Language Barrier AU [3126]

Two different universes, one world.

When I wondered about discovering new worlds, countries and universes... Somehow, I forgot people could be speaking in a different language other than English. And that's when I thought about a new idea.

What if Sci speaks Japanese while Edge only understands in English?

This idea gives me so many inspirations and something I've been wanting to work on. I would like to note that it doesn't have to be Japanese for Sci, I chose that language that I'm more confident to work with Japanese out of many other Eastern languages.

I always imagine Sci with an Eastern background while Edge represents Western. Because I live in Australia, it's considered Western, despite it's a multi-culture country. I was brought up with Eastern culture due to my family traditions and adapted to both cultures.

For the story behind this illustration will be in a separate post, one-shot writing. For the summary, Edge enters Sci's world or country and doesn't understand the language. When they meet, they try communicating and teaching each other. Edge would have the hardest time but Sci picks up quicker and find English a fascinating language to learn.

They both end up falling for each other as Edge keeps teaching Sci. Edge isn't fluent in Sci's language but he can understand some phrases while Sci does become fluent in English. Sure, there's a lot of struggles but also fun times like Edge teaching Sci how to swear in English and all began with simple gestures that are understandable in universal.

You may notice that I often draw Sci in an unusual sitting position. It's called seiza, a traditional way of sitting from Japan and personally, I sit like that whenever I'm on the floor or around guests. Unlike Sci, I have the most difficulty in fixing and Edge's sitting position when I was doing the lineart.

There's a lot of struggles working on this illustration, such as the lag when working on a large size. I also have trouble with the colours and kept adjusting it until I'm satisfied with the overall look. The background is another weak point, I intend to draw a stack of books around them with an empty white background but I made it into a simple empty room, similar to my own room.

I'm disappointed there's a lot I could improve and fix, but I leave everything how it is as the final result because I spend too much time on it, average 3 hours per day (took 3 days to complete this). However, I still love this drawing with my new shading technique.

External Links: Instagram, Pixiv, Tumblr, Twitter