Amdall Gallery

My series of paintings based on classic SNES era games continues, with this piece featuring Frog, Marle, and Chrono from Chrono Trigger. As with the first Final Fantasy VI painting, it was kind of hard to exclude some of the characters and I may have to do another one. This Chrono Trigger scene turned out decently, but I do think it was kind of a step down from the previous one, and of the five I’ve completed as of this post, it is probably my least favorite. However, it’s solid overall, and is certainly in line with my style and is a fine interpretation of the characters.

The oil painting was done on 12″ X 12″ oil paper and was my 278th overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.

Chrono Trigger Painting | Magus and Schala in Zeal Palace

Final Fantasy IV Painting | Rydia, Cecil, and a Chocobo

Before I get into a discussion of the painting itself, I feel like I should talk about the original game. All of these classic games that are part of this painting series were important to me when I was a kid; they were my favorites and I played through each multiple times. Interestingly, I also have a history with most of these games of sketching the characters when I was kid…but not Chrono Trigger’s characters. I’m not completely sure why that is, but it may be related to just not liking the art style enough to want to emulate, which was not the case for Secret of Mana and the Final Fantasy series designs. However, Chrono Trigger itself as a game was incredible, perhaps with the strongest story and cast personalities of them all. And the music was unbelievably good; perhaps the greatest game soundtrack of all time.

As I mentioned above, as of this post, I’ve done five total classic RPG paintings in the last month or so; two inspired by Final Fantasy VI, one Final Fantasy IV, one Secret of Mana, and this Chrono Trigger piece. For some reason, I feel like the Final Fantasy paintings really turned out the best, while the Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana had some challenges associated. With the Secret of Mana one, in the moment I thought it looked great. But as the painting has dried, the deep sap green blends I used (with ultramarine blue and umbers) have gotten extremely dark. Almost to the point where I can’t see the subjects very well. I’m glad I scanned it much earlier, because that one looks vibrant and bright; not as much like it does now.

There are quite a few things I like about the piece though, despite the hiccups. It does look like my version of these characters probably would or should, largely based on how the other pieces are stylized. I also love the nature background here. That is not unusual for me, as I’ve long had a Bob Ross-influenced soft spot for nature scenery. But I think the vibe here matches the game well, especially some of the earlier areas of the game near the starting village and similar locales.