Gogomi
Tell me a bit about your history playing XIV! What pulled you in, and what inspired you to start creating art and merch for it?
I started playing FFXIV in 2017, shortly after the release of Stormblood. I was very new to online gaming and hesitant at the time but my partner showed me the race options and I immediately knew I had to make a lalafell character.
Fanart and merch followed pretty naturally after that – I had already been dabbling in Artist Alleys at local conventions, and the products I created were always inspired by my current fandoms. FFXIV kind of swept in and took over my whole table!
How does your personal creative outlook or style influence the merchandise and art you create (XIV or otherwise)? What do you hope people take away or feel from your work?
I try my best to just create for myself and just make what I want to personally see, read or use. I tend to like vintage shoujo manga, retro aesthetics and magical girls so I guess that’s how I’ve fallen into my niche of drawing a lot of lalafell, cute girls and minions. I hope people take away the love I have for FFXIV’s characters and world, I guess!
How have your art developed over the time you have been a fan artist? Is there a piece of art you’ve created that you are especially proud of – for example, a piece that pushed or “leveled up” your skills, or one that was particularly popular, or perhaps something that came out exactly as you had imagined it?
There are a few pieces that I definitely am proud of over the years. Funnily enough, it feels like whenever I “level up” my skills it’s usually in relation to a piece that features Gaia and Ryne. I think I really challenged myself to draw a detailed background when I painted them in front of the rainbow crystal in Eden – and that ended up being a really popular piece… and then I painted them again wearing the dresses from the NyaNya lolita fashion brand collaboration with Madoka Magica, which really challenged me in terms of drawing fabric texture and detail, and then I experimented a lot with colour with my piece of them as the oracles when FRU was released.
More recently, the piece I drew of Krile and Tataru in Sharlayan really felt like a breakthrough for me with using references – I sat in the Last Stand and drew that piece “live” with my lalafell sitting on a chair as a model!
What is a future project you hope to pursue, whether in fandom spaces or in your personal work?
I’ve been wanting to experiment with drawing sequential art a bit more – comics and storytelling etc. It’s something I’ve struggled with a lot so I don’t tend to share it, but who knows! Otherwise, I think I’m just letting myself go where inspiration takes me. I’ve increasingly enjoyed doing paintings and illustrations more than designing merchandise, but I’ll see how that goes for me in the future.
Of your expansive catalogue of fandom artwork—patches, socks, lapel enamel pins, liquid charms—is there any item in particular that you made especially because you just loved the idea of it? Is there a type of merch you haven’t tackled yet that you would love to create someday?
To be honest… I don’t make anything that I don’t especially love the idea of! Making merch is a significant investment of both time and money and I’ve been strict with myself in doing this only as a hobby so I try not to think too commercially about products. As long as making the thing isn’t going to bankrupt me, I’ll make it – and any sales that come along afterwards just help in making more things I want to make!
With regards to merch I haven’t tackled yet… I honestly want to get my act together enough to make a nice artbook of my illustration work that I can look back on and be happy with. Otherwise… maybe one day I want to make bucket hats or berets…?
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Purple Elf Fiber Arts
Tell me a bit about your history playing XIV! What pulled you in, and what inspired you to start creating art and merch for it?
I started playing in February of 2019 when my husband and a few of our friends wanted to try it out. I played a lot of Final Fantasy games prior to coming to 14 so I figured to join in even though I didn’t play MMOs in general. I loved it a lot as it reminded me more of a Final Fantasy than a MMO.
I didn’t start out creating art for FF14 until the end of 2020/beginning of 2021 where I started doing gposes and glamours in game once I got to the current endgame at that time. As well it wasn’t until the end of 2022 where I joined Twitter and started fleshing out my OC for the game that started interacting with the fandom space more.
As far as creating merch goes, I didn’t get into it until the end of 2023, where I lost my job as a Quality Assurance Specialist after a huge layoff at the company I worked at for 11 years. I needed a break from working in Tech due to a lot of burn out I was experiencing. Fortunately, one of the benefits I had with them allowed me to buy an embroidery machine and the digitizing software to make out the patches and embroidery files for it to stitch it out.
How does your personal creative outlook or style influence the merchandise and art you create (XIV or otherwise)? What do you hope people take away or feel from your work?
The biggest advice I was given as a teenager from my aunt was “you should have fun with it.” Admittedly, this was given to me for shopping for a baby but honestly I have applied this to a few things in life, including my creative process and art. This is what drives me to create what I create. My hope is that my joy comes through with the pieces I make.
How has your art developed over the time you have been a fan artist? Has creating fan art pushed you to explore new creative skills that you might not have otherwise?
Over time I would say that I got back into a lot of mediums that I haven’t touched in years. Specifically, I got back into crochet and embroidery. With crochet, I started working more with Amigurumi. As well with embroidery I started working with a machine instead of hand embroidery.
Something I have thought of doing in the near future is make my own printed fabric to work with and to sell. Though I am not sure how it would play out with the fandom space.
What is a future project you hope to pursue, whether in fandom spaces or in your personal work?
In the month of March, I actually got through my backlog of projects that have been in WIP hell. One was a test for embroidering on leather for my leatherworker friend. In addition, I pushed out some Amigurumi plushies for G’raha, Wuk Lamat, and Koana. As well, setting up a ko-fi to release embroidery files for other creators to use for their projects. Finally, I have been trying to figure what to do with JoAnn’s closing for getting fabrics, yarns, and threads. Thanks to the support with the FFXIV Fan Merch Network and my local library I have that all sorted out.
For the months of April and May, I have a few projects that are still left over plus some ideas of new projects. These include these:
– Quilted Bookmarks
– A carBUNcle (I recommend looking the G’raha, Wuk Lamat, and Koana I made last month to get an idea what I have in mind this creature)
– A second series of Pride Vuln Patches. (I am willing to take suggestions for flags and colors.)
– M6S little guys patches
-Other Amigurumi plushies that may or may not be FF14 related
– Possibly a hand embroidery kit for others to learn how to embroider.
Your Etsy XIV patches currently cover the two most important sides of the fandom—memes (squapes, anyone? or gay debuffs?) and cuties (spriggan and carbuncle are, personally, my two favorite little guys in the entire game). Do you think you might continue to lean into one type of fan art over the other for future additions to your shop?
I like memes and I like cute creatures. In all honesty, I will balance the two as time goes on. To me it’s important to make art that I enjoy. I will say that this raid tier gave me gold with cuties that are also memes. I just love those little guys.
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