#Yusuke Mogi

[lunie-junk]

It's the new year in my timezone!! So have these! Mostly more experimenting with a Yusuke Mogi-inspired style!

[lonemiqote]

Crystal Exarch watercolor piece I made inspired by Yusuke Mogi's artwork for Shadowbringers.

This was my first watercolor piece in a lot of time. I enjoyed it a lot, especially doing the draping in his robe!

I'll probably turn this into a series for Shadowbringers. There's one more main character with this same color scheme...

[nightdragoon]

Quick Yusuke Mogi style study. Wild how subtle the lines are in his facial expressions. They're very hard to copy. 😮‍💨 This was fun, though!

[annaminijayan3dblog]

Red Vs Blue - Part 2

When I started working on the concept for the character, I decided to go on a more stylized route since I have always wanted to attempt doing a full body stylized character. While looking for references I came across a 3D artwork on Artstation by Joao Camara. I was very inspired by it and wanted my character to reach the same level. ArtStation - SAM - Modeling & Lookdev

ArtStation - SAM - Modeling & Lookdev

Concept Creation

I decided to use cultural elements from my birthplace Kerala for the concept of this character. I drew elements from an ancient performative dance form called Kathakali. In this performance, characters are usually distinguished by specific costumes and colors. Among the seven types of characters are the ones called Minukku, who are usually minor characters. Minukku characters are often female and therefore I wanted to give them more prominence by representing them in my design of the adventurer protagonist. Below is an image depicting the Minukku character.

I also decided to add design elements from another traditional dance form from Kerala called Mohiniyattam. In my mind the character has now developed into one that can perform dance moves in order to proceed through the game. Below is a jewelry advertisement depicting the Mohiniyattam costume

Abaran timeless jewelry advertisement

By combining all these elements I drew an initial draft of the character as shown below.

I also drew inspiration from characters like Lalafell from Final Fantasy and Zelda from Legend of Zelda

Yusuke Mogi, Lalafell concept Art, Final Fantasy XIV Key art of Zelda from Tears of the Kingdom

The final concept art:

Bibliography

Camara, J. (2022) SAM - Modeling & Lookdev, Artstation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WmrNXG (Accessed: November 06, 2023)

Thomas, P. (2015) Kathakali Female Character BNC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kathakali_Female_Character_BNC.jpg (Accessed: November 06, 2023)

Abaran timeless jewelry. Nrityabaran. Available at: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/09/0e/55/090e555b66e00f2420cc444e04b6b551.jpg (Accessed: November 06, 2023)

Mogi, Y. (2010) Lalafell concept Art, Final Fantasy XIV. Available at: https://sjc1.vultrobjects.com/cucdn/gallery-19/art/ff14-lalafell-female.jpg (Accessed: November 06, 2023)

Nintendo EPD. (2023) The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo Switch. Kyoto:Nintendo. Available at: https://www.zeldadungeon.net/wiki/Zelda#/media/File:Zelda_-_TotK_key_art.png (Accessed: November 06, 2023)

[robvalentines]

Endwalker FFXIV art by Yusuke Mogi

[rendermax]

[autumnslance]

The Creation of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers – Episode Four: Making the Monsters

Episode Four explores the enemy designs in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers as well as the inspirations and secrets behind its development, featuring interviews with:

Shinya Ichida – Art Team Lead Yusuke Mogi – Lead Character Concept Artist

[lookbluesoup]

One Twin is Transgender Musings

I have been thinking about this a lot lately and felt compelled to ramble. I’ve seen plenty of people headcanon Alphinaud as trans before, but wanted to collect my thoughts about in one place! No shade on people who don’t share this headcanon, I think you’re valid either way! 

Why? 

Science!!! In real life, identical twins are always born the same sex. They’re the result of a single egg that splits in two so all of their genetic information, including chromosomes which determine sex, are the same. (Non-identical twins, by contrast, are created when two separate eggs are fertilized by two separate sperms, so their genetics can be very different) This is a fantasy world where the moon is a prison for an angry magic dragon and a goddess made out of a giant rock sends you cryptic visions about how to save the world, so yes, genetics could work differently here too. But one of the twins changing their gender would be equally feasible.

Despite having different genders, Alphinaud and Alisaie are constantly mistaken for each other, to Alphinaud’s vague displeasure and Alisaie’s outrage. Which could imply at least one of them transitioned.

In particular, Master Matoya refers to Alphinaud as “Louisoix’s granddaughter” when they meet, which results in a quiet but firm correction from him. If Alphie is trans, you could interpret that anywhere from him not passing and her not knowing he’d transitioned, to Matoya misgendering him out of forgetfulness. When he asks about her relationship to Louisoix, she goes on to correctly refer to Alphinaud as “boy” and insists that she’s known him since he was a newborn. Alternatively, if Alisaie is trans and Matoya hadn’t seen her since she’d transitioned, Matoya could have mistaken Alphinaud for his sister and been trying to correctly gender her.

Fantasias! How canon are these? I don’t know. Despite being something that would be incredibly useful to a number of trades, they’re not to my knowledge ever referenced in game dialogue, and exist only to give ffxiv players a way to overhaul their character’s entire appearance, including race and gender. The description text refers to “legend” about how to use them. So at the very least they must be rare, either a relic from a lost age made with lost alchemy, or otherwise extremely prohibitive to craft in cost or materials or education. But who would reasonably have the resources to obtain something like this? Well, the obscenely wealthy and politically powerful Leveilleurs of Sharlayan, a city-state devoted entirely to the accumulation of knowledge and the furtherment of sciences, with a giant-ass library chock full of tomes on obscure, restricted, advanced, or otherwise forbidding arts, and Gleaners wandering the world far and wide to bring back obscure finds. If one of the twins came out as dysphoric to their parents, it’s hard to imagine them not upending heaven itself to help their child transition into a more comfortable shape.

If not Fantasias, glamours! Enchantments to fool the eye are widely and casually used by magic users within game lore, from things as simple as changing one’s clothing or the age they appear, to something as grand as concealing an entire canyon system from enemy view. One could easily use glamours to alter their gender expression.

Which Twin?

Though I’m personally a fan of the ‘Alphinaud is trans’ idea, it would almost make more sense to me if Alisaie was the one. Whichever twin did so didn’t feel the need to change anything else about their appearance except for their chest and potentially their bits. If AFAB, one might expect Alphinaud to make his features more masculine. If AMAB, Alisaie would already have the benefit of looking generally feminine from the start, and doesn’t seem to care nearly as much about her presentation to begin with. If one of them was going to change only the minimal amount and be done with it, she seems the more likely of the pair. 

Alisaie’s insecurity over being in her ‘brother’s shadow’ growing up could be compounded either by his transition leading to more attention and affirmation for him by family and friends, or by her own transition causing her to struggle with additional feelings of Otherness and isolation from her peers.

Alphinaud is implied to be quite a charmer with the ladies at the Studium (or at least shameless in his pursuit to impress them), whereas Alisaie struggled to even maintain strong friendships there. Similarly, this could be Alphinaud’s newfound euphoria lending him confidence, or Alisaie’s fear of being treated like an imposter holding her back (I’m also tempted to adopt a a demi or graysexual headcanon for Alisaie, given how she’s also seemed to struggle in this area compared to her brother)

You could also say they’re both trans, they both transitioned and really just traded genders, which would also be amusing.

[eveningandmorningstar]

From “The Art of Eorzea Development Panel featuring Lead Character Concept Artist Yusuke Mogi”.  

[ofthewhitewind]

Yusuke Mogi’s artwork ❤️

[britishmuffin]

Hyana in the iconic Yusuke Mogi dancer pose, for @holyja!

★ patreon || website || twitter ★

[lunie-junk]

Here's a second take using the same Eiko sketch from earlier, but this time in a style inspired by Akihiko Yoshida and Yusuke Mogi! I'm still trying to learn how to do this style haha! I'm hoping to incorporate bits of what I've learned into doing a "cleaner" sketch look that I can work into my 'fully rendered' commission style because I find that the most tedious one to work on. So hopefully I can cut down on the time a little with a more solid base?

[deathflare]

i’ve been dragging my feet finishing this matching standee of r’bhen (because i didn’t want to paint his clothes) but now there is a rly lovely tag on twitter that motivated me to finish!! def check it out ^^

https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mywol_and_Exarch_challenge

※ crystal exarch official art by yusuke mogi

[harmonicstupidity]

Shadowbringers main character artwork by Yusuke Mogi.

[dreamangel-ren]

Better late than never I always say! XD Finally finished this challenge piece (MyWoL_and_Exarch challenge via Twitter). Crystal Exarch art by Yusuke Mogi (I tried to get my coloring to match Yusuke’s..yeah..that wasn’t gonna happen lol).

[robvalentines]

Yusuke Mogi’s artworks for Shadowbringers ;