Sketch Commission - Ultimecia

Ultimecia's final form in Final Fantasy 8 is easily one of Tetsuya Nomura's career gems - going on to influence and be echoed by Tetsu Tsukamoto in the series all-timer "Anima" design from Final Fantasy 10, and making an enormous impact on me when I first had the opportunity to see her take on this shape at the apex of her conflict with the party.

Ultimecia's declaration after she assumes this form (Notably now devoid of her mildly comic mock-germanic accent where she transposes Ks into most hard consonants) is straightforward - "I am Ultimecia. Time will compress - all existence denied" after which the player sees the endless vault of heaven, the stars themselves collapsing into the gaping void of her body, which appears inverted, corpselike, her face opening up into a yawning hole from within which the shimmering light of a point of total compression can be seen. Her original "Human" form dangles below this new manifestation, wrapped in veinlike constraints, like a captive to her own body. It's a simultaneous amplification of and negation of her identity and stated desires - she becomes the time compression point and begins the process of achieving her goal, but obliterates herself in the act, the woman Ultimecia outgrown by the sorceress. 

It's a superb design, and one that was *extremely* hard to summarize at the "sketch" tier of commission shown here, where I tend to limit myself to only a few hours work. The challenge though of finding what elements were most important to preserve both for recognition and compositional value, as well as find places to indulge myself in a little detailing, was very much one I relished. I opted to approach her as a "horror" design, substituting some of Nomura's more sartorial or ornamental motifs for something closer to an Ito design, the image of a body distorted or wounded, transformed into grotesquerie by mutilation. The idea of stretching her whole body back from that glittering point of light in the face as though an event horizon (complete with chromatic halo as it devours colour and form) ended up being the crux. The deep blue background helped contrast the strong primary reds, deep purples and pallid yellows of her body while being recalled in some of the remaining blue accents from the original design. The overall lighting and high contrast drop shadows owe something to Phil Hale and Simon Bisley, especially the spasmodic rictus and veiny back of the closest hand to the camera. Overall, i'm extremely pleased with the piece! It feels like a sketch I might want to revisit someday and render into a completed piece, although something of the immediacy and "raw" quality would likely be lost.

I'm enjoying writing more in-depth analysis as I find the best way to provide worth to the Patreon, which is functioning mostly as a tip jar - something I don't want to continue with. I'd rather expand the value of the subscription and grow overall to help support more personal work, as was the original intent of the service! If you have suggestions for content you'd like to see - more timelapses? The return of character polls? Please let me know below!