This last one took a while, got stuck for a bit and busy. Just a reminder that the first 6 polls in the previous posts will be closed this upcoming weekend, so if you want to change your votes or haven’t voted, you’ve got a few days left. This next poll will be open until last weekend of September.
We have another Nintendo Direct tonight after last night’s Zelda one. I wonder what we’ll get to see going forward. I doubt there will be Fire Emblem since it comes out so soon, but I am looking forward to what else is on offer. The recent more Chinese influenced characters from Fortune’s Weave put me into a bit of a mood to go back and do another Chinese character hence this latest sprite.
I’ve updated the Non Fire Emblem Properties (Other Games) post with the below entry under F2E - Other Game Franchises (Black Myth Wukong - Zhu Bajie (Celestial Form))
So before Zhu Bajie became Pigsy, he was a Celestial Commander for heaven’s army. This is that form he has, which isn’t really seen during Black Myth Wukong (considering its a sequel to the Journey to the West) and is only depicted briefly in a brief moment of self reflection and in the ending mini movie for Chapter 4. Game Science actually did a full body artwork for his Celestial form even though you never see it really. I took design elements from that artwork as well as his depiction in Listen Not (the ending movie for chapter 4). Overall, what took me the longest was working out how to do his shoulder pad, but I’m ultimately happy with how it turned out. I think the thing I’m most mixed on is how his hair turned out this time. For a fun comparison you can see his Celestial form and Pig form side by side below.
Last call for the first 6 polls, they will all close tomorrow (or technically tonight for me). These latest two polls (7 and 8) will close on the last weekend of September. I’ll see if I can squeeze out another portrait or two before Fortune’s Weave comes out. Then it depends how absorbed my free time becomes on whether or not I’ll draw anything for the rest of September. I did consider putting OCs as an option in the polls, but then I’m not entirely sure how’d I’d decide on what they’d be in the end which sorta defeats the purpose of asking people to vote on something to draw.
What I’ve seen of Fortune’s Weave in the directs has me enticed. My biggest question is how recruitment works with cross progression amongst routes mechanically and how it affects the future timeline. Each lord’s unique mechanics sound fun and interesting in how to form your army/squad.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Dagdan Saga - FE Fortune’s Weave - Seteh (Fortune’s Weave))
Here is our Alolan Seteh. Why he is in Dagda during Fortune’s Weave I guess we’ll find out in 4 - 5 days as of posting this. Also why did he have to fail to dye his eyebrows and hair properly, I could of really done with an extra tone or two. This portrait was a challenge in balancing the colours I had available. Pretty much anything not his skin is sharing colours with his skin tones (hair, cloak, armour/crest thing). Otherwise I’m pretty happy with how he turned out, the thing I’d would of probably re done the most was his bandanna and his cloak. I’m actually surprised at how his crest/pin thing and winged part of his armour turned out. I tried adding the extra lock of hair that dangles past his far eye, but it didn’t turn out any good so I decided to omit it in the end.
Hmm that concept might work maybe, I might do something special-ish in December if I have time/come up with something.
We’re now 2 days away from Fortune’s Weave’s release (in my country anyway)! I think I’ll put out one more sprite maybe before it comes out (or maybe on the day it releases) and hopefully that will let me post the last People’s vote poll for Spritetober.
As for the results of polls 1 - 6, I’ll be drawing these characters in October;
Advance Wars - Max
Adventure Quest - Artix Von Krieger
FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua
X-Men Anime - Storm
Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant
FE New Mystery - Emperor Hardin
Polls 7 - 10 will close on the last weekend of September.
I’ve updated the OCs post with the below entry under F2E - Non Fire Emblem Properties (OCs/Misc - Tanzania)
2nd OC of the year. Named Tanzania after the Tanzanite gem (which is named after the Tanzania country they’re found in, so I guess she is also named after the country). I wanted to draw another big muscular barbarian styled woman. I also felt like I hadn’t drawn a blue haired OC, so thats where these two tick boxes ended up. I don’t know why I torture myself with drawing furs, I consider them a weakness, but I supposed if you don’t keep working on them, you’ll never improve. I also liked the darker/tanned skin tone looks with lighter blue tone hairs that you see on Noctula in Fortune’s Weave so that was another inspiration for the colour scheme. I was pretty happy with how her hair turned out. I wanted it to be wild, however I didn’t have as many tones available to play with like I did Shiva, so I had to use the border colour a bit too. Unfortunately the fur collar does cover up a bit of her hair so I have a view of it down below with out the collar. I also have provided a version without her war facial war paint too.
(not the full size portrait to keep it PG, just enough to see the full haircut)
Recommendations:
I originally envisioned her design to be Brigand, Fighter, Berserker. Although you could probably put her into any appropriately big non armoured physical class.
So I managed to get that last sprite out before Fortune’s Weave’s release. Its almost BIRD TIME. We’ll see how consumed my free time becomes, but after reading the developer discussions from Nintendo and IS, Fortune’s Weave is looking to be a big game. I’m amused that they were originally going to have 8 paths/lords (the 4 sub lords were also going to be fully fleshed out playthroughs) and then decided that was too much and cut back down. Thats crazy going from 3 Houses to Octopath Weave.
Also won’t be long before my Spritetober line ups finalised too. Its kind of nice knowing ahead what you are going to draw rather than getting stuck with artist block/choice paralysis.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Dagdan Saga - FE Fortune’s Weave - Seteh (Fortune’s Weave))
So it’s been a while since I’ve done a non humanoid sprite. The last one I think was Lilith’s Dragon form which is sort of the opposite of Eshmel in that Lilith’s dragon’s proportions to a human are much larger whereas even though the Pale Raven is a big bird, they’re still smaller than a person in the face. I have tested the frames and they all work. Since the mouth and eyes are in the same box they need the same co ordinates for blinking and speaking. I did consider making them smaller and being perched on a branch, but they took a surprising amount of colours to draw with. Overall, pretty happy with how they turned out.
first post to these forums, but i wanted to say that seteth looks so gooooood! and so does the leda! and really all of your sprites; i’ve shown a couple to my friends and they do really love them too.
So in between my break times and playing Fortune’s Weave, I managed to work out how to fit Theodora into the hackbox. I’ve currently finished Cai’s part 1 route in Fortune’s Weave and am about 3 quarters done with Leda’s. Follow up path playthroughs are definitely faster going round and to be honest, I think are done better here than in Three Houses. The other paths actually feel more significantly different and feel less of a slog because of this.
Another reminder that this there are 2 days left to vote for my last Spritetober sprites (Polls 7 - 10) (see the previous posts). Also since we have more official terminology, Dagdan saga has been updated to Dagsion Saga.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Dagsion Saga - FE Fortune’s Weave - Theodora)
So ages back I actually wanted to sprite Theodora first as she from first impressions back when it was first revealed was my favourite lord. However her Crown and in game portrait pose would of been impossible within regular hackbox constraints and we didn’t really have a lot of good reference images or options to view her looks without having the game. Now that we have the game I figured out a pose that I could fit the crown in and so here we are. Her eyes, and Crown were probably the hardest parts of the sprite to work out. This is the 3rd iteration of eyes and the ones I was finally ok with. Her crown also underwent 4 iterations and I think this one is sort of the best compromise I could come to. So if I were to revisit these I’d probably look at those again. I did try adding the dangling pieces of rope that are hanging off her crown, but they didn’t look any good any way I tried so I decided against adding them in the end. I did actually forget to draw her earrings originally so I added them later which is why we have earring alts. I also like her Crownless look too, so I have that as an alt as well.
Ok so we’re in October now which means for me Spritetober begins! This years theme being the “People’s Vote” so this is what you all voted on in those polls. I’ll be working my way through this list for October, but depending on how my spare time comes about, I might do some of them out of order.
Advance Wars - Max - Complete
Adventure Quest - Artix von Krieger
FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua
X-Men Anime - Storm
Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin
Advance Wars DS - Sasha
Avatar TLA - Mai
Soul Calibur 3 - Valeria
NIJISANJI - Watari Hibari
In other news, I’ve completed the first part of Fortune’s Weave for all 4 main lords and am currently replaying Cai’s (my first route), mainly because I now better understand how the game works after playing through everyone’s part 1, but also he was significantly behind the others (Leda finished in the 40s on average, Dietrich finished at 54 and Theodora finished at 53. Cai finished at 37) and now that I also better understand people’s recruitments I also can finally run the Shonen kids squad in his run too now (Cai, Tialla, Peter, Mu, Loretta, Nezha and Peppe) and their handler/s (Ultand and Seteh).
I’ve updated the Non Fire Emblem Properties (Other Games) post with the below entry under F2E - Other Game Franchises (Nintendo - Advance Wars - Max)
The big guy in the Orange Star Trio, the Direct Attack specialist Max. The first of my 2026 spritetober sprites as voted on by the people. I decided to take elements from all of his designs. His pose is mainly based on his Advance Wars 2 one, however his colour scheme is mainly from his Advance Wars 1 and Reboot Camp looks. His far shoulder and chest pose however were more based on his Dual Strike pose instead because I felt the full Advance Wars 2 pose looks a bit too weird. Despite his generally simple design, his challenge mainly comes from trying to fit it in the hackbox because he has huge shoulders and arms. His Advance Wars 2 proportions are probably when they are the most ridiculous (reboot camp despite the more cartoony look has a slightly more balanced look). As for his FE/Fantasy outfit, I thought he should be a Fighter class, but felt the Elibian Fighters were too close to his tank top outfit and went with Vaike’s Awakening design instead. However I wouldn’t be able to fir the shoulder pad in so he has matching arm bands instead of the arm and shoudler guard on one side. Overall pretty happy with how he turned out.
Plus a bonus compiled picture of the Orange Star Trio and the Old Orange Star Trio.
Ok so next sprite down. I’m currently on pace, but I’m about to hit a busy part of October, so we’ll see if I can keep up. Doing some of these characters makes me really want to do more of characters from their games, but I this months theme is the “People’s Vote” and I stand by what the people voted for.
Advance Wars - Max - Complete
Adventure Quest - Artix von Krieger - Complete
FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua
X-Men Anime - Storm
Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin
Advance Wars DS - Sasha
Avatar TLA - Mai
Soul Calibur 3 - Valeria
NIJISANJI - Watari Hibari
I’ve updated the Non Fire Emblem Properties (Other Games) post with the below entry under F2E - Other Game Franchises (Artix Entertainment - Adventure Quest - Artix Von Krieger)
Artix Von Krieger the Paladin and main face for Artix Entertainment’s games (mainly the Adventure Quest line (Adventure Quest, Dragon Fable, AQ Worlds and AQ 3D)). I decided to take aspects from his multiple incarnations as his original look, while very defining is actually quite low polish in terms of looks at a further look. His design has defined the Paladin class line in Adventure Quest and has actually changed from his OG look. His more associated look today is probably based on his AQ Worlds design with the Warhammer/Warcraft styled shoulder pads (and his hair cut has changed too from his OG look). I decided to go with his OG haircut, and shoulder pad designs but took elements from his more today associated designs for his chest piece, cape and cape/shoulderplate pins. Overall I’m pretty happy with how he turned out. I was dreading doing his shoulder plates and hair the most because the OG designs are very flat looking in most depictions even though his armour wouldn’t really be like that.
So I’ve managed to get barely ahead with completing Hong Hua, however I’m heading off to a gaming convention for the next two days and then required to be working on the weekend so we’ll see if I can fit in time to do another sprite. In other news I’ve also finished Cai’s route again and I will let you know now that Cai mounts and Charioteers are nuts (Charioteer’s class growths get extra bonuses at higher levels (35, 45 and 55 I think)) I’ve gotten a lot of full level ups with Cai in this run.
And here is the current progress for Spritetober;
Advance Wars - Max - Complete
Adventure Quest - Artix von Krieger - Complete
FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua - Complete
X-Men Anime - Storm
Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin
Advance Wars DS - Sasha
Avatar TLA - Mai
Soul Calibur 3 - Valeria
NIJISANJI - Watari Hibari
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Dagsion Saga - FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua)
So here is Hong Hua, I can’t really talk much about her character without spoiling Fortune’s Weave so I won’t. She does have a lot of impact early on in the game though so I guess there is that. When she was first revealed in trailers and character posts, I really liked her design. That and the fact that she was I think the first among characters revealed to have a Chinese name also piqued my interest greatly. Coincidentally her name translates to Crimson Flower (although her flower headdress piece is orange?) Although her colour scheme seems somewhat monotone in look she does end up using a lot of colours so I had to get creative with the palette usage. I also couldn’t figure out a way to get the hair bun tassels to look anygood so I ended up cutting them out. I’m pretty happy with how everything else turned out except for the headdress feathers, but the hackbox and colour palette limitations made it difficult. So I have made an alt without the headdress bits (including the triangles on the buns).
EDIT: Added another Alt with just the feathers removed
Ok this one was close to not meeting my own deadline. I’m currently trying to complete each portrait in about 3 days, but finding time to work on them is proving difficult. There are also some in this Spritetober list I want to do something a little bit more for than just the regular portrait too (eg the Advance Wars ones are getting fantasy/FE alt costumes). But we’ll see how that goes.
The gaming convention I went to was pretty fun, unfortunately my time got cut a bit shorter than I would of liked but it was good. I got to try out both Total Warhammer 40k and Stranger Than Heaven at Sega’s booth, a handful of indies and got my hands on a cloth Dagdan map and Ocarina keychain from the Nintendo booth there. An interesting indie I tried was called Canvas City, which is kinda like a X-Com style strategy game except its less violent being based on skating, graffiti and rocking out. The main gameplay thing in that is you pre plan your moves and then they all play out in one go for each character’s turn and you get bonuses based on a combo system. The aesthetics are probably more akin to Jet Set Radio too. There is a demo out on steam if that sounds interesting to you.
And here is the current progress for Spritetober;
Advance Wars - Max - Complete
Adventure Quest - Artix von Krieger - Complete
FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua - Complete
X-Men Anime - Storm - Complete
Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin
Advance Wars DS - Sasha
Avatar TLA - Mai
Soul Calibur 3 - Valeria
NIJISANJI - Watari Hibari
I’ve updated the Non Fire Emblem Properties (Non Game Franchises) post with the below entry under F2E - Non Fire Emblem (Non Game Franchises - X-Men Anime - Storm)
So back in 2011 Madhouse made an X-Men Anime. I thought it was pretty good and some of the designs were pretty neat. I think Storm’s look in the anime is probably the most drastically different from her cartoon and comic counterparts. She’s usually depicted with a lusciously large amount of hair, but I think the anime took inspiration from her Halle Berry design from first Fox Live Action trilogy of X-Men. For such a simple design, she ended up using a lot of colours, so I ran out of tones to give her her purple lipstick. Otherwise I’m pretty happy with how she turned out. I think if I were to adjust something, I would probably play with her hair tones again, maybe make them a bit more contrasty.
Alright here is the next portrait. This is another example of what I was talking about before when I said I wanted to do something a little bit more for than just the regular portraits. We are also at the halfway point of Spritetober too. and I think I’m probably coming up to maybe the hardest character in this list (Emperor Hardin). Although I shouldn’t say that before completing them all. (I’d say Max has been easiest so far and Artix/Hong Hua have been the hardest so far).
Outside of spriting, I’ve slowed down in Fortune’s Weave. I’ve finished Dietrich’s part 2 and have started Leda’s Part 2, but life has been busy and I’ve committed to some other things outside of gaming and work that need to be done sooner rather than later, so I don’t know how soon I’ll complete Fortune’s Weave.
And here is the current progress for Spritetober;
Advance Wars - Max - Complete
Adventure Quest - Artix von Krieger - Complete
FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua - Complete
X-Men Anime - Storm - Complete
Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant - Complete
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin
Advance Wars DS - Sasha
Avatar TLA - Mai
Soul Calibur 3 - Valeria
NIJISANJI - Watari Hibari
I’ve updated the Non Fire Emblem Properties (Non Game Franchises) post with the below entry under F2E - Non Fire Emblem (Non Game Franchises - Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant)
So I’ve wanted to do a shop character and thought the Cabbage Merchant from Avatar TLAA would be a funny one to do. For how simple the Earth Kingdom colours are, I ended up having to get creative again with the palette. The grey hair, the green uniform, the yellow undershirt, the cabbage plus a need for a white tone for the whites of his eyes meant he was pushing the palette limit pretty hard. However I managed to pull it off and I’m pretty happy with how he turned out. Now this is also the first time I’ve attempted a shop portrait. In a sense they’re both easier and harder to do. You need to be able to compress details to meaningful aspects to maximise the usage of space you have available. That and with your colour palette, you also need to make a shop background, which I managed to pull off, in a way I think his eyes looks more akin to his show look than his full portrait does. The main thing that bugs me is hands and hand shading, sometimes I get em, sometimes I don’t quite.
So this last one took a while, I got stuck on sort of trying to work out how to do this one, but I had to pull the trigger as I’ve gone over time with this one. That and I ended up pretty busy IRL so my time got limited. But now we’re over half way there!
And here is the current progress for Spritetober;
Advance Wars - Max - Complete
Adventure Quest - Artix von Krieger - Complete
FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua - Complete
X-Men Anime - Storm - Complete
Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant - Complete
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin - Complete
Advance Wars DS - Sasha
Avatar TLA - Mai
Soul Calibur 3 - Valeria
NIJISANJI - Watari Hibari
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Archanea Saga - Fire Emblem New Mystery - Emperor Hardin)
So after Rudolf from Gaiden. I think Hardin helped codify the big armoured Emperor/Baron archetype of villain you see in future FEs (Arvis, Zephiel, Darin, Vigarde, The Black Knight (sorta), Walhart, Edelgard,etc.) He was always going to be a challenge, especially his shoulders and fur cloak. His design is very consistent between the OG New Mystery, Cipher art, Heroes and New Mystery remake. So the main thing was trying to find a pose that I could fit everything sort of best. I decided to re use the pose of Ashnard and Farber (the lean back look down). I think I fit reasonably well. The proportions are probably slightly squished, but without some hackbox extensions I’m not sure I could make it look proportionally nicer. I might revisit to see what I could do with that, but otherwise I think I’m done with it here. I did 2 alts, one where he has white pupils for his red eyes and one where he is “normally” coloured.
So I managed to catch up, which is a bit more of a relief. We’re almost there at the end. Outside of spriting I’ve been continuing my Fortune’s Weave playthrough (I sorta took a pause after finishing Part 2 once), started Dynasty Warriors 3 Remastered and also playing through Gears of War with one of my friends. Overall I’d say its more Gears of War, I don’t think its ever significantly changed from its launch on Gears 1. The only thing I think which might be me misremembering is that there are a more co ed COG soldiers (I think the original lore had it that before Gears 3 only men were enlisted (with a few exceptions) because it was dystopian future world where women were reserved for population purposes, except in Gears 3 onwards the war has gone so bad for humanity they take anyone at that point. Other than that I don’t think the dialogue and world building is any worse for what people say it is online. It seems pretty standard for the course from the OG Gears if you enjoyed that. I guess the only thing people could find it lacking is the other OG pair Cole Train and Baird who are really larger than life charismatic characters (so I can see why people may not like the E-Day cast). It also has some semi open world area sections in the campaign compared to the very linear campaigns it used to have.
And here is the current progress for Spritetober;
Advance Wars - Max - Complete
Adventure Quest - Artix von Krieger - Complete
FE Fortune’s Weave - Hong Hua - Complete
X-Men Anime - Storm - Complete
Avatar TLA - Cabbage Merchant - Complete
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin - Complete
Advance Wars DS - Sasha - Complete
Avatar TLA - Mai
Soul Calibur 3 - Valeria
NIJISANJI - Watari Hibari
I’ve updated the Non Fire Emblem Properties (Other Games) post with the below entry under F2E - Other Game Franchises (Nintendo - Advance Wars DS - Sasha)
The female Blue Moon CO and Colin’s older sister. Her main schtick is that similar to Colin she is rich (and also seems more noble/rich like than Colin) and earns more money than other commanders. However compared to Colin who gets things cheaper, she can use her funds to debuff her opponents (and obviously buy more things). I had to re size her twice during the design phase because her initial design just looked way too big. In the end I think it turned out pretty good and I’m pretty happy with her design. As for her fantasy alt, I wasn’t sure initially what class to place her in, since I think a merchant better suits Colin or Hachi more. Then I thought about her noble background and then settled for her outfit to be based on Clarine’s from FE6, so she has ended up a Troubadour which sorta works too.
