FFVII Faces: Tseng

^{I've set myself a little bit of a challenge recently.  I love Final Fantasy VII, but the more I've learned to draw the more I've realised that the character's faces are a bit ... samey.  They often have the same almond eyes, round cheeks and pointed chins.  So I've set out to do portraits of my favourite characters from the franchise, using real-life faces as models.  Let's get some diversity!}


Racially, I've always considered Tseng to be 100% Wutaian (Wutainese?).  My headcanon is that he was born in Wutai and his parents moved to Midgar when he was very small.  During the Wutai-Shinra war, Wutaian immigrants were held under suspicion in Midgar.  To keep himself and his family safe, Tseng offered his services to the Turks as a spy in Wutai - he looked Wutaian and spoke the language fluently, after all.  He was a near-perfect agent and continued to rise through the ranks, even long after the war was over, until he was the Head of the Turks as we know him today.

Tseng's references were Kim Bum, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung.  Many thanks to Reglissenoire on Tumblr for the suggestions!

Others in this series:
Zack
Vincent


Watercolours and ink.