Dressed to SLAY

If this isn’t done now, it’s not gonna be. XD

As with the preview post before this, the images contained here might be slightly NSFW, assuming your workplace wouldn’t be too keen on you looking at muscular men only slightly less scantily clad than He-man.

So don’t scroll any further, O ye people at work!

You’ve been warned!

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Okay, so I wanted to draw a sexy Sephiroth with something we don’t see much anymore: his asymmetrical OG bangs. He’s been prettified with each new release— with the exception perhaps of his Advent Children rendition, which was a tad heroin chic what with the dark circles under his eyes—so we don’t see this hard polygonal style anymore.

I also had a leftover desire to make his harness the main focus of an outfit; it was something I felt I couldn’t incorporate believably into the bridal candidate dress designs I’d done earlier this summer.

Though Sephiroth may have kept himself all off to the side when taking a photo in Nibelheim, as far as I’m concerned, the fact that he chose to wear his SOLDIER uniform this way, with no shirt between his skin and all that leather, says to me he’s a bit kinky. Or maybe just very proud of his form, for his own personal appreciation if no one else.

(Realistically, I’m sure this design choice was actually made to fulfill the same needs as Cloud’s huge sword or Sephiroth’s calf-length hair: to differentiate characters from each other clearly with the relatively few polygons available to the developers in 1997. But my interpretation is more interesting. XD)

I did it in a parody fashion magazine format to call attention to each item he’s wearing.

Though we couldn’t see what accessories looked like in OG FFVII (at least not on the PSX version), each item, weapon, and accessory is shown in the Ultimania Omega, so I based the appearance of the Touph Ring on that. The original Japanese name was タフネスリング (Toughness Ring). I wonder if the weird spelling was a deliberate attempt to make the item seem exotic, or just a straight up spelling error.

The Touph Ring is a silver ring with gold studs lining the upper and lower edges, and gold cross or star in the center.

Also in the original FFVII, Sephiroth was sometimes referred to as “a man in a black cape.” This is a faithful translation, but…Sephiroth isn’t wearing a cape at all. I suppose “cape” sounds more mysterious than “coat.” They could get away with it back then, but I think it would be weird if they carried that word choice over to the next installments of the remake.

Point is, I figured I could give him something closer to a cape or cloak than his leather coat is. XD

I also wanted to make this read more as high fashion, so I figured I needed some item that was of questionable taste. Hence the gloves. I originally painted them black, but that just looked bad. The purple coloring made them purposefully hideous. Success.

Actually, if I look at this cropped, showing from just above his lips to right below his hands, the gloves don’t look that bad.

I wanted to put some silver embroidered motifs along the edges of the cape but I don’t have Yoshitaka Amano’s patience for drawing extremely detailed fabrics. So that white line is the only hint of that idea. (^o^;)

Oh yeah, speaking of harnesses, of course I got curious about them, and found this interesting article on IN Magazine: The Lost History of the Leather Harness.

Blooper Reel

I usually draw while listening to music, so sometimes a song will play that fits what I’m drawing really well. Sometimes the match is rather unexpected.

I was cracking up so hard at this I went to post it everywhere I thought it would find someone who would laugh at it with me. But I mixed up Tess with Sharpay.

I never watched Camp Rock or High School Musical until I was in Japan, but my high schoolers were into those movies and wanted to use them for their school play. So I ended up with the soundtracks to both on my computer. I also ended up unironically liking some of the songs. My favorites are the ones for the obnoxious blond characters Tess and Sharpay, because as songs they’re just so ridiculous. (The “Towels imported from Turkey / And turkey imported from Maine” lyric in “Fabulous” still kills me.)

But it was Tess’ songs that happened to come up in my iTunes as I was drawing, when I noticed that the lyrics seemed to suit Seph perfectly:

OG Seph = “Too Cool”
♪ You follow and I lead
You wanna be like me
But you’re just a wannabe
Love it or hate it
I can’t help the way I am
Hope you don’t misunderstand
But I’m too cool, too cool
I’m too cool to know you ♪

Remake Seph = “2 Stars”
♪ We pay attention for only seconds
Look at you
Look at me
There’s never any us
Can’t you see all we can become
We can shine like the sun
If we believe that two stars are brighter than one
…
Just give in
Cause together we’ll be brighter than just any star ♪

(Well, I had thought Tess was singing to Shane, but YouTube comments say she was singing to her mother? In that case…this would also be OG Seph. XD)

And now, bloopers that can only happen when you’re working digitally.