This is a picture I've been working on for a while now... It's actually a tribute to a wonderful piece of artwork from back in the days of Square.net, translated into Australian for the viewing pleasure of our friends Down Under.

Actually sitting down and drawing this piece was a bit more difficult than people might think. I went through numerous draft sketches in an effort to come up with the perfect pose and expression. The one I finally settled on, I must admit, uses a lot of artistic lisence, but I think that in this case it actually serves to accentuate his plight as a lone hero, coping with the anger of being betrayed by his best friend, while at the same time fighting to save the world and the woman he loves.

The actual drawing was done in Fractal Design Painter 4, then touched up with Photoshop 5.5. Originally, I had planned to use a drawn background, but passed that up in favor of a 3D Studio CG rendering. Although some may disagree with me, I think the combination of hand-drawn and CG elements really works well with this particular interpretation.

Translating the wording into Australian was actually surprisingly easy. I have a friend from New Zealand in my Chemistry class, and he was only too happy to translate for me after I had shown him the artwork. He asked that his name not be given.

Anyway, enjoy the artwork. My one hope is that this piece in some small way graces the original.