Another solo portrait this time, August has been real busy. With Henry’s completion I only have 10 main party Gen 1 characters left to sprite (this excludes spotpass characters; Priam, Gangrel, Emmeryn, Walhart, Aversa, Yen’fay) and 11 main story characters to sprite (this is Gen 1 (minus spotpass) mentioned before plus Lucina). Definitely been an undertaking so far.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Henry)
For someone who doesn’t look like they wear a lot of colours, trying to work out his colour pallette was pretty tough. In the end I was happy with it though, making his hair white purple gave me just enough colours to sort out everything else. Back when I first played Awakening, Henry being Plegian didn’t make sense to me, his clothes look to heavy and him and Tharja look too pale to be people living in a desert nation (compared to Gangrel, Mustafa, Aversa, Validar). Although in hindsight it does look like at least white hair seems to be a thing in Plegia (Aversa, Henry and Robin).
Next Ylisse-ian, Ylissian, Ylisseian? I will say I have been enjoying Baldur’s gate immensely and would recommend if you’re into table top rpgs or played and enjoyed Divinity Original Sin 2 by Larian as well.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Cordelia)
FE Awakening - Cordelia
I do wish that Cordelia had some supports with Chrom, even if she couldn’t S support. I would of loved to see the interactions of a perfectionist who can’t handle the presence of her crush. That and if there was an S support, you could get a Lucina Severa sibling match up which I feel could also be a fun dynamic even though most sibling and parent dialogue supports were generic in Fates. As for the sprite her hair is what I’m most divided on. Her hair is long but its not as filled out volume wise this high up, but it looks kind of odd if I thicken it out this high up, but it feels bare with the shoulder plate covering it up.
i can see you’re having a great time doing these.
keep this up, and we’re eventually going to have the full roster for a potential de-make of Awakening.
cool stuff as usual dude~
Decided to work on two sprites this round, mainly because I’ve done a lot of male characters and wanted to mix it up. That and also do something not from Fire Emblem that is currently doing the rounds.
I’ve updated the main posts with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Libra + Beach Alt) and F2E - Other Game Franchises (Baldurs Gate 3 - Shadowheart)
So here is Libra, your pretty boy often mistaken for a girl character. I decided to make his pose based more on his art rather than his portrait sprite from Awakening because I liked the slightly more dynamic look of it. While doing it I like how his body turned out and decided to make a Summer alt as an excuse to show how he looks under his priestly clothes. I did think about giving him a cross necklace, but I thought that was a bit tacky for a priest going to the beach.
So I’ve spent a lot of time playing Baldurs Gate 3 and it has made headlines as a good standard of video game quality in the current modern gaming age. If you love table top RPGs I have spent almost 150 hours playing it since it came out, I have enjoyed it that much. To be honest I am a sucker for that fringe and framing bang hair cut that she has going on and I enjoy her character a lot in Baldur’s Gate, a strange amnesiac who has a lot of bark for being a cleric. I do wish I had more colours to play with, but I had to make do with what I could get my hands on. I have considered changing her skin colour a bit to be more peachy/pinkish, but for now I think I’ll settle with this.
Maybe I might do some more Baldur’s Gate characters, we’ll see how I feel and how much time I have, Starfield is coming out soon, so we’ll see how I feel.
We’re now 5 Gen 1 (non spotpass) characters away from completion, and 6 non paralogue and non Robin characters(in no particular order, Gaius, Gregor, Tharja, Tiki, Basilio, Lucina/Marth?) away from completion, so expect to see these characters. After the main story characters, I’m tossing up whether I do the Spotpass characters, Major Bosses and NPCs, or Gen 2 next. As for Robin, I’m thinking of some ideas, but I’m actually considering them after the other aforementioned categories but before some minor NPCs/Bosses, because I’m thinking doing several variants of Robin (I’ll need to think about this one some more).
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Lon’qu)
The stoic, female-shy swordsman Lon’qu. I was considering doing a pose based on his Heroes art by AKIRA, because I don’t like side on portraits (proportioning them is always tough) but decided on his Awakening portrait anyway. I used Seth as a basis for pose reference, and his head is actually smaller than Seth’s, but still manages to look big anyway. Overall I do like how he turned out, I would consider maybe changing his undershirt blue colours to be slightly brighter, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with how this turned out, except for maybe the Mitsudomoe symbol on his collar. Mitsudomoes are hard to sprite, I’ve attempted a few of them in the past with varying degrees of success, and ultimately the larger you can draw them the easier it is, but thats the rule in general with detail.
The last of the resistance in Valm, Say’ri the heir of Chon’sin (well in the main timeline anyway). Now we’re 2 out of 3 playable Chon’sin characters with Say’ri. This pose is based on her artwork again rather than her awakening sprite, although to be honest there isn’t a huge difference between the two. Fur/feather coats and collars are always a bane of mine when it comes to spriting, so I’m also so I’m wary of when I end up doing Aversa and Basilio. Otherwise I do like the general design of the Kozaki era Swordmasters.
Yen’fay is still probably a ways off, although he does have my favourite English VA (Kirk Thornton, who also voiced Xiahou Dun in Dynasty Warriors 4 - 8, Dorcas and Surtur in FEH and Don Patch in the English dub of Bobobo), with 5 more main story characters left. Then need to decide which group to tackle next (leaning towards spotpass or Major NPCs and Villains (Validar, Phila, Mustafa, Naga, Raimi, Excellus, Cervantes, Merchant Anna) at the moment).
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Gaius)
The thief with a sweet tooth. I like his design, its simple and gets the thief message across. When working on this one I did draw his clothing completely one way and then didn’t like and re did it entirely. It wasn’t until I added colour variation by adding the sack that things started to come together. Hands are still a difficult thing to sprite, to get the right proportions. I think Gaius’ here is slightly too small to me, but I found if I increased each finger by a pixel it looked to big. I have done 3 variants for insertion, I actually recommend the last one dubbed Alt 2, because it keeps his lollipop stick in his portrait, but when he is talking in conversations he doesn’t have it. The other two are just he has the lollipop stick in the whole time or he doesn’t the whole time.
EDIT: Also updated Sumia’s eyes so they’re not spacing out and her happy mouth frames and Chrom’s eyes too.
Here is Tiki and with that we’re down to 4 more characters main story non Robin characters left (going by Serenes Forest’s classifications anyway). I might sprite a character or two of something else other than Awakening after finishing the Main story cast before continuing again with another category in Awakening. Thinking of picking one to three things from the following topics ( WH40K, a new OC, FF, Non Awakening FE, Gundam) I’ll think on this some more. Somehow my end quarter of the year is looking packed so my sprite releases may still seem sporadic from now.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening Tiki)
I liked Adult Tiki’s glow up and it was amusing seeing her all mature and willing to step into the Divine Dragon role proper after seeing how she was in FE 11 and FE 12 (Shadow Dragon and Mystery). I think her outfit change is a nice blend of more mature (especially compared to Nowi) and having remanent themes of her original outfit. I wish I had maybe one more colour to add another hair tone. If I do revisit this one, I may change her red down to 2 tones instead of 3 and use one for another hair tone to add a bit more detail.
The haha speaks with a funny accent character of Awakening, that and I suppose he also plays the older wizened character too. Well in this case at least more lived. There were a couple of times when working on this portrait at least on his face structure, I think I conjured up Arnold Schwarzenegger a couple of times, I wonder if he was used as a basis or an influence in Gregor’s design. I ended up struggling with his face, because I think its supposed to be really tall, but If I made it any taller it would really look out of place next to the other characters. This also has an effect on how you can work on his eyes too, which was another source of struggle on this portrait. In then end I aimed to capture as much of his essence as I could in this while remaining in GBA style.
Hot on the heels of Gregor, here is Basilio. Now there are no Male non Robin main story characters left. That first goalpost is only 2 (2.5 I guess) sprites away.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Basilio)
Playing Possum Champion since 2012/2013. Probably taught Chrom a thing or two as well. Coincidentally I think this is the first bald character I’ve sprited from memory. I considered doing a mirrored version, but I drew his eyepatch on the same layer as his skin colouring and hair, so I felt a bit lazy there. Although IS were pretty lazy themselves and didnt mirror him either. To be honest, they probably goofed a bit with having so many asymmetric designs in Awakening, although I don’t think people really notice or offend too much because of it and mainly recognise when they aren’t lazy (Chrom). Still dislike fur and feathers, a bane of mine when it comes to spriting.
Alright, one down, one more to go. On my first playthrough of Awakening Tharja almost was my choice of S support partner just losing out to Flavia at the last minute, then Tiki on my 2nd playthrough, but was definitely mine on the third one. Then I went on to unlock all the S supports eventually.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Tharja)
Your pale goth dark mage girl, that lives in a desert nation with skimpy clothes. Yeah I don’t understand how she is pale as a Plegian while wearing what is essentially a bikini, but you know… Goth Yandere… Anyway, I took a while contemplating the pose I would have her in. Her portrait highlights her actual personality of someone who is hunched over their books and avoids eye contact, but I honestly wasn’t keen on recreating that pose. Her artwork is more seductive looking and to me doesn’t suit her personality as much. I also considered Rhajat’s pose as well, but felt that suits Rhajat better and I didn’t want to highlight the hunch that much. So I actually looked at references of Mai from Avatar TLAA and found a pose from some artwork of her that I liked for Tharja. From here I aimed to capture her portrait spirit, while in the new pose. If I were to revisit this sprite I would maybe re shade her hair, I went over it several times but settled on this one, that and also maybe her book as well. I actually added the book and hands last so I have also provided a no book alt as well.
Alright so all the main story characters are done. Honestly got a bit sidetracked with Baldurs Gate and Starfield so this took a bit longer to do. That and also got busy with some IRL things. As I mentioned before I’ll do a few non Awakening sprites before continuing the Awakening train. Do you guys listen to music, podcasts or watch something in the background when spriting or hacking? I found myself binging the Internet Historian content this past week while playing and spriting.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entry under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Lucina)
So Lucina. The first time travelling protagonist in Fire Emblem. I really liked that she took on the moniker of Marth as a symbol of hope and familiarity for Awakening. Everything she stood for started off pretty serious in Awakening, but then once the initial severity of situations were sort of calmed down or crises averted, it also showed how stunted her maturity growth was and how much of a dorky person she was. As for the sprite, I re used Chrom’s hair tones to show the relation and I think I ended up shading her hair better with those colours than I did Chrom’s. I originally wanted to use the lightest blue tone I had in this sprite for her armour shine, but it didn’t look right so I instead re appropriated for some slight details to her eye and then for alts with a brighter eye for her mark of the Exalt. I didn’t decide to flip the shield pin on her cloak so no extra mirrors there (otherwise that is an absurd number of alts for one sprite). The pose she has here is based somewhat off her Smash Ultimate render rather than her Awakening Sprites or artwork because I like the more dynamic angling of it. I did consider doing another pose as another option, but got a bit and decided to settle for just this singular pose.
There are 5 variations of Lucina here;
Regular, Eye Alt, Short Alt, Short Hair + Eye Alt, Marth? alt
So first break mug is Roboute Guilliman from WH40K. A good stretch in Hackbox gymnastics, armour practice and trimming practice. I am still anticipate that out of the upcoming Awakening characters to do, Walhart and Cervantes will probably be the most difficult, but I do enjoy challenges as long as they are reasonable. I think the next break portrait will be an OC, been thinking of a few design ideas.
I’ve updated the main post (2nd one) with the below entry under F2E - Other Game Franchises (Warhammer 40K - Roboute Guilliman)
So I mentioned previously that I wanted to do another WH40K sprite and here is the Primarch of the Ultramarines (actually my favourite Primarch) the Avenging Son, Master of the Excel Spreadsheet, Roboute Guilliman (don’t ask me how to pronounce that). I actually like the Ultramarine colour schemes, always been a fan of yellow/gold trimming and blue main colours. If I had more colours I would also do the wax seals on his armour as well. I also attempted his nameplate on his shoulder, but decided against it in the end, due to flipping text never ends well. If you remove the laurel and armour the head is kind of generic enough that he could also pass for a Soldier 76 as well, so I may release a armourless version for splicing purposes for people to use later. I have considered releasing some of my sprites in “pieces” so people could use them for splicing easier if they wanted to, or if they wanted to play dress up.
Here are the next two break mugs, an OC and a FF character. I think I’ll do two more then resume doing some Awakening mugs, although I probably won’t be purely doing Awakening mugs onwards.
I’ve updated the main post (2nd one) with the below entries under F2E - Other Game Franchises (Final Fantasy 7 - Tifa) and F2E - OCs (Sumer)
After doing Aerith, Zack and Cloud and watching some of the trailers for Rebirth, I decided to do Tifa. I do like that her modern redesign in the remakes is still reminiscent of her classic look but is suitably updated and practical-ish. I think if I were to revisit this one I would probably spend more time on the eyes. I did a couple of variations but settled on this one, I didn’t want to go too big as it is more associated with younger characters, and I still wanted her eyes to have a shine to them as well.
So this guy is inspired by art of a younger version of Gilgamesh from Civ 6. Which is why he is nicknamed Sumer (short for Sumerian). I really liked how his haircut turned out and his crown/circlet thing did. One thing I dislike about colouring darker skinned characters is that you run out of colours to use quick if you want to include gilding or trimming (unless the character is blonde), as those are usually done with skin tones or blonde hair tones (see Guilliman or Arthas for example). I wish I had more colours to make more elaborate clothes, but alas have to settle for the shoulder robe.
Recommendations:
I originally envisioned his design to be one of the following class types
Mage/Sage, Fighter/Warrior, Brigand/Berserker.
So I’ll continue with the Awakening sprites again, we’ll see who comes first. In the meantime, here are the last 2 break mugs I have completed. One for the CCC character who I think honestly gets overlooked a lot and one of my favourite Gundam girls (that and I haven’t done a non Game/OC character for a while).
I’ve updated the main posts with the below entries under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Elibe Saga - FE 7 - “Brave” Uhai) and F2E - Non Game Franchises (Turn A Gundam - Kihel Heim)
So pondering what to draw that wasn’t Awakening but still Fire Emblem, I decided on Uhai who I felt was often overlooked. He is a notable Black Fang member and lacks artwork. I think he used to be a pretty high up member of his Sacaen clan from memory but decided he believed in Brendan Reed’s ideals and threw his lot in with the Black Fang. So I like to imagine this is what he would dress up like if he was going for war and never left Sacae. The clothing/armour is based on Mongolian style dress, which is what I think inspired most of the Sacae designs (don’t quote me on that, citation needed). I don’t know why I punish myself with furs and feathers which I dislike drawing, but hey seems to be a common design factor in Sacaean/Mongolian clothing.
Ever since doing Mariabelle, I kind of wanted to do another character with ojou ringlet hair styles. Then remember Kihel Heim (also I guess Diana Soriel). Turn A Gundam is one of my favourite Gundam series and honestly has some pretty cool designs. The Earth characters are wearing Victorian era styled clothing and the mechs were designed by Syd Mead, who I think still remains to be the only Western artist to design main series mecha for Gundam. As for the sprite, well blonde hair and white clothing, quickly meant I ran out of colours, but I did see an artist draw her in some darker coloured clothing so I may do an alt down the line as well as Diana Soriel alts.
So here are the next two Awakening sprites, two bosses whom are pretty neat. I’ll tackle some more unique/major NPCs and bosses before moving onto probably the spotpass characters (Walhart, Emmeryn, Aversa, Gangrel) then the 2nd Gen.
I’ve updated the main post with the below entries under F2E - Fire Emblem (FE Ylisse Saga - FE Awakening - Mustafa and Raimi)
An interesting character as a one chapter boss, he certainly left an impression amongst most players. The honorable general and is probably considered Awakening’s Camus archtype despite being not a refined traditionally good looking knight. Unfortunately without either a extreme perspective or pose shift, we cannot fit the main bone spikes on his pauldrons in. Also, what animal are they supposed to be? They don’t look like Wyverns to me, more like mini Grima’s. The beard shading is influenced by his FEH art as his original portrait by Kozaki is more flat in shading, which I don’t think lends itself as well to GBA sprites.
The border guard for Feroxi boss. I don’t recall why they just picked a fight with the Shepards rather than hear them out. Seems kinda bad to kill any envoy on sight, let alone royalty. Again Kozaki’s wacky armour knights… Surprisingly not as bad this time to draw, although thats probably because this is the 3rd time. That and I’ve varied the pose each time, so it has stayed interesting to do. I do think Raimi and Phila were kinda of cool. I do like simple designs and it was a shame both weren’t used more in Awakening.
