In part two of our interviews with the April featured creators of the XIV Fan Merch Network, artists Gogomi and Purple Elf Fiber Arts reflect on the different kinds of art they have created throughout their time in the XIV fandom - and what they hope to create in the future!
In part one of our interviews with the April featured creators of the XIV Fan Merch Network, artists Chaobu and Cookie talk about how their art has evolved since starting their FFXIV journeys.
As we continue speeding towards a future of uncertainty and instability, often I have asked myself, "What can I do to help?" I had largely stepped away from online spaces to focus on other parts of my life, but always the desire to step back into writing niggled at me. When the time is right, I thought. Well, the time has never felt more right, and so I return to continue creating a space where artists can show their work and share their knowledge and perspectives. This time, however, I do not return alone.
I noticed the site has been getting some traffic recently, and I love that! Hello! I hope you're enjoying the articles. 🙂 If you're wondering what's the plan for this site, simply my time was shifted to focusing on other things! I'm not quite sure what I'm planning; I think I'd like to get back... Continue Reading →
Experience is an invaluable teacher; with enough persistence and determination, it can make anyone proficient whatever creative skill they wish. But what of the lessons that cannot be quantified? Years of sewing and crafting are evident in the increasing complexity and detail in Lutavia's work, but the time spent connecting with, and providing invaluable resources for, beginner and veteran crafters alike that strive to create their own dream cosplays has proved to be just as fulfilling.
Painter, sculptor, makeup artist - Grievervsk's work could fit under many categories, and for him, that mix and meld of techniques that bring his visions to life is totally by design.
Pre-production lays the groundwork for a smooth cosplay build, but the need for creative problem-solving is nowhere near finished once construction begins. In part two of "Reflections in Fabric," featured cosplayers discuss how each problem solved and each step completed slowly but surely brought their sophist robes to life—life which, to the Ancients of old, might be described as nothing short of true creation magic.
Not long after the release of Endwalker in December 2021, my Twitter feed was filled with the flowing black and white robes of those Ancients encountered in Elpis, known in-game as the sophist robes. Seasoned and new cosplayers alike shared their knowledge and resources, unified in recreating the robes donned by beloved NPCs and Warriors of Light alike. In Part 1 of "Reflections," I spoke with ten cosplayers about their pre-production considerations, fabric choices, and inspirations for creating the sophist robes.
A short story written for the FFXIV fanzine "Answers." With the night restored, and a temporary sense of peace hanging over the First, the Crystal Exarch recalls the heroes of past, present, and future whose lives never touched, but whose spirits interlaced, to save the future-not-yet-written, the future of the constant companion by his side, the Warrior of Light and Darkness. One hundred years, one hundred threads, woven into this single moment, the pieces forming, finally, a finished tapestry.
The Ishgardian Temple Knights second-in-command Lucia Junius seemed a perfect project for CosSnips, a cosplayer with well over a decade of large builds under her belt, but it wasn't until a close friend declared her intention to cosplay Aymeric de Borel that Snips finally decided to take the plunge. The hardest part for Snips now might just be settling on which XIV character to cosplay next, but the success of her stunning Lucia and Panthean armor is a pretty strong start.
Inquiries of Art 