Never Your Hero Cover Art

For 's awesome story Never Your Hero!! [link] <--check it out here!!

This took me a lot longer than it should have I'm seriously out of practice when it comes to coloring in Photoshop (and with the high standards I set for myself i'm surprised I get anything done, lol).

I took some liberties with their uniforms because from my initial research WW 1 uniforms are very bulky and had a lot of stuff attached so I kinda left them a bit bare-boned here (and pure laziness on my part , I'm not afraid to admit this...).

If Alfred's hair color seems darker, that's because I actually prefer the hair color he has in the anime... -_- I don't know I just can't see him as a "golden" blond. He always seemed more of a dark blond to me with some gold highlights or something...you wouldn't believe how much I thought about this, lol.

As for the overall content, I tried convey the characters emotion with poses and demeanor through a kind of generic poster-like composition rather than stick with a certain scene. The bottom is some distant memory that Arthur is recalling which is the reason for his looking back towards Alfred, like he doesn't know how to act around him now that he's grown and more of a stranger. Alfred looks up at a star-filled sky (which is directly taken from a scene in the story and the only element of this piece to do so) looking very melancholy and unlike himself. This pose is to convey his longing for home and how much he desperately dosen't want to be there, as well as not paying much attention to Arthur at all (why they face back to back). I was also trying to show his naiveté and inexperience a little.

I'm glad to be getting back into the practice of doing this as I have the most fun playing with layers and textures and such. I feel I still have a long way to go but it wouldn't be right to keep this pic to myself for much longer, so to all, enjoy!

APH (c) Hidekaz Himeruya
"Never Your Hero" (c) kelbora