"Wheeliam #2" (Who's Lila)

"Wheeliam #2" (Who's Lila)

[sources: x / x Sycamore trees, Arkholme by Ian Taylor]

Digitial collage made in GIMP using its dithering option, with stock images from pexels.com and wikimedia commons (license). Depiction of the character 'Wheeliam' from the videogame 'Who's Lila?' by Garage Heathen.

Further thoughts below the cut:

This, like the first Wheeliam piece I posted, was a result of me getting hit with inspiration big time. For this one, I made the wheel from scratch and then used the perspective tool in GIMP to get the final shape. I also wanted to try and 'hide' the wheel-head behind the coat a bit, as if Wheeliam is looking around the Sycamore forest.

I really like how this came out, especially since multiple parts of this piece were a bit more challenging for me, like the wheel, finding a good background, getting the different parts to work together etc.

(Also, fun fact: The working title for this piece was 'biblically accurate Wheeliam'.)

((Tiny rant: Again, it is super frustrating that when I try to upload dithered pics, tumblr will desaturate them and also crop them (or over-size them) in unexpected ways, meaning I had to go back a dozen times to try and crop/saturate/etc. this piece until it looked good. And yet I still like the original much more. Stuff like this can really dampen the enjoyment of making art imo.))

"Incognito"

[source/stock image used: x ]

Glitch art made in GIMP with a free stock photo from pexels.com.

I discovered some cool effects I could get by combining different layer effects (partly by accident). The result is a bit like halftone, a bit like glitch art, but I achieved this with only a few layers - that's it.

I quite like how these came out, I couldn't really settle on one color scheme and just did a few ones to test out different options and combined them. The resulting piece reminds me a bit of Roy Lichtenstein and a bit of Andy Warhol for some reason.

I think especially the upper two color schemes are something I will go back to in other pieces of art; the upper right corner gives me some 80s/90s vibes that I really like. The upper left one is a color scheme I have used in a few other works that I will hopefully post in the future; I like calling it "Raspberry Lemonade".

"Head In the Clouds" (album/playlist cover + 2 variations)

(sources: x / x / x )

Digital collage made in GIMP with stock images from pexels and unsplash. My first attempt to make grunge-poster-style art.

It took me *far* too long figuring out how to correctly modify/use the noise filter plus a few other settings to get the 'grunge poster' type artstyle I had seen and admired online. Once I figured it out, I did a very quick test and also tested out 2 variations, which you can see here.

Not 100% the look I am going for, I want to do black-and-white artwork with colored/colorful highlights in the future, but for a first test this is pretty nice imo. Reminds me a bit about the soft grunge days on tumblr tbh.

Can't wait to properly get into grunge and maybe even xerox style art - I would really love to design posters for example.

"Who's Lila? - Tanya Kennedy" aesthetic/moodboard

[sources: x / x / x / x / x ]

Aesthethic/Moodboard made with GIMP using stock images from unsplash for the character "Tanya Kennedy" of the videogame "Who's Lila?" by Garage Heathen. Both the game and this piece of art make use of 'dithering'.

Additional thoughts beneath the cut:

This moodboard was both easy and difficult to make; easy because I managed to choose a set of pictures that immediately seemed to 'fit' for me and that I ended up using. Difficult, because we find out a lot about Tanya's inner life in the story of 'Who's Lila?', and she has connections with so many characters - so narrowing down what to put in this moodboard seemed a bit daunting before I started.

I think in the end, I managed to convey a couple things about her but haven't dipped too much into spoiler territory - I feel the relationship with William is hinted at in the pic with the cigarette (which has her face hidden, which I think also fits well in regards to her character), her phone hints at the connections with various people etc.

Maybe I'll make a part II one day, or a moodboard that focuses more on specific parts of Tanya's story. For now though, I think this turned out quite well.

"Who's Lila? - Michael 'Mike' Graves" aesthetic/moodboard

[sources: x / x / x / x / x ]

Aesthethic/Moodboard made with GIMP using stock images from unsplash for the character "Michael Graves" of the videogame "Who's Lila?" by Garage Heathen. Both the game and this piece of art make use of 'dithering'.

Additional thoughts beneath the cut:

Sadly, most interactions with Mike in the game are rather confrontational and the player doesn't find out a lot about the character, but I wanted to put what little bits the story tells us about Mike into a moodboard - the loss of his little brother Malcolm and the subsequent grief, his (complicated) relationship with Tanya, the myriad of feelings he is dealing with due to the events of the story.

I quite like how this turned out. I also noticed I am getting faster at figuring out how to choose images, arrange them, dither them in a way I like etc. And I also enjoy trying to follow the format I set for this particular set of moodboards. Dithering is really fun and I have started to try out different things with that artstyle in the last few weeks.

[background picture: x ]

Mixed media collage with an original drawing made by me that I then edited and colored in GIMP, and combined with a picture from pexels.com for the background. Based on whatever the heck Kane Pixels may or may not be teasing in his instagram stories and on his server connected to sun imagery and the phrase "splendor"/"splendid".

Further thoughts below the cut:

This was *awesome* to make; I haven't done traditional drawing in a long while and while I had to edit and combine multiple drawings in GIMP, it was great to see that I could make something like this myself completely from the ground up. I honestly wasn't sure I could and seeing that I indeed can do this is a huge boost for my self-confidence.

Coloring isn't something I am very good at tbh, but this gives this piece a sort of uncanny look that I actually think fits it quite well. Kinda gives it tarot-card vibes a bit.

To give a bit of background on the inspiration for the pic, Kane Pixels has had a few instagram stories and posts in his server that include similar motifs; a smiling sun and the phrase 'splendid'/'splendor'. Personally I think it might maybe be connected to the "Splendor Solis", but it could also just as likely be trolling on his part. We'll see.

No matter whether this ends up being *anything* on his part, it was fun to try and recreate the general idea and feel of the posts and just run with it, and to prove to myself that I could make something like this in the first place.

I have a different picture with a stock photo background as well as a picture with just the sun-mask-figure, which I will hopefully also post in the future.