Meridian Child by @smarle (Staci/Nadia)

This picture is ancient, from back in 1998... ^^;;;; At the time, Riesz was my favorite Seiken Densetsu 3 character, and her opening story was so tragic. Just before the credits roll, she runs down the mountain where her home is in tears with the song Meridian Child playing in the background (hence the title). I really loved that scene and wanted to draw it. At the time, I only had Paint Shop Pro and no inking pens, so the outline is only in pencil, and Riesz was colored more primitively, almost in a cel style. But still, I loved drawing the feathery material in her headdress and I like how the highlights on top of her head came out. Drawing the pose was a little difficult, but I think it came out well, except for her front foot, which looks really wrong... I tried to make little bits of her hair come loose from the rest of it, but... it looks pretty bad... ^^;; Oh, well... It IS an early work, and it does still have good points about it.

As for the background, I'd originally intended to draw the mountain and have the portrait of Riesz (which should be above this one) in the upper left corner, but I couldn't make the background (I really need to work on good backgrounds--even five year later, I have trouble... ^^;;;). So what I wound up doing was hooking my SNES up to the computer and taking screenshots of her opening, then lining them up in the background, putting black over them, then making little circular holes over the events of Riesz's past. While it's not what I'd intended, I like the effect, because it actually shows what happened to cause her to leave... Her mother's death long ago, her brother getting kidnapped, her father killed, her kingdom taken over... then her talking to her parents' spirits and running down the mountain in tears. The only problem was that I made some circles kind of jagged... Also, looking it now, I think Riesz herself takes up too little space...

One day, I'd really like to redo this picture and see how I've progressed in time.