I wanted the artwork to stand out for my entry, so i tried something new and a bit different. I figured i might have a slight advantage in the art department, so i decided to challenge myself. That's one reason why my entry is right up to the deadline. I present you with my NES Royal Rumble.
Since we had a lot of flexibility to creatively do what we wanted i decided to put multiple characters together for a big battle scene. I didn't get to complete my artistic vision but ended up still happy with what you see here.
The direction i took for the process was to use cut-out pieces to collage together the individual subjects making up the whole of the artwork. This ended up being a much more tedious and meticulous process than i expected.
I colored each individual section in PrismaColor wax-based pencils. By doing this, i essentially drew these pieces in color. I didn't use a sketch to get started i just jumped right in with color first.
Then i outlined the individual pieces with an archival .03 mm PrismaColor Premier pen. After that, i used a combination of fine fabric scissors and a fine hobby razor to cut out each section. Sometimes, some of the pieces need a touching up or reinking of the outlines.
After the pieces were finished, i then outlined the face of the cut edges with a black Sharpie marker to keep a uniform outline. These pieces had a shadow when taking the photos and a white edge would break the shadow and the cut edges if they were left white. Sometimes, it's the little things that make the difference even if they go unnoticed.
I will point out that if i had mad a mistake at any point in the process i would have to start over. So, there was a pressure mounting between the narrow margin of error and the deadline for the contest closing in on the timetable!
One character i selected based on the impact he had on my life was Super Mario. It seems i was not the only one that valued and appreciated the influence Super Mario had and is still having on us all in the #HiveGamingCommunity.
I will say that in regard to choosing Super Mario, i usually preferred him when he could shoot fireballs... so i drew Fire Mario. I also chose to make him riding the flying Blue Yoshi. You can see Yoshi has a shell in his mouth to make sure those wings are legit!
I thought most of these, being simple characters, would be able to be done up quite quickly. I was wrong. Each one had its own unique nuances that made them challenging in their own right. For instance, Mario's head was particularly difficult for me. I am not completely happy with the one there but it will suffice considering how the other five or six looked. I used a mixed variety of the old original designs hybridized with newer character formats.
My favorite aspect of the Fire Mario riding the flying Blue Yoshi was the fireballs. Super Mario was and still is one of my most favorite video game characters of all time! Yoshi ain't bad either... but if i could only pick one Yoshi... it would be the Blue one sampled here.
I loved the original Legend of Zelda game. In my youthful ignorance, i even used to think Link was Zelda for a short time. Adventures of Link was decent but i always preferred the original.
So many versions have come out since those founding two editions that i had a hard time deciding which sword, shield, and Link to go with for my character design. I did a lot of research to mix and match and freestyle what you see here. I am not completely happy with Link but it could have been much worse.
During this whole project, i had a difficult time not just doing a pixel-art old-school version. I did want to honor the original but update it a bit at the same time. I hope you don't mind some of the liberties i took for those that would notice.
I basically created this sword inspired by about three different versions along with the shard Link would shoot out when his health was full, on the original Legend of Zelda.
The shield is also a creation of my own inspired by about four different shield designs throughout the years.
One of my favorite Super Mario Bros. games was part 2. Apparently, it was not originally a Super Mario Brothers game and was reengineered to become one, mostly for the North American audience. Bob-Omb made his first appearance in that game. He has been one of my favorite Mario adversaries. I don't know why he appealed to me so much. I think i just liked the way he looks... and still do!
I looked at many versions of Bob-Omb and decided to make a freestyle mix once again. I really like the way he turned out and i believe him to be my favorite character in this artwork. The Bomb explosion is what Bob looked like once he exploded in part two, with a little bit of embellishment on my part.
Donkey Kong was one of my favorite games as a kid. I remember mostly playing it at home on Atari... but also playing at the arcade sometimes too. Donkey Kong Country was pretty revolutionary as well. That Donkey Kong Country soundtrack was incredible for the time!
A lot of people don't know but Donkey Kong was the first villain of Super Mario, or JumpMan, as he was known at the time. We would come to know JumpMan a few years later as Super Mario. But, considering Mario jumped over all those barrels on Donkey Kong... it's a pretty fitting original name.
I wanted to reflect more of the old Donkey Kong and DK Jr. designs but didn't want to go full-on 8-bit graphics in my art. So i took some liberties with his face in particular. If you go look at Donkey Kong and how his face looks on the original game from all orientations, you will see i stayed true to the original! I also kept his face shaped and designed more in line with many other Nintendo characters. His face kind of reminds me of an ape Koopa-Troopa.
I tried to also stay true to the original design of the barrels. It would have been much easier to do the Donkey Kong Country formats given my own personal style, but as i said... i wanted this to be an artistic challenge. The barrel that is already thrown ended up being one of my favorite elements of this artwork.
Not my best photographic endeavors but giving you a closer look at smaller things either way. I tried to capture what the details were that i added, even though many of them would probably go unnoticed since there was so much going on in the art.
In-Game Items have changed a lot over the years. Now, it's pay to play, but back then if you could achieve it, the question was, How Long Could You Keep IT? Fire Mario was a good example. You get the item of fireballs if you can stay big long enough to get the FirePower Flower. One wrong move and you lose the fireballs. Based on the way they bounced you could easily lose your firepower.
I felt like the fireballs turned out really well. If you look in the Royal Rumble you can see Mario having a fireball on his finger and the spinning one bigger and on it's way towards the enemy. I remember we used to pause Super Mario 1 when Mario would shoot a fireball because it looked like he was picking his nose. We called them fire-boogers for a time.
I used metallic blue and metallic silver on this sword. I wanted to give the feel and reflect the way the sword would shoot off flying shards in Legend of Zelda. After studying the way it was designed and how it was animated in the game i realized that my original idea wasn't possible. So, i adapted the idea by taking liberty with the sword layout and colorization.
Link's shield was one of the more intricate design challenges. I used metallic silver and metallic gold for the border and triforces. This layout turned out decent. I feel like i could have done better on everything in this piece... but it wasn't a bad start.
Just a close-up of the Bob-Omb explosion for your viewing pleasures!
And a close-up of the flying barrel for your viewing pleasures as well.
I put one image of the final battle Royal Rumble above already... but i also included this one as well. There is a little bit of difference in what is in better focus and how the lighting catches the metallic colors. After taking the time to draw/color each part and fabricate the characters piece by piece, i realized how this could be an awesomely fun way to animate.
Although i didn't move around the parts all that much or take many different layout shots from different angles or vantage points, many of you may be able to see the potential and implications when designing in this fashion. I am fairly anxious to see what all can be done with these techniques of 2-d collaging combined with photography. I am sure this battle would have been more convincing with a background!
Since each one of these characters was so intricate in what it took to produce the finished outcome i ended up running short on time. My original idea was to have a whole bunch of unrelated good guys versus a whole bunch of non-related bad guys from all gaming systems and eras. I wanted to have a Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal and a whole bunch of other characters that are meaningful to me... but i would have missed the deadline and not got my entry into the contest in the proper timeframe. Perhaps TO BE CONTINUED..........
Let me know some battle combos that sound interesting to you to see designed in this format and perhaps you could get your wish if there ends up being a sequel or sequels to this post. Thanks for taking the time to stop by, check out my art, and my hat's off to you if you actually read this whole thing!
