justira

@ff_press: [FFXII/Tactics] justira: Dark Knight Gabranth (G)

Daily Doodle: Of course he's a Dark Knight. Of course.

So.

The thing is, Tactics style is apparently fabulous for displaying shapely male posterior (hint: bottom left). And APPARENTLY I now have some kind of Noah FETISH (courtesy of chaosraven NO DOUBT) and got it into my head at some point, or maybe renay gave me the idea, to thus showcase Noah. We never see his ass, but I am willing to bet it is pretty damn fine. His calves came out pretty well turned, too.

The design is meant to be more or less in the spirit of previous job class porn entries. The design is obviously taken from Gabranth's armour, with simplification inspiration (and ideas for how to simplify Noah's face) from the Revenant Wings Gabranth art. Modified to look a little closer to the standard War of the Lions Dark Knight — the... things... on Noah's legs (tassets? cuisses? what the hell are they?) were transformed into the flary tassets of the male Dark Knight (though I kept a simplified version of the design from Gabranth's). The ridiculous crowny things on his poleyns are now the (embroidered) boot cuffs of the female Knight. (I have something of a habit of borrowing from both genders' outfits indiscriminately, though I apparently particularly enjoy putting little touches from lady costumes on the gentlemen.) I tried to work in bitty spikes on his pauldrons (quite bitty).

I had the damnedest time trying to get any kind of resemblance in the Tactics style — the faces consist of a generic-across-characters eye style, NO nose, and minimal mouth. What the hell am I supposed to do with that? Ah, I tried. He rather resembles a Beoulve, though — I smell an AU.

This did turn out more than a little busy without the colours I was too lazy to apply — those would have delineated the shapes and muted the lines. But overall, quite fun, definitely going in the queue to clean up and colour someday.

Time: 1.5ish hours, not counting the time I spent staring off into space.

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( Daily Doodle: FFXII/FF Tactics - Dark Knight Gabranth )

@ff_press: [FF Tactics] justira:
Monk Agrias Full (G)
Monk Agrias Prepares (G)

Backdated 2 hours
Daily Doodle: In the same vein as yesterday's doodle, it's a custom class design from FFT, with her only outfit and the female monk. For the pose, I tried to look at a number of refs but I didn't like any of them, so this ended up being unreffed. I had a lot of trouble because the outfits are exactly dissimilar: the monk is very simple above and complicated below, while Agrias is the opposite. I think it still turned out a little busy, but I had fun, and I love the idea of bare shoulders and arms on Agrias.

... so much so that I made a second picture for that purpose >.>

Time: 45 mins - 1 hour?
( Daily Doodle: FF Tactics - Monk Agrias Full )


I actually like the second doodle better, but I'm glad I drew the first one as well; I don't like the idea of Mr. Ramza getting an action pose and Ms. Agrias getting a passive one (plus trying to design the full monk getup was fun, however it turned out). But for all that this (the second one) is passive, I do think it shows her strength. It was hard to balance the Tactics style with the shading, and I don't think I quite did it right, but I enjoy the atmosphere of this one anyway. Ref

Time: 20-30 mins
( Daily Doodle: FF Tactics - Monk Agrias Prepares )

@ff_press: [Recs] justira: 3 fic recs, 2 art recs (FFVI, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFT)

Okay guys! There has been a LOT of woe in my journal lately! Sorry about that. I try not to leak all over the place. To offset all of the woe-ing, here are happy things!

DOINK! Final Fantasy Exchange is finally gearing up, and signups are open! WOOOO! Read all about the goings-on at one of our news comms, ff_exchange or ff_exchange. FFEX has been lucky enough to have some amazing people producing incredible gifts under its aegis. SO. Time for a long-overdue mini rec-post!


[Art] FFVI - Gotta make a good impression! (Gau, Sabin, Terra) by safety_caesars
Rating | Warnings: G, spoilers for an optional mini-scene in the game
Notes: FFEX 2009 Phoenix Down — Gau and Sabin brotherly love, Terra should be there too!
Squee: The expressions. THE EXPRESSIONS. Are perfect. I just. I have no other words for them. This artist also has a knack for making Amano's costumes actually look like people could live in them; in this particular case, Sabin's rather blingy and delicate tank top actually looks manly. Also amazing: Sabin actually looks like his brother here; I flailed about that so hard in my comment. Terra looks so sweet and young in just the right way, and Gau, beyond having an absolutely priceless expression, somehow looks hot. WHAT.


[Fic] FFVIII - Small Things (Squall/Rinoa) by invocations
Rating | Warnings: G, no spoilers
Notes: FFEX 2007 Moogle Fluff — ...Squall/Rinoa romance. >.> 670 words
Summary: Just a small moment in which Squall takes itty-bitty steps forward.
Squee: The characterization here is just so spot on! It's short and sweet and the narration so fittingly, amazingly Squall. This strikes just the right note of Squall/Rinoa for me: sweet in a rounabout kind of way, Squall taking small steps outside himself, imperfect and grumpy and just right.


[Art] FFIX - Pub Night (Zidane, Freya, Blank, Steiner, Beatrix) by sonopants
Rating | Warnings: G, possibly super minor spoilers but not really?
Notes: FFEX 2009 Gift for roughhandss — Anything from IX. Zidane, mm. Freya, mm. Blank!!!mm. Steiner/Beatrix is hot too.
Squee: This is in watercolours. Amazing, vibrant watercolours! Everyone's expressions are so awesome here, and this artist's style together with the watercolours feels so right for FFIX. Everyone looks lively and full of (fun) emotion. The interactions between all the characters is just great, too, and I will never, ever stop laughing at how badly Zidane is losing here. Hearts forever and a half.


[Fic] FFX - Shades of Red (Braska, Auron) by marmaladecat
Rating | Warnings: PG, some spoilers for the game's backstory
Notes: FFEX 2007 Gift for owlmoose — Auron with Braska and/or Kinoc, pre-pilgrimage. Gen preferred, subtext okay. 1,029 words
Summary: It's the strangest things that stand out.
Squee: Oh, oh gosh, this fic is just so beautifully sad. I love the relationships here, Auron's protectiveness. The red theme is wonderfully worked in, and just, everything about this story is so effective and lovely. So few words, so much feeling and affect; scenes and moments chosen so well. It's short, but it's heartbreaking, and it hits my FFX backstory buttons so, so hard.


[Fic] FFT - Antipyretic (Agrias, Ramza, Mustadio, Beowulf, Alma, Reis, Lavian. Beowulf/Reis) by ovo_lexa
Rating | Warnings: PG13, party spoilers plus vague general spoilers
Notes: FFEX 2009 Gift for mithrigil — "Fear and loathing with job classes." Take that as you will. 2,266 words
Summary: There are two ways of getting ahead: the slow, safe way that takes a lifetime to master and the fast, dangerous way that takes others’ lives.
Squee: My meta-loving heart just about died when I read this. Job class/crystal meta! In FFT! I AM NOT SURE I COULD BE MORE THRILLED. This also hits my "voices in your head" kink so hard (one of the reasons I love summons and summoning meta so much). Basically I could roll in the meta here all day. The punchline is heartbreaking and amazing, the disoriented and desperate air so good. Deliciously, deliciously creepy.



BASICALLY everyone should come play so amazing work like this keeps happening! SO MUCH LOVE TO ALL OF YOU! <3

@ff_press: [FF Tactics] justira: Ramza/Delita (PG)

Daily Doodle: OKAY. TACTICS FANDOM. WHAT GIVES.

When I was playing the game I was paying particular attention to Delita and Ramza's relationship and was like OH YEAH FANDOM, I just KNOW this is gonna be EVERYWHERE.

Hey.

What gives.

Anyway, uh. So Ramza is being a little... forward here. I attempted the FFTactics art style — shading included. Why, self. Why. I declare it... not a disaster =\

I know Delita's fingers are totally different sizes between hands, uff. I cannot handle the trashcan-lid hands in FFT oh my gosh ._.

Also, welcome to: adventures in cropping.

Backdated 1 hour.
Time: cripes like 2 hours? Don't ask me where it went. I wasn't even gonna draw anything complicated today.

( Daily Doodle: FF Tactics - Ramza/Delita (PG) )