They Don't Know You Like I Do

Behold, the finished product.

...I think.

Left to right: Derek, Ethan, Lexy, Levi, Gale, Ter, Charon

Man, how many hours have I spent on this thing? Scratch that, how many weeks? I guess I've just kind of been chipping away at it here and there, but it always astounds me to think back and realize how the time adds up. I always tell myself I should time myself, see how long it actually takes me to finish big pieces, but I never get around to it and anyway I have a tendency to start and stop, getting distracted by the internet and food and things like that.

Stopping always used to be my downfall, too, with finished pieces. I'd just lose interest and give it up. Lately I think I've been doing better, though. I've also been more willing to change things that don't look right, instead of going, "ugh, can't be bothered" and letting it sit. Not that this piece is perfect, of course, but it's damn well good enough for now.

Things I did between the last update and this one:

- finished shading

- added a very subtle gradient to the bottom so that the backgrounds aren't completely flat

- scribbled in the quotes from the song that inspired this piece, consistently becoming frustrated at my chicken scratch and also the positioning of everything

- did some level/colour tweaks and minor edits

- modified the border to be uniform all the way around (not sure why I'd left it before)

For those curious, the inspirational song is Masterpiece Theatre Pt. 3 by Marianas Trench. It's the last track in their album Masterpiece Theatre and extra awesome in that it's also a medley of all the other songs on the album. It's just utter genius, especially how at one point it layers several lines from several songs. And it has its own unique parts, too. Anyway, I took the majority of the lines from the track and applied them to whoever I thought they fit the most. Some lines are left out because they don't fit, and there are lines from the rest of the album that I'd probably have liked to use, but I'm staying true to Pt. 3 here.

It would be ridiculously coincidental if my favourite album ever just happened to fit all these characters from the same storyline. You'd call me out on it. But I promise it's not completely forced. I had vague ideas about all of them before ever associating them with the album, but I will happily admit that the album's helped me solidify their respective stories. I did spend a long car trip listening to the album and figuring out which song fits which character best. I'll save the rant about the characters for my dA artist's comments. Anyway, the phrase "it's complicated" comes to mind...

All I can say now is phew! Nice to have it done. It will now sit as one of my desktop backgrounds until I get sick of the errors.

- Hex