Fan Art: Mordred Alter - Fate/Grand Order

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Thinking about FGO lately, I got really into speculating servant possibilities again; hypothesizing and theory crafting cool stories behind their addition and lore. Having always felt that the interactions between Artoria and Mordred are intentionally avoided in FGO, I wondered if there can be an opportunity for the two to really confront each other. This lead me to think about the idea of Mordred Alter again; rekindling my desire to draw her.

I am satisfied with the results, but I do also feel like I may have gotten a little ahead of myself; trying to do too much at once. It became quite hard to keep track of everything as I finished the drawing. This is definitely another point of focus in my improvements moving forward.

Fan Art: Arash - Fate/Grand Order

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

After becoming enlightened to the power of Arash in Fate/Grand Order (FGO), I felt like I had to draw a fan art of him.

This was a challenge for me since I've yet to draw effects in my drawings, so I was quite nervous going into the drawing. I could have done something else, but it's Arash, so it just felt right to draw him using his Noble Phantasm, "Stella".

Seeing as how there are so many interpretations of Stella out there, I decided to take a different approach. Instead of drawing the moment he releases his arrow, I drew the moment he draws his arrow; capturing the power of the shot during it's preparation, as opposed to it's recoil.

Hopefully I did a good enough job getting the idea across.

Fan Art: Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers - Viera Gunbreaker

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

A fan art to celebrate the release of the "Shadowbringers" expansion for Final Fantasy XIV. 

I planned for this to be posted before the official release of the expansion, on July 2nd, but things didn't really go as planned. My motivation to finish this drawing deflated a bit as a result, so progress slowed down, but it's done now. 

Although there are things I'm not as happy with, I think the overall idea and execution stands on it's own. I was worried I wouldn't be able to make the oriental cross cowboy style work, but it turned out more natural than expected. I think I can lean in even more on both aspects next time.

But most importantly there is someone I have to thank for this drawing. Sadly I don't remember who it was. I really should have written it down, or saved it somewhere. I tried to find the specific post again, but it's not as easy as I thought it'd be. Regardless, thanks that post on reddit I was not only given 1000+ views on this blog, but it also made me realize that my Viera Gunblader* fan art became a prediction of sorts; I laughed in disbelief quite hard. I wouldn't have done another FFXIV fan art without this post. If some how the person who posted that post sees this: 

Thanks!

Fan Art: Fire Emblem Heroes - Hoshidan Xander Autumn

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Ever since Xander's first appearance in Fire Emblem Heroes, I haven't really liked his art. It didn't really bother me like with Lyn though because I'm not very familiar with, or attached to, the character. But his Hoshidan Summer variant caught my attention. I really like how he looks in that outfit. I was surprised at how well the artist designed his yukata based on his original design elements.

The image of the above artwork was pretty much the first thing that popped into my head when I was thinking about what to draw next. A poetic image of a man enjoying a drink under the autumn sunset. It was too good to pass up. Also with it being seasonally appropriate, with the mid-autumn festival coming up, I really had no reason to draw something else.

Fan Art: Fire Emblem Heroes - Pirate Anna

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Seeing as how IS (Intelligent Systems) has yet to release an Anna variant in Fire Emblem Heroes, I decided to draw one myself. With the recent summer events within the game, something water related felt the most appropriate; and in Anna's case I couldn't think of anything better than a pirate.

This time I decided to lighten up on my colouring, aiming for a cleaner and quicker style. There is a noticeable difference visually, so I consider that a success on the "cleaner" front, but I failed spectacularly on the "quicker" end. I started this in July and was planning to post this by the end of the month, but as you can see that didn't happen.

Something needs to be done.

Fan Art: Megaman Zero - Zero

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

A two version upload! Here's my promised Megaman Zero fan art!

It's been awhile since I did a drawing with text in mind. Although I would've been fine only uploading the image with the text in it, I know many would prefer it without the text as well.

Zero has always been such a cool character since the Megaman X series, but I never thought he could get even cooler; or needed to be. That was until the Megaman Zero series. The new sleek design coupled with the story, set in the far future of the X series, gave the idea that this is Zero without his armour. It was such a cool idea then, and it's still cool now. How awesome would it be to see him again in a new Megaman game?! 

Too bad it's highly unlikely right now. But since I never finished all 4 Megaman Zero games yet, I can at least do that. I made an attempt before, but I got stuck. It was way harder than I remembered it being, haha.

Fan Art: Megaman - Charge Shot

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

After deciding to focus more towards composition and atmosphere over detail and accuracy, I felt that a fan art would be a great opportunity to implement this change in mentality. 

While talking with my cousin about what I'll draw next, as I finished my previous drawing, it hit me that a Megaman fan art would be the perfect next project. Not only would it serve as a great transition piece, but it will also let me continue my machine drawing practice.

It's kind of funny how, despite Megaman X being one of my favourite characters as a kid, I never thought of doing a Megaman fan art until now since starting this blog. It seems obvious thinking about it now, but I think the lack of a new Megaman game in recent years really hurt its mind share. 

But with Megaman 11 being announced this year, there's no better time to do a Megaman fan art!

Fan Art: Fire Emblem Heroes - Brave Lyn

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

A fan art of the character Lyn from the "Fire Emblem" games. This drawing, specifically, is based on the "Choose Your Legend" edition of the character from the mobile game "Fire Emblem Heroes".

I was disappointed with the official illustration of this variant of Lyn, so I decided to draw my own version of it. Although because I took the chance to give her Askr designs as well, this became more of an Askr variant; Askr being the country the mobile game's story is set in.

Overall I'm happy with the results. But the time I spent deciding whether the drawing was complete or not made it feel less rewarding.

Fan Art: The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild - Zelda

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

A fanart of Zelda from the recently released "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" for Wii U and the newly launched Nintendo Switch. Although it is a fanart of sorts it is much more a sketch of the official promotional art; which is intentional. I'll have the link to the artwork below.

This was mainly done to celebrate the release and launch of the much anticipated "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" and Nintendo Switch; although I missed the March 3rd date (T-T). Aside from celebrating, this was also done in admiration to the design of this incarnation of Zelda.

I had fun doing this and quite a bit of nostalgia as well, because of all the sketching I did back in my school and art lesson days. What surprised me though was how I still have similar difficulties in sketching other peoples' art as I did in the past.

Gematsu Art Contest: Sword Art Online Fanart - Asuna

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

To get things out of the way...I didn't even get into the Top 10... (T-T).

Gematsu (gematsu.com) is a great website for gaming news that I visit daily and I highly recommend it. It was really great of them for hosting this art contest, and I'd like to thank them for this opportunity.

A humbling experience is the only way I can describe this. Despite improving a lot since my first contest with Gematsu (Artwork: Sora in Advent Children Costume), there was actually less feedback during the voting this time around. 

There were multiple reasons for this which I had realized both before and during the contest.

(The second image should have been what I submitted instead.) 

Fan Art: Street Fighter V - Juri

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

My first fan art in a while now and oddly enough it is on Street Fighter. This is my first attempt at doing fan art in more of a character design illustration way. I'm happy with the results, but oddly unsatisfied at the same time; a first for me as well in this aspect. 

This is Juri in her alternate costume in Street Fighter V(5). 

Drawing a Street Fighter fan art is odd for me because I was not a fan of fighting games until recently, and I was not a fan of Street Fighter's art style; until now. I only became aware of what "traditional fighting games" really were after I played Blazblue Calamity Trigger (created by Arc System Works) on PSP. It got me into Blazblue as a whole, and later into watching the tournaments. 

Having found an appreciation for fighting games I decided to see how other fighting games compared to Blazblue. Street Fighter being one of them obviously. But at the time Street Fighter IV(4) didn't catch my eyes like Blazblue did. The character art and design wasn't really to my liking as well, so it just wasn't my thing. But Street Fighter V really caught my attention.

Although I still prefer watching Arc System Works games as opposed to other companies, Street Fighter V's overall art style made me like, and appreciate the designs of, a lot of their characters. But what really made me like it, were the animations. The weight of their moves can really be felt; especially in certain throwing moves. This feeling of weight grounds the game to reality appropriately making it enjoyable to watch just to see the characters move. 

But it was not until I saw matches of Juri that made want to draw a fan art. I've seen her in Street Fighter IV and liked her design, but I didn't really get the same feeling of personality and attraction from her as she does in Street Fighter V.  After watching a few matches of her in Street Fighter V, this image just popped into my head. I just felt inspired and wanted to capture her charm in my own way.

I intended for this to be a quicker drawing without too much thinking; kind of as an exercise for making quick non-sketch artwork. But it was much quicker than expected. Maybe it's because I got better without knowing, that I achieved my desired result without the amount of work I predicted I'd need (haha self-praise). I actually put more time and effort into the effects than I did colouring Juri herself.

My dissatisfaction is in the completeness of the drawing and the level of the charm that I captured. Close up I feel like I did a good job, but zoomed out I feel like some thing is missing in both departments. I don't know what at the moment still, but hopefully I find out why later. My guess is that the pose and the expression isn't wild enough.

I'm still proud and exited to share it despite my complicated feelings. ( ^ w^)b.

Let me know if you have any ideas to what is missing or any ways of making it better.

Contest Entry: Final Fantasy 15 Uncoverd Event Fan Promotional Item Contest

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

This drawing was done back in February to enter the Final Fantasy XV Uncovered Event Fan Promotional Item Contest. I decided not to post it until the Uncovered Event is over. Though I did not win, (T-T), I am very happy with this piece and posting this now is a great way to celebrate the release date announcement of the game; September 30, 2016. The characters in the drawing are Luna and Gentiana.

I was initially planning for a more chibi styled artwork since they have a high affinity with merchandise. But my brother and friend suggested me not to. I personally feel that chibi or something more cartoon-like would be more suitable, but this drawing really turned out nice and I learned a lot more doing this comparatively.

The thing I am learning the most recently, and improves my drawings most, is lighting. This drawing really shows how different lighting can make a drawing look. For a long time I only learn how to shade, but shading is not the same as lighting. I always thought it was the same thing. With shading alone a drawing appears very flat like looking at a printed picture. But when you add lighting, which is usually based on the setting your drawing is set in, it feels a lot more like you're looking through a window. 

I had to start a twitter to enter the contest actually. Still thinking about how to take advantage of twitter properly, haha.

For those interested it is https://twitter.com/WrittenDusk and @WrittenDusk. I have yet to tweet again, haha, just a heads up. 

Fan Art: Brave Frontier - Kikuri

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

A fan art done for a recent smartphone game I am currently playing and really like, Brave Frontier. This fan art is based on one of the units I have in the game, Kikuri.

Done completely on computer, for the first time, it turned out much better than I expected. There was a gap of time between when I finished the line work and when I started on colouring, but it didn't really disrupt my thought process; I didn't really have a plan in the first place really. It probably helped instead.

The suggestions I got from my brother while creating this artwork helped a lot. He got me to explore Manga Studio a bit more and take advantage of the program.

Contest Entry: Final Fantasy XIV Giveaway - "Viera & Gunblader Coming Soon..."

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

This was done for the "Final Fantasy XIV Giveaway" held by NovaCrystallis (www.novacrystallis.com). I didn't win this time as well T_T.

The idea behind this was to draw my own interpretation of the Viera race and Gunblader class weapon; in hopes of both Viera and Gunbladers to appear in Final Fantasy XIV soon.

Artwork: Sora in Advent Children Costume

By:WrittenDusk

Fan art of Sora from the game Kingdom Hearts.

This was created for the Kingdom Hearts Fan Art Contest held on the gaming website. www.gematsu.com. The contest was held to celebrate the release of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix for the Playstation 3.