A festival within a festival; there will come a time where the fish would be sent out of their home, into the world of humans.

She gives her blessing to these children, and hopes for their safety while in the care of their destined owners. She prays for a kind soul to take them in and above all, prays for their happiness."

This is my take on the theme of 'Festival - Colours of Life' for this year's Graphite Competition. (A local manga contest). I felt that this would be an interesting look at the goldfish scooping booths that we so frequenty see in japanese culture. The girl is basically a guardian of the goldfish, and blesses them when the time comes for them to be 'scooped'.

I had loads of fun working on this. I've been working on it for the past 2 weeks, with the total layer count coming up to about 200 (only because I love using multiple layers for everything), done in A3, 300DPI, file size is 476MB. D:

My intent from the beginning was to create a rather surreal environment. The detailing was great fun. I especially love how the lanterns and the rock whcih she's sitting on came out. <3

I don't know about you but I honestly think its one of my best works so far, and I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I have enjoyed painting it. All your comments are very much appreciated.