Kyaw Bits in a proper ballerina dress in ballet class. Traditional pencil sketch. 36 minutes.
Believe it or not but Kyaw liking ballet and dressing like a ballerina was an afterthought. The idea was first expounded in the description of "Bits&Bobs" which can be found here: . I was trying to think of different poses for the character to practice. I almost decided against putting Kyaw in a dress but last minute I decided to go for it. In this submission Kyaw isn't actually wearing a ballerina outfit, just a dress with his signature t-shirt. Later I drew Kyaw wearing a leotard, stating that he sometimes dressed the male as well as female parts in ballet. Since then Kyaw has been shown wearing dresses on multiple occassions, once for Easter, and once for halloween. Despite the fact that Kyaw's taking ballet is mentioned in multiple places (including in the halloween storyline), there actually was no picture of Kyaw in a ballerina dress. So I wanted to rectify that shortcoming.
I am very pleased with how this turned out. It's among the cutest realizations of the character to date. I think I managed to capture the naturalness with which Kyaw is able to maintain both his boyishness and his effeminacy at the same time (a difficult balance). Unlike most boys his age, he is not at all awkward about it. He is completely comfortable in his own skin (even if others are not).
In the future I hope to explore more of this aspect of the character.
