The whole backstory and ramble is here XD I didn't want to clutter my deviation!

If you actually want to read it, here you go:

Yesterday I was perusing through Gaia and thinking "I should really get something to replace that little orange fish-human thing that's been on my profile since seventh grade..."

So I thought I might like to get someone to draw me a nice chibi of my avatar. But after checking out the mini shops, I found most of them out of my price range. So I thought, "Alright. I'll downgrade a little and draw myself some art".

Several scrunched-up bits of paper later, I got inspiration out of the blue to draw concept art of...well, something else that I'll get to later (it's a surprise! ).

I was going alright and thinking "hey, this is one of the very few pictures I've ever done without a reference!". I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then I decided I liked it a bit too much to keep drawing it the way I intended to - mind you, at that point I had the shape of the head, one eye, a nose and half an ear.

"Okay," said I, "I'll make her a violinist!" Coming from me, this random idea wasn't quite so random. Abandoning my pride at a reference-free piece of art, I flipped through countless images of violins and violinists. Half an hour later, I realised her head was facing the wrong way anyway.

Next instrument to come to mind: the Flute. But oh no, I'd already drawn her face! I didn't want to stick a huge metal pole across it. The easiest solution was to have her holding the flute upright, and I took it.

This has got to be the longest I've ever spent on a pencil sketch; upwards of two hours. XD There's still a ton of anatomical errors (I swear her shoulders are too broad, or her waist too thin), but I don't particularly care at the moment. I have two friends in real life who play the Flute, but neither of them have played in my presence more than once or twice, so I'm not actually that familiar with flutes....

The flute-holding hand was referenced from a photo of an aforementioned friend, taken in eighth grade. She's perfect for pose referencing, I swear she has almost anime anatomy! She's got lovely long fingers, so drawing the hand was pretty much the easiest part. >w< She won't admit her hands are pretty though, and I get in trouble when I tell her so.