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Hi Anon! I actually have difficulty answering this because Leon is one of the hardest characters to draw, especially his face (as it is perfect lol). I do a lot of getting it wrong before I get it remotely right. If you can see my earlier drawings of him, you'll know what I'm talking about. I'm still not consistent with Leon's face and it does take a while to get a hang. I do a lot of early sketches before I get it to have resemblance.

But this is one major advice that I can give and it can be applied to any character that you want to draw: learn how to observe the character visually and answer the question "what makes a Leon look like Leon?" I posted similar tips for a couple of characters in the past: Link 1, Link 2. So basically, the more you observe, the more you will get it right.

Here's my usual process:

I got this photo from the game and tried to determine the major stuff about his face and the minor stuff that I can add. Do take note that you don't have to add every detail to get the sketch looking like Leon:

And then, I try my best to translate whatever I observed into messy sketching before I go for the final sketch:

(If anyone's curious, this example is from this.)

I usually have my reference open on my phone on one hand or on my laptop, and then I draw on my tablet, it's better for me to have the reference at some distance and not on the same screen. Having it on the phone is handy because I can zoom into some details if I need to.

Notice that I don't apply everything I observed. I try not to sketch a carbon copy, I just try to emphasize the major characterstics in there. It's not a guarrantee that you will get it the first time, it takes time and a lot of practice (and obsessing over the features lol). I didn't get it right in my earlier sketches because I haven't had that amount of time observing and listing down more of his features.

Also, always observe other references, not just one even though you're just gonna use one mainly.

Before this series was called “Knight’s Vestments.” As I have included Selphie and Fujin, I will now call it “Stolen Vestments.” Not that any of the guys will complain.

If I had to summarize each drawing in this series of drawings in a single word:

Quistis: Sultry

Rinoa: Coy

Selphie: Mischievous

Fujin: Proud

Selphie is all “save a Chocobo, ride a cowboy” with her theft of Irvine’s coat. Not that he minds really.

The funny thing is I set myself up for more pain because the height difference between Irvine and Selphie is actually more than Seifer and Quistis, so I needed to account for more of the coat.

Next is Fujin.