Moment of Peace

This is my entry to the so I herd u liek progress? contest for fan-artists. Where the goal simply is to pick an old fan-art (the more shameful, the better) and remake it with present-day skills to show the improvement. A thumbnail to the original one made about 5 years ago is at the bottom, Try not to focus too much on how awful that is, just how much of an improvement this version is

So basically the concept had to be the same, so I just drew Cloud resting after what has probably been a long day of keeping Sephiroth at bay I think my use of lighting and shadow is stronger now, anatomy a bit too. And I at least tried to use an interesting perspective too that seems more "heroic". No reference was used for the pose or angle either so I had to go out on limb for that I was almost going to draw Sephiroth but none of my old Sephy pics seemed worth re-doing.

Update: Changed the angle of his chin to match the rest of the face more due to several comments on that. It was easier to edit that than re-do the whole face.

Original: [link]

update 2 Came second place!

Cloud Strife character copyrighted by Tetsuya Nomura, this illustration is made and owned by me. Do not use without my permission