"Komi Can't Stand It"
I actually managed to finish this image set ahead of time despite all my schedule bloat, somehow - I'm worried now that every time I say that my IRL business has left me with too little time for art, I might as well be lying through my teeth! Still, I really do have to improve on my time management skills, huh? X'D
As previously noted, I decided to go for a more wholesome, playfully mischievous vibe for this reward, especially given that Komi and co. are supposed to be high-school age as per the norm in anime stuff like this. To this end, the scenario from this reward was directly lifted from the series itself, and specifically the summer festival goldfish collection game from Chapter 47. Think of it as an alternate scenario that would've gone down had the author decided to sneak a tickle scene into the series every once in a while! The background for this one was kinda rushed and half-assed, though, literally just a bunch of shapes kinda smooshed together to vaguely simulate the lights and booths at the festival - I tried to make up for it by giving the scene a painterly effect, but that probably isn't enough and had I had more time I guess I could've at least tried to come up with something more complex and better fitting the typical manga artist-drawn backgrounds. Still, I believe there's beauty in the simplicity of this piece, especially with regards to the way I rendered Komi herself. The fact that a high-school student in a standard uniform could end up becoming so iconic and visually distinctive is a true testament to Tomohito Oda's knack for stylistic presentation!
I also finally updated the DeviantArt URL for my Patreon signature with this one. I never realized until literally while working on this reward that I hadn't done that even though I changed my username there last year, so now was as good a time as any to rectify that. I'm not in the mood to go back and fix it for the previous rewards, though, so let's just consider this a rollover change for 2023 and leave it at that!
Source for the pattern on Komi's yukata: kerrjoe, 123RF Free Images
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The following is included in this reward:
High-resolution artwork
An additional version lacking the Patreon watermark and with a different signature
Alternate versions with two different expressions for Komi and with/without text boxes
A PSD file version with all layers
-Skaea