Final-Fantasy-ish picture: have sketch, need ideas! Help!

[nerulean]

Howdy all! A friend asked me to draw a character for him in a "Final-Fantasy-ish" style, and I'm a little stumped. I love the genre, I've seen some of the games and one of the movies and I know what art style he means - that's no problem.

I just don't know what to have going on in the picture. I need something that's evocative of the Final Fantasy series to stick in the background, even if it's just a style of building, nothing that'll take the focus of the picture away from the character.

So, can you guys help? Here's the picture so far, please give me your idea juices!

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs30/f/2008/101/5/7/Shadow_lines_by_auen.jpg

[Kaeledra]

As someone who has played a lot of final fantasy games, I think what your sketch lacks is the sense of childish whimsy that the characters have. Even now that they have better graphics, the characters all have an innocence to them, in their postures and poses. Things like wider eyes, cocked heads, and less aggressive poses. I like your sketch, but I think that may be what you are seeing in it that isn't quite right.
Also, I can see that you haven't put clothing on it, but remember that a lot of what makes a final fantasy character is strange and outrageous clothing that is heavily ornamented (unless they are supposed to be a barbarian)

[Wreckingrocc]

If he's supposed to be a main character, he's gotta have blonde hair and a minimum of 25 belts.

Make him effeminate, just to keep the trend.

[Sneak]

The sword has to be ridiculously huge.

What ^ said.

What ^^ said. Just have fun with the outfit.

[Felixaar]

Hairstyle looks about right, but the action pose is probably not for the best. Leaning on the handle of a sword, grinning at the viewer is probably better, or depending on what kind of character. Remember final fantasy was always larger than life characters, so have the pose really tell you all about the character.

And yes, some kiddish charactersitics should be in there too.

And when were swords Ridiculously Huge in FF? Its just that in other games and also real life, they're Ridiculously Small!

[nerulean]

He's supposed to be a little bit of a dark horse character - not the bright eyed young hero who's your main PC and has to grow and develop and reveal his hidden power throughout the game, but one of the ones who joins the party later, with the cool points already attached, who probably has a dark secret and is certainly more worldly.

The picture is supposed to be kind of in-action, more like a still shot from a fight scene than a character portrait. I have a vague idea of him being mid-way through pulling off some showy special move, but I can't think of what that would look like.

[Wreckingrocc]

You mean like Squall?

[Lyinginbedmon]

You mean like Squall?

Sounds more like Vincent Valentine

[Kaeledra]

Yeah, sounds like Vincent or even Auron. But even Vincent had a very slender, childish face. Both have very high collars to make them seem "mysterious" too, which I think would make a big difference in this sketch. Vincent's just is open in the front while Auron's covers his mouth. An exaggerated scar somewhere might do that too.... ?

[verloren]

Kill the sword. Big oversized swords are a good cliche for the hero. You want a support character? You can probably pimp him out as a mage and still have 'cool points'.
Take his left arm that he has pulled back and ignite it. You can turn that sword into a quarterstaff easily. In final fantasy I always found the mages could pull off the more impressive looking skills.

If you wanted something that screams final fantasy try a chocobo (http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/species/chocobo.shtml) or a moogle (http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/species/moogle.shtml) both are common to all final fantasy.

[nerulean]

Auron is probably the closest to what I had in mind in terms of "character atmosphere" from the games I know, though Shadow's probably not quite as old as him, maybe 25-30. Big collar sounds like a good tip, so thanks for that. It'd suit him pretty well.

The character is already according to what my friend designed him as - he's a sword wielder, and as I have just been reminded, a dual sword wielder, so now at least I know what that other hand will be doing. The picture now looks something like this:

http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs29/f/2008/104/2/2/Shadow_2_by_auen.jpg

Which you will notice hasn't changed, except for adding in an additional sword.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of him being in the middle of some sort of overdrive-type of move, maybe using darkness in some way as a not-too-subtle play on his name. Any ideas for that?

[Quxelopqr]

Great picture nerulean! Overdrive involving darkness hm? I'd have the sword in his left hand have some black flames coming off the blade, along with perhaps a slight aura of a dark color coming off of him as well as making his own body looking darker, making him look like a shadow. The other sword might do something different, maybe it's pitch black and glistens (it might be ice elemented) or it could be the same as the other one. A scar on the face might add to his 'dark horse' mentality.

[Drglenn]

That pose kinda looks like he's riding something... maybe you could put him on a chocobo, have the hand in the foreground (right) holding the reins, swap the direction of the background (left) sword so it looks like he's about to swing it across him to attack an enemy below him then have a pair of scabbards/sheaths across his back, one with a sword in (to show that he can two-weapon fight). Then badass away with coat, collar, scars etc.

[Trazoi]

From his pose, I thought it was the left hand that should have been gripping the sword given it's all the way back out there. Now you've given him two swords it makes a bit more sense, but shouldn't the sword in the left hand be the other way round? (Or at least the grip on the sword should be flipped?)

[nerulean]

Thanks for the help, guys! There are some interesting ideas here!

I'm told that he rides a black griffin, not a chocobo, but I can't think of any way to draw that without overshadowing (pun not intended but unavoidable) the character himself. I've also drawn enough wings in the past couple of weeks to last a lifetime, so I think I'll have to rule that one out.

The grip on his left sword is deliberately inverted, because the character has a very unique fighting style that takes advantage of the fact that aesthetics are more important than physics when pwning bad guys.

I like the overdrive idea, Quxelopqr. Now I've got to figure out how to colour that...

[Mephibosheth]

What if you had him obviously "charging" some kind of awesome special attack, like in Final Fantasy 10 when a character pulls off an "armor break" or similar attack. There's always a period of time where they brace themselves and charge (maybe with some glowing on the swords or over their head or something) before executing an attack.