Disco Elysium: Fan Arts #1
An Overview of My Artistic Progress
If you've been checking my YouTube and Instagram, you should know that I like Disco Elysium. I fell in love with the world as soon as the music hits, as soon as the the deep voice of my Ancient Reptilian Brain uttered its first words: There is nothing. Only warm primordial darkness. By that time, I was hooked.
And, it's not just that. I could write a lot more about why I love the game, the world and its characters--ranging from scenes with Kim Kitsuragi, to uncovering the mystery of the murdered man, and to even helping an old cryptozoologist. But, this is not what this post is about. This is about how making fan arts for Disco Elysium became an avenue for me to hone skills as an artist, and as I was compiling the pictures even I was amazed (and kinda shocked) with the progress I made.
2022
Chapter 1: First Foray into Animation
Still from my YouTube video, Me During Measurehead's Speech
Stills from my YouTube video, Kim Fails His Electrochemistry Check
My first foray into making animations for YouTube was Disco Elysium video about me during Measurehead's speech, using purely Procreate. I basically made 5 assets in total, namely 2x Harrys, 2x Measureheads, and 1x Kim. It actually performed pretty well considering it was my first animated video. It was then followed by my most popular video about Kim getting the boogie street shakes!
I mostly followed my art style at the time which is very cartoon-y and vector-like, reminiscent to a poor man's ThunderRockets illustration.
It was a pretty fun experience that really opened my eyes to animation. I thought it was pretty good at the time, but seeing them right now well...they lack refining, which is understandable at the time.
Chapter 2: Artistically Lost
Still from my YouTube video, Joyce and the Pale
Stills from my YouTube videos (left to right), Police Badges, Jean Talks About Harry, and Harry and the Smoker on the Balcony
I think this was the moment that I started uploading once a week, which was very bad for me creatively and mentally. I had to force myself to think of ideas, and make them blazing fast--like in one sitting fast, considering that I'm still in college so I have a lot of responsibilities. This lead me to basically "tracing" the shapes of the stills I got the ideas from, namely the sitcoms, Brooklyn 99 and Community.
I am not proud of this phase. I felt like I forced myself into making these stuff that are mainly for posting weekly. I was creatively bankrupt at the time. My art style was pretty much regressing at the time. There were a lot of cons during this time. The only "positive" I could think of is that I learned how to use Procreate more efficiently.
Chapter 3: Finding My Footing
Stills from my YouTube videos (left to right), Surprise Announcement, Sorriest Cop vs. Superstar Cop, and Hey, Garte!
During this time, I realized my mistake and returned to my roots--cartoons, like actual drawings that look like cartoons. But, my art style in terms of lines and color works were still pretty bad, admittedly. Though, it was a start to returning to my roots, and I thought things were looking up for me again artistically...and so I thought.
Chapter 4: Forcing a Template
Still from my YouTube video, Harry Christmas
At this point, I was kinda settled on the idea of being a YouTube animator (I know, I know, very ambitious of me). So, I looked up animation videos using various softwares. This lead me to making "character turnaround" of various characters using "my" style. I basically made templates for a male or female character. I then became very obsessed in following these templates that I'll get angry if I don't get them right...which lead to me copy and pasting the templates to my illustrations, which was really not beneficial to me artistically. So, I thought of taking a (short) break.
2023
Chapter 5: New Year, New Art Style
I had to re-evaluate what I want to be artistically and what my art is reflective of. I looked back at my influences, namely, PicCandle (for doodles), various cartoons (like SpongeBob and Adventure Time), Moebius (for its linework and beautiful colors), DeathBurger (for its use of lines as textures and whatnot), ThunderRocket (for its goofy characters), and BurntToast (for its simple character designs). And, by reflecting, I somehow came up with an amalgamation of all the things I love from those influential works/artists.
Admittedly, I am still not 100% set with my art style, but the difference from now and then is that I now have a vision--a vision of what I want to be as an artist and what my art style could possibly look like. And with that, I am grateful--grateful for actually finding a path.