JAN. 2023 REWARD (Lineart) (Patreon)

First Patreon reward of the new year! As per your popular vote, the character that will be featured, and whom is featured, is Shouko Komi, from Komi Can't Communicate! I actually started reading the manga proper in preparation for this and I can say that it's incredibly cute and touching, so I figured a wholesome fluffy tease would be a good route for this one. The scenario for this reward is specifically based on the Volume 3 cover, which is actually based on a scene from the summer festival arc from the latter half of that volume. Needless to say, that specific position with Komi's long arches exposed left her wide open for a teasing tickle and I couldn't not take advantage of that! In keeping with the context, I decided to have Osana Najimi, whom Komi manages to befriend in Volume 1, as the tickler given their playful, outgoing personality - my original choice was Tadano but since Najimi accompanies them in the festival, I figured the latter would make more sense as the culprit. I wasn't going to add the speech bubble with their face on it at first because that isn't in the spirit of the series' style, but then I realized that I'd probably have to sacrifice a little authenticity to make it clearer who's doing the honors. I also decided to produce two different versions of this piece, one with her regular face and the other with the famous wide-eyed look that's become a meme since the series' release; either option would've worked, so as with previous pieces with variants in expression, I put her face(s) in a separate layer from the rest of her head so I could switch between them in a heartbeat. That's my protip for you guys this month, by the way: separating the pic assets in advance may not look so pretty, but it'll save you some major headaches later, so don't feel weirded out just because the subject you're drawing looks like they got their face magically removed somehow - go on, give it a try! I promise you won't regret it!

The final version of this piece will be available on Saturday, February 4!