Umbral Soul - [ FFXIV WIP, BLM - Bloodstone series ] (Patreon)

After the original "Blood Lily" for WHM, came "No Mercy" for GNB. And for the third piece in the series, it's "Umbral Soul" for BLM!

A lot of thought has gone into this seemingly simple piece so far. I started by drafting out 4-5 different poses that would convey a powerful, but refined mood for a BLM, while also fitting into the constraints of the canvas I had already established in the other two pieces (this part was surprisingly difficult, given the need to include the staff).

Then came the outfit; BLM's classic set, while iconic, is not very attractive. I contemplated using the first Eden set, but then the showcase for Endwalker came out and we got a very lucky slide of what's very likely to be the new Black Mage outfit, so I decided to take a mild risk and go with that instead. So what you're seeing here is probably one of the first representations of this outfit!

I did make some alterations to that design - mainly with the headpiece (I didn't want the hat to completely cover the character's face) as well as with the area around the shoulder/torso, which I decided to remove the cloth in order to show the scales. This will also help create a breakout area between all the dark values on the outfit, the hair and the skin.

I'm really excited to be working on this piece - which also features the first non-hyur in the set. It might also be the first piece to feature a different color scheme to the previous two - which used red as their main tone; this is something that I'm marginally on the fence on, but I've been considering splitting the "bloodstone series" into 3 series - Bloodstone, Voidstone and Soulstone, which would be respectively red, purple and blue. This piece in particular would be part of the Voidstone (purple) series if I go down that route.

What do you guys think of that? I would love your input on this before I make a final choice, so do let me know in the comments!

As a final note, this piece and all its progress are Patreon exclusives. That means that only you guys will have access to this post and any WIPs until the piece is completed, so please keep it a secret and don't share it beyond these walls. Thank you! <3