's meme, original [here].

The Context

On deviantART, memes are these fun little Q&A strips you get to fill out. The word "meme" actually means something different everywhere else, but I might be the only one who cares about that. XD

I'll describe who everyone is, because I've seen these things filled out with not a clue as to who all the people are. Sorry if you know any of them already:

<sub>1) Pokémon: I think everyone alive knows what Pokémon are. If not, they at least know who Pikachu is. If not... um, you fail. And I know choosing 493 characters as my first obsessed character is cheating. XP (Featured are Zapdos, Aerodactyl, Mew, Lugia, Shaymin, Jumpluff, Wingull, Mewtwo, Dragonair, Drifloon, Milotic, Hitmonchan, Blissey, Houndoom, Torchic, Ditto, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Pikachu, Piplup, and Totodile.)

2) Inu-Yasha: Half dog-demon, half human from some time in ancient Japan. Character from Rumiko Takahashi's famous manga/anime of the same name. (My dad calls him "Doggie-Night-Fork" because that's what the individual kanji mean, and I think it's funny.)

3) Naruto: Preteen somewhat pathetic ninja-in-training, at least until the manga did a two-and-a-half year time skip and he become a lot more competent. Surprisingly deep plot for something out of Shonen Jump, and is worth a read -- only worth watching if you skip the filler, though, and fast forward through all the flashbacks.

4) Belldandy: College student Keiichi accidentally summoned Goddess Belldandy when dialing a fast food place, and she granted his wish that a Goddess like her would remain with him always. It's a more obscure manga, but one that Dark Horse has been releasing in English for a long time, and is very beautiful with gorgeous heads of hair and technical renderings of motorcycles and the like.

5) The Doctor: The Doctor is an alien from the BBC television show Doctor Who, a show that has aired from 1963-1989 and 2005 to the present day. The show is extremely entrenched in British culture, but Americans are much less familiar with the Time Lord and his time-and-space traveling vehicle, a blue box known as the TARDIS. The Doctor's physiology is such that, when close to death, his cells go through a regeneration process that completely recovers him, albeit giving him a new face (played by a new actor) and a different personality, although with the same memories and the same ideals. (The Tenth Doctor is the best!! <3) The thing he's holding in the pic is his sonic screwdriver, a multipurpose device that is primarily used to open locked doors.

6) L: A brilliant detective from the manga/anime/movie Death Note. A complete recluse, L solved crimes with the help of his butler Watari and a multitude of cameras and microphones (and Macs!). He has the tendancy to sit in odd positions, hold items with the tips of his fingers only, and eat sweets every waking moment.

7) Doctor Horrible: If you haven't seen this yet, watch it right now! It's free, and only 45 minutes long. During the 2008 writer's strike, Joss Whedon of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Firely/Serenity, and Dollhouse fame, decided to do something for the internet. What resulted was a multi-award winning musical about a wannabe supervillain Dr. Horrible, his nemesis Captain Hammer, and his crush, a girl he knows from his landromat. WATCH IT NOW!!</sub>

One more thing -- the "compatible" question near the bottom... the Pokémon there are Skitty and Wailord who, despite being hugely different in size, are compatible in terms of breeding in the Pokémon games. There are actually more dramatic examples, but Skitty/Wailord is the most notorious.

One more one more thing -- the last panel is a reference to Super Smash Brothers Brawl for Wii, which I play as goggled Pikachu and my sister as Toon Link.

The Behind-the-Scenes

Minimum reference was used. Basically, I looked at sprites for all the Pokes I didn't know very well, stared at dozens of images of Belldandy's/Urd's/Skuld's hair, and got photo/anime images for everyone's colors. As a result, some of the lineart isn't really accurate -- Inu Yasha looks the way I drew him ten years ago, for instance.

Lazy BG coloring, as well, but I wanted this thing done more than I wanted the backgrounds to be pretty.

If the lineart looks inconsistant, it's because I drew it out of order over several weeks. That, plus I was getting more used to drawing Belldandy every time I tried.

PhotoShop CS4, Intuos 3 tablet.
Linart 1/4 size, colors 1/2 size.

The Ranting

Why. Did. I. Decide. To. Do. It. In. FULL COLOR?!!! I mean, I like to reading filled out memes when they're done nicely, but this was too much work. NEVER AGAIN.

And, um, I can't draw Neil Patrick Harris at all.




Everyone (c) their copyright holders.