Shuren - FFXIV Au Ra commission
I realise I uploaded the images, but never did the writing for this painting. This was done I think in 2020 before I took a long painting break. While the ability to work from home in my day job was great for my mental health, the separation between work and digital painting was a very, very thin line. The work I was doing was important from a societal perspective, but it involved a lot of brain power and I found myself getting exhausted and wanting to step away from the computer after 8+ hours in front of it (I moved back into the role of Software Architect within an enterprise space, though a lot of it was reading through design proposals, doing costings, risk assessments, and security governance. You have to know a little bit of everything, see the bug picture, and also consider your part within the enterprise and all that goes with trying to develop quality software).
At the time of painting this, I felt really free doing this piece. Unfortunately I could not finish the last piece for the client (added the sketch down the bottom of the post) because I was so completely wiped out. Water was Shuren’s element, though her skin was also greens - so balancing out the colour palette, getting a sense of flow as though dancing through the water, and bringing in elements from FFXIV character design.
Below is the final client version. The client wanted her facial tattoos/ patterns to be a more royal blue than a light turquoise. These are the kinds of tweaks I do at the final client check in. This is a character portrait and illustration. There are things that you can negotiate with your client, but certain details are core to a character design, regardless of any art or design preferences and illustrator may have - and custom commissions are ultimately about capturing the client’s design - you want the client to be happy - for me, commission work, particularly character portraits has always been about trying to take someone else’s designs and painting it in my style - it’s very collaborative.
The client version
Initial sketch of Shuren
Odgerel commission - I really wanted to complete this piece, but at the time my energy was too low and ultimately I had to let the client know I couldn’t complete the work. I think this was the first time I’ve ever pulled out of a commission at this stage, but I knew that I couldn’t deliver the piece of work, I didn’t want to string the client on and also put pressure on myself into doing work when I was not in a great space. Luckily the client is someone I had worked with on a number of pieces over the years, so was understanding (plus client was not financially out of pocket). One of the benefits of this not being my full time career.