“Leave your body at the door.”

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Final Fantasy 10 fan art (out of NOWHERE. Seriously.) of Tidus and Yuna from that amazing cinematic when they made out under the water. I know. How they went about that stunt is completely beyond me. It was a beautiful piece of 3D animation, though.

Have you tried 3D animation? It’s hard. I have a whole new appreciation for that type of thing after I got Poser 6 for Christmas one year and spent about a month trying to get the model’s hair to look just right. To no avail, of course. I used to have this amazing picture someone took of me looking through the manual with an enlightened look on my face. Now I know how to act just like other people. (That was a bad joke).

You may have noticed that I didn’t mark the game spoiler in this post. I think I’m going to stop doing that because it’s pretty safe to assume most of my fan art pieces (especially of couples…come on, people) are somewhat spoiler-ish in themselves and you guys should just read at your own risk. I’ll put a general notice on my “About” page when I’m all done and done-like with this post. This one. Right here. Done aaaand….done.

Here’s the beginning of some Fatal Frame fan art (like I nearly promised), this one if from Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented (Zero 3: Shisei no Koe) and the subject is a tattoo priestess.

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I decided AGAINST doing specifically Reika, the priestess that the game kind of revolves around because I just know some obnoxious otaku person will come out of the interwebs somewhere going “OMGwtf her tattoo didn’t look like that, you did it all wrong.” It never fails. Yeah, I know what her tattoo looks like, I have pictures. I just decided to give myself a break this time because drawing a replicate full body tattoo can be tedious if the occasion calls for it. Which it did. I DID botch up the pants, though. Anywho, a bit about the picture in reference to the game…

SPOILERS!!!

There’s a large house in the midst of mountains somewhere, where the residents of the surrounding village can offer up their pain to a priestess in the form of a tattoo. The tattoo is blue and composed of a snake and holly design. I haven’t played the game in a while but I think it said that the holly was supposed to represent the pain and the snakes are supposed to consume the heart of the priestess (this is all figuratively speaking of course) or something crazy symbolic like that. I don’t know, if I could find more out on this particular piece of folklore, I would, but books on this kind of stuff is scarce. If the game is fresh in your mind, feel free to correct me.After the priestess has been covered in tattoos (the tattoos can even go into her eyes) she is taken deep underground to the “Chamber of Thorns” where her hands and feet are nailed to the ground with stakes by four handmaidens, who are kind enough to sing to her a lullaby of sorts derived from the following lore:

Sleep, priestess, lie in peace.
Sleep, priestess, lie in peace.
If you cry, the boat you’ll ride,
The last trip to the other side.
Once you get there, sacred marks you’ll bear,
They shall be peeled off should you fail to lie still.

Go to the other side, go to the other side.
Cast the boat, take a ride,
Cross the rift, to the other side.
Further and further, to the other side.
It must sail, bearing your tattoos and our offering of tears.

Anyway, the thing with Reika was that the man she loved snuck into the chamber to see her, and the headmistress of the whole thing killed him right in front of her, so a curse was put on the place and everyone was miserable. The end.Here are some pictures from the game. The first two are from the ending cinematic, I’ve lightened them in photoshop so you can see that the chamber is actually chock-full of these half-naked, tattood girls. Pretty creepy. The second picture shows Reika and her lover (the girl in my picture is obviously not laying in the same position next to a dead man + she has a visible stake through her hand) and the third is just a CG of Reika I have scanned from my guidebook just…because.

Ahhh, here’s a fun fact: Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite Final Fantasy game. I can’t pinpoint why, I love Final Fantasy VII immensely, there’s just something about VIII that I adore. Anyways, here’s a piece I started (sometime) last week and finished today- - -

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It looks pretty flat, but I still think it came out pretty well. The last few things I’ve drawn have looked a bit minimal in the value range, but I kind of like it. I’m hoping this means my style is developing more and more, seeing as all the things I’ve ever learned in all the art classes I’ve taken have moved to the back of my mind, which in turn means I’ve either accepted the way I draw, or I’ve just developed a better eye for what does and doesn’t look right to me, which is great, because some days I just don’t know anything about what I like or how I feel about something and those are the days I should just stay in bed, but I always end up going out into the world anyway. I’m somehow capable of hurting peoples’ feelings while simultaneously holding doors open for them on those days. It’s very aggravating.Okay, for those who haven’t played this game (are you serious?) the subjects in this here picture are Squall (the boy) and Rinoa (the girl). This particular rendition is from a scene in the ending movie when

! OH GOD, PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD ¡

time compression and things occur and everyone in the party is separated. The ending movie goes back and forth between  (more…)

Aight, this one is NOT fan art, but it was probably 99.99% inspired by the song “Chie no Mi” (”Fruits of Wisdom”) by Rurutia, since I was listening to it when I began drawing aimlessly last night. If you haven’t heard Rurutia, I highly recommend her if you’re into experimental japanese artists. I titled the picture “Winesap” because she is holding a winesap apple. I know, I know, I’m just so creative. I’m not sure how much I like it, obviously less time and thought was put into it, if anything else I can keep it around as a scrap or consider it practice or whatever.

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The translated lyrics (which can be found on kiwi-musume, I’m not to be credited for these) follow:

The boy is still a child
He cannot easily feast on the fruits of wisdom
The seasons passed him by
Left behind, he knelt down
Mischievous eyes bore into his back
Growing sharper all the time
There’s a sharp, shining knife in my back
But someone please hold me
A chokingly fragrant olive
The boy met a girl
“You poor thing,” she said as she held him
“I’ve finally found you,” he said as he cried
I want to put all my feelings into words
But I’m panting so hard I can’t speak
There’s an apple shaking deep within my throat
Reach in and scoop out all my feelings
There’s a sharp, shining knife in my back
But hold me tight anyway
I want to put all my feelings into words
But I’m panting so hard I can’t speak
There’s an apple shaking deep within my throat
It’s panicking, unable to rot away
There’s a sharp, shining knife in my back
I’m covered in blood, please hold me
There’s an apple shaking deep within my throat
An apple that will keep shaking until the day I am reborn