This piece was done for a Final Fantasy XIV themed “big bang” event. A “big bang” event is a collaborative fandom challenge where writers complete a piece of fanfiction for the event and are then paired with an artist who completes an accompanying illustration; all of the fan works are then revealed on the same day, creating a “big bang” of content within the fandom space.
For this event, I was paired with @KeeperofTenno who wrote Shadows of Mercy, a story about the NPCs in FFXIV’s Shadowbringers expansion.
After reading the story, I knew I wanted to have Cylva, the protagonist, front and center and to have Pauldia’s monster form looming in the background. I had several options for the rest of the background that I sketched out and sent to KeeperofTennno to pick between.
This was my first time using gradient mapping, which would then become a regular part of my illustration workflow. The process involved rendering the piece in grayscale first then mapping color values to the corresponding grayscale value. This process helps me create colors that have high contrast and readability.
