So this is defo a huge departure from my typical content, and I've been slowly slaving away at it these past few weeks. Kinda a mix of vent along with a scene I've had in my head a long while but only now just grew the pair to take it on. Ngl this image holds a number of firsts for me as well as a record 220 layers and counting--it'll likely gain a few more as I find edits I need to make, but honestly I've found these days that the best way to learn is to just tackle it head-on, take the time (even if it's a really long-ass time), and just let the process teach even if you have to redraw bits and pieces 20 times (along with a lot of sketch studies and thumbnails during classes, and refs. Use your refs kids). Despite all the challenges this image gave me, I am pretty happy with how it came out (it's nice to finally draw something I can use as my phone's lock screen), and if I ever need to make an image with similar themes, I've already hit pretty much every pitfall and know how to avoid it now lol.

It's also vaguely related to Kurt's backstory, which I've really only shared one time on tumblr so I doubt most of you are familiar with it. But in essence, Jake isn't the only one with a dark past riddled with things he'd rather keep hidden. Kurt didn't start out on the right foot with neither dragons nor humans, and both left their marks of damage on him.

He doesn't usually smoke either, but sometimes forcing yourself to look back at a dark place can bring back the hints of old vices.


//also apologies to anyone needing to seriously adjust their brightness to see it. Unfortunately part of dark scenes is that they look great on some screens and cruddy on others, and there’s no good in-between x/

EDIT: FA keeps being a butt and shrinking/partially axing the quality so have a DA link if you want to see the fullsize in detail https://www.deviantart.com/earwiggy/art/Reflections-799675183