A Break With Nancy

This is Nancy aka Agent Deep from the hit anime series Read or Die inviting you to have a seat with her and enjoy a moment in her presence. Any takers?

Pencil Sketch: 2 Hours (Plus 10 months of sitting in my sketch book untouched)
Digital CG Coloring: 10 Hours (6 of that non-stop)

This piece is special for me because it is the first CG I have done in over a year. I was in a bad slump, doubting my abilities to the point where I just didn't want to do anything for fear of disappointing myself with garbage work. Fortunately this year at the anime convention I had the opportunity to talk to several artists that do this for a living and their words inspired me to try again. Then I found deviantART and received a bunch of encouragement from fellow artists struggling like me to produce works they can feel proud of.

I am extremely proud of this work. It represents another first for me too; the first time I have ever painted realistic hair! What a pain in the butt, however, it looks REALLY good to me and I will be doing all my hair like this on future paintings. I hope you enjoy this piece. I had a lot of fun bringing it to life.

Critique is welcome but more than "It sucks" or "I like it" is requested if you post any comments on this piece.