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'Tis the final day of this month-long challenge, and I have decided to go with the first idea that popped into my head, which is to do a landscape piece of the Mirror Lake in Queenstown, New Zealand. I miss travelling so much and I also miss New Zealand. I can't wait to go back there again soon, once this whole mess is sorted out!
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A scene plucked from Hideo Kojima’s latest game ‘Death Stranding’. When I saw the prompt, it got me to thinking about whales (I just love whales a lot), and this eventually led me to this scene from the game itself. I hope to play the game some day soon. I have it in my library already. Just need to right hardware to support it.
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Everyone’s got their own little corners. Here’s mine with all the books and stationeries (including books from the library -- they are letting me hold on to it because of the pandemic).
Another major brush-pen-and-ink piece for me. I think I’m slowly getting the hang of this medium. Before this, I was never all that confident using it because for one, any marks made are permanent (and there is very little way to cover it up or fix it -- which still scares me). I also wasn’t used to the colours that would come out -- cap colour and actual colour don’t necessarily match. Plus, I have very limited colours available to me (27 in total; 24 from the boxset, 3 additional ones acquired separately) and you can’t mix brush pen colours to make new ones.
That being said, I could easily get all the other colours I want, but it just feels... like a shortcut. Not that it is a bad thing; just that I feel like I haven’t explored and learned enough to deserve it (if that makes sense).
So, there’s a quandary for ya.
Anyways, I have since decided to discipline myself and take things in small steps, observing those far more superior in the craft and practising in little chunks, until I feel confident enough to be a bit more adventurous, as one might have already seen in some of my previous posts.
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Recently, Bryan Dechart (the actor for Connor in 'Detroit: Become Human') had posted a video of himself running through a field of corn -- a nod to a chapter in the game where Connor has to run through a field of corn to chase a deviant android. And I saw it just as I was thinking about what I should draw for the prompt, and that reminded me about the chapter itself, which had a bit of a maze motif going on. You know like... the maze drawings in the Rupert's apartment and journal, the labyrinthine chase over the rooftops... the 'maize' field at the end.
I'll stop now. :P
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I have yet to do any fan art of Kara from 'Detroit: Become Human', so with this prompt, I thought it was high time I did. So here it is: the first instance of deviance in the game by a main character.
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This is probably the furthest I have gone with my brush pens, and boy, oh boy, was it hard, but damn it, it was fun!
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What do you mean? I'm fine!
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Drew some inspiration from nature today. More specifically, the Crooked Forest in West Pomerania, Poland.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
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I am close to finishing Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women' now and it is all I can think of for the prompt. I guess it isn't necessarily the first thing to pop up on one's mind upon seeing the word 'Historical', but it did for me, and I guess it fits. It has a historical setting, and plus, the legacy of the story itself is pretty historic.
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I haven't arrived at this branch in the game yet, but when I saw that it is a possibility, it destroyed me to think that I would have to choose between these two, because I have played as each of them, and I have come to love them both for who they are, and I just can't see myself handling having to choose either one of them all that well.
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Something wholesome and cute to bless the eyes. Hope you are having a lovely day.
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I couldn't have asked for a better prompt. With Day 18, I have finished one sketchbook -- which had been a gift to me from my cousin for Christmas a few years back -- and now, I am going into a new one. And what better way to start than a splatter of colours?
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This time, I'm going for something a little different. As you can see, I have combined the medium of sketch and music into a video for the prompt, which is a combo of 'Harmony', 'Senses' and 'Favourites' -- because I have used the prompt for Day 18 previously -- 'Winning'.
The portrait is of a favourite Classical composer of mine, Frederic Chopin, and the music playing in the background is his Prelude in E minor, which is one of my favourite pieces by this, along with a whole bunch of others -- especially his Nocturnes.
Here is the video of me actually playing it.
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This one, admittedly, was a challenging prompt. I had a few ideas in the beginning, but I didn't really like them because they felt too literal and direct to the prompt. I was aiming for something a little more poetic, or metaphorical... something subtle and vague.
So, I chose this scene from the DBH game, where mah home boi Connor looks at the grave of the past selves that has died in previous missions. What time does to us, eh? Make of it what you will.
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Taking this opportunity to practice my portrait-drawing skills. A tribute to the dynamic duo behind this challenge, Connor and Traci, Ethan and Winters, Bryan Dechart and Amelia Rose Blaire, using one of their wedding photos as reference.
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There is this game that I was deeply obsessed with back in the day, way before 'Detroit: Become Human', called 'Alan Wake'. Many have been waiting for a sequel to the game - me included - ever since the spin-off game 'Alan Wake's American Nightmare', and there has been rumours, but never any hard confirmations. This is because both the main game and spin-off game has been heavily focused on Alan's journey to reunite with his wife Alice, and so far he hasn't been able to do that yet, which is sad, so for years now, I (probably along with many others) have been imagining scenarios where they would get back together again for real -- instead of that dream reunion in the spin-off game.
So here is my depiction of one alternate universe, where Alan and Alice are finally together... at last.
Okay, I guess the picture itself doesn’t really scream ‘Fairy Tale’ but let me explain.
This is the actress Eliza Bennett playing Meggie Folchart in the movie ‘Inkheart’, based upon the first novel of the same name from the Ink Trilogy by Cornelia Funke.
If you are familiar with the novels, then you will know how this picture came to be, but for those less familiar, this series features some pretty notable fictional characters in them, mostly because Meggie, our protagonist, has the ability to read them out of books.
So, when I saw that prompt, I was reminded of this series, which I recently got reacquainted to because I was on a bit of a nostalgia trip -- only to learn there is a fourth book coming to the series.
And with it, I decided to use this chance to practise portrait drawing.
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A little late for this prompt, but anyways...
I drew this referring to a screen cap of the same scene from 'Detroit: Become Human', featuring Markus, the leader of Jericho fighting for android freedom.
This time, I am going with the actual prompt of the day, and I also used a reference photo for this.
Guess my Zodiac. :P
I have decided to give 'Detroit: Become Human' a break after my 2nd (and half) run - more of the story here. Long story short, I have exhausted myself playing this game only to get pretty dismal and emotionally painful endings, so I have decided to rest.
However, my mind is still floating around with the characters, most notably Connor.
So here are more art I've made in conjunction with #AugustDechART.
#AugustDechART
Day 8 - Legend
Needless to say, what Markus did for Androids in DBH is nothing short of legendary. Unfortunately, if only my efforts to capture his likeness could even come half as close...
As it is yet to be explained here in this blog, I shall do so now. A few months ago, a friend introduced this game called 'Detroit: Become Human' to me and asked that I gave it a try.
Few months later, here I am, falling down a DBH-mania rabbit hole, reading up Connor fan fiction, looking up similar fan art and following Bryan Dechart and Amelia Rose Blaire on TWITCH. And I am now in the middle of my second playthrough, aiming for a different (and significantly better) ending since I screwed up in my first playthrough.
And here is my first entry for AugustDechART, using Prompt #7: Meditation.
Maybe a personal interpretation of the prompt. I find this picture of Connor (RK800) to be quite meditative, almost like he could be in the Garden (a setting in the game that I realised was never a physical place but one in Connor's mind). Plus, it is meditative to draw my favourite character from the game.
Finally decided to give plein air a try. I must say, it was kind of fun. A total of 3 attempts so far, all at the same local park.
The first attempt was on Saturday (31 July 2021). I was sitting on a swing after my late afternoon jog and then I saw this tree in front of me, with the sun shining through the leaves.
The second attempt was in the wee hours of the following Sunday (1 August 2021). This was after my early morning jog, between 5:30am to 6:00am -- my second one ever in a long while. I had done my usual rounds and as I did my cooldowns, I came up this path (I seldom took it from this direction) and it suddenly occurred to me to paint the view. It felt so eerie and mysterious, with the lamp being the only illumination.
The third attempt was within the next hour, from the same spot where I stood, only facing the other direction. I had just finished the painting above and when I turned, I realised then that it was dawn! I immediately set to work to get the colours painted in, and quickly, too, because I learned from this that once dawn broke, the colour of the sky shifted and brightened up pretty fast, and I didn’t wanna lose it.
Overall, an interesting experience, and I definitely wanna do this again soon. And once I have the confidence and the equipment, perhaps I will attempt traditional plein air painting next.
