Gaaah. <3 This was a fun card to make! My first collab with my dear Smoothie. I can't believe we never made something together before. XD It was well overdue! So this came about because she was reading this yaoi manga called Under Grand Hotel (warning, major graphic yaoiness!), and she told me about it. Then I started reading it, and we both love it. XD And so I was going to make a card from it, and she told me she was going to, so I was like "maybe we should collab???" SO YEAH. :)

We used this scan. I was in charge of the initial scan editing and such. I sharpened it, and did a bunch of messing around with the colors. After several attempts, I ended up liking this kind of monochromatic style. I desaturated the scan...and duplicated it a few times...uhh, put the layers on some different blending effects. Then I added a few layers of gradients and brushes (like the bokeh) to add some more to it! I normally don't use such a cool color palette, but I really liked how the blue went. I added some reddish brown in there, too though, to add some warmth.

Then I sent it off to Smoothie to do the typography, animation, and other goodness. :D The text are lyrics from Utada's song Devil Inside. After she did her part, she sent it back to me, and I edited some small things just like the color/font of some of the text, but that's it. XD

Here is her description of what she did:
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Aishia's Description:

Hello good peoples, yeeeeeah I had a ton of fun collab-ing with Cocoa. :) I was originally going to make something myself dealing with these characters , but she was going to make a card of them too and well...voila!

I did the animation and typography also added little extra things too. About the typography though, I positioned the text that she decided and I had chosen the fonts though I think she edited one specific font to another one, but I love her edits. :) I had a bit of trouble with what I wanted the colors to be. Then Cocoa came and save the day with her awesome decisions. X) I'm sure she'll explain all of that though. I'm always inspired by her color choices in her designs well just her designs in general. :) As for the animation well, I didn't have much issues with it. X) Enjoy making still scans blink it seems. XDDDDD Haha

We should definitely do another collaboration sometime. X) I really love these two guys by the way, their relationship is amusing. Though a lot of scenes with Sen was a bit much. <.<;

Brush: Tizzape Tape

Font: The King & Queen ("M", "devil", "jealous angel", "me"), Trajan Pro ("aybe there's a", "deep inside") [Cocoa's font decision], and Headliner No. 45 ("or something like it inside")

Program: Photoshop 7.0 & ImageReady 7.0

Music Motivation: The Isley Brothers' "Contagious" (Instrumental)

Disclaimer: Artwork of Swordfish and Sen belongs to Mika Sadahiro. :)

(/longest description for a card evaahhh, YES) Enjoy!