"Isabella and Kari" by Briana 152
Valentine's Day 2011
Isabella (c) Briana 152
I'm still not entirely sure how this all came about but around the beginning of January 2011, I was posting some of my artwork up on DeviantArt. One of the pieces I decided to share was the Halloween 2010 picture where Erik was dressed as Malcolm Reynolds from "Firefly" and Kari was going as April O'Neil from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Now it seemed nobody cared much about my depictions of space cowboys, but Kari in a yellow jumpsuit got a huge response. The invitations I received to join various Ninja Turtles groups in DeviantArt all of a sudden was only slightly insane to the messages I got about Kari herself.
Now I'm no stranger to the types of responses I get: some people send very nice compliments, some offer fair critiques, and others like to share how it makes them feel and what they'd like to do about it (both in a good and bad way). However a young woman named Briana's response was different. She wanted to know if I could partner up with her to do a Valentine's Day art exchange involving our own original characters.
The deal was this: some folks in DeviantArt were hosting a group called "TMNT Valentines" in which artists and writers were matched up in various categories and had before February 14th to do something for a person they were assigned to. After the deadline all the artwork and pieces of fiction got posted in the group. Like I said, most people were assigned their own partners but Briana liked Kari so much that as long as we both agreed to one condition (that being if another participant in the group failed to submit something for their partner, either Briana or I would take the abentees' place), we could swap drawings. The whole deal sounded strange, but it also looked like a lot of fun and too good to pass up. So I wholeheartedly agreed.
Five weeks later we swapped art and this was Briana's entry; a polaroid of our resident brunette with her new friend, Isabella. As it turns out this was Briana's first 'successful attempt' at drawing a human being, but you'd never be able to tell. It's colorful, it's fun, and Kari has never looked more cheerful.
In the end I did wind up drawing an additional picture for someone, but it was worth it. I was glad Briana invited me to participate and I think she did a fantastic job! - Jake