-2015- Crazy Motorcycle

This has nothing to do with the Final Fantasy VII Remake. I started this before it was announced but I was just really slow at working on it. Though I think it also just took longer than most pictures in terms of actual work to be done because of the content.

When I do fan art, I try to present the familiar character(s) in a less common way. I first intended to have the infamous cross-dressing Cloud, but presented in a badass way (as opposed to played for humour like usual). I was going to make it battle-damaged, showing his regular clothes underneath and kinda combining the two designs together.

I was trying to think of a situation or pose next. A couple ideas were just a random battle/action pose or in Don Corneo's room about to kick his ass. I eventually decided on putting him on a motorcycle. I chose a basic side view since it would show his design the most.

But it wouldn't show all the elements of the design I originally sketched out. I guess out of trying to make up for some of my ideas not being able to be used, I wanted to add more to the design to make it more interesting. So I decided to combine elements from Yoshitaka Amano's designs too. His designs aren't consistent though, so I pulled what I wanted from several designs of his.

I carried that idea over to the motorcycle, using the form of the regular motorcycle but the patterns of the Amano motorcycle. It wasn't fun drawing the motorcycle (since I'm horrible at drawing things like that) but it was fun laying the base colours down, trying to figure out how to colour it like Amano's design since his motorcycle's form isn't a regular motorcycle.

A part of me didn't want to shade it since it obscured some of the colour. It looked closer to Amano's design when the colours were flat, but if I left it then it would've clashed with Cloud since I wouldn't have left him unshaded.

I put the sword in his right hand because he's right-handed. I didn't know why pictures kept showing him holding it in his left hand when he was on a motorcycle. Not knowing anything about motorcycles, it didn't occur to me until later that the throttle is typically on the right...
I could've flipped the picture, but it would've messed other things up. Whatever. Some motorcycles have the throttle on the left.

I think his legs are a little too short. Much of this was because I ran out of room on the paper (I guess I didn't lay it out very well initially and ended up trying to cram things in), but some of it might be because the pants are baggy too. It kind of throws off the length to width comparison, making his lower leg look more "stout" than it really would be under the pants.

I don't even know where to start with the sword. It's messed up. I don't know how to draw objects. His hand is behind there, but I don't think it would be visible at this angle. The end.

The "Meteor" trail was challenging both to match the colours as best I could and also to work out the shape and gradient since it wasn't the same context as the logo. But it was fun. I left the background white to fit with the Meteor idea...but it was also nice not having to do any background at all since I hate doing backgrounds.

I was originally going to colour this with my usual palette, but I eventually changed it to a turquoise theme to, again, work with the Meteor. In terms of the game, he wouldn't have been riding this during the day anyway (which my usual palette would've suggested, background or not), so it made more sense to colour it differently even without the Meteor. I'm not sure I'm happy with the results, but at least I tried something different.

I usually shade each different colour on a separate layer so I can adjust it if I have to without affecting the other layers. Yeah, it's very inefficient, but hey...I'm stupid that way. I'm no pro. I shaded this on one layer though. Well, two, but it's just a layer for Cloud and a layer for the motorcycle rather than each individual colour. I did that because there were just so many little colours here from Amano patterns that it would've taken me forever to do what I usually do on THIS.