[i]Atlyss hails from a far away land across the sea.
2 years ago she had set out to buy some peaches and got lost.
She is now attempting to chart the entire world in hopes of finding a way home.[/i]

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So I had participated in an art contest back in August for "Chain Chronicle":http://chainchronicle.gumi.sg/ where they were accepting original art in addition to fan art. "In the end, I placed fourth":http://forums.gumi.sg/forum/chain-chronicle/fan-submissions/art/235640-chain-chronicle-global-fanart-contest-voting-phase/page2 in the top 5, winning me some delicious in-game fruit~

In the course of coloring this in Manga Studio, I discovered I could apply "gradient maps":https://twitter.com/TheJohnSu/status/633127848237133824 to the image! However, as exciting and satisfying as that experience was for me, I felt like there were a couple of things I could have done better for this contest:

1) The composition lacks impact. Her facial expression as well as pose don't do much to make this an interesting piece to look at, and her silhouette doesn't leave much of an impact. Possible options could have included making that map scroll on her back way bigger, or throwing her into the air or making her cry while running away from a giant centipede, I don't know

2) The content could have been more directed towards the player base. Since this contest was for the Global version of the game (as opposed to the Japanese), I had been focused on theming it likewise - hence the "Global Cartographer" title. While this theme might have been appreciated by the developers, I don't think it holds as much water for the players who cast their votes. What I should have done was to study some of the existing popular characters in the game and tried to get a feel for the game's style before diving in. If I were to do this again, I might have designed some sort of pirate instead.

Well, hopefully I can take those lessons forward, and you can as well!

Sorry for being absent for so long and being so slow to share this image as well - I've finally caught up with the messages in my inbox, so I'm able to resume posting. Look forward to some new content later - I've got a lot of catching up to do!

Linework made in Flash
Colors & everything else in Manga Studio