This is my entry for 's contest. I think I made it in time, the US time according to this [link] clock is 23:21. I'll add more info about the picture and a short story, too. You really should be prepared for a long long comment when I wake up. XD But first I'll go zzzz...

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Okay, now that I have slept a good 3 hours I can start writing about this picture.
Like I said, this is an entry for *cottondragon's contest. The task was to draw a picture with this piece of music [link] and emotions that were woken up from listening to it. I already had this idea and just thought it would fit nicely with the song. I thought the piano sounds a bit like rain drops. ^^ You might have seen the characters before, the child is the swansinger with that big feather and flute. I decided to call the girl Mary, it is her given name, but I thought that I might give her another one, a name given by the swans. Mary is about 8 years old in this picture and the swan isn't much older in human years, about 15 or so. So it definitely isn't mature yet. Mature giant swans can be almost the size of an elephant. The swan that gave Mary her giant feather for flying was that big. However, the biggest swans are the also the oldest, they can be about 150 years old. The most of the swans are quite young anyway so they aren't very big.

I'll tell the story behind this picture shortly, I'm oo lazy to give a proper story.
Mary was lost in a deep, ancient forest for some reason. I haven't figured that out yet, maybe it has some connection to what happened to her parents (I don't know what happened :'D). Anyway, for that reason she's lost and soaking wet because of the never ending downpour. It is all silent all over and Mary sees no one around. She's scared and cold and very tired and doesn't even find a proper place to keep her protected from the rain. However, there is a figure out there. A giant purple swan. The rain doesn't bother the swan, she actually enjoys it. These swans are very gentle and social creatures but when they or their closest ones are threatened they become very fierceful and they protect what is dear to them. This swan, separated from it's pack find Mary and offers her a cover from the rain. That is how the swan and Mary became friends and later on Mary became The Swan Singer.

I have never drawn a child before, if those shapeless figures I drew when I was about 3 years old don't count. It was quite interesting to try out new things. 8) I don't draw comic pages very often either so I'm not very good at that. But painting this was very fun, I enjoyed it a lot and I like the outcome, too. The scanner raped this, though, but otherwise I'm satisfied. I became quite lazy with the backgrounds in the end, I was very tired after painting this thing all night long. I went to bed 6:30 am and ~Pena-Mies,~ffracture and Gahra woke me up. Good morning, sunshine!

But anyway, I hope that this is in time and that you all like it and that I have even a slight chance to win. 8)

^Mediums Watercolours on watercolour paper | Micron inks | white ink
^{Time taken} About 8-9 hours

The characters and picture are c =ShadeofShinon