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Klonoa: Kill or be Killed

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So... my art style has improved a bit.  Woo-hoo.

This is actually the largest image I've ever created.  I'm pretty darn proud of however much time I spent on it, which seems to be around fifteen to twenty hours over the course of three days (nearly half of which was on the last day, I think).  It's kind of hard to view it in a way that lets you take in all of the details at once, but scrolling down to see the entirety isn't that bad, I don't think.

See, oftentimes when I draw something, I draw it for a specific purpose: to preserve a feeling of sorts.  A feeling that I'm never able to put into words, and that only art of some kind of another (visual, auditory, animated) can induce.  So I do what I can to recreate what gave me that feeling.  I drew "Memories" to preserve the feeling given to me by Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, for example, and to this day I can look at it and remember.  I drew this to preserve the feeling given to me by some particular events in Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament.  It was originally just going to be Klonoa running and Suiryu (the dragon thing) swimming alongside him in a hurry, but I slowly realized that that didn't capture what had inspired me to create this, so I decided to add Garlen at the top and later some fireballs (from the area's boss) being fired at Klonoa and Suiryu.  I feel that I did a sufficient job, even if certain things still haven't been covered.  If anything, I at least made a pretty menacing-looking Garlen, didn't I?  Lighting from the right places can do wonders.


This next bit is going to be quite spoiler-y for Dream Champ Tournament, so stay away from it if you don't want things spoiled (that means you, Gygasnuke).

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What it is that I tried to capture in this image is the game's eponymous tournament, namely a particular aspect of it that is revealed towards the end: those who do not win are turned into gears to be used in machinery for an upcoming empire.  Behind Garlen are the six eliminated contestants at this point in the tournament.  This is where the piece's title comes from, as once you are made aware of this, you are playing simply for self-preservation despite knowing that whoever you're facing will suffer the consequences should you succeed.  I chose Suiryu as the contestant that Klonoa would face due to his predicament in the game: he says that he would let you win if he could, but simple self-preservation prevents him from doing so, continuing to compete purely because the alternative is a choice that he's unable to make.  He's the one to make you aware of what happens to those who fail, and he almost seems to regret continuing as he does.  Fortunately or not, he doesn't say in that situation for long, as you watch him be turned into a gear with no resistance after his defeat.

It was that quality of Suiryu that I feel that I completely failed to capture: his unwillingness.  To be honest, though, I don't know how I would outside of some shoehorned dialogue.  At the very least, though, I'm happy to have made at least somewhat clear (to people that have played the game) that Klonoa and Suiryu are currently in the race at the end of the semi-finals, competing to avoid the fate that Garlen would instill upon them as he watches.

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That having been said, though, I'm still pretty happy with this.  I feel particularly accomplished after completing this, and soft shading does wonders.  I did some stuff that I haven't before (soft shading in general, Suiryu being half-submerged, Garlen having lighting from underneath/behind him), and I got most of what I had hoped for.
Image size
3840x6170px 6.96 MB
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Comments2
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Gygasnuke's avatar
Oh snap, Klonoa looks like he was 3-D rendered! :L Guess I get to look forward to seeing who these characters are.
lol @ you telling me not to look at the description <3
(I didn't btw)