An Introduction to Character Studies

In an effort to help people draw their fan art better, and maybe also as a way to express my undying obsession with Ashe, one of the main ambitions during FFi's development was to write a series of intricate features, analyzing the designs of several characters from recent Final Fantasy games. However, most of my time was spent working out the technical issues of the website rather than writing—it's only now that I can get around to composing what could be called FFi's most important original content.

These studies of character designs are not technically tutorials, but rather a series of possibly-too-in-depth references for artists to use when drawing fan art. They could prove very useful for producing accurate details, understanding the underlying structure of clothing, or for capturing the essence of a character. If nothing more, I just hope they are a good read.

For the first installment in what will become a lengthy series, I examine the character design of the main female protagonist in Final Fantasy XII, Ashe. Sporting my favorite character design of any game to date, there could be no other choice to go first than the beloved bitter princess.

I will be meticulously analyzing different parts of her attractive figure, in the order of: Overall Figure, Face and Hair, Upper Body, Arms and Legs, Expressions. Perhaps this is a chance for other people to appreciate Akihiko Yoshida's excellent work as much as I do—or about half as much as I do, which for me would still be a success.

April 8th, 2008 PAGE 00