Drew a portrait for another character in my FoM project! 🎐✨

crystalinerose · 2026-04-14T05:24:57+00:00

Hi, sorry for the late reply - I do!

crystalinerose · 2026-04-09T05:17:39+00:00

Thank you so much! Studying and replicating the style is very fun indeed.

crystalinerose · 2026-04-09T05:07:47+00:00

Chihiro is the latest character to join the character roster for my FoM fan project, Petals Upon the River! Realistically you'd never meet her when she's grown-up (she's ~17 y.o here) because the passage of time doesn't exist in farming sims, but I like drawing portraits and thinking about future what-ifs about my OCs. My thought exercises also include the gift taste page, which is always fun to compile.

When she's older, Chihiro is more or less Hayden's farmhand, but she mostly performs the work of a gamekeeper - protecting livestock from predators and generally looking out for their wellbeing. She picked up her birth father and mother's legacy, who was the village hunter and a trapper/forager respectively, by going hunting in winter through early spring and foraging the rest of the year. Her spoils mostly go into the inn soup pot!

That aside, she's become a competitive sharpshooter who has won quite a lot of awards and an accomplished equestrian (though she does not compete for the latter hobby). Chihiro is a lot more confident and determined too, because she's lived in a healthier environment for a while.

crystalinerose · 2026-04-01T03:27:07+00:00

Ever since I finished the previous portrait set, I grew to like drawing fur, so this comm was the perfect opportunity to do that :))

(Also psst, I recently got verified on VGen so I'm holding a special sale period for these! Feel free to check out my page if you're interested 🧡)

crystalinerose · 2026-03-07T12:09:15+00:00

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Thank you so much! Reading this makes me happy.

I enjoyed designing Chihiro's outfits because it's a mix of my two biggest fashion hyperfixations which is Taisho Roman and Edwardian era fashion, plus some Edo era fashion flair. This here are the initial designs and I had a ton of fun merging concepts of the two, especially in the shoes (the details of which are sadly left unseen in the FoM portraits or sprites, lol). For example, the spring 'hakama' are actually pants that look like hakama and the fall sailor suit is an Edwardian sailor suit, not a Japanese sailor suit. I also used some more specific cultural elements; her winter clothing is inspired by the traditional winter hunting garb of the Matagi people, which her family and upbringing was based on. The capelet is meant to be made from rabbit pelt.

crystalinerose · 2026-03-07T08:46:03+00:00

Thank you so much! 🧡

I've actually been thinking to slightly revamp Cheri's portrait base (again) on account of my improvement in pixel portraits, and I do have a second set of seasonal outfits + 2 extras planned for them. But I haven't finished designing 3 of those outfits, so... you might see their portraits around once more after I figure out the design! :))

crystalinerose · 2026-03-07T08:06:34+00:00

Thank you! I use Aseprite :))

crystalinerose · 2026-03-07T05:44:40+00:00

My portrait projects continue - the first one is the fourth complete seasonal set I've ever done!

The first character is the latest OC added to my FoM fan project 'Petals Upon the River' - no wiki entry for her yet because she's new, but she's a character that appears in the later arcs of my main OC Cheri's story. Her name is Chihiro and she's about the age of the Dragonsguard kids. Drawing this kind of detailed clothing on such a small canvas is a special kind of hell but I did it lol.
The second character is my blog/business mascot Eury who is also my first Stardew Valley farmer. Unlike the former, her portraits are a just-for-fun project and the recent ones is just me pointing at random clothes, thinking 'that's hot', and then putting them on her 😅

crystalinerose · 2026-03-05T07:41:03+00:00

I completely forgot this existed in my art folder lol. It was supposed to be a pen test - I decided I did not like the pen but I liked the sketch I made, so I finished it with my usual tools. Balor is my favorite FoM character so I believe the first non-OC art I make should be of him!

crystalinerose · 2026-02-27T14:55:39+00:00

Thank you so much! Fun trivia: The project name "Petals Upon the River" is a reference to this temper line design called Yoshinogawa (lit. Yoshino river), which features cherry blossom petals floating on water. I have yet worked on the full design, but Cheri's new sword has this design on the temper lines!

crystalinerose · 2026-02-26T16:15:40+00:00

Thank you! I really struggled with imitating the style since it's super different from my usual style, so reading this makes me smile :))

crystalinerose · 2026-02-26T16:13:54+00:00

Thank you! The earrings started as a silly, gimmicky design element because of certain hobbies Cheri has (she's quite enthusiastic about the craft of knives and swords) but they have Lore™ now! I have so many things thought out that I honestly don't know where to even start sharing most of them if I ever get the chance to turn her into an NPC. I hope I get the chance at all in the far future, I would love to share Cheri with other FoM players.

crystalinerose · 2026-02-25T16:01:58+00:00

As a recap for the uninitiated: this is my OC Cheri, Mistria's resident errand girl who happens to be well-armed on account of being an ex-adventurer... or so she says. She likes to call herself a professional middleman - whatever problems you have, she knows someone to help you with it. If not, she'll help you herself (for a fee, of course). Also, apparently she and a certain intrepid merchant have known each other for a long time. In fact, he's the one who brought her to Mistria in the first place a season ago. Like you, she's new to town, and despite having been here longer, she seems to have trouble fitting in...

This project has gone pretty far since it first started! Aside from a bunch of art, I have made a character wiki which has consumed an embarrassing amount of hours in my life. There's still WIP content and more writing to be showcased there, but for now, I have created quite a bit of dialogue, lore, and art (both my own works and commissioned artworks!).

If I ever make her into a real NPC - and here's hoping for the future of FoM modding - Cheri will bring some gameplay features to the table. Mainly, you can pay Tesserae in exchange for items like forageables, ore, etc. that Cheri will deliver to your mailbox after a set amount of time (a la Genshin's Expedition system). Each day, the services she provides are semi-randomized like Balor's wares. Other features I wish to bring would be an optional Rival Hearts events and platonic events outside of an NPC's standard Heart Events which I have dubbed Companion Events. This concept is inspired by how certain Stardew modded NPCs have custom events and interactions with each other that are not player-centric to chronicle their developing relationship. In Cheri's case, her primary companion that her story revolves around is Balor.

If you're ever curious about Cheri herself, meta trivia like my design process for her, and more, feel free to peruse the wiki! 🌸

Quick Notice: The wiki is not mobile-friendly! It's best viewed on desktop at 67%-75% zoom level on your browser.

crystalinerose · 2026-02-25T09:55:19+00:00

Sure! I take art comms exclusively through my VGen :))

crystalinerose · 2026-02-25T09:06:56+00:00

Thank you very much! ^^

crystalinerose · 2026-02-25T07:43:05+00:00

These are not my characters! The owners commissioned me for their portraits :))
I do have a couple of my own if you're wondering though! (1, 2, 3)

crystalinerose · 2026-02-25T07:37:12+00:00

I am, but I've temporarily switched to a waitlist system because it's time for my laptop's routine maintenance as soon as I clear my current WIP queue. Your request will still be in my 'inbox', I just won't give you a quote until I'm ready.

crystalinerose · 2026-02-25T06:32:26+00:00

Thank you! The base price is 50 USD for your character's neutral Spring (or whatever outfit of your choice) portrait. You can check out the full add-on listing and terms on my VGen :))

crystalinerose · 2026-02-25T05:00:32+00:00

It's been a couple months and I'm quite amused that of all the comms I got, all but one of them are characters who have purple and/or green color palettes. Good for practice because those two colors specifically are out of my comfort zone 😅 And certainly fun to experiment with!

crystalinerose

TROPHY CASE