I am, quite obviously, not CLAMP. If I  were CLAMP, that up there would be pretty, and there would be about ten times the detail work in that picture, and lots of screentone, and much more precise lines, and also I would be filthy rich and prone to peeing on my fans. However, that there is still shoujo, yo, even if I don't have anything near the delicate and detailed touch of professional shoujo manga artists. Because obviously shoujo in its purest state is all about dramatically crucifying an attenuated, half-naked, horrifically mutilated and partially gutted bishounen on a battered and destroyed chain-link fence with electric cords, with gears and feathers and blood everywhere, complete with gratuitous single wing imagery.

 ... shounen manga is for pussies who can't handle real violence. [PLEASE NOTE: EXTREMELY GRATUITOUS SARCASM. ARTIST DOES NOT ACTUALLY BELIEVE THIS.]

Anyway. Mockity mock mock mock. I've been on a shoujo-mocking tear lately, and this was the first result. Poor Bart not only got gutted and flayed and all that lovely stuff, he got turned into J. Random Bishounen, which is pretty much the unkindest cut of all. But that's just what happens when you and your friends get thrown into a CLAMPesque universe and left to sink or swim: you all become very pretty, and then one of you dies.

Drawing this was an insane amount of fun. I used the Ink tool in Painter for the first time and ended up liking it an awful lot. The best part of the whole picture was drawing all those cascading electric cords everywhere. I love drawing simple curves. I also did a fair bit of experimentation with differing line weights, which was easier than I thought it would be. I also got pretty good at drawing feathers! Amazing! Turning the chainlink fence into a wing was also a lot of fun. Almost enough fun to justify drawing all those fiddly little lines.

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