Artist's commentary
This piece was really complicated to make. I wrote a full narrative for this, so I thought it might be useful to share some of the details about the decision making:
- In this narrative, 9S made that 2B portrait and left that message for her;
- his final wish was to see 2B wear a Lunar Tear on her hair;
- there is a "hole" on the blood. 2B was on her knees, hugging 9S' body;
- the blood on 2B's portrait means a lot of stuff. One of them is how she hates herself for tainting what she loves the most;
- she cut 9S' head off with her left hand, which is now shaking too much to hold the sword. She also tries to wear her mask with her left hand, but can't.
- 2B is thinking about what she should do next. The possibilities include killing the entirety of YorHa, or simply herself;
- the papers on the ground are sketches 9S made before working on the main portrait. If I am not mistaken, there are 11 of them;
- 9S was holding 2 Lunar Tears. He wanted to wear one too, and share this moment with 2B. He never mentioned it.
I could spend an entire day talking about the thought process, but this was the base for everything. If you want to add storytelling into your art, you should always keep this kind of stuff in mind. It's a lot of work, but that's when I have the most fun making art.