Tiger Flower Empress

(now I can rest at night...)

This is my entry for the Art Swap!!
The character is Empress [link] by the lovely My flower was the tiger flower (not tiger lilly yo!).

Omg~ I don't even know where to start talking about this...

Let me start by saying how woderfully amazing this art swap was for me. I was really excited about having a concise and FUN theme to draw with. I couldn't wait to find out who got my chara and see what flower and omg~ I was floored by the gorgeous piece [link] *kitsune999 did for me.

About the character:
Thankfully the pic that I got for Empress was detailed enough for me to go all crazy in Illustrator. I was shocked when I first saw the character, I dunno what I was expecting but I never crossed my mind I would draw someone like her. The more I looked at Empress the more I liked her. I mentally prepared for weeks LOL I would sketch her and try to wonder what she was like. THEN I found pics of the flower, and it all just clicked in my mind. I'm so glad I can finally put into paper(?) what I had imagined.
It seems Empress was made to be a game character, soooo~ with that in mind I gave her a special power-up Tiger Flower outfit! And here you see her in her FFX-2 like transformation! Shiny kyaaaa!!

All the flowers were done with the gradient mesh tool in Illustrator.