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Description
I knew writing out all the technical mumbo jumbo would be an all day thing so I decided to save it for a separate post.

PROCESS

I see talking about the mechanics behind the construction of a picture is a thing for other artists, so here we go.

Honestly the process gif here is still missing some images that work outside of the flow like the other ideas I thumbed down before deciding on this and the mock up that captures the essence of my vision cuz this so-called finished version certainly failed to do that.

When it comes to art programs, I know the industry standard is photoshop but it is just such a massive and complicated program all the doohickies and what-not just overwhelm me completely and utterly so I figured I'd at the least start out in my program of choice, MS Paint which makes getting into a work flow so simple for me personally. So I used paint to do the setup and then sort of flipped between that and phtotoshop using PS mainly for editing and touch ups. So the first 3 slides were me setting up in paint; that was the preliminary sketch and colors. My personal work flow goes as follows: work, stop, technical review, repeat. You see me make adjustments after my review in the fourth slide. Basically, my issues were that Excalibur was too large and her actual body position was unnatural. I'm not sure how well it shows but Artuia is supposed to be sitting in a window. Anyways after I did the reposition and resize I noticed that her line of sight didn't sync up with what I had intended to be her reflection of her younger self in Excalibur so when I reworked her arms and the sword, I redid her face as well. So then back to my work flow and then almost immediately I notice her new face was just not as nice as her original so the very next slide you see I've switched just her face back but rotated it to sync her eyes to her reflection and then back to establishing the colors. Obviously working in paint destroys whatever line work you lay down, so I would constantly use PS to preserve my lines on the work 'cause I intended for them to be part of the finished result. So I needed the originals as guides for when I was ready to go back over them with color. By the 9th slide I was pretty much done with the set up, so then I move on to the tedious part which was tightening up the rendering and adding all the fine details to add to the surreal feeling.

Unfortunately, due to major time constraints and technical issues, things went horribly awry. Firstly, I just flat out didn't have the time to do it up. The perspective on the background is all kinds of wonky, lmao. I intended to have her reflection in Excalibur but because of all the details in Excalibur itself, my mom was saying she couldn't make out Saber lily, so I had to improvise and put Saber lily's reflection in the glass of the window. A good amount of the rendering is either unfinished or hashed because I rushed so much. And, yes, I had to photo bash the stone on the walls. Plus, on top of having to adjust the main key element, her reflection, I didn't even have time to put the other key elements in there at all.

So yeah, there ya have it. It didn't turn out for me at all.*shakes head* Yeah, that pretty much ruined it for me technique wise, 'cause who likes it when their picture doesn't turn out like their vision?

THEME OVERVIEW

[edit: man, this turned out to be soo much longer than I was expecting. This kind of thought that went into this image, I cannot possibly produce on my own. So I have to give credit to the people who worked on the Fate/[series]. Their work was a super well built foundation for me to build this on top of. I haven't seen all the series or played the games but if you want top-notch animation and superb character development and interaction definitely check out Fate/Zero.]

hehehe now to the heart and soul of the image! the good part! x3 I could go on for hours about Fate/ lore--soooo many different legends <3<3<<3 but first! The specific lore of the legend attached to Arturia is the reason why she was the first character to come to my mind as soon as I read the 2019 art challenge theme, "the path less traveled." As well as this legend's re-imagined lore according to the Fate/[series]. What I'm saying is, because so much of the lore and plot of Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero are intertwined in the contest theme there's no way around spilling what could possibly be spoilers for anybody virgin to the series and may want to check it out. So if you're not a fan of spoilers, you read at your own risk. Here we go.

I used quite a bit of symbolism here as well as storytelling (as best I could cuz I can't say I know all to well how to story tell visually) to talk about what Arturia is going through and feeling in this moment (some of it I can actually relate to on a personal level). However, actually knowing the lore surrounding her helps a viewer to grasp the depth of imagery.

Now the first thing to understand is "who is she?" in the legends. The original legend casts her as King Arthur, yes!, Arthur Pendragon. The legend of the sword in the stone has always been my favorite legend of all time. But according to the Fate/[series] spin, it's said that historians skewed history by recording the legendary King of Knights as a man when in fact the legendary king was a woman! That just blew my mind! And it really made me think and take a closer look at history, and in doing so I realized "this is a real thing!" Historians do this for real! (They've skewed the legend of Pocahontas, I've learned recently.) And, furthermore, the fact that her existence was hidden in this way just goes to show just how difficult it must've been to take on the role of a king as a woman. And not just any king but the King of Knights! Meaning she had to know how to wield a sword, and better than any man. Tell me that's a path that a woman has ever taken--even if that woman was a ruler, could they wield a sword to that extent?

So Arturia was the one who trained under Merlin and then pulled Caliburn (shocked me too when I did the research and found out it wasn't Excalibur) from the stone and received the title of King of England. She pledged to serve her people and she saw that promise through and made England very prosperous, but, according to the Fate/[series] spin on her tragic history, her people turned on her. Apparently, they weren't concerned or satisfied—which ever was the case—with the abundance of peace and prosperity she brought in under her rule: they wanted selfish desires granted. However, nothing about her rule was tainted and having such a pure intent and purpose, she couldn't understand these things ultimately leading to the hearts of the people becoming bitter. Even Gilgamesh (King of Kings) and Alexander the Great (King of Conquerors) scoffed at her for this during the meeting of "the three kings" who had been summoned as fighters—known as "servants"—during the 4th holy grail war in the Fate/Zero part of the series timeline. (Off topic but, being a woman myself, it was super inspirational to see her hang out with such grand figures of legend 'cause you only hang with the big dogs if you got what it takes to hang with the big dogs. For being a woman, even these men of acclaim acknowledged that she was someone not to be reckoned with. That is why she be mah gurl!!! And then Gilgamesh's crush on her. Oh my gosh! 'Cause he only goes after the finest of the fine of possessions, but she was like "I am no one's possession." When she defeated him in Fate/stay night, that was so delicious. Something I wish I could do to someone giving me a hard time now. We women are not things that you just buy with money or just win like a trophy, TYVM. Nor are we toys for your entertainment. He never would've treated her right. Shiro treated her right <3<3 sweet boy.)

Totally unfair but yet, she accepted the blame—pure soul that she is. Yes, rather than be wrathful over her kingdom's lack of gratitude, she continued to do just as she had pledged which was to serve her people. Tell me that that's a path that anybody, man or woman, has walked. I'll tell you who: I believe the path MLK walked can be compared to such. MLK *nod* someone I admire deeply. But for ones to walk such a path of righteousness is very rare.

So I've covered the lore, her history, but it's the events of Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero that go over how she intended to finish her given commission. The setting is in more modern times and in a world where mages exist. Every so many years, mages from families of nobility compete in a contest called the Holy Grail War. Seven mages summon servants to fight for them in order to obtain the prize, the holy grail, which will grant one desire from the winning team. The legendary King of Knights is summoned for both the 4th war in Fate/Zero and the 5th war in Fate/stay night and she is resolved to win and have her wish granted thus setting right the thing that went wrong in her tragic history. What was it? That she was the one who pulled the sword from the stone.

Because she took the, unjustly placed imo, blame for her kingdom's unhappiness, she figured the problem was just that she wasn't worthy of the title of king and that a mistake had been made by her pulling out the blade. Her wish would be to undo this and then someone who was truly worthy could then come and remove Caliburn from the stone. Basically, she wanted to leave behind the kingship... All that glory and honor, the power and influence...she wanted to walk away from all of that. Tell me that is a path that is often traveled. Who forsakes that kind of power? Who would want to? A heart of innocence. A lover of justice.

There we go, the ties to the contest theme "the path less traveled." Time to hit on the symbolism and storytelling. Hmm, where to start..? Well, I was trying to capture her feelings for her whole situation in this one snippet of time which I just finished pointing out: her sorrow over her circumstances and desire to leave. And then I even threw a bit of myself in with a desire to return to what once was.

In my shoddy attempt at a throne room behind her, hopefully you see her royal robe and crown on the floor. Now I could have easily chosen any other space for a setting and placed those objects there cuz she wears them everywhere she goes and can take them off in any place she chooses. It could have been her bedroom or the courtyard, places much prettier than this, but I specifically chose the throne room to help the viewer grasp what she's teetering on the edge of doing right here. And I chose to shroud that space in the shadows to help the viewer understand why. I mean, yeah sure, a dark backdrop makes her silhouette stand out more so there was some of a compositional motive for that decision but definitely symbolic as well. I chose to make that area dark because that's the spot from which she rules.

In the first three slides you can see that originally I intended to have her crown hanging on her throne, but decided to change that along the way. I thought her leaving this trail of objects as she walked to the window would be more convincing. And the fact that she would leave such items of authority and value on the floor of all places shows just how much regard she has for them.

I can imagine a creature of light such as herself wallowing in misery in that room, no wonder she was drawn to the sunlight streaming in through the window. The glass where you see Saber lily, I had intended for there to be a reflection of the lush, green, rolling hills that she saw as she approached the window sill. Those hills were the very place she spent as a youth, roaming the countryside with Caliburn doing good among the people. So full of hope and vigor for the future. And as she looks into Excalibur at what should have been the reflection of herself then, she can see herself there...and how happy she was.

That flower in her hair is supposed to be a lily. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get an actual lily for reference, but I put that there to show that there was still some of that hope and vigor from her youth left in her though her melancholy expression doesn't quite show the joy she once had. Excalibur, much like Caliburn, is the symbol—even in the original legend of Arthur—of her very right to be king. Something that she had passion about when she first took it on until she came to grips with the truth of what it meant and involved after years of sitting on the throne. Many years...though she may not look it. For Avalon, the scabbard of Excalibur, makes her ageless. She wants to look at it with the feelings she once had but...

So now her feet are up on the window sill--dangling over it, even. As she looks into the exquisite engravings on the sword, contemplating whether she should leave that behind too. Or is she looking at it to remind herself why she continues to sit on the throne?

That part I leave up to the viewer...

Description
I knew writing out all the technical mumbo jumbo would be an all day thing so I decided to save it for a separate post.

PROCESS

I see talking about the mechanics behind the construction of a picture is a thing for other artists, so here we go.

Honestly the process gif here is still missing some images that work outside of the flow like the other ideas I thumbed down before deciding on this and the mock up that captures the essence of my vision cuz this so-called finished version certainly failed to do that.

When it comes to art programs, I know the industry standard is photoshop but it is just such a massive and complicated program all the doohickies and what-not just overwhelm me completely and utterly so I figured I'd at the least start out in my program of choice, MS Paint which makes getting into a work flow so simple for me personally. So I used paint to do the setup and then sort of flipped between that and phtotoshop using PS mainly for editing and touch ups. So the first 3 slides were me setting up in paint; that was the preliminary sketch and colors. My personal work flow goes as follows: work, stop, technical review, repeat. You see me make adjustments after my review in the fourth slide. Basically, my issues were that Excalibur was too large and her actual body position was unnatural. I'm not sure how well it shows but Artuia is supposed to be sitting in a window. Anyways after I did the reposition and resize I noticed that her line of sight didn't sync up with what I had intended to be her reflection of her younger self in Excalibur so when I reworked her arms and the sword, I redid her face as well. So then back to my work flow and then almost immediately I notice her new face was just not as nice as her original so the very next slide you see I've switched just her face back but rotated it to sync her eyes to her reflection and then back to establishing the colors. Obviously working in paint destroys whatever line work you lay down, so I would constantly use PS to preserve my lines on the work 'cause I intended for them to be part of the finished result. So I needed the originals as guides for when I was ready to go back over them with color. By the 9th slide I was pretty much done with the set up, so then I move on to the tedious part which was tightening up the rendering and adding all the fine details to add to the surreal feeling.

Unfortunately, due to major time constraints and technical issues, things went horribly awry. Firstly, I just flat out didn't have the time to do it up. The perspective on the background is all kinds of wonky, lmao. I intended to have her reflection in Excalibur but because of all the details in Excalibur itself, my mom was saying she couldn't make out Saber lily, so I had to improvise and put Saber lily's reflection in the glass of the window. A good amount of the rendering is either unfinished or hashed because I rushed so much. And, yes, I had to photo bash the stone on the walls. Plus, on top of having to adjust the main key element, her reflection, I didn't even have time to put the other key elements in there at all.

So yeah, there ya have it. It didn't turn out for me at all.*shakes head* Yeah, that pretty much ruined it for me technique wise, 'cause who likes it when their picture doesn't turn out like their vision?

THEME OVERVIEW

[edit: man, this turned out to be soo much longer than I was expecting. This kind of thought that went into this image, I cannot possibly produce on my own. So I have to give credit to the people who worked on the Fate/[series]. Their work was a super well built foundation for me to build this on top of. I haven't seen all the series or played the games but if you want top-notch animation and superb character development and interaction definitely check out Fate/Zero.]

hehehe now to the heart and soul of the image! the good part! x3 I could go on for hours about Fate/ lore--soooo many different legends <3<3<<3 but first! The specific lore of the legend attached to Arturia is the reason why she was the first character to come to my mind as soon as I read the 2019 art challenge theme, "the path less traveled." As well as this legend's re-imagined lore according to the Fate/[series]. What I'm saying is, because so much of the lore and plot of Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero are intertwined in the contest theme there's no way around spilling what could possibly be spoilers for anybody virgin to the series and may want to check it out. So if you're not a fan of spoilers, you read at your own risk. Here we go.

I used quite a bit of symbolism here as well as storytelling (as best I could cuz I can't say I know all to well how to story tell visually) to talk about what Arturia is going through and feeling in this moment (some of it I can actually relate to on a personal level). However, actually knowing the lore surrounding her helps a viewer to grasp the depth of imagery.

Now the first thing to understand is "who is she?" in the legends. The original legend casts her as King Arthur, yes!, Arthur Pendragon. The legend of the sword in the stone has always been my favorite legend of all time. But according to the Fate/[series] spin, it's said that historians skewed history by recording the legendary King of Knights as a man when in fact the legendary king was a woman! That just blew my mind! And it really made me think and take a closer look at history, and in doing so I realized "this is a real thing!" Historians do this for real! (They've skewed the legend of Pocahontas, I've learned recently.) And, furthermore, the fact that her existence was hidden in this way just goes to show just how difficult it must've been to take on the role of a king as a woman. And not just any king but the King of Knights! Meaning she had to know how to wield a sword, and better than any man. Tell me that's a path that a woman has ever taken--even if that woman was a ruler, could they wield a sword to that extent?

So Arturia was the one who trained under Merlin and then pulled Caliburn (shocked me too when I did the research and found out it wasn't Excalibur) from the stone and received the title of King of England. She pledged to serve her people and she saw that promise through and made England very prosperous, but, according to the Fate/[series] spin on her tragic history, her people turned on her. Apparently, they weren't concerned or satisfied—which ever was the case—with the abundance of peace and prosperity she brought in under her rule: they wanted selfish desires granted. However, nothing about her rule was tainted and having such a pure intent and purpose, she couldn't understand these things ultimately leading to the hearts of the people becoming bitter. Even Gilgamesh (King of Kings) and Alexander the Great (King of Conquerors) scoffed at her for this during the meeting of "the three kings" who had been summoned as fighters—known as "servants"—during the 4th holy grail war in the Fate/Zero part of the series timeline. (Off topic but, being a woman myself, it was super inspirational to see her hang out with such grand figures of legend 'cause you only hang with the big dogs if you got what it takes to hang with the big dogs. For being a woman, even these men of acclaim acknowledged that she was someone not to be reckoned with. That is why she be mah gurl!!! And then Gilgamesh's crush on her. Oh my gosh! 'Cause he only goes after the finest of the fine of possessions, but she was like "I am no one's possession." When she defeated him in Fate/stay night, that was so delicious. Something I wish I could do to someone giving me a hard time now. We women are not things that you just buy with money or just win like a trophy, TYVM. Nor are we toys for your entertainment. He never would've treated her right. Shiro treated her right <3<3 sweet boy.)

Totally unfair but yet, she accepted the blame—pure soul that she is. Yes, rather than be wrathful over her kingdom's lack of gratitude, she continued to do just as she had pledged which was to serve her people. Tell me that that's a path that anybody, man or woman, has walked. I'll tell you who: I believe the path MLK walked can be compared to such. MLK *nod* someone I admire deeply. But for ones to walk such a path of righteousness is very rare.

So I've covered the lore, her history, but it's the events of Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero that go over how she intended to finish her given commission. The setting is in more modern times and in a world where mages exist. Every so many years, mages from families of nobility compete in a contest called the Holy Grail War. Seven mages summon servants to fight for them in order to obtain the prize, the holy grail, which will grant one desire from the winning team. The legendary King of Knights is summoned for both the 4th war in Fate/Zero and the 5th war in Fate/stay night and she is resolved to win and have her wish granted thus setting right the thing that went wrong in her tragic history. What was it? That she was the one who pulled the sword from the stone.

Because she took the, unjustly placed imo, blame for her kingdom's unhappiness, she figured the problem was just that she wasn't worthy of the title of king and that a mistake had been made by her pulling out the blade. Her wish would be to undo this and then someone who was truly worthy could then come and remove Caliburn from the stone. Basically, she wanted to leave behind the kingship... All that glory and honor, the power and influence...she wanted to walk away from all of that. Tell me that is a path that is often traveled. Who forsakes that kind of power? Who would want to? A heart of innocence. A lover of justice.

There we go, the ties to the contest theme "the path less traveled." Time to hit on the symbolism and storytelling. Hmm, where to start..? Well, I was trying to capture her feelings for her whole situation in this one snippet of time which I just finished pointing out: her sorrow over her circumstances and desire to leave. And then I even threw a bit of myself in with a desire to return to what once was.

In my shoddy attempt at a throne room behind her, hopefully you see her royal robe and crown on the floor. Now I could have easily chosen any other space for a setting and placed those objects there cuz she wears them everywhere she goes and can take them off in any place she chooses. It could have been her bedroom or the courtyard, places much prettier than this, but I specifically chose the throne room to help the viewer grasp what she's teetering on the edge of doing right here. And I chose to shroud that space in the shadows to help the viewer understand why. I mean, yeah sure, a dark backdrop makes her silhouette stand out more so there was some of a compositional motive for that decision but definitely symbolic as well. I chose to make that area dark because that's the spot from which she rules.

In the first three slides you can see that originally I intended to have her crown hanging on her throne, but decided to change that along the way. I thought her leaving this trail of objects as she walked to the window would be more convincing. And the fact that she would leave such items of authority and value on the floor of all places shows just how much regard she has for them.

I can imagine a creature of light such as herself wallowing in misery in that room, no wonder she was drawn to the sunlight streaming in through the window. The glass where you see Saber lily, I had intended for there to be a reflection of the lush, green, rolling hills that she saw as she approached the window sill. Those hills were the very place she spent as a youth, roaming the countryside with Caliburn doing good among the people. So full of hope and vigor for the future. And as she looks into Excalibur at what should have been the reflection of herself then, she can see herself there...and how happy she was.

That flower in her hair is supposed to be a lily. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get an actual lily for reference, but I put that there to show that there was still some of that hope and vigor from her youth left in her though her melancholy expression doesn't quite show the joy she once had. Excalibur, much like Caliburn, is the symbol—even in the original legend of Arthur—of her very right to be king. Something that she had passion about when she first took it on until she came to grips with the truth of what it meant and involved after years of sitting on the throne. Many years...though she may not look it. For Avalon, the scabbard of Excalibur, makes her ageless. She wants to look at it with the feelings she once had but...

So now her feet are up on the window sill--dangling over it, even. As she looks into the exquisite engravings on the sword, contemplating whether she should leave that behind too. Or is she looking at it to remind herself why she continues to sit on the throne?

That part I leave up to the viewer...