Nice portraits. I definitely like how you did the risen alts, since they do end up having a glow effect on the part of their heads, and thus end up having more purple colors to them. Don’t know how much it deviates from normal FE GBA portraits, but I don’t think it’s too much of a problem since they do end up looking good. Kinda funny now that I think of it tho because when you do end up fighting risen, most of the time they’re supposed to be masked instead of just having glowing eyes and a more sinister look to them. Overall pretty cool portraits.
Also, glad to see the Switch 2 at least feels like a nice upgrade to the Switch, since my younger brother is planning to buy it and maybe get some new games for it too. I wonder if we’ll manage to get it while also buying me a Playstation 2 lol.
With all that done, maybe the next boss will be Daichi?
So I’ve been a little pre occupied with a few things recently, a few IRL things, playing Elden Ring Nightreign and the Switch 2. I havent tried any FE games on it yet, but I’d like to imagine at least with Three Houses it probably would run smoother and faster. Its funny how much better some Switch 1 games run on this thing. I’ve also managed to draw 51 portraits this year so far with Haitaka done, which is I think the on track for another 100 this year (we’ll see, I’ve slowed down a bit recently, also I’ll eventually run out of Fates).
The next character is going to be a Nohrian
I’ve updated the Fates post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE 14 Fates - Haitaka)
Another side facing portrait Haitaka. Haitaka’s proportions I think turned out a bit better than Nichol’s and a few other side facing portraits I’ve done, but I think it helps that he wears a helmet rather than having to draw hair. Despite this, his colour palette does have a lot of colours with two different trimming colours (one beige-ish looking colour and one orange-yellowish, which is different to the rope holding his helmet onto his head) the rope for his helmet, his top, his helmet and black sash thing and the purple strap over his shoulder. Other than that I don’t have much to say about Haitaka. If I were to revisit it, I’d probably re shade his helmet, not quite satisfied with the black shading on his helmet.
Been a while again. Almost finished with Nightreign, it has been a real enjoyable experience and honestly the matchmaking problems even with only 1 friend or solo with randoms I feel is a bit exaggerated, but maybe thats because the pool may be bigger on PC.
This one surprisingly did not take a lot of planning to work out in terms of how to make it work in the hackbox. I think of the capturables, Senno and Daichi will probably be the hardest (those crazy Hoshidans) because of their outfits and hats.
That aside the next character will be Hoshidan.
I’ve updated the Fates post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE 14 Fates - Candace)
So another thing Fates does is have a lot of big hats/headgear in a fair few of their portraits. For named characters, Candace, Senno, Ryoma, Sumeragi, Daniela, Reina, Kilma to name a few. Thats before getting into generics. Candace was a challenge to work out how to fit her hat and hand into the portrait without looking too odd. I think I succeeded. Amongst other things was trying to balance her colours out too. I think I might of been able to get away with a bit less pink, but I think it still gets her colouring across. I’m still a bit mixed on how her hand turned out so there is an alt without it.
Here is the next one. I’ve pretty much finished Nightreign, only have one more class story to finish (my least played and favoured class the Revenant). I’ve also finally gotten around to starting Mario Kart World and I do think its pretty fun and definitely feels new compared to 8 (which I bought both on the Wii U and the Switch (but was probably my most played MK next to DS and 64)). The open world is kind of insane, and it reminds me of imagining new race courses made of basically anything and anywhere. Something I hadn’t felt since playing Halo 3 Forge when it first came out and dreaming about designing maps and new game modes to play.
Coincidentally on Wednesday (tomorrow for me in Australia atm) will be the 10th anniversary of Fire Emblem Fates release in Japan (it took another year to be released internationally), but I remember being really hyped for Fates from the initial trailers. It looked dark, darker than pretty much all the western released titles at the time and the big difference in aesthetics between Nohr and Hoshido was a really cool setting. My original goal was to try and complete all the Fates portraits by June for its anniversary, but you know I think just completing them in 2025 will be enough.
The next character will be Nohrian, then I might do another break portrait after that one before moving onto the last 4 capturable bosses.
I’ve updated the Fates post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE 14 Fates - Daichi)
Something I like about Hoshidans is that generally their colour schemes are pretty exotic feeling for FE standards. Something you wouldn’t really see again until the Solm royalty from Engage. This one was tough, I knew from the start you weren’t ever going to fit both arm poses in the GBA hackbox (even with the extended patch). There is that and the bow on his back is also not going to fit well either. The next challenge is his very varied colour palette. I decided not to use a dark blue for his forearm and under sleeve instead opting to use the black to save on some tones. This one is probably one of the harder portraits to do. Of the capturable bosses, I think the last remaining hard one is Senno.
Alright Nightreign is done except for anything else new they release. I’d have to rate it pretty fun after completing everything it has to offer so far, tough to say if it’s my favourite gaming experience so far this year. Last year was Shadow of the Erdtree and Elden Ring base game was for the year that released.
I’ve decided to do another capturable boss first before doing another break portrait since I’ve paced a bit slower the last few portraits. The next one will be another Nohrian because well, there’s like 4 Nohrians left and only 1 Hoshidan.
I’ve updated the Fates post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE 14 Fates - Funke)
Another side on facing portrait and another one with a hand in it too. Funke a combination of things that are a bit harder to draw. Still I managed to somehow fit it all into the hackbox, although I did have to shave off a line on either side, but it doesn’t look too odd. I did draw his hand in with his body so there isn’t an alt without it, but there is an alt without the rose. So you could put all sorts of funny objects in his hand if you really wanted (with 3 free colours to boot too). His head did turn out looking a bit on the larger side, but I don’t think by much. It is mainly due to the angle of his head, but I think its actually smaller than heads like Caellach’s.
Ok here is the next portrait, that leaves 3 capturable bosses left before I get to work on the non playable unique bosses and NPCs. There isn’t a lot of those either so the end is in sight. Next will be another break portrait (non Fates) then after that will be the next Fates bosses. So I guess for those who have been guessing, since we’re down to the last 3, can you guess the order of the final 3?
I’ve updated the Fates post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE 14 Fates - Zhara)
The last mercenary class portrait (that is not a generic) for Fates. I do like their design in general in Fates, its kind of a more elaborate version of the awakening designs. However this does make them harder to draw as their gambesons and and shoulder shields have more detail and intricate designs than the Awakening shirts and shields. Another thing for these designs is that they use so many colours. So much that both Zhara’s hair and top are only 2 tones using the border colour as the darkest tone for each. The black and grey green share colours and fade into each other too. Aside from that the hackbox gymnastics overall worked out in my favour however it did mean the shield is probably smaller than what it should be, but I think how it turned out is fine. Overall pretty happy with how it turned out.
You know what they do have similar poses, but their facial structures are a bit different (also they have different haircuts). When I did the lineart of Gregor, I noticed he looks a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Here is the break portrait, another female Awakening generic (also if you noticed the last 3 risen alts I did are also Awakening Dreadlords). With that done, I’ll move onto the last 3 Fates capturable bosses. Better get your guesses in on the order of their completion.
I’ve updated the Awakening post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Awakening - Swordmaster + Risen/Simia Alt)
Another generic Awakening class. I did like the portrait and outfit of Awakening Swordmasters (Say’ri, Lonqu, Owain, Yen’fay, Awakening Lyn). They do however have a lot of colours required, which Yen’fay and Say’ri get away with because their outfit colours are a bit more shared than Dreadlord Simia or the generic female one. This one was mainly tough trying to work out a colour palette. So I’d say this the least recolour friendly one. There was a lot of effort involved in working out mixing skin tones, hair tones, white tones, etc to get the final result. The pink in the shirt is a solo tone and the hair also has only 1 unique tone (uses skin and black tones as other parts). Then I had to re jig it again to make the risen alt. I unfortunately couldn’t get a red available to make the eyes glow red like the others so I did the best with what I had.
Welp there was only one guess for the hat trick and it was unfortunately wrong. I decided to do the hardest of the three first. Still I guess if people wanna 50/50 the last two its up to them. This one was surprisingly fun to do despite it being a bit complicated. Overall I don’t think there are many Fates portraits left to do, so the end is in sight.
I’ve updated the Fates post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Fates - Senno)
I feel like this should be the last complicated capturable boss portrait. This one was a challenge and also a bit of fun. Probably the least friendly to recolour. I really stretched the palette for this one. Everything besides his skin uses only one or two original tones, then shares the rest with another piece. I still didn’t have enough colours to make the ring around his wrist grey/silver. Then there is the hat which is a bit smaller than it is in Fates in comparison to his body, but thats just the way of the hackbox. Then there was his hand as well (although I think this one turned out better than Candace’s and Daichi’s). There was also trying to fit in his backpack too, which worked out, although it is a bit thinner than I’d of liked. Overall pretty happy with how it turned out, although I wish I had one more tone available for the blue to make the hat a bit smoother in it’s detailing.
Yeah, this definitely was going to be a pretty complicated portrait to make. At least you got it done. I don’t remember if the blue hat was a straw hat, but it might come in handy in case I want to do a portrait of a character with a straw hat.
