Heya! I was wondering if it's okay to ask, what's your process like? Do you use a pad with a screen for drawing?
Totally! I've been using a Cintiq 13HD with Clip Studio for the past 8 yrs.
Lately, I usually sketch/thumbnail what I wanna draw and then if I wanna clean it up, I double the resolution of my canvas. Then it's cleanup of lines and use of tones ("materials" as CLIP calls them) or watercolor brushes to get those grayscale effects. Last part is very much improvised on each piece and lots of trial and error.
Hello hello! I made a set of Fi redesigns for my rewrite (archive here) to go with the Ghirahim ones! Full lineup, design commentary, as well as some story info are all under the cut!
Full lineup^^^
Design commentary ^^^ in the form of annotations lol. I also did some minor sword redesings, with the main changes being to form #3. Basically, the canon transition from the goddess hilt to the winged hilt is super abrupt to me, so I tried to make it a little more gradual and to let the wings peek through prematurely
The breakdown of where her "conduits" are (further explanation as to what they are can be found in the ghirahim redesign post). They're concentrated around her legs because I place the conduits based off of their attack patterns, and Fi's are very kick-heavy. I don't have her doing any actual gameplay fighting in the rewrite, but I imagine that the cutscene in canon where Link blocks Ghirahim at the first Gate of Time will be replaced with one where Fi fights him off to give Link some time to talk to Zelda. (Also because the part where Zelda throws the harp across the chasm is really weird and I want it to be a proper handoff lol)
In the rewrite, you find Fi sealed underneath the Goddess Statue in a stasis crystal, with the Goddess Sword in front. When you draw the sword, the crystal shatters and Fi gives her introduction. (She has been summoning you via chimes, not apparitions, in my version). Because the original hero's sword (ghirahim) defected, Hylia had to create a new sword to seal him away with. Fi, who was a sheikah when human, volunteered to undergo the forging process. However, the forges with the three flames was destroyed before the process could be completed, so Hylia sent her in a stasis crystal up to skyloft with instructions on how to guide the hero through completing the sword. More details about the flame quests can be found here.