Hey Hive!
We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my paintings and the process behind them. A behind-the-scenes look at my artwork, if you will. This is not to say that I'm very good at art, or that I'm a professional in any way. In fact this is the opposite, and serves as a reminder to how I first started, and lets me track my progress too!
This was a very special piece I did for Sean back in March, when he got a position in Esports Management at Singapore Tourism Board (STB)! He had been working there for a couple of months and finally got his first placement! Both of us are really into gaming and esports in general, and I was so happy for him because he's actually working on something he's passionate about! Truly Passion Made Possible (STB's tagline).
So to celebrate, and to add something new for his new desk, I thought I'd do a piece that's gaming-related!
Singapore's tourism mascot is this merlion named Merli and she's really cute!
Source: Big 3 Media
The last piece I did for Sean was a Merli compilation that looked like this:
Anyway, for this piece I wanted it to be gaming-related. And the first thing I thought of was Gamer Merli, or GaMerli, but I think the Singapore government wouldn't like the sound of that because it could be easily misconstrued. But either way, it's basically Merli as a gamer.
And since this piece was going to be at Sean's desk, the easiest pose for a gamer would be at a gaming desk as well. So I went looking for some vectors I could emulate such as this:
Source: freepik
And I also found a picture of Merli wearing headphones which was perfect:
Source: Big 3 Media
And the last thing I needed was an 8-bit font I could emulate as well:
Source: Pinterest
From there I think you can pretty much see how I pieced these 3 things together.
Here was my initial sketch:
I remember having some trouble drawing Merli exactly so I had to trace a little bit to get the head shape just right.
This was my final sketch:
Sorry for the lighting btw
I liked the HUD of the original vector illustration and thought I'd do my own version with different stats and stuff. I also put in Sean's icon, which is in the same style as the Valentines' piece I did for him. And since his IGN is just his name it'd be perfect for his desk for his non-gamer colleagues to recognise him.
This is what it looks like after outlining!
I really liked the bongo cat meme so I added him in because the left side seemed pretty empty. And he could be representing me when I come to peek in on Sean while he's working! 😅
The arrows on the hoodie are a reference to Sean's new hobby of playing Dance Dance Revolution at the arcade. And the stats are 3 of his most played games (that I know of)!
Anyway it's time to paint!
I painted Merli first, starting with her mane/hair. Then I decided on orange for her headphones since it's Sean's favourite colour. And I went with an ombre sunset colour for her hoodie. It actually turned out really nice so I opted for a similar colour scheme for the background too!
I think the table could've been done better. It wasn't very smooth but I figured it didn't really matter if it's like a wooden table.
The chair also looked a little funny since Merli's head is kinda big, but I wanted the chair to be seen still so it looks a little too wide.
But overall I think this piece turned out quite alright. I really liked the colour scheme, and I think I've gotten better at using watercolours in an ombre style because you can't really see where the colours meet anymore; it looks much more seamless here imo.
I liked this piece a lot and I'm so glad Sean did too! Unfortunately, when I gave him this piece the lockdown kicked in and he didn't end up going to the office until much later. I think it was months after that he finally got to take this photo of his desk:
I was hoping he'd be able to see it everyday while he worked as a form of motivation, but alas, it ended up sleeping in my sketchbook for weeks. And even after he put it up at his desk, he still didn't manage to look at it much since he started working from home. Oh well.
At least it'll always be there waiting for him until he goes back.
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
So cute merli!
hehehe