Ganon, No Subtitle Needed

Roar.

Ganon from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. With swords as long as you are tall and horns that could make a kebab out of a few dozen Hylians. He's a pretty nice guy.

Ocarina of Time changed the way I viewed video games in '98. That might sound generic after almost fifteen years of near-universal praise for the title, but I say that sincerely. I could ramble and pinpoint everything I adore about OoT, but now I specifically want to mention the final fight against Ganon, easily one of my favorite boss battles. There's nothing particularly difficult about fighting him, but the atmosphere of the conflict builds the stakes and engulfs the player--that's what left an impact on me for years. One moment in particular sticks with me:

Ganondorf transforms midair into a towering mass of pig monster, curled up as if being reborn. He then slams to the ground and slowly unfurls to reveal himself as the series iconic villain. His name appears on screen, lacking the descriptive subtitle that accompanies every other boss's name in Ocarina of Time. No subtitles, no introductions. Just "Ganon". And that's all you need to know. He then swings his massive arms around uncontrollably and knocks the Master Sword from Link's hands. He briefly pauses, and as if on cue with a flash of lightning he stands tall before you, furiously throws his head back, thrusts his arms to his side, giant swords splayed outwards, and roars into the sky with primal triumph and rage. The entire scene lasts about thirty seconds--that one brutal roar, maybe just about five--but those few seconds are perfectly orchestrated.
( For anyone who wants to watch the actual scene from OoT that I'm referring to, here ya go.)

That's the scene I wanted to try to emulate here. It's kind of hard for me to say if I got the effect I was going for since this picture took way longer than it should have, mostly because I was only able to work on it in very sporadic bursts. Perhaps I'll revisit this idea and try to draw this shot from Link's perspective; I might be able to better capture the raw intensity of the moment from that angle.

Anyway, this was traditionally drawn with graphite and digitally colored. I wanted to keep the slight sketchiness of the linework--it adds a bit of energy to the piece, keeps things from feeling too clean and losing their edge. I was rather inspired by some of the concept art of Ganon that was released last year--you can really get a sense of momentum from the rough lines in those conceptual drawings. At first I wanted to leave the final in just flat colors, thinking that would show off the lineart without distracting from it. But without the stark highlights and shadows a lot of the essence and atmosphere from the cinematic was gone, and the background looked dull. Though Ganon isolated from the scene looks pretty interesting in flat blocks of color:

Ganon, with flat colors

I actually tried out a new method of shading and highlighting, which is far superior to whatever technique I had tried using previously. This is the final version of Ganon, isolated from the background:

Ooo, now the swords are shiny.

Fun as this was to work on, I'm glad I was able to finally finish it. Any constructive criticism, questions, or comments are welcome--it helps give me a fresh perspective on things.