I know What's Beneath the Snow Fields, a ridiculously long FF7 fic from 1999

Rhoey

Rhoey

Follow your heart.
AKA
Nikki
Odysseus said:
It's strange. Even looking at the sketch now she looks okay, but when I tried coloring it it really seemed like her eyes were too far apart and her face was flat.
View attachment 12203
Could very well be another case of me being too hard on myself, but it just got more uncanny the longer I looked. Here I actually resized the right eye and repositioned the nose, but it wasn't doing it for me. Eh. Final composition is more interesting anyway, though I do miss that strong pose. I'll probably throw the sketch in as an extra anyway.


Yep, there's the name lol. Out of all the SF art I have collected, nobody ever tried drawing him (a handful have a normal human Hojo) so I felt like I should do it.
Click to expand...

Loving them so far! Looking great!
 
Rhoey

Rhoey

Follow your heart.
AKA
Nikki
Okay, guys. I've done it. I've finished the painting.

For those of you interested in having a print, I have it available now on my Etsy! (Tip: You can also view the illustration up close in detail on there.)

Here's some pictures of the process, digital concept sketch to finished illustration:

aervin concept sketch 2 small.png

20220326_1925251.jpg

20220325_0848231.jpg

scan11small1.png

I used a grid to transfer the digital sketch onto paper and improved the drawing in the process. Then, I used a light box to transfer the drawing onto watercolor paper. Once the painting was done, I finished it off with some colored pencils to enhance the details. This is just the tip of the iceberg, really. I've done at least 15 concept sketches (thumbnails) before I found a composition I really liked. I wanted to go for a Yoshitaka Amano inspired vibe. The flowers I chose are Anemone flowers (aka wind flowers), and the reason is that their meaning accurately portrays the story of Snowfields, and is pretty much Vincent's struggle summed up:

"Anemone flower has a special message just for you, and this message is to never forsake the ones you love. This flower should be a reminder that better times are going to come no matter how hopeless everything looks right now. You need to love your partner and give support to them in times when this is most required."

I mean...yeah. At first, I was going to go with (primarily red) roses, but I felt that they are actually...super cliché. I wanted something with deeper meaning than "romantic love". Maybe the blue anemone is Aeris' flower in SF, in contrast to the yellow lily that's Aerith's flower in FFVII. Another interesting way of distinguishing the two, perhaps.

So, anyway. I've been battling chronic fatigue + headaches for the past week, and have been in kind of a funk as a result - hence the radio silence.

Super curious to hear your feedback on this. Hope you enjoy!

Much love, take care of yourselves, and happy Wednesday!
 
cold_spirit

cold_spirit

he/him
AKA
Alex T
This is amazing. My favorite FFVII character growing up (Vincent) with my favorite FFVII character today (Aerith). Thanks for sharing the meaning of the flowers, it fits so well and the blues really pop! So cool :aah:
 
F

Fryguy07

Rookie Adventurer
Rhoey said:
Okay, guys. I've done it. I've finished the painting.

For those of you interested in having a print, I have it available now on my Etsy! (Tip: You can also view the illustration up close in detail on there.)

Here's some pictures of the process, digital concept sketch to finished illustration:

View attachment 12250

View attachment 12251

View attachment 12252

View attachment 12253

I used a grid to transfer the digital sketch onto paper and improved the drawing in the process. Then, I used a light box to transfer the drawing onto watercolor paper. Once the painting was done, I finished it off with some colored pencils to enhance the details. This is just the tip of the iceberg, really. I've done at least 15 concept sketches (thumbnails) before I found a composition I really liked. I wanted to go for a Yoshitaka Amano inspired vibe. The flowers I chose are Anemone flowers (aka wind flowers), and the reason is that their meaning accurately portrays the story of Snowfields, and is pretty much Vincent's struggle summed up:

"Anemone flower has a special message just for you, and this message is to never forsake the ones you love. This flower should be a reminder that better times are going to come no matter how hopeless everything looks right now. You need to love your partner and give support to them in times when this is most required."

I mean...yeah. At first, I was going to go with (primarily red) roses, but I felt that they are actually...super cliché. I wanted something with deeper meaning than "romantic love". Maybe the blue anemone is Aeris' flower in SF, in contrast to the yellow lily that's Aerith's flower in FFVII. Another interesting way of distinguishing the two, perhaps.

So, anyway. I've been battling chronic fatigue + headaches for the past week, and have been in kind of a funk as a result - hence the radio silence.

Super curious to hear your feedback on this. Hope you enjoy!

Much love, take care of yourselves, and happy Wednesday!
Click to expand...
Wowwwww that looks amazing
 
Odysseus

Odysseus

Ninja Potato
AKA
Ody
Okay, book 2 will very likely be out within 2 weeks. I've kept everyone starving for so long, so here's the WIP cover art.
1656473870447.png

Painting is by Cat on Mars, who you may remember. It's not done yet, but I figured it was far enough along to give an idea. Vincent is climbing up the ruins of Midgar's plate, which has totally collapsed in Snow Fields' continuity, to make his way to the Mako Reactor where Aeris is being held captive by an evil professor who you probably know. All the chapters in volume 2 are set inside the reactor, so it seemed like a fitting location to feature on the cover.
 
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Odysseus

Odysseus

Ninja Potato
AKA
Ody
cold_spirit said:
Incredible. I love the parallels with Dirge's title screen art.
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My concept sketch I gave her wasn't a reference to that on purpose, but after I realized how similar it was, we decided to just add the giant moon to own it lol.
Dirge-of-Cerberus.jpeg
 
Odysseus

Odysseus

Ninja Potato
AKA
Ody
Fucking hell how has it been nearly a month already.

Anyway, Book 2 is finally here!

https://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/9623286/295e37dadae05fa27a95321315e53f594f7b19a8

I have not received my copy yet, but I'm fairly certain there won't be any issues. I've been pouring over this thing for months.

Here's your suspicious link to a free PDF version too lol:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ms3OmKBeN8P8zdKdqe_UJJv4f4kMRG9S/view?usp=sharing

As mentioned before, Cat on Mars did the cover art. Here's the final image
cover_Snow Felds 2_2022.png

love it, it's great.

So when's book 3?

Hahahahahahahahaha ha ha ha ha... ;__;
 
Rhoey

Rhoey

Follow your heart.
AKA
Nikki
That book cover is gorgeous, and it's really cool how it's accidentally inspired by the DoC image. I love when we subconsciously are inspired by something we've seen, or little "coincidences" like this. Not saying you copied on purpose, but that I don't believe in coincidences, especially not in art.
I will order my copy as soon as I am back home from my travels. Very much looking forward to it!
 
Odysseus

Odysseus

Ninja Potato
AKA
Ody
AngelaRose said:
Will book 3 contain all the new Snow Fields art that you've been getting? :D
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Yeah it will

Book 3 will have:
Chapters 83-100 of Snow Fields (about 230 pages, which is why I had to make three books lol)
Messages from Zahra's website's guestbook that relate to Snow Fields (20 pages)
Readers favorite scenes (taken from the first Snow Fields site, 2 pages)
Reviews of Snow Fields (taken from the second Snow Fields webpage, fanfiction.net, and other places, 8+ pages)
Fan Writing (taken from the second Snow Fields webpage)
The new fan art I got, as well as the few remaining old pieces I didn't use in book 2

Rhoey said:
That book cover is gorgeous, and it's really cool how it's accidentally inspired by the DoC image. I love when we subconsciously are inspired by something we've seen, or little "coincidences" like this. Not saying you copied on purpose, but that I don't believe in coincidences, especially not in art.
I will order my copy as soon as I am back home from my travels. Very much looking forward to it!
Click to expand...
It was actually designed as a reference to this image:
Vincent.Valentine.full.847710.jpg
and the layout was meant to be similar to cover 1:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa.png

Vincent is positioned on the left side again, the mako reactor is meant to be similar to the Shinra Building on cover 1, and the trees mirrored by the other reactor and the bent lamp post respectively. The premise of the image is Vincent making his way to the reactor to save Aeris, so f course he must be going through the ruins of Midgar to get there, and... well... all those visual elements combined accidentally recreated that Dirge promo art lol. There was probably some sub-conscious inspiration for sure.
 
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