Black Butler fanart

My sister recommended a new anime for me to watch - one she'd heard of but hadn't actually watched herself called "Kuroshitsuji" ("Black Butler"). Since I enjoy watching random stuff in the evening to help me unwind, and since they had the series available on Netflix, I decided to give it a try.

After watching it, there are things I liked and things I didn't like about the show - the interesting relationship between a boy and the demon he's contracted to serve him did catch my attention and fascinate me throughout. The butler/demon character, Sebastian, may now be one of my favorite anime characters.

Since it's been a while since I created any new fanart, I let myself get inspired by the two main characters in the series - the butler (Sebastian) and the boy he serves (Ciel Phantomhive, pretty epic name right?). I had some other ideas I considered for a pose, but this one seemed to work out best so I went with it.

I decided to try an experiment and take a traditional approach with this anime fanart - create a watercolor painting. Often the manga (graphic novel) versions of these series feature artwork done in watercolors, so it seems an appropriate medium.

I took a couple of cell phone photos of the process that I thought I'd share:

 Pencil drawing before any painting. I debated inking my outlines but decided that I wanted to try for softer lines in this piece.

 After a few hours of painting. I started by painting in gum arabic to protect the areas I wanted the paper white preserved and filling in the flat coloring of the clothes and skin. Then I came back to add shading and blend it in.
I was frustrated because it turned out I am completely out of black watercolor - and painting "Black Butler," you kinda need black!! I had to mix my own black using what I had, so my blacks turned out . . .interesting. But not necessarily in a bad way.

The finished watercolor painting (with a few touches of white acrylic paint and ink)! Not the best photo of it- this photo was taken next to a dim artificial light with my cell phone camera, which doesn't do well capturing details.

After taking a better photo, I worked in Photohop on a few digital touch-ups to the painting. Then I added a background (which I created using several different elements) to create the final piece:

I actually am pretty proud of how this turned out - every time I do something with watercolor paints that doesn't look completely awful, I'm usually pretty proud :) Watercolors are hard! But this experience has encouraged me to try a few more fanart projects from this traditional approach. And I do have a few more ideas, too. . .

~md

Black Butler/Kuroshitsuj, Ciel, and Sebastian © Funimation