If you wanted to see some incredible fan art then you clicked on the good link. But first, let me bore you with small details from my personal life. If you have read last week's update, you know I had a pleasant three days workweek and I am quite happy it ended up being three days as planned and not five like it always ends up being. I have finished Dragon Quest IV at last and now I have started Children Of Mana. I have heard many bad things about that game but so far it seems to be fun. No progress was made in Baldur's Gate and that makes me sad, but it's not such a big deal is it?

Now let's talk about fan art. This week, Boum gets featured with her Final Fantasy VI piece, Forever Rachel. Contrary to most other Boum fan art I have posted before, this one depicts a precise scene in the game and shows a background and accessories. The piece has some good dramatic lighting and the black frame at the top and bottom, presumably from the treasure chest, centers the attention on Locke and the Magicite piece. Although he has a funny face, I think Locke should have had a more surprised or satisfied look on his face. After all, he did find what he had been searching for all that time.

Mathieu Beaulieu comes back with another Zelda picture showing Link slicing a Moa in half. This piece is as cartoony as the first one, complete with quirky facial expression, distorted background and stylized anatomy. The piece is very greenish which, I find, unusual for that type of scenery. Traditionaly, it would have been blue rather than green, but it still works. In visual art there is a rule called the rule of thirds. The way it works is pretty simple and it is featured very well in this piece. Basically, you should never have something cutting your picture in half, unless you do it for effect. Instead, the artist will divide it in thirds, making it much more dynamic. Here, the mountain marks the lower third.

Next up is Shores of Besaid depicting the Final Fantasy X heroines having some fun at the beach. The column has seen quite a few inventive costumes as of late, but this time the bathing suits seem to be directly inspired by the original costumes. Good interaction between the characters, although Rikku seems to be playing by herself. She should follow the ball with her eyes, or she might get hit on the face!

Our black and white picture this week can get a little confusing, but it is nonetheless very interesting. It shows Seifer in a rather casual and relaxed position, smiling. Is he looking at Squall bleeding? Probably. TomR didn't use any kind of shading for this picture and I believe it would have been too much with shades of grey anyway. However, without shading, it looks a bit messy because the shapes get lost between each other. This technique looks great, but maybe it lends itself better to images with less detail and bigger shapes. The parts that are clearer look very good, notably the hand, face and gunblade.

Closing the update this week is Aurian's Breath of Fire III picture. At first I believed this one was done with colored pencils, but actually it's watercolor. I love the texture it gives, especially on the wings. Nice coloring although for some reason the amount of brown on the character destabilizes me. Maybe with more shadows it would have worked better? Speaking about shadows, never hesitate to make them blue instead of black. Same thing for the sky. You'll end up with a much deeper shadow and richer color palette. Thank you for your submissions everyone!

This week in comics corner, Terra and the Empire's soldiers finally make it to Narshe and the story begins at last! Wyvern14's comic continues with a wink to one of the game's moment when Rydia first needs to cast the fire spell. Enjoy the art and comics and be back next week for more! And please, send in some fan art because I received but one submission in the last three weeks. Also, share your opinions in the forums!

Maxime Viventi