A Way Through

A Way Through

25cm x 17.6cm

Gouache on gouache paper

Inspired by DEATH STRANDING

. . .

For my last painting of 2021 (I will be taking a break tomorrow), I have picked, as reference, the mountains and hills that sat in between Capital Knot City and the incinerator, through which Sam must make his very last (and very emotional) delivery.

I actually didn't realise this would be my last painting for the year and I didn't realise the reference I picked was from Sam's last delivery until I started writing this and now putting these two together, it dawned on me how cool it was that these two sort of came together. I swear, I was only looking to paint something pretty with gouache.

But yeah, 2021 has been quite a journey and it is only fitting that I leave it with this little painting.

Now with 2022 on the horizon, I am quite nervous about what lurks around the bend. Let's wait and see what sort of creature we will have to deal with next. Swords and spears and guns and crossbows and arrows and lasers and lightsabers and any other weapons of choice at the ready, guys! We got this!

Lines In The Sand

Lines In The Sand

20 cm x 14 cm

SketchBook

. . .

I recently went to the beach, more specifically Trombol Beach in Kuching. It’s about an hour’s drive from my house and it’s a very beautiful place. It’s this really long stretch of just sand and despite having walked for 2 hours along the shoreline, I have yet to encounter any sort of tangible edge on either side of the beach; it is that long. 

While I was there, I managed to make a few sketches of different parts of the beach. I initially intended to paint there, but I ended up frolicking along the shoreline for the whole 2 hours I was there. It was so intoxicating to just walk in the water, feeling the sand in between my toes, almost without a care in the world. I ended up deciding to paint at home. 

When I finally got to painting, I kinda botched up the first attempt. The sky was far too dark and the sands ended up looking very filthy. Plus I was testing out water brush pens for the first time and things got really messy. So I gave up trying those out and used my old brushes in the second attempt, instead, which is the one that you see above. 

First Steps

'First Steps’

1980 x 1440

SketchBook

Inspired by Death Stranding

. . .

‘Left... right... left... there you go! Way to go, Lou.’

. . .

Little post-game headcanon of Sam teaching little Lou to walk. I am a sucker for tender stuff like this.  🥲 🥲 🥲 🥲

I initially planned to do a gouache painting for Christmas, in honour of the gouache paint a dear friend got me as an early Chistmas gift this year. However, by this point, I have painted about 4 pictures with gouache for my cousins and aunt, and thought I needed a break from the medium. Hence, me making a digital painting, instead. 

Anyways, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE! 

The Losing of Ways

The Losing of Ways

1980 x 1440

SketchBook

. . .

Inspired by VIKINGS

I have done my portrait practices and now it is time that I apply this to what I normally paint, which is landscape with the little guy, only this time, the little guy turns his face the other way. 

I have mostly put off doing it this way because I have never been completely confident with faces, especially on small figures. I tend to get very fixated with the details of the faces so much, it tends to drive me crazy, even more so when the faces always turn up lopsided -- hence the faceless silhouettes most of the time. And that is why I did all those practices and experiments before. It was so that I could get comfortable with painting faces without being so fixated with the details, and focus on how the light reveals the details. 

It was worthwhile practice -- though I must admit I got really self-conscious about making them to a point I started noticing (and needlessly worrying myself over) my follower count dropping. Won’t lie, it bothered me somewhat, and to be fair, the portraits themselves may have bothered a few people too. I shouldn’t care too much about that, though I must confess, part of me felt otherwise, and it was quite uncomfortable. To be fair, it could have been from me just feeling very very self-conscious and becoming hyper-aware about everything -- I may have already been losing some followers in the past already with my experimentations, only I didn’t really care so much. 

Regardless, I didn’t allow myself to cave so quickly; I made myself do a total of three different portraits as practice and learned as much as I could from them.

By the third, I felt like I have had enough -- and I was itching to get back to painting landscape again. 

So here is my latest picture, inspired by a scene from the VIKINGS TV Show where Floki has a sort of spiritual crisis and meltdown in a pond/lake. It is a powerful scene that stuck with me till this day, despite having not returned to the show in a long while. 

f e a r

f e a r 

More practicising, and this time, it’s Deena/Sarah Fier from the FEAR STREET Trilogy. 

I think I have had enough practice with portraits for now. it’s about time I start applying this to what I would like to do in terms of my usual stuff.

Little hint: it will be something inspired by VIKINGS. 

d o u b t

 d o u b t

. . .

The reference was Riley from MIDNIGHT MASS. Not really sure who this is now. 😅😅😅😅 Welp, more practice!

I’ll most likely do this for a while, which means no landscapes for some time. I hope you’ll bear with me through these experiments and practices. 

o u b l i e t t e

o u b l i e t t e

. . .

Had this dark fantasy landscape in mind, but as I worked through the sketch, I realised I needed more portrait practices, especially where the faces are lit from above. 

So here is one. It is... moderately successful. I was going for a young man’s face -- I even used a portrait of a young man as reference. But instead I got TLoU’s Joel in the end. Not too bad. I’m happy I even got the lighting right. Might do these for a while. 

 

Head In The Clouds

Head In The Clouds

1980 x 1440

SketchBook

= = =

O, how I miss dreaming. I don’t do that very often anymore. Every night, I will crawl into bed and as soon as I close my eyes, it will be just black till sunrise. Have I lost my ability to dream? or have my mind simply learned to forget them as soon as I wake? 

= = =

Here is an image from a recent reverie of mine, where I stand upon a gloomy beach, wearing a poncho, under dark rainclouds threatening to pour at any second. 

Well, the holidays are coming soon, and with it raining quite often these days, I might just get my chance.

 

Bleak Midwinter

 Bleak Midwinter
1980 x 1200
SketchBook

Inspired by the Wind Farm forest in DEATH STRANDING

. . .

This is perhaps one of the more significantly interesting places in the game for me. The mood alone is almost a total contrast to everything else in the game, where it is mostly very open and expansive and vast... and quiet. Here in these woods, the winds are strong, and so the tall trees here will creak and their multitude of leaves will rustle above, all of which are refreshing and welcoming to the ears after trudging through silence sometimes. There is much more to look out for in terms of rocks and steep slopes, too and since it sits in a sort of deep valley, it can sometimes feel oddly claustrophobic and, mind you, it feels much worse when BTs appear and one struggles to find a way out in a panic. 

It is one of the few locations in the game that I daydream about sometimes. And in this particular image, there is snow. 

Something for the season~~  ❄️ ❄️ ❄️

Through Desolation

Through Desolation
1920 x 1440 
SketchBook

. . .

Had quite a tiring day, today. By the final hour of work, my brain had turned to complete mush and I couldn’t do anymore work after that, so I tore away and did this instead, to cool off. 

I guess you could say I drew inspiration from several places, the most prominent being DEATH STRANDING (as with most of my art recently). I would like to think that DUNE had a hand in this as well, given the desert setting. That and also Studio Ghibli’s TALES FROM EARTHSEA -- I was mostly listening to the soundtrack when I was painting this. And there was also a bit of Nightwish’s ALL THE WORKS OF NATURE WHICH ADORN THE WORLD (specifically, MOORS & AURORAE). 

KEEP ON KEEPING ON

 

KEEP ON KEEPING ON

1200 x 1500

SketchBook

Inspired by DEATH STRANDING

. . .

I was not planning on drawing today (actual day 13/12/2021 - I needed time to upload this as they were so many pictures). I was hoping to keep today as my day of rest from drawing. 

So here are more variations of the painting I did above, which I made for fun. XP

Warning: Long post ahead!

Chilling With Mountains

Chilling With Mountains
14cm x 20cm

 Gouache on paper

Inspired by DEATH STRANDING

. . .

This is my first time painting with gouache, and it is surprisingly fun -- though daunting. It feels almost like watercolour, and I have had terrible experiences with watercolour in the past, so I was quite anxious about using this medium. 

I started with some experiments of my own, just to get the hang of the medium. Here is the page. 

I felt a bit more confident after that, so I decided to attempt a proper painting, using a scenery I have capture in DEATH STRANDING as reference. Thus, ‘Chilling With Mountains’ is born. 

Here is the reference I took from my playthrough of the game. 

ALAN. WAKE UP

ALAN. WAKE UP

1200 x 1500

Autodesk SketchBook

. . .

The start to my day today was quite horrible. I woke up still feeling extremely exhausted and poorly rested, despite having gone to bed earlier than usual the previous night because I was that tired. I decided to take the morning off from work and just allow myself some extra sleep. 

When I woke up next, I felt a little better and just as I logged onto my PC after getting breakfast ready, I saw that the Game Awards were on, so that improved my day a little. I don’t indulge in award shows that often nowadays, but I still draw some pleasure and excitement from them every now and then. 

Then, as I watched, I saw, on another tab, that there were several trailers already shown before I hopped into the show, so I looked through them, and guess what? I saw the announcement trailer to ALAN WAKE 2. 

I was beyond ecstatic! My day improved by tenfolds, and I was just so happy! After so many years, a proper sequel to ALAN WAKE! I can’t wait. I’m really excited for this. 

Emergence

Emergence

1920 x 1200

Autodesk SketchBook

. . .

A little black and white painting of a mountaintop peaking through fog, and a little hiker just barely visible at the side. 

I made this piece for a DeviantArt contest hosted by Erdbeerstern, called ‘Be it Black and White’. You can check out the other entries here. 

Northern Lights

 Northern Lights

1200 x 1500

SketchBook

. . .

For this piece, I drew inspiration from several places, one being the Northern Lights itself. Then, there is the song ‘Surrender’ by Birdy, which is one of my top favourite songs, and there’s also DEATH STRANDING -- I am at that part of the game now where the skies are filled with auroras now post Chapter 9. And then, there is HIS DARK MATERIALS, in which the Northern Lights served as a trigger for Lyra’s epic and bizarrely spiritual adventure. 

The blending of the aurora lights were the hardest to achieve. It took some experimentation between several types of brushes, until I settled on a weird mixture of three -- round, square and air, with the aid of the smudge tool. It was fun playing around with them, nonetheless. 

KOHLJIMA

KOHLJIMA

1717 x 2456

Mixed medium (pencil, ink, brush pen, acrylic, SketchBook)

. . .

I am back! And what better way to resume than making a mixed medium fan art of Hideo Kojima and Rahul Kohli together? Seriously, these two have been showing so much love to each other on Twitter lately, but this one took the cake:

https://twitter.com/Kojima_Hideo/status/1466254271704596481

And it was at that point, I knew I needed to just draw something with the two of them finally coming together. 

Here is the original traditional scan: