Well managed to fit in one more sprite for October and this one will conclude the villain theme I had going. Although this one I suppose is more of an alt of a villain than a villain themself. I was still craving to draw some more intricate armour and this was a fun excuse to do.
Also as I mentioned in the previous post I have re organised the Non Fire Emblem Properties post, so Other Game Franchises that have at least 4 portraits underneath a parent company, they are in their own sub category (at the moment that is Blizzard, Capcom, Koei Tecmo, Namco Bandai, Nintendo, Riot Games and Square Enix)
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Elibe Saga - FE6 - “Heroic” Zephiel)
What if a chair was moved and Zephiel wasn’t despised by Desmond and grew jaded and hated humanity? What if he kept the compassion he had as a prince and became the Compassionate King? I decided for the last sprite of villains for October to do an alternative take on Zephiel where he wasn’t evil. His colour scheme is largely based on Guinevere’s colorus (Red, White and Gold) and removing his stress lines and bags under his eyes went a long way to making him look much more nicer. With his pose changed to face people he is talking he also seems more nicer too. His armour designs still incorporate what to me seems like the Bern armour insignia (Zephiel ironically I think lacks this in his original design (its covered by his cloak straps)) the diamond with a few upward spikes coming out underneath it (seen on Galle, Murdock, Miledy, Zeiss, Douglas, etc). I also decided to give him a lower collar for his cloak/cape, but more fluffier which is a bit more bulkier like Legendary Guinevere’s from FEH. Overall happy with how this turned out, I was still craving intricate armours to draw. I did consider also doing a version of him in his FE6 armour too but got a bit lazy (to be honest you could probably splice his collar and head onto the original Zephiel’s body and it would work, just need to balance the colours a bit)
Below is a collection of all the sprites I drew for Spritetober this year, which was fun.
So here is the first portrait for November, a straight blast from the past another Adventure Quest hero.
I found out also with posting this one that I have hit the post cap in my Non Fire Emblem properties post so I’m in the middle of reworking the posts and going to ask a mod for help to add another post for me to move some posts around.
I’ve updated the third main post with the below entry under F2E - Non Fire Emblem Properties (Other Game Franchises - Adventure Quest - Robina Hood)
So here is another blast from the past, another Adventure Quest hero, Robina Hood/Princess Victoria. I don’t think I’ve drawn many archers, but here we go here is one. She is a staple NPC that I think has been around near the beginning of Battleon/Adventure Quest who got further elaboration later around Dragon Fable and AQ World I think from memory. When I went to look up her reference art I found out she had a design update since the last time I saw her. However I made her based on the pose I knew the most, but took the design details from her latest look. She has a nice simple design in a universe where their designs started going off the rails in super detail very quickly (due to its spontaneous nature to keep up with trends and pop culture). Overall pretty happy with how this turned out and managed to have 2 shades of blue to spare for her eyes too.
Well I’ve had busy weekend, went out to a wedding, watched the League of Legends World Finals, got a bit sick. But I managed to get portrait done in. The first Magvel character I’ve drawn in years. I typically don’t really tend to draw the GBA era characters, at least in their base forms because they already exist in the GBA style so to me, I don’t feel the need to draw them, although a redraw of a cast could be fun (that said FE6’s cast plus trying to make the duplicates unique would be nuts)
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Magvel Saga - FE 8 - Lute)
A long time ago I saw some cool fan art of Lute drawn by two artists, u/Grimmels on Reddit and Jivke on Tumblr. Ever since then I’ve been meaning to do a reimagined Lute taking design ideas from both of these fan arts. I was on a art block for a bit and was looking back through some old saved pictures for references and ideas and saw these Lutes and decide to draw her since I haven’t done a Magvel character in a while. Overall pretty happy with how she turned out, although I got a bit lazy with the book and hand. I was surprised with how many colours Lute uses in her design which is basically hidden in her base portrait by being short. Since I drew here without her book and hand, there is a bookless handless alt as well.
The art works that inspired the reimagining of Lute are below;
So this probably the first Koei Tecmo character I’ve done this year, since its been a while since my last (Sima Yi). Dynasty Warriors has been one of my favourite franchises (I am big into that Romance of the Three Kingdoms media (Dynasty Warriors, Total War, RoTK 11, the 2010 TV series, the Red Cliff films, etc)). That series has always had some fun character designs and Origins is no different.
Pondering what to draw next, maybe an OC (haven’t done a male one in a while and have some ideas, maybe a Pirate), maybe an Archanean character or another Fates Character.
I’ve updated the third main post with the below entry under F2E - Non Fire Emblem Properties (Other Game Franchises - Koei Tecmo - Dynasty Warriors Origins - Gan Ning)
So it’s been a while since doing another Dynasty Warrior character. Origins is probably one of the first games I’m looking forward to next year alongside with Civilization 7 coming out at the start of the year. Origins looks like its changing the formula a lot more from previous mainline titles (so much I’m not sure if Origins is a mainline title) and have redesigned a number of the characters (and also kept a lot of 9’s character designs). Gan Ning is one of the ones that has been redesigned and he looked really cool, so I felt like I wanted to draw him first out of the Origins designs. His design surprisingly uses a lot more colours so I had to be creative with his colour scheme utilising the fact that his skin tone is a bit red in the reference images, I could use his skin tone to make his armours reddish still while being able to use the other colour slots for the pale gold trimming and white feather headband thing he has going on. The other problem was that his reference image, actually doesnt show the top of his haircut or really much below the neck/upper shoulder, so there is some imagination going on there for design. I’m not sure how I feel about my attempt at his tattoo, so there is an alt up without it as well. If I was to revisit this, his hair shading would get another look at and his tattoo as well.
Well decided on the Pirate, it was quicker to come to with an idea on what to draw, whereas the other ones I had a few ideas on what to draw. Its up to you if you determine they are villainous or not, I think he’s pretty neutral looking enough that he could be either. If you’ve noticed with the latest bunch of OCs I’ve made they’ve had a naming scheme, (the girls had a colour naming scheme (Roseanne, Beryl, Saphyre and Jacinth) and the pirates had a flower naming scheme (Roseanne and Aster)). I don’t think I’ll keep to those naming schemes, but it does make for some fun brainstorming for names.
I’ve updated the fifth main post with the below entry under F2E - Non Fire Emblem Properties (OCs/Misc - Aster)
So this design idea has been sitting in my head for a while, a grizzled pirate with a bit of facial hair, with a cool coat and hat. After naming the last pirate OC Roseanne, I decided on Aster as the name because its also a flower (but a bit more masculine sounding for a name). I also really wanted to use the head angle I made for Berserk Ashnard again because its a fun angle and can make taller characters look even taller, so that was the aim with his pose. It did make the hat a bit harder to make and I did feel like without his forehead lock, it looked a bit odd and flat. I was mixed on his arms on whether or not they’d be bare like Fargus’ or if I’d go with Epaulets like the Admirals and some Captains from One Piece. Decided on epaulets, always a sucker for epaulets.
Recommendations:
I originally envisioned his design to be one of the following class types
Berserker, Warrior or Hero.
The non-Roseanne ladies had a gemstone name theme as well. (perhaps Beryl is Empress Jacinth’s loyal general and Saphyre is recruited from the enemy) You have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever and name other OCs after Italian desserts, fashion labels, or wines.
My knowledge of all of those things aren’t the greatest, but when I do naming schemes I do usually either a little research on something thematically related to what I’ve drawn (or to previous sprite names) or related to something they were based/referenced off (the OCs pre Roseanne). Whenever I do my next OC, we’ll see what I decide on.
I got around to doing a Fates character, so guess we’ll see what I do next, maybe another Fates character, maybe an Engage one or maybe an Archanean one.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Fates Saga - FE 14 - Orochi)
So I felt like doing another Fates character and Orochi ended up being it. Her pose and haircut were the main reasons to draw her as they seemed interesting. In hindsight I think I drew her head/face overall maybe a pixel or two a bit larger than standard, but didnt really notice until I started colouring. It doesn’t stand out too much though, so I decided to keep with it rather than scrapping it all and redoing everything again. I like how her hair, hair ornaments and hand all turned out. I was really happy with being able to fit the hand in versus some of Kozaki’s other arm/hand up portraits (Aversa, Arete, Mariabelle, Vaike, etc). Also got surprised with how many colours she ended up with and got creative with some colourings (the black bangle and black undershirt thing are actually made of her darkest hair colour and outline colour and the peach skin tone doesn’t really translate well to the gold shading that you get with the more standard yellow/browner skin tones.
Well decided on a challenging character design this time. So next sprite is probably not going to be a Fates one. Kozaki’s designs can be challenging especially since they were not restricted by Hackbox and colour limitations like Wada was. However I do enjoy a challenge.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Fates Saga - FE 14 - Peri)
So this one was a challenge, Kozaki’s hairstyles sometimes don’t fit well as they often have a lot of volume, however Lissa and Peri’s ponytails make it very awkward for the hackbox. So combined with the ponytails, you’re also dealing with a dual hair colour set up which eats another 3 tones. There was a lot of Hackbox gymnastics and colour palette wizardry going on with this one. Which made it more enjoyable to draw. I resorted to using her skin’s lightest tone to act as a “white” using the other two greys and darkest skin tone to around it to convince eyes to be white. I also used it to blend the two hair colours when they transition in her ponytails as well as the highlights on the yellow trimming. I do wish I had maybe one more colour to act as a deeper blue to help with bordering/strengthening blue parts of her hair, but it is what it is and you gotta make do with what you got. Otherwise, pretty happy with how it turned out. If I were to revisit it, maybe I’d re do her headdress thing.
Hmm you know what, it’s not that hard to make that alt.
This will probably be my last post for a while, I’m going overseas on holiday so I leave you all an Archanean character and Peri’s Upset alt.
Not sure what I’ll draw next, but things usually get really busy for me towards the end of the year and so I usually slow down to spend time doing other things. We’ll see how we go and if I do some more thematic things for the end of the year… or start a new project?
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Archanea Saga - Shadow Dragon/New Mystery - Horace)
So Horace is probably one of my favourite character designs from Daisuke in the Shadow Dragon and New Mystrey. Unfortunately for me he was locked behind Gaiden chapter requirements in Shadow Dragon (so kill off your party). His design and style reminded me kinda of a player side Camus and I always thought his in game portrait design looked kinda like a Paladin. Although he has pretty cool looking General armour. I was really happy with how his armour turned out, I thought that would be one of the harder things to workout since his armour is pretty big, however it turned out his face and hair were the harder things to do. If I were to revisit this one, I’d definitely do another attempt at his hair and eyes.
That blonde sleeveless character was actually made with sad Eliwood as the base, the haircut was based on Harken’s but was made custom because his vanilla haircut is not suitable for the Sad Eliwood face angle.
I’m back from Holidays and to warm up I decided to draw another Fire Emblem Dad. Kilma the Ice Tribe chieftain since his design was simple. As for what is coming next, I think I’ll do some more Fates characters as my main focus and also interlapped with anything else I feel like doing. Next year is Fate’s 10 year anniversary.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Fates Saga - FE 14 - Kilma)
So this is my first portrait back after a holiday. Another Fire Emblem dad, the Ice Tribe Chieftain Kilma (Also Flora and Felicia’s father). I decided on this one because it felt kinda thematic to December and it was a simpler design to draw to warm back up again. Overall pretty happy with how it turned out. Still dislike drawing feathers, especially ones as vague as the ones on Kilma’s collar. Despite the feather collar, the Dark Mage and maid outfits didn’t make sense for people living in perpetual cold. If I were to revisit this one, I’d probably look at the back headdress thing and his headguard.
Oh, nice! I was going to sprite him at one point to go with Haitaka, but that saves me the trouble with all the wips I have leftover. We’re this much closer to a Conquest demake!
Here is another Fates character. Kozaki enjoys these strange headdresses and collar guards (Veronica, Kilma, Reina, Iago, Awakening Heroes, etc) and we’ll face those challenges as they arrive. Wondering if I should do a Nohrian playable next, or a villain. I haven’t really put much thought into the order of completion (should I focus recuitables first?).
Also side note, I don’t know if anyone else has noticed recently or if they are really affected by this, but I think the formatting for some posts changed (I can’t use “quotation marks” in spoiler titles anymore and I can’t set images next to each other sometimes either in posts, its a bit wierd) I noticed it when doing my latest updates to the main post it broke a couple of things.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Fates Saga - FE 14 - Reina
So I decided to tackle some more difficult designs first for Fates. Reina is an interesting character, she sorta just comes out of no where and I suppose she is supposed to be your Hoshidan Gunter (veteran), but he at least had some set up. Her back headdress thing was probably the most difficult thing here and probably the only thing I wasn’t 100% happy with. Otherwise her head and hair I think are still maybe a pixel or two slightly big, but its not as noticeable as Orochi’s size issue. I had already shrunk it once while in progress. I took me a while to also settle on her hair colour tones a bit too. It would of been nice to have another hair tone to add some flair, but I think I’m pretty happy with the colour palette otherwise.
Maybe you could do the playables first, and then do the villains. When I ended up doing my P3 portraits I first did the mugs of the playable characters, and then I did the portraits of the characters that were villains there (that is, the ones that are hostile at first sight, no spoiler villain there) and for now I’m the doing the SL characters, technically NPC’s. When I do the P4 and P5 cast tho, I’ll first do the SL characters over the villains (it’ll especially help with the P4 ones lol).
I haven’t really noticed the thing about the post formatting tho. Gonna have to check sooner or later and see if something happened there.
(I ship him with Ymir thanks to a specific artist)
