The Au Ra Couple Project
Commissioned by my partner, this was perhaps one of the most challenging pieces I’ve done lately (partly because I’m just not great at people yet, haha!) This was a super fun piece to do though, and I’m very happy with how it turned out; it was really enjoyable to draw our characters from Final Fantasy XIV in a not too complex but still slightly dynamic pose.
The most challenging part of this piece, beyond the fact I’m still not used to drawing people, was probably trying to shade the armour of the smaller character, and the gold metal piece of the taller one’s. I don’t think I got it quite right here either but that said I am still happy with how it turned out; it’s distinctive enough from the fabrics and still has the sheen I wanted it to have (plus the client was more than happy with it.)
The shading on this piece is overall quite soft and in the future, I think I might try more variance in how I shade to try and exaggerate certain textures on things. That said in some places I think what I did works really well; I’m extremely pleased with the hair on both characters and actually found it really fun to do, too! In total this piece definitely took close to around 20 or so hours across several days, but I think it looks pretty fantastic (even compared to some of my older work from a little over a year ago!) and I’m very happy with the progress I’m making.
Gallery of Progress
The base, loose sketch! Little more than simple shapes and a bit of detail on the male's pose so I could better make it out.
Details time! Both subjects still use different colours at this stage so I don't accidentally bleed them together.
The final lineart, where all the details are finished up and any edits get made. This is the step where the sketch gets hidden!
The lineart gets coloured at this step once flats are applied, helping it to blend with the colours.
The final step before the background, this is several layers of shading later - and quite a few hours!