A friend complained that she couldn't draw Gaara for anything. Despite the simplicity of his design, trying to draw him so that he looked like himself was nearly impossible. In answer to this challenge, and because I adore Gaara, I tried drawing him. This was my first attempt. With a future picture in mind, I also practiced Shikamaru.

Shikamaru came relatively easy, except for his hairline. That took looking at a picture to figure out exactly where it went. Gaara, though, took some definite effort. Due to the simplicity of his design, if you don't get it just right, it doesn't look correct... While I found Gaara's face to be pretty easy, his hair drove me up a wall. In the end, I settled on this. >.<

Oh yeah, and I realize what a craptacular job I did on the kanji on Gaara's forehead. Please keep in mind that it was just a rough sketch...  -_-;;