(Sleeping Ocean) Bringing the world to life through the certs

[Bunraku]

This thread is basically for testing the new certs and how they look on the forum before I start re-certing and importing, I'm so close to being able to do this, I feel like the adoptable is finally coming together, and I'm beyond excited! I've finally got a chance to rest, and even though I have a lot of commission work to complete, I wanted to spend a day giving my own adoptable some much needed attention. No worries, though-everything I owe is still being worked on. I never go a day without working on something, even if its not apparent and you don't see an update, trust me, I'm always always working.

I know its taken a long time to get to the importing stage after reaching agency status, but for good reason. I wanted background certs, but I didn't want them to be merely blue gradients with a few fish stuck in like the first certs were (Though I still love them!) I wanted these to come together as something that would compliment the adoptable itself, making the whole thing a congruent work of art that allowed those receiving customs to choose the mood and setting of their Siren and other future species. This adoptable is my pride and joy, and I'm going to spoil it no matter how long it takes to complete something.

Many of you probably don't realise this, but Sleeping Ocean is far more to me than an adoptable. Its a story, its the characters I've created, its a world that I've long wanted to bring to life, yet never had the talent to do so until now. I'm still growing as an artist. Sleeping Ocean is far from perfect, and I don't think it ever will be "perfect" but perfection isn't what I'm seeking- what I want is a way to be able to express what I feel and see in my mind when I think of these strange, threatening, beautiful creatures and give them a life beyond the mythology they came from. That's why, with every aspect of this adoptable, I'm trying my best to stretch my artistic wings.

That's why I've gone beyond my cell-shading comfort zone with the certs. They aren't perfect, but they express what I wanted-a flash of tail in murky water, the shimmering surreal brilliance of a coral reef, the sense of mystery that waits in the light at the surface of the water-or for us land dwellers, perhaps, the mystery of the depths below.

I've put a lot of work into these, and I'm not even done making them. I'm creating three more options. I've gone so far as to paint individual pieces of coral and make my own brushes to make this easier on myself, but despite that, I'm proud of what I've done, and that's something that I rarely feel when I step back and look at a project. Those outside brushes I have used to help me achieve my goal, I've purchased, like my much favored bubble brush, so there's no worry.

But that novel aside! Here are three of the new certs. I may be changing the lighting on the reef cert because I learned a better method by the time I got to the other two:

Coral Reef:
Brilliantly colored fish flash between the tendrils of bright anemones in warm, tranquil waters off the coast of the Island of Two Moons. There is nothing to worry about here-except perhaps an ambush by a singing crab.


Surface Tension:
In the murky shallows of a chilly bay, not even the summer sun can fully warm the waters-but the Siren and others venture here to collect little treasures left behind by humans. Broken bottles, bits of netting, and occasionally with any luck a peice of jewelry lost by a swimmer.


Deep Water:
Wan shafts of light filter through the opening of this underwater sanctuary, dark, quiet, with only the sound of distant whalesong for company-you may decide weather you find its shadows comforting or threatening.


And there we have it! Certing and importing will not be happening immediately-I've noticed during the making of these that the siren themselves have some rather glaring errors on the highlight layers that make overspill and will have to be corrected, meaning every single file will have to be re-saved. Luckily, I have all of the PSD's of every single siren ever created (except for Sunny's) so it will go faster than manually cleaning up the edges, since I can simply clip the highlight layer to the bottom layer and be done!

There will be a thread in generals that will allow you to pick a cert. Fair warning, though, I'm not going to give much time for that because I want these imported quickly, its really been long enough, so if someone misses the time period they'll have their siren uploaded with randomly chosen certs.

But beyond all that...thank you guys for supporting me as an artist on Secundi and making this adoptable successful. Really. You have no idea how much it means to me to have a place where my art and ideas are appreciated.

[SkySong]

Bun, those are absolutely gorgeous and I am very impressed with the outstanding work you've put into this adopt. It's quite the treat to see what you've been working on!

[Rosedawn]

These are seriously beautiful hun. <3

[CrystalAngelNeko]

These are so beautiful Bun! I mean, wow... just... perfect ♥ I wish I had the time to do something so amazing with my Grove Kin (which no one knows of yet xD) I'm In just aww of your work ♥

P.S. I don't have any sirens yet ;-; but that deep sea background makes me SERIOUSLY want my Lysander converted to Sleeping Ocean >.>

[Bunraku]

Thank you guys! ^__^ I'm really happy you like them, I've found a real passion for painting underwater scenes while doing these certs, so hearing you're compliments makes me feel like it was all worth it. <3

ETA: Crystal, no Sirens? That needs to be fixed immediately! <3

[Wildfilly94]

Bun, those look absolutely spectacular!!! GREAT job!! <33

[Kadana Sorano]

Oh Bun, those are simply beautiful!  I seriously want copies to hang on my wall.  They would be great for soothing me when my anxiety or anger levels rose too high.  Just kick back and relax, and gaze at these for a while until I found my inner balance again.

You do gorgeous work, and I can;t wait to see the ones you have planned for next.  And yay for getting to pick, that's awesome!  It's been ages since I had choices in cert backgrounds, only two adopts I can remember having them before, and one was mine   It's wonderful to see this option coming.

[Winged]

Bun, don't think badly about yourself at all! I know how much work you do for this site, and you really do work incredibly hard
I love the personal aspect to how well the whole adoptable is thought through, and these new certs are simply stunning. Well done! I love being able to pick, and an idea i just had was to have as a very rare option personalised certs for special characters, ect. Would be cool.

[Nyaochan]

Oh, these are very nice looking.  I like the deep water cave one especially~

[Bunraku]

Thank you for the compliments! It means a lot to me that you like the certs so much, but beyond any compliment it means more that you guys are so understanding. I love this adoptable and want to make it the best it can be.

Winged, I was actually considering offering something like that on rare occassions when I have the time to paint like this, but I'm just not certain about the cost both SG and USD wise. They take 3-5 hours each to paint depending on how much interruption I have. I don't want to seem greedy and overcharge, but I also don't want to short myself since they are very time consuming, what do you think?