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Work: Our Love Might Last In A Different Place And Time
I am lucky enough to have drawn for a fanfiction by Kho alongside Iria! I have read Kho's fanfictions for a while as they have written for the magnus archives, dirk gently, taz and good omens. You can find their fanfictions at Khoshekh42 on AO3.
I drew art for their fic alongside. Iria. Iria has a very wonderful soft style, their art account is mansikka-draws on tumblr.
My illustrations:
Cover Illustration
The main focus is the pairing of the fic. they are kissing, but standing in the shade of a Tevinter sun dial. The scenery behind them is the timeline from Lothering in Origins to the attack to the political conflict in Kirkwall. The dial and their shadow is pointing backwards. I wanted to illustrate that this was a story about a secret romance, and that it was about time travel in a way that was recognizable for dragon age players and also period accurate. I liked the challenge of not putting a wall or digital clock on the scene. i dont think you will find me doing ship art without playing up the contrasts between the characters. Another version of the cover to have it printed out as a book was also shared with my teammates.
Chapter 1 illustration. Hawke lounges in Varric's office in Kirkwall. I drew dwarven furniture and Kirkwall decoration. Everything in here is meant for Varric's height. Both of them are turned away from eachother, but the mirror connects them.
Chapter 2 illustration. After the mirror breaks, Hawke and Varric wake up in the past as their past selves in the respective places they were. I thought about cliche anime romance illustrations for this both for the middle cut and their positions.
Chapter 4 illustration: Jen is shown through an eluvian of Morrigan's to visit Kirkwall, where Merrill recieves them through her. But I illustrated it as straight to Varric's office as she takes her there to investigate. Jen is Kho's player character for Inquisition.
Mirror Design.
Read the fanfiction here.on AO3.
author commentary:
usually, for these things you only draw one illustration for the cover. but the comic artist in me was not satisfied and i did as many as i could.
a big hurdle for me during this project was that i have lost my save files so even though i am a notorious savescummer i could not visit the locations of Kho's fanfic and photograph them myself for reference within the deadline, which i would have liked to do. because it is not as fun to find barebones images taken by others and bullshit the rest. i am happy with the results though and so were my team members so i am happy.
i found out about big bangs through my friend participating in the hunterxhunter big bang and enjoying it majorly. but unfortunately i missed the DA big bang last year. i was very lucky to join this year as it is very well organized by the team. that said, i am unsure if i will participate in future dragon age fan projects. i am first and foremost a fan of the dark fantasy coupled with the identity-political elements of the series and i was heavily dissapointed with veilguard choosing to divert from those things as i consider them well written as rooted in reality and with respect for the player. enough to have ditched playing veilguard altogether. even if it has some must-see locations and bosses, me being unable to handle the tone of the dialogue just is not worth it. EA has fired the majority of writers on the series and to me, it really shows. this hasnt necessarily soured the series for me because it seemed doomed from the start in the hands of EA. but this is a niche rather than the focus of the fan community who have been quite satisfied with Veilguard creatively and enjoy the domestic shipping so i must be in the minority in this context. but i was a little surprised to see my least favorite characters being the most popular in the project.
for this reason i dont feel particularly motivated to draw or write more dragon age in this context. i got to work with a very good writer and artist and what more can you ask for :) . drawing for a fanfiction is a dream come true, especially as "official" artwork. for dragon age. its a wonderfully run project. i may search out the lore or roleplaying forums in the future instead of the ao3 fanfiction community though. in the meantime i wish the mods and creators all the best in the future for their passionate work!
page credits: background DA origins artbook.