Midorisa's art thread

Okay, I'm taking part to the Inktober challenge this year and I decided to do one ink drawing once a week for this month. I wanted to draw a strong female warrior, as too often you see women wearing bikini armor and all that stuff. It gets quite annoying really, as sometimes when browsing sites like huaban or even pinterest almost every concept art illustration portraying women is like that. But yeah, I wanted to draw something else here, as it's been in my mind lately :).

Done with ink pens, black ink and white ink.

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Some fan art from VHD, as I've been reading the manga again. I wanted to try and make him look more like he's drawn in the manga, rather than the anime art version of him. I also tried a bit darker and desaturated color scheme with this.

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Oooh, I love the colour on this one!

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Originally Posted by Bubba

Oooh, I love the colour on this one!

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Thanks Bubba, happy you like it! :)

My second drawing for inktober. Inspired by Finnish mythology again, this time I wanted to draw the forest god, Tapio.
He's also often referred as king of the forest as well, and he takes care of animals and plants with other spirits.

This challenge has been really refreshing somehow. I sort of remembered how much I like drawing with ink :D.
It got me thinking that I should make this a permanent habit, maybe one or two ink drawings a month.
It would be great to be more organized with digital painting as well.

It's also nice to have a clear deadline to aim for, it's a challenge but it feels great when you get your work done in time :).

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I really love ink drawings, and I loved your strong female warrior.

Question, are you going to take part in the Halloween art competition?

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Originally Posted by Formalhaut

I really love ink drawings, and I loved your strong female warrior.

Question, are you going to take part in the Halloween art competition?

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Thank you, happy you liked it! I checked it out and it sound fun, but I'm not sure if I have enough time to draw something for that as well.
I'm a bit slow and also meticulous when it comes to drawing.. it would be handy to have extra pair of hands sometimes :D.
But I'll keep that in mind if it seems I can finish the inktober stuff faster than I thought.

Damn your inktober is so amazing. Maybe one day I'll get that good!

Your talent.. i'm so envious! Your colouring is especially strong.

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Originally Posted by Freya

Damn your inktober is so amazing. Maybe one day I'll get that good!

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Thanks Freya, happy you like them! Drawing and art is a 'never ending journey' really, you just need to take one step at a time and you'll get far and surely continue to improve. I used to think that "I don't have what it takes and can't get any better than I am now" but it's just about practicing a lot and determination to improve and having goals as well. Surely I still sometimes feel like that, but it often passes after a short brake.

Just as long as we keep drawing, we'll get better and eventually maybe achieve a certain skill level/quality we only dreamed of as a child or starting out, only the sky is the limit! :D
That's what I think at least, when I practice :).

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Originally Posted by ttokkii

Your talent.. i'm so envious! Your colouring is especially strong.

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Thanks! :D Happy you think so, as I've especially worked to improve my coloring. Still got a lot to learn tough :).

Okay, just like it says above, I wanted to paint some Mulan fanart. It's one of my favorite Disney films :).

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The last inktober piece I did before my hand got sore and I had to take a brake :D

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Some original digital stuff again, wanted to paint a white- haired character and water lilies:

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Traditional pencil/ink markers sketch, light sepia color added with coffee, was inspired by VHD as I started this when I
was painting the digital portrait of D:

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Thanks for looking ^^

I didn't upload for some time as I didn't have any FF related stuff to show, but well.. I've felt a bit uninspired and blue recently, so I've tried to find new sources for inspiration to keep myself going and to push my skills further.

Here is another original traditional sketchbook drawing though, again tools were pencil, markers and coffee:

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And since it has been an year since I drew my last Terra/Tina fan art, I did an another one.
I particularly took inspiration from the games opening movie scenes for this piece.

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Thanks for looking! ^^

Sorry to hear you've been feeling down lately. Things will be better soon. I hope you can keep finding motivation to continue your work. :)

I really like the level of detail in both the armor and hair of the first drawing. Everything looks really neat and polished. I also think you're really good at drawing faces. A lot of people tend to have problems with those, but you seem both confident and skilled at them.

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Originally Posted by Scruffington

Sorry to hear you've been feeling down lately. Things will be better soon. I hope you can keep finding motivation to continue your work. :)

I really like the level of detail in both the armor and hair of the first drawing. Everything looks really neat and polished. I also think you're really good at drawing faces. A lot of people tend to have problems with those, but you seem both confident and skilled at them.

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I hope so too :). I'm working on it, and I've been searching for new good series to start watching for inspiration. If anyone has a good series in mind, please feel free to recommend it.

Also, thank you for your kind words, they cheered me up! Faces are my comfort zone basically, as I've always liked to draw faces the most. The face is a hard subject though, as is the whole human body really and sometimes it's super frustrating when you draw one thing over and over again and you're still not satisfied with it. Your own quality standards just continue to rise and you try to keep up with them but you are never quite there. Eventually it can start to eat your confidence if you don't snap out of it somehow.

But it is also rewarding to see your own development through the years. I should try to remember that and just keep on going :). And remember to take a brake from time to time as well.

Both of these pieces are outstanding, Midorisa :D

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Originally Posted by Bubba

Both of these pieces are outstanding, Midorisa :D

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Thank you Bubba, happy you think so! ^^

As I started the 'elements series', I thought about doing the personifications of day and night as well.

This is the night part of the two, it came out really blue:
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I was asked by this one art company if they could publish this on their site, so I was really happy as it's my first time to get on any 'official' page. Hurray! :D

And I did another elements drawing as well, the earth:
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This took me longer than I expected as I got carried away, painted the birds and changed her outfit a few times.
I love barn owls, they have such beautiful faces. Well, I really like birds I general ^^

Both done in paint tool SAI and some finishing adjustments in photoshop

Thanks for looking again :).

They are both absolutely stunning. I love the colour on the first one but they are both equally amazing.

Good job!

Ooo yeah those are gorgeous! I love your coloring! I'm very impressed. I really like the blue hues with the skintone on the Night picture. It gives them a kind of Vampy look.

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Originally Posted by Bubba

They are both absolutely stunning. I love the colour on the first one but they are both equally amazing.

Good job!

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Thank you Bubba! I like the bluish and violet colors as well, and I seem be drawn to pick those more often than reds or greens. Now I'm painting the fire
element and it's a bit harder color scheme for me, as it is important not to over saturate the red colors but find other ways to keep it balanced and to have a nice contrast. Doing these element artworks has already taught me some important lessons about limiting your color palette and also about design. I just need to practice more ^^

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Originally Posted by Freya

Ooo yeah those are gorgeous! I love your coloring! I'm very impressed. I really like the blue hues with the skintone on the Night picture. It gives them a kind of Vampy look.

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Thank you Freya, glad you like them! I was going for something like the with the night picture, so that even his skintone would be rather cold and bluish just like night.

The third piece for the elements series is finally done! It's the air element and because of that I finally got a good reason to paint a winged, angel-like character :). I know this took very long time, but there's a good reason for that as this truly was a work full of obstacles.

It just happened that SAI decided to corrupt the whole file and turn it into one-layered, red pixelated mess just before I was about to call it done. I had to start painting again from one of the earlier versions that I (thankfully) had saved, but I still had lost most of the work I had done.

After all that I'm happy that still I finished this and didn't just leave it unfinished, and I'm more than happy to start something completely different :D.

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Oooo it's so gorgeous! I love the colors and the wings are so pretty.

Amazing as always, Midorisa :D

Oh wow! I like that one a lot.

How did the feather thing go? I know some people struggle with details like feathers or fur. Did you have an issue with that?

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Originally Posted by Lyndis Highwind

Oooo it's so gorgeous! I love the colors and the wings are so pretty.

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Thank you! I actually was a bit unsure if I should make it just blues mainly, or should I add more warmer tones as well to balance it out, maybe add a noon/sunset sky with a hints of yellow/orange/violet. But I left it like this, as I wanted to stop working on this already :D. Glad you like it!

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Amazing as always, Midorisa :D

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Thank you! ^^

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Originally Posted by Freya

Oh wow! I like that one a lot.

How did the feather thing go? I know some people struggle with details like feathers or fur. Did you have an issue with that?

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Thank you! Well I didn't have a big issue with it, but I did paint over some parts up to 2-3 times as I wasn't satisfied with them. But that also applies to some other parts of this painting as well, and I changed and deleted her whole upper outfit once and did her eyes and lips over for the same reason.

Reference always helps and is crucial to use if you're not that familiar with your subject. I looked at some pictures of different bird wings and general bird anatomy and then thought how I would like to stylize them for my painting. I also looked how other artists had stylized feathers and wings for reference.

I finally got myself to do some more traditional ink art. I have a new, adjustable desk now so that is a huge improvement to my drawing posture.
I hope it will help to get rid off those annoying neck pains while doing traditional work.

This is loosely based on finnish mythology story where the world tree is being cut down and its magical powers are spread across the whole world.
People prosper but some parts of the tree are found by dark creatures who then make weapons out of them. Laplands hound ironfang is described to be one of them.

So yeah, I wanted to try and illustrate my own version of the character, here it is ^^.
It's been a while since my last ink drawing so my hand felt a bit shaky :D

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Oh wow! That detail with ink! I'm very impressed. I struggle with ink. I tend to be a needed Ctrl+Z or eraser artists so I am always very impressed with people who can work with ink well.

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Originally Posted by Freya

Oh wow! That detail with ink! I'm very impressed. I struggle with ink. I tend to be a needed Ctrl+Z or eraser artists so I am always very impressed with people who can work with ink well.

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Thank you Freya! Ink is hard for sure, sometimes I have to remind myself when I ink that I can't press ctrl +z :D. White ink can fix tiny errors but you still have to be very careful. But, it's also very good to do ink drawings for that same reason, you learn to become more accurate and eventually your technique will improve and your lines become better. So I try to keep doing traditional stuff as well and not just digital art.

Awesome! It reminds me of Yoshitaka Amano's art.

Very nice, as usual! :D I can confirm the Amano resemblence.

Gorgeous stuff here. I'm really taken by your traditional sketches. :love:

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Originally Posted by Lyndis Highwind

Awesome! It reminds me of Yoshitaka Amano's art.

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Thanks! Well his art is and has been definitely one of my influences so I suppose that shows even when I'm not doing it intentionally ^^''.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Very nice, as usual! :D I can confirm the Amano resemblence.

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Thanks Fynn! Still developing my own solid style,so I sort of explore all my influences in my drawings to find the right balance and mixture so to speak ^^.

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Originally Posted by >_<

Gorgeous stuff here. I'm really taken by your traditional sketches. :love:

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Thanks, glad you like my stuff! I'll be sure to keep posting more traditional work, it's nice to have people interested in seeing both mediums here ^^.

I've been doing so much originals lately that I really felt like finishing some of the fanart pieces that have been laying around. This was one of those.
I started this more like an exercise, trying to emulate the FFX game art style quite closely, using screenshots as a reference. It was hard to find a good/clear enough reference for his tattoos though. Anyhow I decided to finish this as I though it would be fun to have some villains painted and finished as well.
Hope you guys like it and thanks for looking! ^^

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Wow that's so amazing Midorisa! I seriously thought it was a screenshot from the game!

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Originally Posted by Lyndis Highwind

Wow that's so amazing Midorisa! I seriously thought it was a screenshot from the game!

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Thank you so much Lyndis! Your words truly warm my heart, as sticking close to the original art style was my intention. Happy that I got it close! ^^

Uploading new art after silence, I've been busy with my life as I've moved to another town and into new apartment as well. I'm going to start my art studies here this coming autumn ^^.

Anyhow, long ago one of my followers on DA suggested for me to draw Undertaker from kurotroutsuji/black butler. Because I like white-haired characters and his design, I decided to give it a go and finish the old sketch that I had started ages ago. I also spent quite much time on the gothic window showing in the background, I can't believe it myself heh.

Programs: SAI (main painting) Photoshop (after effects and adjustments)
Thanks for looking! ^^

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Hi! it has been awhile since I last posted artwork here, as I've been busy with personal life stuff.
I just wanted to update all the work I've been painting since then, so here it goes.
First and the oldest is a fanart of San from the mononoke movie.

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Second is the last element for the element series, fire. I had already started my studies
at the university while painting this, so it was really challenging to find energy and time to
paint as much as I would have liked to. Happy I got to finish the series though!

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The last one is the first part of the new original series I decided to start after finishing the elements series.
I picked seasons to be the theme for this, and portray those through male portraits for a change. This is the autumn one.
It will be a challenge to paint the seasons often associated with much brighter and lighter color themes I think, but that is
one of the reasons why I didn't want to take the "easy" road and do it with females all over again. Let see how it goes ^^
I also got a lot of comments that the character looked a lot/ a bit like Squall from the FFVIII game. I certainly see where
those comments are coming from. I tried to paint a character with shorter hair style as I haven't done those with males.
I need to improve my skill coming up with different hair styles for males, and overall clothing design as well.

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On a side note related to the FF games, I've started painting FFVII character portraits and I would like to do all of them, sort of as a homage to
the game. So there will be FF fanart updates coming as well as soon as I finish them ^^.

Great to see more work from you again, Midorisa! Stunning as always! The fire one actually reminds me a bit of Triss from the Witcher series!

Also, can't wait for the FF fanart :D

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Great to see more work from you again, Midorisa! Stunning as always! The fire one actually reminds me a bit of Triss from the Witcher series!

Also, can't wait for the FF fanart :D

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Thanks Fynn! I actually had some problems with the fire painting, as I started to become too red, so I added greenish complementary colors. As those are often used in art by so many artists, it's not surprising an existing character had them in their design as well. I do see your point though, it's hard to be completely original in art ^^'. Her hair was blonde at one stage and spiky as well, but I decided it had to go as I didn't like the style on this character.

I though I would do the FF portraits in the style of the game, and almost use the same face angles as well. I have had this idea a long time, but I never started it as I felt my skills weren't polished enough. Still not sure if I am able to make justice to the characters that they deserve, but I will sure try my best.

Oh, don't get me wrong - I never intended to say that it reminding me of the character makes it unoriginal, far from it! It's still a very nice picture and the similarity actually made it resonate for me more, even though I knew any association I had between those two images was probably completely arbitrary ;)

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Oh, don't get me wrong - I never intended to say that it reminding me of the character makes it unoriginal, far from it! It's still a very nice picture and the similarity actually made it resonate for me more, even though I knew any association I had between those two images was probably completely arbitrary ;)

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Oh I see, I did try to come up with a design that I hadn't seen myself ^^. The originality stuff is just something that I try to develop, as it sometimes feels
like everything has been done and you can't be that original. When I got the squall comments, I took that as a constructive feedback that I need to widen my style and character design abilities. It's not good when stuff that inspires you shows too well in your own art, then you're just 'watered down' version of that style really.

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to update this thread with some art I haven't shown here. These are some months old already,
but I have had so much stuff demanding my time that I forgot to post these ^^;
This one I painted for Halloween last year, (not completely satisfied with it, as I was so tired keeping up with my studies and trying to
keep drawing at the same time, but I still kept drawing and that's the main thing)

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As I had long holidays I was able to finish this Aerith painting during Xmas. Her hairstyle is flipped on purpose,
as I somewhat felt that I liked her gazing to the right side rather than to the left. I wanted to paint her surrounded
by flowers. I also tried to be quite faithful to the original art style of the game.

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That's it for now ^^;

Those are so impressive! What's the first about? It kinda looks like a dark Yuna to me or something. Great job with the colouring too.

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Originally Posted by Rocket Edge

Those are so impressive! What's the first about? It kinda looks like a dark Yuna to me or something. Great job with the colouring too.

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Thanks! The first one is original work, I forgot to write the description for it. The character is my own, she is a sorceress. As a special power, she can boost her spells with blood ( her own or her opponents). She doesn't have a name yet, but maybe I will come up with one as I draw her more. With this illustration, I wanted to do something with a slightly creepy atmosphere.

I love your style. It's very three-dimensional and solid/tangible feeling. I've tried drawing stuff in that sort of (solid/detailed/well-shaded) style before and I always fall flat...

Thank you so much, happy you like my stuff! I'm still very much learning myself, but I can share some tips that help me when I paint. I try to think everything in 3d form and a good tip is to think you're sculpting the forms as you paint them. And of course looking at photographs and real world (such as lighting) is important, and you can also learn a lot by looking at other artists work and how they paint things and light. But yeah, the only option is just to practice, and 'failure' is a core part of that process and learning. You learn the most when you fail, and well I've failed many many times and will continue to "fail" in the future as well. Art and painting often feels like a problem solving and trial and error process for me as well. I think it is just important to keep going and just draw, if that's what you love to do :).

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Originally Posted by Black Magic Shopkeeper

I love your style. It's very three-dimensional and solid/tangible feeling. I've tried drawing stuff in that sort of (solid/detailed/well-shaded) style before and I always fall flat...

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Hello, I'm back again with some new fanart ^^.
I started to play Final fantasy IX again some months ago during holidays. Got really really inspired again and so I started this
painting as I played, a fanart of general Beatrix. I wanted to paint her in garden, inspired by the garden/sematary area in Alexandria. I listened to her theme "rose of may"
a lot while I was painting this, so I added roses to fit the theme and also to compliment the colors in her design/clothing.

Hope you guys like it, I took some artistic liberties while painting her swords handle and the decorations of her belt, but overall I
tried to stick close to the originals stylized art style :).
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Just some original art again, she is a moon elf and she often wanders the woods and fields during the night, as the moonlight is the source for her magic powers. I wanted to try to portray the magical shimmer and glow in her hair :)

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Beautiful work once again, Midorisa :D

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Originally Posted by Bubba

Beautiful work once again, Midorisa :D

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Thank you! :)

Just some original art done over a month ago, inspired by springtime ^^
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Awesome as usual ;)

Your shading and lighting is always so well done. I'm very impressed

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Awesome as usual ;)

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Thanks! :)

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Originally Posted by Freya

Your shading and lighting is always so well done. I'm very impressed

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Aaw thanks, I've much to learn tough ^^

Personal work inspired by loosely based on a Finnish forest goddess, Mielikki. As it is summer, I wanted to paint something green and bright.
About the character, she is a goddess of forest and hunt, as well as an adept healer. She is the protector of the woods, and one must behave well when entering her forest. I wanted to portray and design her thinking about her as a character/personality and also what skills she would use. She can summon spirits of wild animals to aid her, and as her physical weapon she uses a bow with magical arrows. She rules over the forest with her partner and spouse Tapio, king of the forest. She is described to wear a blue cape, so I included that into her design.

This took me quite some time, as I tried a new workflow with this. I have a bad habit of overworking on my artworks, and It is hard to decide when it is finished and you just keep adjusting. So even though I could spend some more days with this, I decided to let this go and move on to next painting already. Also I'm sorry for being inactive, I had to take some weeks off to relax and just enjoy summer to charge my creative batteries. Next one will be FFVII related work :).

Thanks for looking ^^

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I really like the wildlife in the back, it's a nice touch. As always, it looks very well done and I don't think you over worked it.

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Originally Posted by sharkythesharkdogg

I really like the wildlife in the back, it's a nice touch. As always, it looks very well done and I don't think you over worked it.

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Thanks for the feedback! It was a challenge to balance all the elements together, so I'm happy it worked out in the end. The overworking stuff might be just me getting tired at some point to work on the same piece and staring at it for too long. I try to find and develop a better workflow to become faster and more efficient painter, to aid that feeling of hating every painting by the time it is finished..:D. Not sure if that will ever change though, you kind of have to slightly dislike your own artwork to become better artist :D

Sorry for the TLDR (I did read all one time but cannot remember!). Is your profession in art of some kind? Your art is absolutely beautiful.

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Originally Posted by Rocket Edge

Sorry for the TLDR (I did read all one time but cannot remember!). Is your profession in art of some kind? Your art is absolutely beautiful.

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It's okay, and thank you for your kind words! I just recently started taking commissions of illustration artwork for clients, but I am also studying graphic design at the university at the faculty of arts, starting my second year now. I mainly applied there because I want to specialize and tailor my studies towards art and illustration. Sadly there are no concept art or animation/ game related schools in my country, but I still study in my own time to become better as an artist :).

This was a commission for a private client, fanart of Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. The clients request was to reference the original design. All the main elements, such as request for brighter background and including black feathers, are done according to commissioners wishes, but I also had plenty of artistic liberty. So I tried to stick with elements that would fit the character and the story. I think this is the longest I've ever spent on painting special effects or magical stuff. I tried using special brushes to speed the process but they just didn't work, so I ended up painting everything by hand.

All in all it was a pleasure working on this commission, and it was surely something thematically different comparing to my latest personal works. This was a nice challenge as well, working with the limited color palette and visual elements and to make them seem balanced.

I worked quite hard an repainted quite many parts in this during the process, and I'm still not completely happy with it. But I do you guys like it nonetheless, I think I will do something related to autumn next ^^

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Haven't been posting here for a while, so thought to update this thread with new autumn-inspired artwork done during holidays :) She is an autumn spirit/fairy, and one can see her mostly when sun has started to set and paints the autumn leaves even more vibrant red. Her calming presence draws the wild animals towards her, so they often accompany her.

This was a lot of work and kind of grew bigger and bigger during the process, so I felt a bit exhausted after I finished this to be honest. So now I am trying to find my inspiration and courage again to paint bigger paintings, in the meantime I try to paint comfort-zoney stuff to keep myself painting but avoid too much artistic pressure for now.:shobon: Well, that will never go away completely, but right now I feel way too intimidated to do continue working on the paintings I have waiting for me, as those are even more demanding in terms of skill and I am kind of tired to trying super hard to exceed my own skills with every painting, so yeah, I think I need those comfort zone paintings right now. But enough of me ranting, hope you like the painting ^^

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