Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for another episode of "Artrix's take on...", and today's subject is, you guessed it, Naruto.

Yes, my first piece after EU2k5 is the Naruto pic I've been telling you about, it took me longer than Artrix's take on Teen Titans, but it's not CG'd. That's because the Naruto characters are, like many anime, a lot less stylized than their American counterparts. A lot of time was invested on sketching each and every character as shown on this deviation on sheets from my corny Mr. Bean callendar. After this extended research, I started to draw each character individualy, so I could use as much detail as I pleased. For this deviation I used east Indian ink, opposed to the Steadler pens I used in Artrix's take on Teen Titans. I scanned them, gave them the basic coloring in Photo Magic and composed all the characters in Corel Photopaint 11. This is where applied the thick outlines, something I haven't done before, and I must say: I'm pleased with the overal result, as I could never do the outlines as accurately as when using this technique. I might make another version with all the characters shaded, but for this piece, it looks cool as it is.

I'm also aware that some things are not entirely as they should be, I'm aware that Shikamaru's head is too round, that Naruto's thingy on his shoulder is not right, that some people are missing their ninja equipment and that Temari's air weapon thingy looks pretty ugly. There's probably some other stuff that I haven't mentioned, and I'm sure some of you are able to point them out.

In case you're not aware of what Naruto is, I suggest you keep a close eye to Cartoon Network USA as they will air the first two seasons of Naruto in their Toonami block starting in September, dubbed and sensored of course, so you might wanna look for the real stuff. I will now say who is who, which is completely unnesessary for those alrealy familiar with Naruto:

From left to right: Rock Lee, Hinata, Shikamaru, Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Gaara, Temari and Neji.

On a final note, I do not support any "pairings" or whatever you people might come up with, the first one to comment asking this will receive the I-cannot-read award.

Edit: The outlines are now anti-aliased :]\

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Art trade: Cabalcotech