hold your head high, stand proud / keep your head down, power through
EDIT: this is now available as a print on my inprnt shop!! iām still working on uploading my other works, but if youāre interested in this one you can go buy it now!!
hiii i finally had the motivation to draw something non-project related and i got into date everything :3C i love these boys so much their story really gets to me. i wanted to do a cool poster for them that i can hopefully put onto my wall
alternate versions + individual parts down below as well as the process discussion as always!
volt
eddie
figuring out how i was gonna execute this idea was interesting. iām also a photographer, so i knew how to execute this with pictures but not with an illustration. what i ended up doing was just doing the base layers in black and white values and adding colour on top, then bringing the file into photopea (an online free version of photoshop!!!) so i could separate the RBG values. it took a lot of messing around to get the look that i wanted ā you can see in eddieās separate layers that thereās a section of voltās drawing within it. thatās how i made sure the red part would stay where i wanted while the rest of voltās silhouette would be blue (the select pixels tool is a huge favourite of mine āļø)
the textures are from studio AAA! the ones i used are all free, but i downloaded them a bit ago before they did some store cleanup or whatever so idk if theyāre still up. the ones i used are the VHS and printer trash textures but if anyone wants i can just dm them the jpgs!
more into the story of this piece - i thought a duo tone overlay portrait artwork would connect to this idea iāve been seeing that āvolt can live without eddie, but eddie canāt live without volt.ā i wanted to show that through the way their layers are overlayed on each other. eddie is nearly entirely encapsulated by volts silhouette, but volt extends beyond eddieās silhouette. heās the face of the breaker box while eddie works away, at the back. theyāre inseparable and complete each other. i always thought that part of their story was so beautiful and i really love how itās portrayed. eddie does need volt but itās not shown in a way that makes eddie seem weak or entirely dependant on voltā¦. iād write more about them but itās late and i have plans tomorrow whoopsiesss
all in all making this was pretty fun. i knew i just wanted to do portraits of them as my first actual illustration after so many projects so i did just that!! the first few times ive drawn them as warmup ive always had the hardest time with volt and not eddie, but this time that changed and drawing volt was so easy and i couldnāt draw eddie for the life of me š idk if any other artists have this problem with them where one is hard to draw and the other is easyā¦. i just canāt figure out eddieās hair for the life of me </3 but oh well!!! if you made it this far, thank you so much!! i hope you like my work!!
a yuu who never became a true student, whose job never changed. a magicless janitor with their annoying little sidekick.
its crazy to think about how the trajectory of your life could completely change just because someone chose not to take the time to bully you for being uneducated. no charred statute or shattered chandeliers, all one hundred windows squeaky clean and streakless. no monsters, no bonding, no cauldron, no nothing.
but you had no knowledge of this possible outcome, especially when it was something directly out of your control.
you would have quickly befriended the ghosts however. that wouldn't have changed. they were your roommates and one of the few people willing to give you the time of day. you spent your days cleaning after hundreds of students and faculty, ignoring the stares and whispers as you picked up every single piece of discarded trash they left for you. you kept your head down. were you lonely? no, because you had no idea how alone you actually could be.
there was no duo yelling in your ear. hell, if you were even aware, you'd see that they didn't even sit at the same lunch table.
at night, you would study. a few of the teachers, trein in particular, took something akin to pity on you and offered you left over work packets to help with what you were reading. a glossary of information that he claimed were entry level but you both knew he had made it for you. what student would need entry level information in a prestigious magic academy?
another teacher offered you a place in their classroom to put what you learned to practical use while they graded papers. despite how he waved off your thanks, you could tell that he felt bad for you at least a little.
the only thing that remained a constant in your life, regardless of how the story played out, was the familiar visitor that would grace your rundown ramshackle home a few times a month. he appeared skittish at first, almost embarrassed that he had been caught by a stranger skulking around at night but you were quick to stop him from disappearing the first night. you were desperate for any sort of contact with the outside world that you had grasped the back of his sleeve before he could turn away unaware of faux pas.
"please don't go!" your voice was hoarse from lack of use, the words scratchy against the back of your throat but malleus could see the desperation in your eyes, pupils blown wide, "would you... um, maybe like a cup of tea?"
there are a few constants regardless of what fate the universes could give.
I could twist the knife even further because let's think about it.
ace, without you and ramshackle to bunk with, would be collared with nowhere else to go. he'd be stuck in his room, no longer a room but a prison, with other inmates stuck on their poor luck of being put in the same house as the tyrannical queen of hearts. I wouldn't be surprised if he did end up switching dorms or even suspended. riddle would still overblot, regardless if you were there or not for him to ridicule. the dorm would still eventually rise up against their leader, chucking eggs and words at their queen without you. who knows if the uprising would even be successful... would it matter?
deuce would still be a straight laced kid even without you. he had made an effort to change his ways before meeting you and he would stick to his word. however, being a studious and hard working student would for sure not do too well in a school full of cut throat teenagers. he wouldn't have many friends other then the track team and even them, who knows how close they would be? he would most likely sit alone, focused on his studies until he eventually burns himself out. he would never willingly go back on his promise to himself but it's so, so hard to honor your word when the world seems to punish you for it.
and when half the student body gets anemone'd by azul and his contracts, why should you care enough to put your dorm on the line? these were students who would purposefully miss the trash cans when they dunked their half full sodas after lunch. these were the students whose toilets you had to clean up. why should you care if they were suffering for their short sightedness. you and grim weren't students, you had no tests to take. you wouldn't have even thought about putting your home on the line for a bunch of ungrateful boys. it was none of your business and no matter what azul promised he could do for you, you knew he could never offer what you truly wanted.
"a way to go back to where you came from?" his voice was light and airy, but you could tell your part of the deal irked him.
"yes, that's all I want." your voice was flat as a anemone'd student brought you a glass of water, one of the few things you could afford in the monstro lounge. because it was free.
you could tell your words irked him by the subtle twitch of his smile. his lips were drawn to wide, his pearly white teeth even further on display. the subtle threat wasn't enough for you to flinch however and you only met his gaze with a dead stare. if he couldn't offer you what you desired, what good was he to you? you should escort yourself out before he could sic Floyd or Jade on you.
"as much as I pride myself in fulfilling every little whim of a poor, unfortunate soul, I don't make deals when the possibilities are so low. there must be something else you'd desire, janitor?"
"no," you shook your head, giving your cold glass of water one final sip before pulling yourself up and out of your chair, "if you also don't have any answers for me, I'd rather not waste my time."
with one option gone, you were starting to worry that getting home would be even more of an impossibility then you hoped.
Who would have thought that the gods of Mt. Olympus looked different before? You see, back when the world was new, the first olympians were deities of unknown potential. Before the fall of the Titans, they were immortal beings of undiscovered power. A youthful sorts that still needed to find and dedicate themselves in roles of devine status.
- Olympian Hades
One of those olympians was Hades, the eldest of the brothers' Zeus and Poseidon. Hades was a curious yet composed god. He has always been fascinated of the world around him, finding himself in situations some unfortunate, but his intellect has always been his strong suit. With not yet a purpose, he mingles with other gods, yet is intruiged down on the empty lands of the mortal world.
- Enthroned Hades
His residence on Mt. Olympus was short-lived however. When the mortals came and the roles of the gods progressed. Zeus, the ruler of the gods, assigned his brother to the underworld, where he will take over the souls of the departed. Hades accepted his position with no objection, took his part as the ruler of the kingdom of the dead and carried on his duties. Nevertheless, he became cold and stern, and held all of his subjects equally accountable to his laws. With the amount of responsibilities he had, his patience became thin and hot-tempered, and has caused his inscrutable nature.
- Impartial Hades
There's this period of time where his reputation as the god of the underworld was still. He continued his role and nothing was heard from him. Until the day he came back and revealed himself. His appearance has changed, replacing his locks were blues of fire so hot it affected his body. Eyes sunken from exhaustion, and sharp features replaced his once smooth image. Confused and tensed, he seeked for his brother Zeus on Mt. Olympus. There, they were aided by Hephaestus, the god of fire. They found that in some certainty, Hades' body adjusted to the extremities of the underworld. And so with nothing else to do, He returned to his domain.
Here Hades felt no resentment from the other gods, Simply accepting that this is what it meant when ruling a realm so different from others.
- Current Hades
As time went on, Hades became discontent with his role. He slowly noticed that the people above never acknowledges him. He was never admired nor praised for his work, he was treated unlike any other gods on Mt. Olympus. For what reasons? Perhaps it was his association with the underworld that made him seem as an unpleasant god. Maybe the name "Hades" itself was so frightening to the mortals that they refused to call out for him, to make temples and sacrifices on his behalf. After all, what could you pray for from the god of the dead? This affected Hades and left a sour taste, so much so that his very nature evolved into what lies in his world, cruel, dark, and dull. He became as uncouth as his subjects and as ruthless as tartarus itself. With this reputation he became a fearsome figure and was feared and loathed, not just by the humans, but by his fellow gods and goddesses.
But by his reasons, there was something else that caused this change of behavior that others didn't knew. Something that was important to him, or someone.
.
Sooo... The idea I had was that some of the olympian gods weren't the same from when they were younger. Especially Hades. So I ended up making up this origin of him, how he was and looked before. I wanted to integrate the true Greek mythology but still basing this off of Disney's version, but with inspirations from the real mythology.
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