are when it falls to the ground to become dirt, whirling in the wind.
I thought a lot about this, so little talk about it under the cut!
ok I lied. I didn't 'think' a lot about this, it came to me in a vision like an angry god when I was listening to alter ego. Since this song is SUPER hkai coded. ough. ANYWAY! CLAPS
So, when I first thought about it, I knew I wanted a sort of "mirror" piece. Ai and Hikaru in similar poses next to each other with the canvas cleanly cut in half. It started the same, with the lean and elbow touch and look at the camera. then I added some things.
namely, I wanted to reflect the twins in their eyes. But I see a lot of parallels between Hikaru + Aqua and Ai + Ruby thrown around, which is true and cool and all, but... I also see a lot of Ai in Aqua. A lot of Hikaru in Ruby. So while they were originally on the other sides, I flipped them early in the sketching process to match the twins' sparkles. Aqua's is Ai's visible eye, and Ruby's is Hikaru's.
Next detail I picked for somewhat similar reason. Ai's outfit is the one she's remembered most in by Aqua, I feel—Her death. The last outfit she ever wore, and a sort of testament to the casual outfits she picked as a mother when lounging around the house. On the flip side, I picked the first outfit Hikaru physically talked to Ruby in during ch. 147, sort of bookending them. This is also how I noticed that Hikaru's eyes end up with white sparkles only once, when he almost pushes Ruby down the shrine stairs and had to pace for five minutes about that and scream a little inside at the implications.
Originally that was like. All. And then I decided to add in nods to their deaths. Ai's hand on her stomach where she was stabbed, and all. Originally I was going to put Hikaru's hand on his side where Aqua got stabbed, something something the weight of others' lives, but it looked so similar to Ai's pose that it obfuscated the purpose of hers. Instead, I played it straight by putting his hand near his neck, adjusting his collar. Ai and Hikaru also had very contrasting faces when they died, so I gave Ai a smile and Hikaru a frown.
I also want to point out, and it's kinda clearer without the text, but the hand that's on the edge of Ai's box is sort of limp, whereas Hikaru's hand is trying to grab hers, to encroach on her space. Ai does slightly enter Hikaru's box with her hair, but Hikaru is more of an active force here.
The initial art was black and white and was originally gonna stay that way, but then I added some coloring with a very cool gradient map I chose for its reds and blues, and then I added another layer of red and blue dots at 5% opacity over it, plus some chromatic aberration. Obvious symbolism is obvious.
The gradients from black to white and the text were supposed to contrast with each other—Something something dark and light, like their eyes. Ehe.
Also, I know Ai's dress has frills at the bottom, and I tried to draw them, but... I already spent so much time messing with the hands that when they didn't look great on my first pass, I just gave up on those. I have a headache ok/lh
Phew! That was a lot more than I was hoping to say, ahaha... I can be a bit of a chatterbox, I think. But I hope you like it regardless. I don't know if I'd say I ship Hikaai, but I find their dynamic tragic and compelling in a way I'm not sure how to describe, so I think about them a lot.
Inspired by the Idol MV and a random thought that popped up by seeing the bunny imagery with Ai and Ruby and the bear imagery with Aqua and now I think Hikaru as a teddybear would go hard🥺
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