Voltron LD: Midnight Moonbubbles

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Scraps version here.

SHORT SUMMARY:

Colored version of the sketch I put up in scraps.  I colored this for Valentine's Day, and also because I'm trying to get back into the practice of drawing again after STUFF.

This is based on a dream I had after watching Voltron Legendary Defenders season two and then listening to some 80's-90's rock/pop.  If you want the proper setting, go listen to Backstreet Boys' song "Drowning".

My dream took place on an alien landscape where spots of water in the ocean glows at night and rises up to form floating bubbles.  Lance investigated instead of sleeping (hence the PJs), Pidge tagged along, feels happened.  In the form of a large wave that left Lance with a new friend.  Usual fanfic stuff; further details in full description.

All art done with Photoshop.


LONG DESCRIPTION:

. . . This wasn't supposed to get colored, but Valentines was coming and this looked like something that could get me back into art after I lost a lot of work earlier.  I have no clue why I keep doing art for just this holiday; its not really my favorite.  But perhaps making art is how I deal with a whole holiday dedicated to the mushiest subject known to man.  Well, that and binging on chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs.  *munch*

But despite not being a huge romantic, I am still a sucker for a cute relationship.  And that's what I blame this artwork on  My deep subconscious desire to write cute fanfics that would give me cavities for life.  And listening to too much Backstreet Boys after watching Voltron.  Boy Bands are Cupid's hitmen; I'm telling you.

Now, I know that the creators of Voltron have outright stated that the main characters are more focused on saving the universe right now than in finding Mr. or Mrs. Right (hence the lack of focus on romance; I read it in a recent interview, and I'll link it when I can find it again), but that doesn't stop the fanbase from trying to pair various characters up in various scenarios.  I . . . don't understand the logic behind a lot of the pairings I've been seeing, but it makes fans happy to see their OTPs pictured in art and fiction, and I seem to be getting sucked onto the bandwagon, so sure . . . may as well throw my piece on the pile.

Season Two rather cemented me as a Pidgance fan.  Plance fan.  Uh . . . FlirtyRobot.  Rainforest?  Lidge?  Gah, I've never seen a fandom so confused as to what to call a pairing.  WHATEVER its called (I'm partial to Pidgance and Rainforest, personally), this is what it is.  Because, correct me if I'm wrong, but the series clearly has Lance liking GIRLS.  And this would not only be super-cute, but downright hilarious when Lance finally clued in.  Who knows if it will ever happen, but that's rather the point of fanart isn't it?

This particular piece is based off a dream I had after watching VLD Season II, and then listening to some classic music from my childhood (just to date myself there).  Backstreet Boys' "Drowning" stuck in my head, and I ended up having this rather cute dream that probably wouldn't happen in a series that's so fast-paced as Voltron, but played out much like an actual scene anyways.

In the dream, the Castle has parked on a supposedly uninhabited planet.  Lance, having trouble sleeping, goes out at night and finds the ocean water floats up in various sizes of glowing waterballs at night, and has fun goofing off with them.  Pidge, up late in bed working on her laptop, notices castle scans say there's something outside and goes to check it out.  Lance throws a waterball at her, she throws one back, and they have a nice night-time waterfight, outside, in PJs.  They even end up running and playing on the ocean itself, the water having gained some high surface tension from whatever was causing the bubbles.  Then, seeing a particularly high wave come crashing at the rocks where they're currently standing (Pidge was attempting to gain some higher ground on Lance), and Lance attempts to shield Pidge from the wave, only for it to leave the both of them soaking wet and some weird alien squid-thing on his head.  Pidge, pulling tentacles from his face, can only be amused.  They end up heading back inside, still soaking and laughing about their late-night escapade, and seem a bit closer than usual.  The following morning they're sort of unsure about what the heck happened last night.  Pidge just tries to avoid it and act as usual, and Lance keeps frowning at her in confusion and introspection.  Things eventually smooth out, but its one of those "something changed" moments.

And the entire dream time, "Drowning" was playing in my head.  Go listen to the song if you want the proper setting for this scene, and it can be stuck in your head for a week too!  I nearly called the art "Drowning", but it wouldn't have made as much sense out of context.

I have not done the beauty of the moment justice.  Apparently, I don't have that level of painting skill.  As it was, I had to look up some water tutorials to get this to look as good as it does.  Also, I'm not sure my style can quite convey it anyways.  I think the series would do better.  HEY VOLTRON ANIMATORS, MAKE ME THIS PLANET!  IT DOESN'T HAVE TO HAVE THE MUSHY CONTENT, I JUST WANT TO SEE A NIGHTTIME BEACH WITH FLOATING, GLOWING WATERBALLS.

Background took waaaay longer than the actual characters, thus turning what should have been a quick art into yet another full-on effort.  But at least it looks rather good, if not quite as good as my dream.  I used a lot of weird effects to get the rock and water to look the way they do.  And the purple clouds are a bit poofier than in my dream, but oh well.  I initially had a wave crashing behind them, but this was taking ages as it was and I had no idea how to do that, so it got omitted. As far as the ocean was concerned, that was actually easy.  A few brush strokes of different colors here, some smudge tool there, and voila.

Squid/Octopus-thing is me having fun with alien marine life, although I did pull inspiration from the Blue-Ringed Octopus.  Yeah . . . someone should probably get that off Lance's head . . .

In other news, drawing/coloring wet clothes is HARD.  No one had a decent enough tutorial anywhere on the web, so I had to contact an artist friend of mine and get advice.  THANKS SHARM!  If you see anything I can fix, let me know.

So, here's some . . . uh, Pidgance fluff.  Or whatever; HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!


PS . . . Does the art seem too dark?  I can lighten it up.  What do you think?