Five days start to finish, done completely in Photoshop Elements, with a WACOM Graphire 3 tablet.

You can view the earlier stages of the work, in progress, here: [link]

Or download the lineart to colour yourself here: [link]


Rikuo Himura and Kazahaya Kudo are the main characters of the manga "Legal Drug" (Gouhou Drug in Japan, also known as Lawful Drug pre-US release), planned and presented by CLAMP and released in the US by TOKYOPOP. It's a story about two guys with special psychic abilities. Rikuo can blow things up, and Kazahaya can see the memories of anything he touches. They both work and live together at Green Drugstore. They hate each other, but they always end up in compromising positions, thanks to their boss, Kakei, who is always sending them on very surreal sidejobs. Still, there are moments when they show that they do care for each other -- Kazahaya's power usually makes him pass out, and Rikuo is always there to catch him and carry him (it's adorable!). And Rikuo really seems to like it when Kazahaya ends up having to dress in drag for missions You KNOW they'll get together someday, despite CLAMP's insistence that it isn't a shounen ai ("boys' love" story)

When they'd first met, Rikuo had found the homeless Kazahaya half frozen outside, at Christmastime, and brought him back to Green Drugstore. So I got this thought in my head that Kazahaya was like Rikuo's X-mas pressie and Rikuo was Kazahaya's guardian angel. And the muse just ran with it. Yes, I know it's not Yule yet, and it's not even July. My muse apprently has no calender.

FYI, the idea is it's a year or more after they've met, so they are both over the age of 18 in this.

I l*love* xmas lights -- I thought it would be cool to have them glowing in the wings, and wound around the pair. The manga has them in all these seductive poses for the chapter covers, often wound up in mummy-like wrappings -- hence the cellophane ribbon around Kazahaya. And the blue markings on the wings I gave Rikuo are based on the wing-like tattoos on his back. I was gonna put a gift tag on Kazahaya that said "To Rikuo, from Kakei and Saiga", but I when I reached the point where it could be added, it just seemed like it would detract from the image. (Saiga is Kakei's partner/boyfriend, and it seems that, if they didn't ouright cause Kazahaya and Rikuo to meet, they at least knew it would happen and planned around it) ...


I'm pleased with it, I really am No, it's not perfect, but I do think this may be my finest work yet! Too bad it's not my own characters, so I can't sell prints of it ! Ah well, when the muse talks, I obey ...