Lily Hoshino Mangaka Painted Ribbons Green Eyes Blonde Hair Blue Eyes Yaoi Vector Art Orchids Flowers

--With hearts and wrists intact,
is to realize, that 2 out of 3 ain't bad--

--and I'm kissing you--

--you are my vanilla--

Okay, so this is my entry for the and "Wake Up, People!" contest. The requirements were 1) a vector or wallpaper 2) based on the color scheme of a "wake up" drink 3) song tie-in. So...here we go.

The artwork is by Lily Hoshino, who does lovely, painty gayness. Thank you, Madoshi-kurefu, for uploading this entire artbook with I have henceforth downloaded.

I vectored the outline of the boys in about an hour (record time, for me, it was trying out my sister's vectoring method and it is hecka fast compared to mine) then decided to paint the skin and hair. I wanted to use the vector mask for the painting since I've never done it before and just learned how and it is AMAZING! *sings* So, hair, skin, lips, eyes, all painted with a vector mask. I thought it was very soft. Then I looked at all of the empty space and had a brain-dead moment.

Allow me to insert here that the drink I'm using is a Vanilla Rooibos Latte from Starbuck's. It's Rooibos tea (which is a red tea, and about the color of their outlines) and steeped in boiled milk with a shot of vanilla syrup. It's pretty good, sweet, and mild. It's a good drink for waking up OR going to sleep, actually. :) That's where the super pale color scheme came from.

Originally when I decided I wanted to do that drink I wanted to use either "Kimi no Vanilla" by Buck-Tick or "Vanilla" by Gackt for my song. But when I used the is pic, the boys were just too sweet and emotional for such quirky songs. Most of Lily's work is blatantly sexual, but for some reason, even though the boys involved are naked, there's a lot of emotion on their faces. Blue-eyes is afraid to open up his heart; he wants to love this guy, but is afraid that if he gives in and goes with his impulses his heart will break. Green-eyes is telling his boyfriend without words that this is about love, not just sex, and that he won't hurt him. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But anyway, unlike the last Lily wall I did, where it's clear that sex is ALL that's on the minds of the boys, this one has some emotion. So I wracked my brains trying to figure out which song I wanted to use! I narrowed it down to two (and I was up all night for two days obsessing on this):

"I'm Like a Lawyer with the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off" by Fall Out Boy
or
"Kissing You" by Des'ree from Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet

The FOB song really has nothing to do with the title. Thank Pete Wentz for that. The line that really hits me from that song is "The best way to make it through with hearts and wrists intact, is to realize two out of three ain't bad." Maybe that's a conclusion that all people have to reach when deciding who they love.

"Kissing You" is the love theme from R&J and Claire Danes is in her angel costume when she and Leonardo di Caprio kiss. The song is simple and heart-felt and Des'ree makes it ACHE with emotion. There's an innocence in the image, not physical, but emotional, as if they're touching each other's souls along with their bodies.

I couldn't decide, so I used all three songs. Kimi no Vanilla, since even though the song is funky, the idea of being someone's vanilla is kinda nice, and hearts and wrists are best left intact, and the first time souls touch when lips meet, so I have lines from each one song on the wall.

So. all of that said, I still needed to put SOMETHING in the negative space and decided that I wanted to use some orchids and ribbons. And what better orchid than the vanilla planifolia orchid? I used several photos of vanilla flowers and painted them with a vector mask. Ribbons done the same way. The flowers were way more work than the boys, and I learned a lot about vanilla while trying to find good photos.

Okay, so I think that's enough explanation for this simple-looking wall. I also did a very light paper texture in the bg so that it looks like it was water-colored.

Comments, criticisms, compliments, all welcome.

*Edit* I took Vita's advice and made them a little less invisible.