Dragon Tamer by @Jinx (Catherine Fitzsimmons)

Long description warning.

There were two primary reasons for making this picture. Whenever I used to draw fanart from old games, I would always stay exact to the tiny little sprites, no matter how silly it looked. So I decided, since Rydia's character design in the game is rather dull anyway, that I wanted to make my own design for her that I think suits her better. So this is my interpretation of her. Incidentally, I had the sketch finished before I saw the ending FMV in Final Fantasy Chronicles, but I still like this design far better.

The other reason for this picture is that I've been taking my art too seriously lately. I've been so obsessed with making it look "perfect" that I forgot how fun it is to sit in front of the computer coloring for hours without even breaking to eat. As a result, my lineart and coloring are a little looser and simpler in this picture. I did plenty of playing around with effects, but from the beginning of the sketch, I did my thing, tinkered with it a little, and moved on, not caring whether it was completely polished or not. I made this for the fun of it and that's what counts.

This picture took 13-14 hours from start to finish. The only reason that's worth mentioning is that the time flew by so quickly while I was working on it that I never would have guessed it'd take that long. This is the way to do it. Even if I did intend to make a career of my art, I still have to have fun doing it. It's just not rewarding otherwise. And this? This is pretty rewarding to me. I just need to stop pursuing "perfection" and just have fun.