Commish - Dryden and Sly

This is a commission; fave the original here: [link]
So, I'm probably going to have to change the name of this folder to Fanart and Commissions, since I now have as many commissions as fanart. There will probably be more commissions in the future, as I am graduating this semester and will no longer have to make constant payments of nearly all my money to tuition and I'd like to make a habit of patronizing the arts.

So, I commissioned this piece from aka "The Chu." The Chu is someone I actually have a considerable amount of respect for as an artist because she has the dedicated work ethic of a professional - both in terms of getting things done on schedule and her consistent striving for improvement - yet has nothing actually "professional" in her portfolio. Or at least, nothing officially professional. To my knowledge, anyway.
I think the quality of her work stands out on its own. There's a sort of anime-ish quality to it, but it's highly refined and quite distinctive. Top it off, she has a good eye for detail and that makes her work really enjoyable.
So, to this particular picture, what do I want to compliment most? Well, as always, The Chu brings a lot of personality to the characters. In particular, I think she captures Sly's mischievous personality perfectly. There's a look of child out to cause some trouble in her eyes and her smile, but avoids any sort of outright maliciousness.
With Dryden, she captures that sense of being both competent and awesome that serves as the basis for the overconfidence that gets Dryden in so much trouble and makes him such an appealing traveling companion for Sly. It's the sort of image he would try to project, despite it being wildly undeserved. Also, having just noticed this, I'd like to point out that the pommel of his rapier, Songblade, is shaped like the Treble clef. That's a detail I didn't specifically ask for that really works and I really like.

As always, I appreciate any artwork that people might want to make based on my characters and thank Chu for her time and effort. I look forward to offering more commissions to others on this site in the future.
As soon as I can replenish my bank account.