Hey Hive!
We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my drawings 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!
So if you didn't know, I've been streaming on Twitch for a while now and have been so lucky to have met and made so many friends on Twitch too! This next piece was actually a super special birthday art piece I did for one of my generous viewers turned streamer friends, iaohs (pronounced "eye-ohs")!
He’s known for being a huge supporter in our little streamer community and also using a voice changer on his streams that makes him sound like Pikachu! And back then he was mainly streaming Ghost of Tsushima which was what inspired me to draw him as Pikachu in samurai armour! The game itself is pretty cool and you play as a samurai out for revenge I think? It's also quite accurate to ancient Japan or so I've heard.
There are quite a few legendary clips of him and his horse, Sora, so I thought I’d immortalise Sora’s memory for iaohs’ birthday! 🥳
Here's one of said clips:
Since I was drawing him as Pikachu, it only made sense to model the horse after Ponyta! I referenced some pictures I found online of Ponyta and there were so many to choose from! I had to choose one that would look natural with Pikachu sitting on her back.
Sora is a full black horse but I didn't want to make him too black since the outline was already black. So I made him dark grey with lighter hooves to give him some contrast.
It still looked pretty dark so I tried a recolour as well to see if it looked good and it turned out pretty nice too! But I think the black horse still looked better though.
For the background, I wanted something simple but also had a Japanese motif and the easiest would of course be the Japanese flag, but I thought it would be too plain since it's just a red circle on white. So I consulted Google again and found these really cool-looking Japanese wallpapers:
Source: wallpapercave
I thought it looked super cool and since iaohs is also residing in Japan, it'd be perfect! But it was only after I finished this piece that I realised this background might be a little controversial since it's from Imperial Japan back during wartime. I just thought it would look really cool since it uses the space well compared to the usual Japanese flag. I didn't mean any ill will referencing it and iaohs understood of course. He still loved the art piece either way, for which I'm really grateful!
Here's the timelapse! The words on either side mean Happy Birthday in Japanese, of course.
I actually had to rush this piece since a mutual streamer friend of ours was preparing to edit a birthday message compilation for iaohs and I didn't really know what to do for a video since I don't have face cam, so I just said some nice words over the fastforwarded version of the timelapse and it worked! I'm so glad iaohs enjoyed it and since it was right in the middle of covid times while he was away for work in Japan, he appreciated it a lot too.
I've actually done a lot of birthday art pieces for friends since I don't find as much meaning in gifts and I'll definitely be sharing more!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
