I can finally share the work I did for the @encorepwease side order zine✨🐙🦑
I had the pleasure of making a page illustration that served as a homage both to the ‘Souv3nir’ in-game track AND Octo Expansion.
I also collaborated with @colourful-void and made spot art for their written piece ‘memverse_beta-test_(NOT)final’, that you can find right here .
Thank you to everyone in the zine that made this project possible, it was a joy to work with all of you!
Sharing the thumbnails and process below the cut . . . !
MAIN PIECE
Usually the first idea is rarely the one you end up going with, but after some explorations, I found that I liked it the most lol.
The whole piece had an abstract theme, which made it REALLY challenging. After all, how do you convey the feeling of a souvenir? The sort of nostalgic sliver of a ghost that clings onto the game and the track itself.
The position of each ‘souvenir’ fragment is not random. I purposely placed happier, more hopeful moments at the top, and darker ones at the bottom. This was meant to reflect the depths from which you have to climb out of difficult situations (like the deep sea metro), and the rise towards a brighter future (like with the tower of order). There’s other thoughts that went into certain details in each fragment, but I will not go into that 😂
It’s also in a way like flipping a coin, or a track. ‘Souv3nir’ in itself is the last of three songs. It represents both the initial hopefulness and the corruption of the memories as you approach the top of the tower. Hence the shattered glass fragments.
On the disk itself, I drew a little octoling life to represent Eight’s soul, and added both the memverse and the Free Association logos. The ‘Souv3nir’ title is entirely handwritten and it was a pain to get right LOL.
Lastly, it is very faint but if you look closer on the disk, you will find the original circuit pattern from the game!
SPOT ART
With Marina, I really wanted to showcase how trapped she was in her head, or a “box” of her own making (in this case the elevator). Throughout void’s piece, there’s a struggle to see past her mistakes and worries. She is distant and her judgment is clouded, she is hard to reach.
Playing with the size of the character was fun because I felt like it suggested a kind of surrealist feel to the piece, like how we might literally be in Marina’s mindscape as observers.
The jelletons were a late addition because the page felt sort of empty with just the characters. I like to think it’s them approaching to force Marina to accept her current reality and embrace it as it is.
Thanks for reading, if you took the time to listen ^^ I love talking about design and composition! Feel free to bother me in comments or asks, squid… OUT.
Based on a short snippet written by @technicolorcrows that I've been obsessed with
Tap. Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
This is… rather unlike Kinoga.
Tap- tap tap-tap tap-tap.
Though perhaps that's overstepping a bit.
Tap-tap. Tap-tap tap-tap tap-tap.
This is rather unlike his Commander.
The tapping stops abruptly mid-beat, the perpetrating claw on the tabletop is swiftly removed and withdrawn from sight.
This squad runs on the framework of hierarchy that all Octarians are obligated to operate within, but that is not what keeps this odd assembly of gears turning in time - no, that is the Commander's work alone. Jilon might call it respect, but that's not quite it. That doesn't quite capture the whole of it, the way even the strongest of personalities bend themselves into place without the hammer of punishment ever being raised, let alone used. It is something harder to name that keeps the machine that is their squad well-oiled, something more intrinsic to the hand that guides them.
A hand that now taps out strange rhythms on the tabletop.
It happens when Kinoga is otherwise occupied. It's hardly an uncommon habit - the musically inclined are not exactly a rare sort - but when they catch it happening during a briefing or while planning drills it's always met with the same response: immediate cessation and withdrawal.
It's an unusually strong reaction for something so small. Were they friends, Jilon might place the tightened mouth and furrowed brow that always follow in the proximity of guilt or shame, but it is certainly not his place to define the Commander's private affairs. And perhaps Kinoga, warm as they are, would hear out his concerns were he to address them - but his Commander's personal matters are hardly any of Jilon's business, and they would be right to put him in his place.
Tap. Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
….Still, the fact remains: this is rather unlike them.
