I do think he's clingy. I feel like you can interprete Taka's look many different ways, so I won't say which one it is (hint: they are all correct).

The theme for the fanart contest that year was either hot springs or movie parodies. I entered both, although I was very excited to draw hot springs art. The parody poster I made for the other category was really fun too, even if it was a last-minute thing. Ahh, rocks. The bane of my existence. It was so hard to try and get them just right. In comparison, everything else was incredibly easy. In the end, I wanted it to make you feel like you wanted to jump in too.

This one started as a warm up sketch that I finished. I really enjoy the simplicity of this one. I think of this one as a moment where Saki takes a break from sword training and spends a moment observing the flowers.

I was putting together examples of my art for my commission information, so I used my D&D character, Umi, for the lineart example. Umi was a water genasi Paladin following the will of Eadro. She's kind-hearted and would rather talk problems out, but can be a bit bloodthirsty in battle. This is offset by how clumsy she is. At some point, she ended up with a talking trident, but it would only speak to her and was incredibly crass. I did try to recreate her in FFXIV, but that character eventually became her own thing.