Rydia of Mist

just finished this piece for a friend of mine's art show

Rydia of Mist from Final Fantasy IV, a long time favorite video game character been working on it for a long time because I have high expectations of the character.

I tried referencing the DS game more then the Yoshitaka Amano art because his art is very inconsistent and hard to use as reference, even if it's beautiful and inspiring.

I won't lie I redrew her about a good 20 times, so I will spare you with every iteration, but basically I had the idea she spins around and summons a mist dragon like her mother but also her first appearance when she's older.

the line art is as close as what I want but still unhappy with her breast and her head.

But still this is a new technique I want to draw, and I'm always unhappy how my line art works and more excited to paint instead. So the lines are more mostly guideline.

I had to realign her head. It's not quite perfect, in the final version I'm still not happy with it, but I still want to have the the shoulder up close to her chin.

A new color was added into the shadows, instead of blue I added a bit of orange. I was afraid it separates the head and the body very close to one another but I do think it's interesting to have different fabrics inspired by cosplayers.

Originally I wanted to have a wing exposed to cast a shadow over her, but I don't quite think it would work if the dragon's head if lean forward so much. So I pulled it back so her hand carcasses it.

Nice detail on the jewelry and splash details were added I'm still a bit not sure about it but I'm happy the overall color of it and movement. It's an interesting piece, I might come back and either redraw it or draw her again.