Hello again everybody. As you may recall, last week I listed four things I wanted to get done before we hire a new person to run the show around here. As you could probably tell from the new look here, I got everything done already except the archives, and even there I plugged in everything posted in the last year. Anyway though, while that's being renovated, you can always find the old artist listings here. Oh, and let me know if I made any mistakes in the new archives too.

I'm anticipating people are going to complain about how I made fan art look more like Q&A, so let me just say sorry, I like this sort of layout, but whoever gets this job next will probably play with it anyway. Now the cheesy bit with the thumbnails, that you may feel free to bash me for.

Anyway though. Enough rambling from me for now. We have half a dozen new works for you today. Yes, I realize that's about half the standard update size, but seeing how this update had one twelfth the time for art to come in than the last one, that's not half bad I say.

Artist's Comments: I just felt compelled to draw a younger Lulu, just for a glimpse of what she might have looked like in the brighter parts of her youth. I made sure to put in little hints of her future appearance (and took the small liberty of a bit of self-reference as far as her choice of stuffed animal ^^).

The lineart is crowquill and ink over pencil on typing paper, and all the coloring was done in Photoshop. I did a bit of playing with textures and patterns and brush sets, and tried a trick with the pattern on her kimono that just didn't want to work. The original was full-color, but then I layered over a brownish gradient for that sepia effect, just to see how it'd look... and then, going with the old-photograph vibe, used a filter to make it grainy.

Curator Comments: The fat lined stylistic anime style combined with the look of an old photograph is an interesting effect. You don't see that sort of blending of such different styles very often. It's also nice to see this sort of look at a character beyond the context of their game every so often.

Of course, candidly I must confess that the main reason I chose this as this week's featured work is that it ties in quite nicely with what I have planned for next update. More on that later.

Artist's Comments: Since I did this awhile ago, I don't remember much about the process. I do recall that the background was rather difficult. And that lute (or whatever it is) bugs me to this day. This was done with Paint BBS v2.04 (yeah, that's oekaki)

Artist's Comments: This is a picture of Griever I drew when I was in 9th grade. I don't remember what type of pencil I used for it. I accidentally made one leg shorter than the other, but it still looks good, I guess.

Artist's Comments: I did this piece during the summer when I actually had TIME! Anyway... I loved the magical classes of FFT. They were so much fun once they were developed enough. I just started sketching out some of the character classes (by squinting at their actual concept art, as a few of these classes have never seen a fanart attempt) and then couldn't decide which one I really wanted to develop... so I took all 6 and put them onto paper! In most of my works, I go for a more realistic look, so this was a chance to just let my hair down and explore with my colored pencils!

Artist's Comments: Honestly, I didn't like Kingdom Hearts very much, but eh. Sora's outfit is pretty cool, and I'm bored, so here's the result. Weeellll, I DID alter his clothing a bit, but that was just because I was too lazy to check for references, and I didn't want to draw all those stupid belts of his. And now that I think about it, his flame does look kinda cheesy...Oh well.

Artist's Comments: I don't know if this scene is an appropriate representation of anything to do with Xenosaga's plot, but it was the image that came to me when I sat down to draw these two. I wanted to do something different with the color style. I call it quasi cel, as it does have some gradation in it.

Curator Comments: First of all, I must point out that this is an excellent example of what I was talking about last week in terms of drawing characters from more unique angles. For the most part nothing looks disproportionate due to the perspective either.

The only real flaw here is what I've highlighted in the thumbnail. You have KOS-MOS' left leg crossing her right here (albiet with the bulk of the leg detached), but her little pseudo-skirt looks just like it would if her legs were straight. There should be a rather pronounced fold right in the crotch there tapering out towards the top, with that left hip-guard tipped upward.

Another way to keep that leg stump from going M.C. Esher on you is to add some shadows to the right from both the stump and the bottom of the skirt. Come to think of it, with where you have your light source located and the general mood you're aiming for, you'd be surprised how much some more pronounced shadows could benefit this piece on the whole.

I'm fairly sure I posted everything I received this week. If I missed something of yours, the only copy I have of it must be buried in this mountain of 100+ applications for this gig.

On a related note, I'm only going to be running the show around here for another week or two (depending how long interviews take), so I figure I'd better get my cheesy theme day out of the way quick!

A while ago, in a context I don't recall, I pointed out that I could easily see Lulu and Kimahri from FF10 as a pair of detectives in 1930s Chicago. So your mission for the next week or two, if you choose to accept it, is to depict your favorite RPG characters in an atypical context. Vagrant Story's Sydney as an investment banker? Lunar's Ramus as the hero of a cyberpunk epic? Be creative, have fun with it. Or just submit whatever you were going to before reading my little pitch here. Your call.