Have you ever wished you could customize your character's gear? Would you have mind-blowing items? Or perhaps something purely for aesthetics? If I could have all the items above, I would stop playing BST for a few days and just marvel at what I was wearing. Of course, there is a lot of custom apparel that does not exist in FFXI yet, so I have decided to design some for Lia below. But first, I decided to sketch Snippy again!
Snippy
Some of you might remember this critter, shown on Snippy Cam, as a belated Valentine's Day image. Although it was not meant to be awe-inspiring as a simple doodle, I think it turned out alright for something I drew on a whim. In total, it took me about ten minutes to draw.
However, I tend to be unsatisfied with my pictures after a glance or two; I really wanted a more realistic-looking Crab. Using Model Viewer for help, I attempted to sketch a Crab-like shape on Paint.net, but there is a limit to what I can achieve with a 2D medium. What you see above could probably be used in a coloring book.
This is my attempt at shading the previous image. Since I am by no means a professional artist, I still rely on guessing how everything should fit together as a whole. At first, I thought I might have been overkill with the shading, but in the end, I decided the picture was alright despite lacking more shades of gray.
Liabelle
This is my very first sketch of Liabelle, ever. Originally, I was trying to draw her with a manga-esque style; most of my time was spent getting her outline right. Like Snippy, I ended up wishing she looked more realistic, so I started planning my next attempt in advance.
This is Liabelle after several hours of adjustments. Most of my friends said she looked fine, but I felt she did not look cute enough. Eventually, one of my friends said, "[n]ot bad, but definitely could be better." I immediately asked him what was wrong, and he told me that the head was disproportional with the body -- among other things.
I did not want to scrap the previous picture at first, but after trying to salvage Liabelle #2, I decided it would be best to redraw everything (like my friend recommended). For this picture, I was told Lia resembled a "barbarian princess from Conan," something I definitely was not aiming for.
The main problem with Liabelle #3 was the face. Although I corrected her eye height, my friend told me her nose was too long and her shoulders too wide. This is when the copy and paste tools in Paint.net came in handy. By making a few adjustments, I managed to lower her shoulders and alter her hair in the picture above.
My friend also suggested improving Liabelle's facial features because he felt they looked too simplistic, so here is an attempt at giving Lia more realistic eyes and lips. The nose was still giving me a headache, so I decided to leave it alone.
Above, I have attempted to draw a flower strap (I know it sucks) as part of Lia's camisole. I wanted the camisole itself to be shaped like a butterfly, but I found it difficult to imagine what it would look like. As a compromise, I decided to meet my goals halfway.
Here we are at Liabelle #7. She has a slightly adjusted nose, another flower strap, and shading to the best of my artistic abilities. Unfortunately, I would need more shades of gray than Paint.net offers to improve on this picture; however, I believe it is suffice to hint at how Liabelle might dress on her non-adventuring days.
Note: The picture above might look awkward until you click to resize it; some of the shading on her neck might appear blurry from the preview.
No comments:
Post a Comment