#this got long and i didn't even include that much detail omfg

[kozachenko]

I've crawled out of my cave after playing Final Fantasy IX for a long ass time what have I missed?

Artist's Notes:

I'M BACK BABY! A while back I made a post with a new style experimentation thingy but I ended up deleting it because it was just kind of a boring face thing, I was planning on doing more art but then I started playing Final Fantasy IX and uhhhh yeah so that game has kind of taken of my brain for the past two weeks and I am 20 hours into the game because I love it so much. I wanted to draw Vivi because Vivi is just really fun to draw ok? I've kinda been feeling really burnt out with my lineless style, mainly because of how hard it was to do lighting. I'll show one of my initial art style tests on the bottom of this post. Again, used to have it be an individual post but it was just one face so it was kinda boring, so might as well include with this one on the subject of art styles. I wanted to kinda mix some aspects of my older style with the sketchy shading lines with a more painterly way of doing the lighting (mainly in the shadows). All in all, I think that's my favourite part about this drawing, it feels nice to finally be able to do some proper lighting again, and I want to experiment even more with my lighting and rendering in future pieces. Also, part of the pant shading got kinda lost in the sketchiness, so for next time I'll probably focus on the clarity of the more sketchy parts of the drawing, since I did go with my initial sketch for the final drawing. I also gave up on the background since I had no idea what to do for it, and I didn't put too much detail into the staff as I forgot which one I gave him in my current playthrough and I didn't want to risk spoiling myself via looking up references, but that's ok I like how the singular yellow circle on it matches Vivi's eyes. Also I was having a bit of trouble figuring out how to draw his body and how to pose him, but I like how the pose turned out a lot. It was inspired by his idle animation when in a battle in game where he does a little shimmy.

Ok I need to talk about Vivi's design because I love it so fucking much oh my god-

I absolutely love how his face is just in complete shadow and only his eyes stand out, it's so cool and unique and I love how they recontextualized the original black mage design from the classic Final Fantasy games. How they did it I won't say because I don't wanna spoil the game, but someone give this poor baby a therapist because he goes through a lot. Actually, same can be said for all of the FFIX cast, they all need therapy (again, I won't spoil anything, please go play the game for yourself).

While I do love almost all the characters in the game, even though Vivi is most fun to draw, my favourite character has to be Zidane (the main protagonist of the game). He's a really fun protagonist, and they could have easily written him as a misogynistic jerk who doesn't respect women but they didn't, and I really appreciate that. He's just an overall cool dude who's a really nice older brother figure to Vivi and also just has a cool character design (who I also want to draw eventually). Initially in the game I was planning on grinding levels for Vivi to make him the tactical nuke of the party, but then that title went to a different character (who was initially multiple levels behind the group since I grinded the party in the starting area way to much before they joined, but now they are two levels ahead of everyone and have pulled the team through a lot of tough battles, again I won't say who it is because it is kind of a spoiler and the way the gameplay actually ties into their character arc is just so good omfg). Once I eventually finish the game I'll probably write a full review on here, so no spoilers until then lol

Also, I've kinda been burning out a bit with making Touhou art, which also made me a bit burnt out with Touhou stuff in general (although I will continue keeping up with the manga) so getting into other things (i.e. Final Fantasy and even Fallout since I've watched the first season of the TV show which is a whole other post for another day) has helped me refresh and given me something new to think about. I've ended up in the exact place I feared ending up, where I would start drawing fanart for it not because I wanted to but because I felt like I had to, so I'm taking a bit of a break. When I do draw Touhou fanart again I'll try to draw for the sake of myself, and to all the other artists and fanartists on this platform (and on any social media for that matter), take care of yourself and don't forget to take breaks when you need to!

(Ok part of that last paragraph was definitley influenced by the good ol' "it's 9:00pm and I need sleeb, but the message at the end still holds up, always take care of yourself)

Oh yeah, and here is that one style experiment I did btw

Man I really fell down the "Yoshitaka Amano art enjoyer" to "Final Fantasy fan" pipe line didn't I?

[cynocephaliiar-blog]

Wolfin Armasi was born Eva Marie Armasi on June 18th, 1981 at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois. Wolfin’s mother, Patricia Armasi (née Kearney) worked at the hospital as an ER nurse. Her father, Giorgi Armasi, owned and operated a small dairy farm in the tiny town of Anderson, Illinois; about an hour from Springfield. Wolfin’s younger brother, Michael, was born at St. John’s Hospital on September 1st, 1986.

For the first fourteen years of her life, Wolfin had a normal, healthy childhood. She attended the local school and assisted her father with milking the cows in the mornings and evenings, or she spent time looking after her younger brother while their mother worked long shifts in the ER. Wolfin was her father’s daughter through and through, and it was rare to see them apart. He taught her everything he knew about the land, the farm, the animals, how to survive in the woods for days on end. Often times he took her hunting or on long hikes through the surrounding forests. But most importantly, he passed on stories of his family’s culture. How they came from a distant country far across the ocean---a land called Georgia---and that they were once said to be the descendants of an ancient god. 

But her world came crashing down around her in late September of 1995. She and her family were on a week long vacation in British Columbia when the small, sightseeing aircraft they were on encountered unexpected bad weather and crashed down in the Campbell River area. Wolfin’s parents and brother died along with seven other people who were on board. Wolfin and one other person survived. After spending two months in a coma, Wolfin woke up in the hospital to the news that her family was dead and she was being sent home. She was forced to sell the entire farm and almost everything she owned, and she dropped out of 10th grade because she couldn’t cope with school and everything she was going through. Knowing full well that the state would put her in foster care and that she only had three years until she would age out, Wolfin went on the run, using the money she’d received in her parents’ will and the liquidation of the farm.

Something had been different about her since she’d woken up from the coma. Her senses were sharper than they ever had been before, and her strength was dramatically increasing. She began experiencing blackouts, lapses in memory, intense fevers, and restlessness. Homeless and struggling just to survive, she dismissed these strange symptoms as brain damage from the crash and didn’t bother to seek any medical help, believing that it would be better if she just died from them instead. In reality, the powers of the ancient god her father’s family was supposedly descended from finally awoke within her blood, emerging from centuries of dormancy that had been passed down from her ancestors. Her body was changing, becoming something more.

In 1996, Wolfin changed her name and slowly made her way to New York City, living on the streets there for a few months before managing to sneak onto a freight ship from New York to St. Petersburg, Russia. Still suicidal and struggling to cope with her newfound strength and instincts, she found an ex-Spetsnaz operative who reluctantly agreed to teach her how to fight. She excelled at it and learned quickly, but the adrenaline it made her feel aggravated her powers until one night she snapped, transforming into a giant, wolf-like monster and killing the operative who trained her. After waking up in an alley, covered in blood with no idea what happened, she was taken in by a man named Boris Kaminski. The two soon became fast friends, and he quickly came to find out that Wolfin wasn’t human. Rather than turn her away, he tried to help her control her powers however he could. In 1998, war broke out in Africa over a border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Kaminski helped Wolfin secure her first mercenary contract with the Eritreans and she spent two years fighting on the frontlines.

Once the war was ended and a reluctant treaty was set in place, Wolfin returned to St. Petersburg. However, she could not manage to find Kaminski. With her powers more under control, she spent a year living in Russia before moving back to the United States in late 2001. She eventually found Kaminski living in NYC, having immigrated there in the hopes of leaving his own life as a mercenary behind. The two reconnected and worked together on the docks of Brooklyn for a year before Wolfin was unable to handle the city any longer and she moved to a rundown hunting shack in the middle of the Catskill Mountains. She occasionally returns to the city when she’s in need of extra money and works short-term security jobs or looks for more mercenary work.