NOTE: If anyone is interested, prints can be made available for this pic. I will not be using the dA print service though; I will post from my own home:

LARGE (a little smaller than an A4 page) = $10 AU
MEDIUM (half an A4 page) = $6 AU
SMALL (approx. 4 x 5) = $4 AU

See my journal for more details: [link]

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FEATURED CHARACTERS: Cal (left) and Taliana (right)

CREATOR: Me!

MEDIUMS: Prismacolour pencils (main subject matter in foreground), ink (black shadows, line art) and Paintshop Pro 5 (background and light effects)

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Inked version, for those who are curious: [link]

Here it is at last, 10 months after I first drew it. Yep, I only found motivation to finally finish this beast when I caught a cold – go figure eh? Anyway, where to start, where to start… well, as mentioned above, this is Cal and Taliana, two of my main characters in the second story line sitting in my head. I’ll explain the storyline, but the problem is that it’s connected to my first storyline which is about my furry Keepyrs, so I have to leave some things things out. I can still tell you who these characters are though, in case you’re wondering why they’re giving each other death glares. (“Your hair is shinier than mine! I KEEL YOU!!!” XD XD) The following info is for the curious or for anyone wanting to draw these two in the future; the rest of you can just ignore it if you want…

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CAL: 21 yrs old

Season: Autumn (this denotes when a member of The Balance is at full strength, and thus responsible for upholding most of The Balance until the next season arrives. This is because The Balance is very closely tied to the cycles of the earth. A member’s season is determined by the time of the year that they are born in.)

Blind and grey-haired, Cal is a silent and morose individual… his background is shrouded with gaps and questions which only his sister, Julie Anne-Maria, would be capable of providing the answers to. Fourteen years ago, the two of them disappeared from the local area under abrupt and suspicious circumstances along with their father Keller, shortly after the murder of a young boy was witnessed in Falwyn Park, a large reserve which they had frequently visited. The departure of this family was extremely inconvenient because they were the next line of Prime Neutrals – individuals whose task it is through the ages to maintain The Balance, an equilibrium consisting of The Mind Mesh (an extremely vital system of subconscious linkage, linking the lives of every human on earth) and the stability provided by 9 unique Wards (or souls) embodying Yin and Yang. Why must they do this? In order to prevent ‘Ultimata’ occurring, or ‘divine death.’ Ultimata basically refers to the death of existence, and it’s a force/entity/other whose fore coming has been constantly predicted, but is yet to arrive. Only a matter of time though… I won’t say much more on this, ‘tis too complicated.

Anyway, Cal, Julie Anne-Maria and Keller left the local area while most of the next generation of Yin and Yang were just being born, leaving behind little guidance… this is where Taliana entered the picture. She and Julie Anne-Maria had been childhood friends up until Julie Anne-Maria suddenly left, and Taliana had been gifted by her with Second Sight, namely the ability to ‘see’ beyond the physical realm to the Astral plane where an individual’s Ward resides. All humans have Wards, but for the most part are not aware of them until a Prime Neutral gifts them with the ability to connect with them. (Taliana’s Ward is Snow Tiger, and I’ve draw them together a couple of times in my gallery.) Well, since the Prime Neutrals were gone, Taliana decided to pick up where they had left and organised the new Yin and Yang balance herself, keeping charge for fourteen years until Julie Anne-Maria and Cal very suddenly returned, which is where the story begins and where the whole mess starts. Why? Because Cal is technically the new Prime Neutral, thus threatening Taliana’s unofficial leadership. (More on this later under Taliana’s profile.)

Well, what of Cal’s personality? At first glance, he would appear to be heavily burdened by his blindness, rarely seen wandering anywhere from the familiar territory of Falwyn Park where he wiles away the days lounging on benches and the lawns, or sitting for hours on end at the Pagoda in the Park café. Cal could also easily be mistaken to be mentally slow due to his inclination to ignore people and activity in his immediate environment, so withdrawn is his manner. However, such assumptions would be drastically proven wrong with a bit of patience! When Cal does choose to speak, his unusual philosophies and musings are thought-provoking and insightful – there is obviously an enormous amount of knowledge structuring his mental make up, on both the physical world and The Balance, the latter which makes him a dangerous person indeed. Cal also evidently has great potential for dispensing advice and solving problems, but whether Cal bothers to waste his energy on the above depends on many factors and 99% of the time he chooses not to, due to his tendency… well, to just not care. Cal’s biggest flaw is his selfishness, and the impact of this trait of his has big consequences later down the track.
Cal is also a frustrating person in many ways because of his self-induced isolation (both physical and emotional), but he can also be completely unpredictable when you least expect it. It’s safe to say that dealing with Cal is like trying to juggle eggs and then hatching them – only by navigating through his barriers and waiting for what lies beyond to respond can anyone stand a chance at scraping the surface of who, or what, Cal really is… and believe me, there’s a lot! The only people who Cal sort of opens up to are the twins Analise and Bane, whose parents run the Pagoda in the Park café. (These twins are also members of the Yin and Yang balance.) Why Cal would choose to talk to them is a mystery to the other members of the balance, considering he communicates with them more than even Julie Anne-Maria, his own sister. There’s a good reason, but I ain’t telling you yet. Onto Taliana then!

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TALIANA: 28 yrs old.

Season: Winter

An extremely dominating, competitive and at times, spiteful individual – she has a tremendous drive to succeed which is reflected in her work and everyday life, but especially in regard to The Balance. Taliana has no qualms about lying, backstabbing or doing other undesirable things in order to get to where she wants to go. It sorta helps (or makes things worse!) that Taliana is a natural leader, which accounts for her successful supervising of The Balance for fourteen years even though she is not a Prime Neutral. Non-surprisingly, the return of Julie Anne-Maria and Cal is a huge upset, in particular Cal’s appearance since he is a direct threat to Taliana’s previously unchallenged position of power.
It is not just the fact that Cal is posed to take over leadership which makes things turn ugly – there are two other important factors. Firstly, a person can only become a Prime Neutral if they are the first born of another Prime Neutral. Julie Anne-Maria, as the first born of Keller, was an undisputed candidate. Cal is second born in the family though, so how on earth did he receive the mantle from Julie Anne-Maria? Secondly, The Balance tips for the first time in fourteen years as soon as Cal arrives and assumes leadership, which sees the Yin and Yang Wards turn against each other in violent confrontations, upsetting the natural balance between them. Coincidental? Perhaps not.
As a result, Taliana is convinced that Cal is a fraud and has her mind set on exposing him. It doesn’t take long for her to entertain the thought of killing him either! O.O;;; Don’t blame her though – something obviously doesn’t add up, and Cal is definitely not what he seems. However, his immense power is enough to keep Taliana at bay for the time being, although it’s of course only a matter of time before Taliana finds a way to be rid of him… namely by manipulating The Balance in her favour. But that’s another story for another time!

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‘You all still with me? *Blows a whistle to wake you all up* Alright, the introductions are out of the way, so onto the technical stuff. This is obviously the most complicated pic I’ve done in a LONG time – at least 95% of what you see here is hand drawn/coloured. My poor felt tip pens had virtually all the life sucked out of them… I literally had to keeping scratching at the paper with the tip in order to get any ink out. X___X Repeat ad infinitum. It took 12 ½ hours just to shade the pic with ink, and I don’t recommend doing that if you want to keep a sane mind! As a result, I’m going to lay down some new ground rules in the future when it comes to art trades and this ink-shading art style – I’ll update my journal later with these new changes, so stay tuned.

Arr, and you’ll note that in my description for the inked version of this pic, I was well aware that the image has an uneven tilt to it which favours Cal more than Taliana. I was hoping that after colouring it the tilt wouldn’t be as noticeable but it’s still there, as annoying as ever! I look at it now, and I realise how I should have positioned Taliana – she should’ve been drawn *upside down*!!!!! Um, well, just try to ignore it. (I know I am. )

Lastly, in the hopefully near future, I’m hoping to make this pic into a print. It’s the first pic I’ve scanned in at 300 DPI resolution, making it a candidate for turning into a print… I’ve still got a lot of house keeping matters to take care of before dealing with prints though, but I’ll let you all know when things are on the move. ^^
So, that ends my rambling for tonight! Wanna know how long it takes for me to type these descriptions up? Considering I have to type it up in advance in Microsoft Word, I’d say it takes awhile. See you all on the flip side!