Happy second anniversary of being here on DeviantArt to me, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Antoni here and I am very ecstatic to have made DeviantArt one of the creative hubs I can call one of my many homes.
I know that I came on here rather late in my life, as I was approaching twenty-six years old at the time, even though I have been mostly on here as a visitor in my mid-teens before creating fan art on here. It may have taken time, a lot of patience, confidence-building, self-esteem-strengthening, and learning to accept criticism, but I feel like I have cracked it in finding my own individual voice on here, experimenting what has worked and what has not, and, most of all, meeting a lot of inspirational people whose works speak volumes to me. I even continue to have a very therapeutic experience on DeviantArt, despite all of the rubbish going on and all of the ups and downs I have been experiencing here and outside of this hub.
I have found myself partaking in art trades, shipping month entries, contest entries, and some requests, which I can describe all of my experiences on them to be a huge gamut of interest, fun, a vicarious pleasure in creating fan art from the fandoms I am most passionate about, and dedicating time and effort to make good things happen. Sometimes, I did find myself feeling knackered after doing those art trades and requests because of how time-consuming they tended to be, which was why I have come to the decision of not doing them anymore, as they may have been a great way of making friends here but it can be kind of draining after a while.
Nevertheless, I still ended up keeping the desire, willpower, and passion up because I know that as an artist one needs to express one's self in a healthy way. I would like to think that I have done just that regardless of what anyone thinks. Ergo, everything I have done so far here on DeviantArt, I have done with such vicarious pleasure, ecstasy, and liveliness when it comes to drawing the couples I love and the couples my friends and I have in common and love to varying or similar degrees.
Let us take a trip down memory lane and check out which twelve pieces of fan art I loved from each year. Why twelve? Because it is a number divisible by two, three, four, and six and I am a huge fan of even numbers divided by three.
2018: The Year of My Establishment
2018 was the year I decided to give myself a go on being on DeviantArt after much skepticism. This was also where I established myself as an artist mostly specializing in fan art revolving around Inuyasha, The Rowdyruff Boys and The Powerpuff Girls, and Disney's Tarzan with the catch that I found a lot of pleasure in drawing a lot of muscular men.
Looking back at the first piece of fan art I have done revolving around Inuyasha x Ayame, Ginta x Shunran, and Kohaku x Rin, I realized just how shoddy it looked like because I was using black colored pencil to outline and it just came out looking unappealing to my standards these days. Regardless, this made me all set for becoming the full-fledge InuAya, GinShun, and KohaRin shipper I have been for many years expressed in one of my first pictures.
I was always fascinated with the idea of The Rowdyruff Boys and The Powerpuff Girls banding together as one six-person superhero team, as I mainly attribute this to being a fan of Justice League, X-Men, and Teen Titans. I have even read a lot of fanfics regarding the boys and the girls becoming one superhero team and found a lot of inspiration from them. In order to make this work in my headcanon, I did the most unthinkable. I gave all of them an AU retelling of Brick, Butch, and Boomer having Mr. Green and Mrs. Bellum-Green as their biological parents and Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles having Professor Utonium and Mrs. Keane-Utonium as their biological parents. This was definitely a recipe for christening these six superhumans as Team Xtreme because it had a nice, poetic, rhyming ring to it.
Hercules, Basuli, and Tarzan have been my biggest animated male crushes ever since I was a child, and I was enamored of their rippling muscles and their overall masculine appeal. I saw it fit to make them a firm BroTP with Basuli and Tarzan being brothers for life and Hercules being their best friend. Therefore, I made them end up in Pankration attire after doing some research on that a few days after my 26th birthday.
Considering that the final scene of "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride" was one of my most favorite moments from this Disney sequel and that I am a hardcore Inuyasha x Ayame and Ginta x Shunran shipper, I came up with the idea of having Inuyasha, Ginta, Ayame, and Shunran in African tribal clothing and standing perched atop Pride Rock like the powerful yet appreciative couples that they are. I was able to find some firm footing with myself as an artist specializing in fan art involving my most beloved OTPs of all time.
The fifth pice of work I have featured on here was my first art trade that I have done with one of my greatest friends of all time BrickercupMasterX3. I asked for Green Lantern x Hawkgirl and she asked for Poison Ivy x Harley Quinn. When I was drawing this piece of Poison Ivy x Harley Quinn fan art, Nina Simone's version of "I Put a Spell on You" was my main song of inspiration for this piece because of the allure these two DC villainesses emitted from each other. On top of that, I played this song on repeat as I was accomplishing this drawing. It also helped that the giant brambles and the giant Venus Fly Traps added a nice yet twisted appeal to this romantic piece of fan art involving one of my most favorite lesbian couples in the DC universe.
Speaking of BrickercupMasterX3, she was also the one person who opened my eyes to the absolutely charming flexibility of Mitch x Bunny aka Bunnitch. I never really thought about them as a couple in the beginning, but after participating in my first Bunnitch month, I was completely entrenched in giving this couple far more love than it already has. Out of all of the Bunnitch month submissions from 2018, I really loved the one where Mitch and Bunny were wearing his style of shirt, and the song I had in mind for this was "My Baby Just Cares for Me" sung by Nina Simone. This was mainly because this song emitted the cuddly, lovable vibe that Bunnitch emitted. It was at this fateful month of June 2018 that I have found myself to be a truly certified, full-fledge Bunnitch shipper for life.
Summer break 2018 gave me an opportunity to make Rowdyruff x Powerpuff or Team Xtreme next generation characters. The one that really held up in my heart and soul was the one involving Brick x Buttercup aka Brickercup. As a proud Brickercup shipper, I had vicarious pleasure, joy, and euphoria making their rambunctious, feisty, large-and-in-charge children in the forms of Blaze, Brent, and Brooke. This marked the beginning of how Brick's and Buttercup's family was going to flourish.
What happens when you combine Brick and Buttercup and Samson and Delilah in one picture? You would get this piece of Brickercup fan art, which was inspired by a promotional photo of Roberto Alagna as Samson and Elina Garanca as Delilah for the Metropolitan Opera House's new production of Camille Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila". One of the most famous arias of this monumental French opera is "Mon coeur s'ouvre á ta voix" sung by Dalila who is a dramatic mezzo-soprano and Samson who is a Heldentenor. Every time I listened to this aria especially with either Christa Ludwig and Shirley Verrett as Dalila and James King and Jon Vickers as Samson in mind, I would think of Buttercup as Dalila and Brick as Samson. Overall, they fit their roles exceptionally well with Buttercup being this femme fatale as Dalila and Brick being the long-haired, large-and-in-charge strongman as Samson.
When I got myself involved in Powerpuff-Nation's Halloween contest, I thought it would be an amazing idea to combine Butch x Blossom, Boomer x Blossom, and Aku x Blossom into one infernally glorious picture. Coming from someone who has been reveling Slade's brand of manipulation on Robin, Raven, and Terra from Teen Titans, I used that similar treatment on Aku, Butch, Boomer, and Blossom. Come to think of it, I seriously have to thank teacupballerina for making me fully invested in Aku x Blossom, even though I mainly platonically ship both of them as a dark guardian corrupting his upright, intelligent ward. This may not have won the contest, but it ended up getting the most number of faves which is twenty-seven. I definitely considered this to be one of my greatest accomplishments of that year.
I managed to get myself into a lot of art trades with KatyGorl, as she was one of those fine artists who gave me that firmly established direction of being a full-fledge color-clash RuffPuff shipper, and it was really fun doing those. This one involving Mike Believe and his beloved wife Robyn Snyder-Believe is one I enjoyed doing the most in the year of 2018. The seminal spaghetti scene from Disney's Lady and The Tramp was what will forever stick in my mind, as well as the classic song "Bella Notte", and I implemented that very scene to give Mike's and Robin's date night that adorkable, sweet, cute vibe I absolutely adore in this pairing. The result was that my heart melted like butter on top of an English muffin in a toaster oven.
December 2018 was full of turbulence for personal reasons. In spite of that, I managed to accomplish one art trade I did with PowerpuffObsessed when I asked her to do Boomer x Blossom x Butch and I had to do Zane, who was ZaneRowdyruff's OC. He was definitely so much fun to draw and I was quite confident in having him emit that charisma and brightness in his personality.
2019: Let's Heat Things Up a lot More
2019 was the year I decided to put on a brave face and work a whole lot harder than before. Therefore, I considered that year where I went forward in my life as an artist with far more opportunities to conquer with guts, stamina, and heaps of determination.
Thanks to the amazing PrincessCallyie, I have become the proud Prinack shipper I am today. Granted, I did my first few Prinack submissions back in August 2018, but this one from February 2019 was one of my personal favorites of all time. Being the opera fan that I am, Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor has been one of my most favorite operas ever since I was nine years old. Combining one of my favorite Bel Canto operas with one of my most favorite crossover couples in Western animation was definitely the greatest treat I could ever give to all of my fellow Prinack shippers with Jack Spicer as Edgardo Ravenswood and Princess Morbucks as Lucia Ashton aka the tragic lovers of this particular opera. Edgardo's and Lucia's famous duet "Verranno a te sull'aure" was the one piece of operatic music which went hand-in-hand with Jack's and Princess's brand of swanky loving given that the Ravenswoods and the Ashtons are a two feuding aristocratic families from Scotland and Edgardo and Lucia are akin to Romeo and Juliet.
Going hand-in-hand with my Team Xtreme headcanon was what Mr. Green, Mrs. Bellum-Green, Professor Utonium, and Mrs. Keane-Utonium used to be as superheroes before their children were born, as they were known as The Quantum Quartet, which was an amalgamation of The Fantastic Four and many other Marvel and DC superheroes such as Iron Man and Wonder Woman. Considering that I grew up with the episode "Power Prof", I saw it fit to give an Incredibles-style passing down the torch of heroism originated by these four. Therefore, the family tree of superheroes is going to keep on flourishing.
Namontack x Basuli and Kocoum x Tarzan were the phenomenal results of what would happen if I were to pair up two dashing, imposing Powhatan brothers with two handsome, powerful Waziri brothers. I always had a fascination with Disney Male Slash pairings and these two wild, sexy, muscular couples were the ones that made the cut for me. Ergo, I am never going to let these two out of my sight.
Celebrating Pride Month was a huge deal for me. Even though this piece of Uti x Muviro, Namontack x Basuli, and Kocoum x Tarzan fan art was released one month after Pride Month because I had other matters to deal with, I was so pleased and delighted to give more love to my jungle muscle couples.
This art trade I accomplished with PinkPlasticPrincess was one which made me feel a sense of bliss, as I have always been a Kohaku x Rin shipper ever since I was between thirteen to fourteen years old. The backstory I had for this couple and their role models made me absolutely convinced to have Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha be Kohaku's greatest mentors and awesome in-laws and Kagura and Ayame be very motherly towards Rin. Therefore, this couple would end up growing to be a fine combination of formidable and lovable.
My passion for Inuyasha x Ayame knew no bounds, as I made their courageous, strong, wild, tough family complete. From them having their eldest adopted twin sons Dai and Roku to their eldest biological sons Masataka, Masaya, and Motomu to their second-born biological twin sons Kenta and Keita to their third-born biological twin son Kazuhiko and Kaito to their eldest daughters Momoko, Makoto, and Mikoto to their youngest daughters Maya and Minako, they have proven themselves to be one big formidable family who will use their strength, muscles, fists, feet, claws, and fangs to get the job done. Ergo, they are the Northern Yoro Tribe's strongest family ever and no one should ever mess with them. Drawing Inuyaha's and Ayame's family made me go through a major high I was never going to come down from, and I will always treasure this pairing, the fact that I made Dai and Roku from the fourth Inuyasha movie their adopted sons, and, of course, my most beloved InuAya grown-up children.
The art trades kept on coming, as I did this long overdue one with KatyGorl, as she wanted me to draw her Bunnitch sons Mason, Jax, and Benji along with their parents and the siblings I had for them. For what it was worth, it was not only quite the amazing trip I had accomplishing this, but it was also a huge pleasure to have had them in my Team Xtreme universe for the time being. This was an odyssey worth taking and I will never ever forget this epic journey I had of giving Bunnitch far more love than it already has.
Last year's Claim a PPG Pairing Month spearheaded by, you guessed it, KatyGorl was my personal favorite, as my theme for that particular month revolved around fitness models flaunting their well-toned bodies for the audience to see. Out of all my ten submissions, the one I enjoyed doing the most was Boomer x Blossom aka Blossoomer, as it is not only my most favorite RuffPuff couple in the whole world but also my most favorite couple based in The City of Townsville. Ergo, the Cotton Candy Couple have always been top of mind when it came to displaying how wonderfully athletic brawn can mesh with eloquent beauty.
Coming back to Brickercup for AmusedDoodler's Brickercup contest that September of 2019 was a huge treat for me, considering that I wanted to make them pose in a photo booth, which went rather well. In fact, I ended up winning one of the prizes on this contest which was a moment of pure euphoria and elation.
The Brickercup bug struck again when I made a photo album throughout the years in observation of BrickercupMasterX3's Brickercup contest. Seeing them grow from being rambunctious children to tough, rough-and-tumble adults with Brick starting off at 7 or 8 years old and Buttercup starting off at 5 or 6 years old to how old they were back in 2019 which was Brick at 29 years old and Buttercup at 27 years old proved to me how resilience, determination, and steadfastness have been the bedrock traits that have defined Brickercup for twenty-one years. On top of that, I was even one of the prize givers of this contest.
As a prize giver and someone who has been following KatyGorl's Spooksverse universe and who has an OTP on there, I saw it fit to draw Shadow x Suzie as Prince Philip and Princess Aurora from Disney's Sleeping Beauty complete with a floral background. Sleeping Beauty has always been one of my most favorite fairy tales of all time and the Disney version of this said fairy tale was one of my favorite animated films I have watched as a child. Therefore, combining the passion I had for these two in one piece of fan art brought me joy and I passed that joy to KatyGorl who was just as pleased with how this came out.
Per tradition, December would always be the busiest month of the year, considering the content I would pump out for Red Ribbon Reviewers and the Christmas contests that would come along the way. Betty-M's Christmas and New Year's contest was certainly no exception, as I turned in a whopping nine entries with eighteen of my Blossoomer children interacting with nine of Betty-M's OCs. It was indubitably difficult picking which one of these submissions I liked the most. However, I ended up going with Bessy being the nanny to my Blossoomer children Barrett and Bernadette doing the Christmas shopping at Stacy's because of how it spearheaded the many entries I had in store for this particular contest. Hard work certainly paid off, as I ended up getting an honorable mention and a prize from Betty-M in the form of a drawing of Boomer and Blossom and two of their children Bradley and Belle.
2020: A New Decade and More Challenges to Face
Now that I have entered this decade with open arms, in spite of the mess Covid-19 gave to the world, I did what I could to keep the mojo alive.
January started things off with a bang when PowerpuffObsessed commenced the Butch mini raffle. I really needed to prove myself determined and brave to tackle this challenge and out of the three pieces of Butchubbles fan art I made for this raffle, I decided to go for Butch and Bubbles preparing breakfast for each other with the tune "How D'Ya Like Your Eggs in the Morning" sung by Helen O'Connell and Dean Martin being the song of choice for these two. Aside from Butch and Bubbles preparing each others' breakfasts, I also enjoyed the rooster clock and their marriage photo in their kitchen. As one can tell, that marriage photo has indicated that Butch and Bubbles were married at 17 going on 18 and 15 going on 16.
As a hardcore Blossoomer, Brickercup, and Butchubbles shipper, I did endeavor to participate in KatyGorl's color-clash requests, where I requested my OCs to interact with her OCs. I returned the favor of starting my own, and while I really enjoyed drawing KatyGorl's OCs in their original clothes and designs, I definitely enjoyed drawing BrickercupMasterX3's color-clash next gen in the forms of Bloom, Burn, and BonBon, as I have been following her works involving these fierce ladies for quite some time. I ended up summoning up the courage to make this come to life and the results were phenomenal. I felt like I have grown a whole lot more when I took that risk and I felt so good for it.
Fitness and four of my most beloved Inuyasha couples of all time come together in this piece of work where I saw them as four different physical trainers with Sesshoumaru and Kagura for self-defense and stealth, Inuyasha and Ayame for strength-training, Hakkaku and Karan for stamina, and Ginta and Shunran for speed. I felt like all of these couples fit what they specialize in and these power couples of Feudal Japan would certainly give anyone a great workout.
Growing up with the classic instrumental piece Emile Waldteufel's "Les Patineurs Valse" and since Powerpuff-Nation's winter contest was underway, I saw the opportunity to give Boomer x Blossom, Brick x Buttercup, Butch x Bubbles, Mitch x Bunny, Harry x Julie, and Mike x Robin a lovely ice-skating date. I know I was not an expert on giving them an equal amount of space, but for what it was worth, I was so pleased to have brought these six beloved couple of mine to have a nice moment with each other.
The Blossoomer lovebug has struck again when I partook in LilyLoverGems4499YT's Valentine's contest. Since I saw a nice parallel between Blossoomer's brand of sweetness and the sweet of any type of food for any palate, I thought it would be so cute if Boomer and Blossom wore each others' colors and had a drink of their mega milkshake with "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies used as a song to match the overall loveliness of these two. I was proud to say that this ended up being one of the winning entries.
My passion for Blossoomer was constantly increasing, especially when BrickercupMasterX3's annual Blossoomer month was a great chance for me to put my most beloved couple on the spotlight every February. I decided on the wedding picture because of how much sentimentality I have for this couple. In my Team Xtreme headcanon, Boomer and Blossom ended up being the first couple to fall in love when they were children, to go on dates when they were pre-teens and teens, to get married with Boomer at 17 going on 18 and Blossom at 15 going on 16, and to end up having children after they were married. Therefore, that wedding picture would serve as a reminder of how I saw Boomer's and Blossom's undying love for each other, which was defined by respect, allegiance, and genuineness.
I was so excited to have partaken in AmusedDoodler's second Butchubbles contest, as I did enter the first one but did not end up winning, which was all right because there was always next time. That time came when I reveled in Butch's and Bubbles' brand of adorability when they were young children. The story I came up for how Butch and Bubbles ended up confessing their feelings towards each other is a tale as old as time between a tough, rough, strong lad with a soft inner center and a sweet, lovable, adorable, euphoric lass with a fondness for all things sweet. This was the most fun I have ever had in fleshing out Butch's and Bubbles' love for each other and I will treasure this moment for all time. I even ended up winning one of the prizes, which made me feel very motivated to keep on drawing and be thoroughly inspired.
xSugarInferno's Green Contest was a great opportunity to not only further express my love for Blossoomer, Brickercup, and Butchubbles as Townsville's most heroic couples but also bring in the villainous couples in the forms of Budserk, AceBrute, and SnakeBrat into the fray. I may have also enjoyed turning in two other entries but this is the one which is close to my heart to the point where I ended up being a runner-up.
Outside my comfort zone, I ended up joining Obelis's contest involving her OCs and I went with Eneys and Rilla because of how lovely they were together in the pictures I saw. I felt like I gave it my all and I was so pleased to have brought Eneys' and Rilla's brand of unconditional love to the fray.
This year was also the final stretch for all of my long overdue art trades with SweetBPrincessGaming, ModernEddy01, and kaykeyser. While I did love the other I have done with the former two, I decided to go with the one I managed to accomplish with kaykeyser because I have always treasured Mabel Pines and Star Butterfly as a pair of exceptional best friends who seem to have each others' backs, are extremely euphoric, and have a swanky taste in fashion as young adult women. I had a lot of fun with colors I made for the gowns, their sweaters, and their shoes and I was so glad to have accomplished this with everything I got.
I will say this once and I will say this again. I really love my jungle muscle men, especially George of the Jungle, Basuli, Tarzan, and Maugli. When combining these jungle kings with Hercules and Grunch the Caveman, this made for an epic posedown in the jungle. This was also my first entry for cmara's crossover contest which I managed to enjoy so much. On top of that, drawing Grunch, George, Herc, Basuli, Tarzan, and Maugli together in a roaring posedown exhilarated me with such exaltation and I came to the conclusion that Grunch, Basuli, and Maugli definitely need a whole lot more fan art love. This has even gotten to the point where I made George of the Jungle, Basuli, Tarzan, and Maugli brothers and sons to Chief Keewazi and made Grunch and Hercules a couple of their fierce best friends.
Finally, there is the granddaddy of crossovers, as I combined twelve favorite anime couples and Greek mythology to make this my final entry for cmara's crossover contest in the forms of Kuranosuke Takeda x Toran, Sesshoumaru x Kagura, Shuran x Ayumi, Inuyasha x Ayame, Baki Hanma x Rosé Thomas, Hakkaku x Karan, Ginta x Shunran, Ichiro Miyata x Rose Anderson, Kiichi "Kiibo" Miyazawa x Winry Rockbell, Ippo Makunouchi x Maya Orihara, Kintaro Touyama x Solty Revant, and Kiba x Cheza. These were the couples who came from some of my most favorite anime series of all time Inuyasha, Baki the Grappler, Shootfighter Tekken, Hajime no Ippo, Fullmetal Alchemist, Ultra Maniac, Solty Rei, and Wolf's Rain. For this piece of work, I made a Greek Mythology AU where all the men are brothers and all the women are sisters. I may not have won cmara's contest either way, but the effort I put on here and the determination I had at that time put me in a state of absolute elation of what I have done.
Two years on DeviantArt has made me feel absolutely grateful to be here and be just as inspired by all of the brilliant artists on here. Even in spite of recent troubles going on in the world, I want to be able to not give up and keep on striving to be better than what I was. I know it is going to be very tough, but I am not willing to back down any time soon. I have been through moments of winning and I have been through moments of losing. However, one thing remains, and that is I want to keep on doing everything on here full of love, passion, euphoria, and loads of heart, and I want to keep on sharing and spreading the love to everyone here.
To conclude, I want to thank KatyGorl, Misse-the-cat, BrickercupMasterX3, PowerpuffObsessed, RowdyruffPowerpuff45, SweetBPrincessGaming, ModernEddy01, kaykeyser, WildWolfHipster, Obelis, xSugarInferno, LilyLoverGems4499YT, Jamison1209, FoodAssassinClive, SUP-FAN, ANPCreations, YamTheMan, StretchNSnort, Puffjaved02, xXRuffGalXx, Betty-M, Torekdva, Soraya7, MMHinman, JekyllAndHydeChannel, RivaAnime, PinkPlasticPrincess, Pastel---Star, AwkardOddOne, PrincessCallyie, AmusedDoodler, Teracles, NadoArts, ZaneRowdyruff, cmara, YANN-X, 04jh1911, Jose-Ramiro, Thiago082, romanxiv, xmysticaldreamsx, ilovepoop97, Mister-Sukeruton, Makoto-nii-chan, SpiritMiserably, NotUrAvgTyp, 09tuf, Silver-Sentinel, JenniferPowerpuff, MotoNeko, PJToon75, PPGcomic, YokoAnimeProductions, Lisathefan, lordtrigonstar, Tigerlover1993, SapphireSonicmaster, Blueelephant7, emmettpickens, inkblot-wolf, CelmationPrince, Koza-Kun, Blossom200, bubblyshipper, Sidaba, Puffy-PPG-Artist, PhantomLatte, JKC16, Esteban099009, kriemodyh, C16B, TessaLovesOzzy, RTNightmare, BlueMaxJrBirdsTAFFan, katilyncoffee, PetiteBrunette, Clipmation, SunriseAzzurra2004, xahCHUx, crystal-sn0w, MarcosBnPinto, HMontes, kuraikitsune13, jackhopeart, Khialat, ColeTheArtist21, GS-bunnfoxx18, menslady125, roemesquita, AsmodisArt, and many other DeviantArtists I could barely mention off the top of my head for giving me the drive, motivation, determination, toughness, and grit I need to survive as an artist and for being very supportive in every endeavor I have. You all rock and I bless each and every one of you for all that you are!
I hope you all enjoyed this and I thank you all for two awesome years on DeviantArt. Here's to more years to come and I hope to keep on moving and keep on grooving on here. Take care and stay safe, everybody.
