Am I Breathing Underwater?

.....words cannot describe how pleased I am with the results of this deviation.

After my last deviation kinda backfired on me, I was very very nervous to work with pastels on my recent lineart, but bucked up the courage, went to Hobby Lobby, and bought new pastels.  And I gotta say they were much better.  They were a much finer material than the others, not as waxy.  In fact, a lot of the time I put into this, the oil pastels became almost as loose as regular oil paint.  So the blending was easier in a lot of areas, but I also was easier with the edges of the hair and stuff.  Though I was also going really slow because I wanted this to be great.

So the results show.  How proud am I of this  I friggin' got a month of premium just to add critique options to this.  I am that eager to hear about how this looks. 

With the discovery of these kinds of pastel, I believe I'm gonna retry Chris' last couple deviations I did for him.  I feel he deserves better than what I gave him.  Seeing this really gets my hope up.

So yes, this is of course the colored lineart of my OC's Vincent Kaayan and Aestus Tsunamaki sharing a kiss underwater.  The title I'm still unsure of but I wanted it to give a bit of wonder as if a look into Vincent's mind.  As the song goes;

Is this my life?
Am I breathing Underwater?

Vincent may be wondering if he really is as lucky to have this life with Aestus, and may feel that though he's still his Lontra self, he has fully joined with her as he has always set out to be.  Similar to his first kiss (which I think I'll eventually draw) where I described his feelings of how he felt he could have held his breath forever.  He's just in a state of...well...euphoria, bliss, you name it.  He's really happy.  Happy with Tsuna, kissing beneath the moonlit waves.

Drawing this, and coloring it was really fun.  I gotta do these two more often...after I fix up some Charmy and Saphire in the near future...I think they're angry with me.  I really hope you guys like this one.  I put a lot of effort and time into it.  The lineart itself took three to four days.  Coloring it, well, I dunno.  I started last night at work, came home stayed up a good three hours on it, then finished details this morning.  I really like how it turned out.

I hope you do too.

Oil Pastel on Canvas

Vincent Kaayan and Aestus Tsunamaki belong to me.
Breathing Underwater belongs to me.
Artwork may not be used unless consulted by me.

   Breathing Underwater (Prologue)
Vincent was completely uncomfortable.  His head throbbed in pain, there was slight discomfort in his chest, and he felt numerous small cuts and bruises all along his body.  He could also feel the waves of an ocean washing against his side.  The salt in the water met some of the cuts in his side.  Introduced to the wounds, the salt gave his body an unpleasant sting, and as he regained consciousness, he gave a sharp inhale of pain.  Breathing wasn't right.  There was something in his lungs.  It felt like some of the salt was in his lungs...as if he'd fallen into this ocean perhaps.  He was soaking wet.  He could feel it.  Breathing hurt.  The salt coated his lungs in places, and he felt as if there was a small amount of liquid just introduced to them.  Feeling this, he rolled to his side and coughed sharply as his body tried to get rid of the liquid now in his lungs.  
"It's about time you're awake!" a voice said.  From the sound of it, it sounded young and was female.  And though to nor