Making of "Pterya"

Ah, nostalgia. It's something strange, don't you agree? That odd kind of fondness for something you used to adore, but haven't dedicated your time to in ages, but as soon as you see it, you start to feel quite funny and can't help but smile, as all those wonderful memories return to you. That's how I felt when I saw that there was going to be a trading card event centering around Final Fantasy X.

Some may not know this about me, but I've actually used to be a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series and for many, many years it's accompanied me and my creativity. It was what I used to enjoy drawing most, but then various things happened (including the loss of a very special person) and suddenly thinking about it made me sad and...Well. I just stopped playing the games and largely avoided drawing fanart of it. Years went by, I found a new fandom which offered me the comfort I sought and I guess it also helped me heal a little bit, because as I said, when I saw that FFX-themed event, all I remembered were the good times I spent in that world. 

I fondly recalled the hours upon hours of playing Blitzball, grinding the levels of my team so even Yuna could one-hit enemies with a simple strike of her magic wand and of course the many beautiful places and all those intriguing characters. No, there was no question about it, I had to participate, I really wanted to draw some fanart. 

Before I knew it, I had painted the Mi-ihen Highroad, next followed a scene of the young Auron and Jecht in Besaid (which was rather amusing to paint, especially considering that back then I never imagined I was ever going to draw Jecht at all) and then...Well. I challenged myself.

The event had three categories, one being characters, another landscapes and the last was creatures&summons, which presented me with a problem: I never really drew monsters before :'D; Of course I could pick the easy way out and draw Shiva, but she's so popular, I was certain another participant of the event was going to draw her... That and I kinda wanted to draw Isaaru, after all he's of my favorite characters, but I already had an aceo for the characters-category, so what should I do? Well, the answer was: sneak said character in the background and put the focus on his summon! X'D

Conveniently I remembered the scene in Bevelle where the group encounters him and has to fight three of his summons: Grothia (Ifrit), Spathi (Bahamut) and Pterya (Valefor). With that idea in mind, I had found the perfect setting for my card ♥ After that, the rest went quick. I looked at many, many reference picture and immediately knew I was going to struggle with Ifrit's beast-like features and that it was going to be just difficult to draw Bahamut (and fit him Isaaru in one picture), that's why eventually I picked Valefor. Since it's a harpy-like creature with a rather human body, bird-like feet, as well as face and bat-wings it should be manageable.  

Anyhow, now that you know how and why I decided to draw Pterya, I'll let the pictures do the talking for me ♥  Of course, as per usual, I added some additional information in the captions :)

That's it for now, I hope you enjoyed reading my post and liked looking at the WIP pictures. As always, you can leave a comment if you like, I'd appreciate it :3 Thank you! ♥