If you know me at all, you know that I love video games (I mean I do have some other stuff in my portfolio dedicated to the medium so, there’s that, and that, you get the point). Sorry, I just do. I honestly believe they deserve so much more appreciation than they receive, both developmentally, and artistically. They are literally works of art, especially now. They’ve also taken the classic clichéd and derivative trope of good versus evil, and invested some actual writing that goes beyond the abstract narrative. This is why whenever I am given the task of illustrating anything related to the genre, I JUMP at the chance. Thankfully the opportunity presented itself in the form of Gallery 1988’s ‘oNE Sheet’, a show they’ve done the last few years dedicated to the games on a broad selection of classic platforms (NES, Super NES, Genesis, & Turbo Grafx) . The only problem? There are literally too many franchises and personal loves to pull inspiration from. If I was given free rein to ONLY do video game covers, that would be a dream job, or at least it seems like it could be. I’ve always wanted to work in the video game industry, but sadly I lack the aptitude for programming.
I came up with a list which included close to forty titles. I narrowed that down to fifteen finalists, and eventually a foursome leaving only: ‘Castlevania’ (which I already had a sketch for), ‘Final Fantasy’ (our winner), ‘Kid Icarus’, or ‘Secret of Mana’. I’m not sure what swayed me to towards the 1990 (’87 in Japan), classic ‘Final Fantasy’, but I went with my gut and pursued it which thankfully panned out beautifully. This is a rare example of a layout/design I had ‘conceptualized’, come to fruition.
I started the design by first drawing inspiration from the original game box, and promotional poster. I recall it vividly, as it’s a game, and franchise very close to my own heart. I wanted to capture the essence of the old poster but give it a modern twist. I also wanted to keep the design very symbolic without character imagery, primarily because this first installment had no clear lead character. The game was originally designed with only character classes to choose from with preordained avatars assigned to each one. They could be named, but that was the extent of their customization, and your options were limited to: ‘Fighter’, ‘Thief’, ‘Black Belt’, ‘Red Mage’, ‘White Mage’, or ‘Black Mage’. You were also limited to only four party members, all available from the beginning. In relation to my design, each of the four warriors in the game, was charged with a dormant crystal corresponding to each of the four basic elements in nature (Earth, Fire, Water, Air). The goal in the game was to find and defeat the ‘four fiends’ (‘the Lich’, ‘Kary’, ‘the Kraken’, and ‘Tiamat’), in order to bring light back to the crystals, and ultimately defeat Chaos. With that explained (hopefully clearly), since each playable character is variable depending on the gamer, the only constant I had to work with were the fiends themselves. While I could have simply depicted each fiend, which in retrospect (like literally as I write this), sounds like a really awesome idea (variant?), I do like my works to contain more mystique. Instead, I opted to use the locations from the game where each of the four fiends reside. The flying fortress of ‘Tiamat’ is already well represented in the original poster/cover design, so I knew that wouldn’t work as the central figure, which sucks because I drew an amazing floating castle (IMO), rather quickly, and that airship is BEGGING to be seen at a larger scale. I ended up settling for ‘Kary’s’ volcano lair, as it had the most scenery to work with.
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I then created my ‘crystals’ in Adobe Illustrator, and eventually settled on a layout that would work with the title I was planning on adding later and the logo’s I’d need to place at the bottom. I then began sketching in Proceate the different fiend environments based on memory and the research I did on the game. I quickly settled on both ‘Tiamat’s’ locale, and ‘Kary’s’. The Earth, and Water fiends, were a bit more allusive. As I was drawing their settings I began to simply imagine what the area could look like. This was my opportunity to give these areas a redesign I realized so I took a different approach to them. In the game, the ‘Lich’s’ Earth Cavern is within a swamp area at the base of the mountains. I went through a few variations for the ‘Lich’s’ domain, before finally settling on the current version, and notably, it’s the only fiend lair in the game accessible by foot. The ‘Kraken’s’ Sunken Shrine was a different story though. In the game, the temple is accessible from the third floor, and only by the barrel after some other related quests (naturally it’s an RPG). I think with any of these, this is probably where I strayed the most from the original. Initially I was going to do a Sunken Shrine using a Greek style structure to keep within the rather (arguably), western design of this game. I ditched that after some thought, and figured I’d much rather design something that looked like it should be there. I began looking at underwater images for both lighting reference, and rock/coral formations. Eventually I settled on the final design we have here, which I think feels more appropriate.
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My next task was to ink everything in, which took some time. Upon finishing, I began the color process, which for once, I had a clear plan for. I knew I wanted to represent each crystal with a specified palette that stayed closely within a set of values (like the reds and oranges for the central volcano image). I also planned on using their complimentary hues in order to get the images to contrast. I had planned for this earlier, by also making sure that those scenarios, and their complimentary colored ones were distanced a bit in order to keep the eye continuously moving. There’s always a point, or aspect on an illustration will give me challenges in any given piece ranging from: layout, design, a pose, lighting, value, contrast, even a combination of all of them, but the typical culprit is color. Especially if I am using multiples and not just a set of values (monochromatic). I have improved in this area greatly but I still struggle sometimes, so I was very thankful that this piece came together so vividly.
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With the interiors filled, I still needed to address the title treatment, and logos at the base. I went back to my desktop, and began designing my icons, and font in Illustrator. I decided earlier when I began the color process to eliminate as much yellow as possible from my choices, as I had simply envisioned the title in this value. I also didn’t want the title to compete with the rest of image, and it proved to be a good choice. I also decided to add some subtle design elements to the crystals as they weren’t reading as glass or reflective to me.
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Having completed the image, it was still lacking something. I took the image back into Procreate one last time and did some experimenting with the different textured brushes available on the application. Eventually with enough tweaking, I managed to come up with what we have now. I think it adds a bit of implied ‘magic’, that the overall illustration lacked.
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Satisfied with the work, I sent it over to SGX in order to get a proof of the image before I ordered my finals. Thankfully, the image didn’t even need the proofing which was also just an amazing feeling. Unfortunately, this show had some image size guidelines, or really preferences, by the gallery. Thankfully I was able to locate an alternative printer (Costco), that could print the images ‘affordably’ at the size requested (16” x 20”). The gallery was willing to accommodate a smaller size, but I had already planned for a larger format, so it just worked out that way. I also wasn’t planning on using any type of special material for these, as the gallery had also requested a larger number for this (very popular) show.
The (“16 x 20”) piece is printed on high quality photo paper and was originally featured at Gallery 1988’s “oNE Sheet”, which ran from May 21st, 2022, until June 4th, 2022. Please check the gallery’s website for all available works related to show, including mine.
For more information, or to see a catalog of my other work, please visit my online store here. You can also find me on various social media platforms below doing a multitude of other artistic things that include hand lettering, and the occasional sculpting, crafting and painting.
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