Sing with me a song of... happy birthday!
Hello!
I'm late, but I'm here! I was going to publish it on March 3rd (Azura's birthday), but because several reasons I couldn't, but here it is.
I've really enjoyed the Fates series. I dedicated +55 hours for Birthright, +50 hours for Conquest and I'm through Revelations right now with +50 hours! Azura is one of my favorite characters, so I wanted to dedicate her a fanart for her birthday. I couldn't decide if I prefer the dance she performs in Birthright or the one from Conquest, so I decided to mixed them together! Which one is your favorite?
I started by doing a rough sketch of the pose for Azura (I used photos and a 3D model from Design Dolls as references). This pose is a what I think is a mixture between the style of Azura's dancing in Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and in Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. Then I draw a clean sketch of the pose, I lowered the opacity and draw over it a sketch of Azura. The only physical difference (besides colors) of both attires is that she's wearing a veil during the dance in Conquest, so I draw it and I draw her rod to separate both sides. All of this I made it using a pencil in the software Clip Studio Paint. Then I made the lineart using a G-pen.
I applied flat colors and for the first time I colored the lineart as well. Then I applied lights and shadows. I applied a tip I learned recently where you apply white color in the blending mode Multiply for the shadows, and you color over it, and you do the opposite for the lights (apply black and use the blending mode Screen). It's useful because you can select the area you colored with black/white and you apply the lights/shadows without getting out the space you were supposed to apply them.
I looked for a lot of references of spilled water, Azura's drawing involving water around her and even some waterbending (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), as well as I watched some tutorials on Youtube. I drawed the path of the water, applied flat color, lights and shadows. I then applied some effects and blurs to the water.
For the background, I applied some shades of blue and some waves at the bottom of her feet and rod.
I applied some drops of water into the air:
And then I applied the lyrics of her song: Lost in Thoughts All Alone. The first paragraph is for the Lakeside Lyrics, the left one is for the Birthright Lyrics, the right one for the Conquest Lyrics, below them are some lines that are only from the full song, then the Revelations Lyrics (from Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations) and it ends with the last sentence of the song. The structure of the full song is as follows:
- Lakeside Lyrics (Chorus)
- Birthright Lyrics
- Chorus
- Conquest Lyrics
- Extra lines
- Revelations Lyrics
- Chorus
- "You're the ocean gray waves" (first sentence of the chorus)
Here you can see a version without the lyrics:
Here a version without the lyrics and without the front water:
And here is the final result:
I hope you like it! As always, questions, suggestions and comments are welcome.
What do you think about our lovely songstress?
GC6
Other sources where you can find it:
Hi gc6,
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I really like how comprehensive you are when you wrote down all your thoughts as to how you made this art piece. And the result is lovely of course :).
Congrats for your curie vote.
I'm glad you appreciate it :) And thank you!
That's a great piece of art, with brilliant use of imagination and colors. And, those lyrics in the background gives it a whole new dimension.
It also reminds me of Nataraja, a hindu god depicted as the cosmic ecstatic dancer. He is shown in somewhat similar pose, dancing and carrying a trident.
Thanks for sharing. I love it! :)
I'm very glad you like it! Oh, I looked and they're similar indeed haha. Thank you!
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hi @gc6
it was very nice to read your story, follow all the steps you did to create your design. The passion you put in it and all the details you thought! congratulations and thanks for sharing with us
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And I thought I would never see something dedicated to not only a birthday, but equally an art piece as well! Well blow me away as they would say it, because I'm just trying to recover what a power move that was to experience. But let's get real and gel back with reality before I lose myself to the motions (also Fate? We including the many spin-offs or are we focused on two different animes that just so happened to employ Fate as a word for the title?).
Unto the painting itself: The editing work is noticed and it's quite pecking-pan-tastic! That must've taken serious editing (nota bene, not the lyrics in the background being transparent to the image of concern), especially for the transparent water swirling around and to give them life. The left-hand side of her (her right) really tugs in on that wedding look while still being its own thing. From the tight stocking, to the curtain-esque detail of the skirt part of the dress, to the arm-tights and her head-gear (not to mention all the floral imagery or flower-provoked impressions on that side). To the right-side (her left), I actually quite enjoy the floral dress she's in. From the leg bracelet and the more apparent floral imagery. Also that staff bisecting her is just perfectly centered and quite nice to look at; especially helping to drive the look back into the center, as we do get multiple directions eventually leading to Rome- I mean the center from the body language to the water swirling around.
Unto the lyrics: very much beautifully crafted, pulling from multiple sources and structured in a way that works around her (like an envelope physically and metonymy-wise for her character). I got nothing to say other than making the lyrics maybe less transparent, yet that's it for that front.
On the post itself: to repeat what @scrawly pointed out on comprehensiveness - this very much was. From the progress yah painstakingly took to show the progress of yer art piece in stages, to explain what yah did to make the lyrics, to take multiple fotos (photos) / picturas (pictures) of the same thing in different development stages and to then have the humbleness for suggestions! Now that's an artist that understands their craft and knows they can always push for a little more perfection, for that's why we view things so heavenly. The little unknown thing that incites total perfection, but of which is already perfect because we have something to compare the entire beauty of something in relationship to a small nitpick. When we constantly have to defer to that small nitpick, do we feel constantly reminded of all the good things of a work and how beautiful it is despite the small nitpick. So truthfully: congratulations on that @curie upvote!
Hello @gc6, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Must be my favorite character as she shares my Birthday too. I just love the process and technique you use to get to the finished product.