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 TLAA - 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 TLAA - Cabbage Merchant
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin
Advance Wars DS - Sasha
Avatar TLAA - 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 TLAA - Cabbage Merchant
FE New Mystrey - Emperor Hardin
Advance Wars DS - Sasha
Avatar TLAA - 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.
