This drawing was made as a birthday gift for a friend of mine. It's a picture of the character Squall Leonhart from the videogame Final Fantasy VIII. The original character design is by Tetsuya Nomura. This picture was composed entirely in Photoshop and was completed in April of 2004.

I was aiming to make a more realistic Squall, using Nomura's design as the basis. My Squall has a bit more of a jaw and is a little more masculine looking than Nomura's design. (Please note, I love Nomura's designs. I just wanted to make the hero look a bit more, well, hero like.)

This was the first time I ever really dove in and tackled painting a whole image in Photoshop. Up to this point I was mostly painting over ink or pencil illustrations of mine. I learned a lot by just jumping into this, and I've learned a lot since then, too. As a result, there are probably things I could change on this but I prefer to leave it as is. I was a bit rushed to get it done so I could have the print mailed in time for my friend's birthday. And besides, I enjoy looking back on this and seeing how I've progressed.

I was really happy with the way this came out, and learned a lot while making it. Though the best part was that my friend totally loved it!