Art Fight has concluded and what a glorious battle it was! This year, I used the event as a way to practice drawing simplified emoticon portraits with the hope that one day soon I can make some of my own emotes for my Discord and Twitch. Watch the video above for the run down or scroll through this article for the rundown at your own pace!

(Paid Members are getting this vid a few days early before everyone else as a little treat for your support! <3)

However, this proved more difficult than I anticipated! Drawing emotes to visually express an archetypal emotion requires picking up on a strong defining emotion, which requires knowing something of the defining personality of a character. This is easier said than done if a reference sheet provides neutral expressions, I don’t know the character personally, or there aren’t any visual references hinting at the character’s personality.

Luckily, most of my guessing at character types proved correct or at least amusing to their creators!

The next challenge was also taming my own inability to keep art simple because emotes are very small and must portray the character silhouette and emotion extremely clearly and minimally. I got better at doing this as the event went on.

STRAP IN because this is a LONG post with a LOT of artwork embedded. My apologies to those of you on slower networks!

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Attacks by Me

Here’s a closer peek at all the cool characters that inspired me this year, plus the emote I made for each of them.

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Hesper by Kessinder:

My first Attack was of Hesper, who is an acrobat who enjoys collecting knowledge.  She seemed very quiet and thoughtful to me so I tried to make a more subtle emote. I love Hesper’s soft lavenders and red.  She helped me explore and define what kind of style I wanted to use for the rest of the event.

My Hesper emote:

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Glittering Blade by ShiftingPath

My Glittering Blade emote.

Glittering Blade is a flamboyant swordsman whose expression came in loud and clear when I was trying to think of a strong, defining emotion for this character.  His flirty emote ended up being my favorite one from this event!  I think I nailed the balance of expressiveness and simplicity the best in this particular emote as well.

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Iselsi Toshiaki by GuyBitesAtGames:

My emote of Toshiaki:

I adore all of Toshiaki’s interesting costume details and glamourous personality and have been wanting to draw him since I saw him during the Exalted Art Challenge event.  I drew him throwing shade and sparkling with charm all in one emote.

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Yorigasu by Lobsopdoy

My Yorigasu emote:

This one stumped me at the start because I am not too familiar with avian anatomy, much less how to chibi-fy avian anatomy.  Thankfully, Yorigasu showed through at the end, no doubt looking down at one of her failed charges with embarrassment at how sorry a warrior they are and how she must guide them to their destiny, regardless.

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Sheireen by KuroCyou

My emote of Sheireen:

I’ve admired Kuro’s art for a long time and had to do something for this Art Fight!  I chose this character because I was intrigued by her story of returning from the Grave to uncover some sort of mystery. I have a soft spot for my death-positive Grave Domain folks.  I also highly identify with this character’s amount of eye bags!

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Caelin by Lumaris

My Caelin emote:

Next, I had to do something for Lumaris because I love their art.  Here’s Lumaris’ Caeilin, who looked like a kind sort of emotional support knight.  I thought a reassuring wink suited him!

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Falloren by Kakkobeast

My Falloren emote:

Falloren caught my attention for being multiple things I love. Witchy, purple-haired, and mischievous.  I loved your expressive reference art of her doting on her gnome champion, Kakkobeast!

The aforementioned silly reference by Kakkobeast:

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Nova by Aulianna, art by Eviraitari

Nova emote by me:

I admittedly wanted to draw this character purely because I love moth antennae and his design is absolutely gorgeous!  I apologize for giving him such a silly face, but that’s what came through to me because I admittedly missed that there was reference link offsite until after I already submitted the attack and now upon checking info for this video, I know that he might not make this.  He seems much nicer than I drew him haha!  Sorry about that!

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Rania by Jadequarze

My Rania emote:

Rania caught my attention with her amazing design and cool backstory.  She is a ruthless, discerning crimelord who also makes wood figurines for her crew and has two adopted kids.  I enjoyed this juxtaposition!  It also seems the crankier the character, the more fun it is to turn them into a chibi.

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Sprite dela Cruz by Creativeidiote

Sprite emote by me:

Finally, we have Sprite dela Cruz by Creativeidiote.  I loved this character’s hair and freckles and really enjoyed coloring the hair.  Probably the most adorable emote of the bunch! I also identify with this amount of nervous sweatdrops.

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Attacks On Me by Other Artists

Here are the attacks/art I received of my characters this year for the event. My sad boys, Nils and Mask of Golden Lies, were very popular this year! To be fair, Mask of Golden Lies was also the featured character this month over at the Forge of Wonders, so participants were encouraged to double-dip on Art Fight as well. You can see all the cool Golden Lies art over at The Uncrucified’s blog soon.

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Nils by Kakkobeast

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Nils by Creativeidiote

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Mask of Golden Lies by ArtbyDungeon

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Mask of Golden Lies by GuyBitesatGames

An adorable chibi version of Lies! He’s dressed for colder weather and stole The Lover’s hat from 2e, which I’ve always had beef with that hat. He rocks it better than she did imo.

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“Forbidden Fruit” (Mask of Golden Lies x Grave Goods Gardener) by ShiftingPath

This one comes with a fun story explanation you guys should check out here.

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Thanks for the Fight!

Not going to lie, this year has been extremely difficult and July has been a new emotional low for me as I’ve been coping with some existential shifts in my life and career. Receiving cool art of my characters brought me some much-needed happiness!

I look forward to this event every year. Did you participate? What was your fave piece that you made this year? Feel free to link in the comments!

Which of my emotes is your favorite? Let me know in the comments! ;-*

♥ Ang