#lightingpracticeart

[mikashi-kahsmi]

Happy Birthday, Foxtrotyy

To celebrate a shared birthday, I decided to make an art piece for one of my friends, Foxtrotyy.

Only two characters belong to me in this art piece. The other characters in order, belong to: - Fauna (@/GNCMimikyu) - Vira (@/HailStryder7x) - Vivee (@/Foxtrotyy) - Pile (@/Foxtrotyy)

This illustration has a process video associated with it. Which can be viewed here:

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[mikashi-kahsmi]

Happy Birthday, Reanna Deir

I decided to make an art piece for one of my favorite characters that I've made. This one could have been executed better in a few areas, but I won't force myself to over-polish this one. This illustration has a process video associated with it. Which can be viewed here:

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So, a little backstroy about Reanna. I'm not really sure where to start, so I'll just rant about how much I appreciate her. Back in... 2017 - 2018, I was a part of a fandom for the videogame, "Lobotomy Corporation" by studio Project Moon.

I was pretty young, early adulthood or late teens. I would spend some of my creative energy in the fandom creating artwork for canon characters. But a very large portion of my energy was spent creating my own characters for Lobotomy Corporation's setting. Back then, these OCs were often called "Abnormality OCs", "AbnOCs" or "Abno OCs" by the fandom at the time. At some point I wanted to create a pair of Abnormalities (later, changed to "Anomalies", and as of writing this "Representations") with a relationship similar to "Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary" and "Big and Will be Bad Wolf". I'm might not sure where the exact idea for a deer and a moth originated from or why I chose those two creatures, but I got to work. After sometime, I had finished developing, what I named the "Reanimated Deer" (later changed to, "Reanimated Fawn" and now as of writing this, the "Representation of: Traumatization"). She looked like this:

But this 'final' design only came after some trial and error. The deer had previous designs and stories far before this one. But I'm too lazy to open Discord in order to fetch them and the stories are best saved for a different post, if I will it. This deer was part of a collection of other monsters I had created for my own ‘Wing’ (basically a mega corporation in Project Moon’s world) at the time, named "Kaiser Corporation". This Wing gathered and exploited monsters from various worlds, dimensions, realities and other areas both earthly and otherworldly. This fawn, and her predator, the Lullaby Moth (later changed to, and currently called the "Representation of: Voracity") were from a never-ending forest dimension with a reverse food chain.

The forest (called the "Vast Woodlands") was what could have been descirbed as 'scenic, ethereal or beautiful' with animals of many different species living within it. The sickening truth of the woods would only be made apparent when night struck, and large insects would come out to prey on the helpless inhabitants. Hoping to escape the moth which had been hunting it, the lost fawn accidentally crossed into Kaiser's realm (Project Moon's 'City'). Some science-ensues, and both fawn and moth are easily added to Kaiser Corporation's roster of freakshow nightmares. And that's where I'll end off, for now. I'm not sure when it happened but my friends at the time seemed to really like the Reanimated Deer. I don't really think it was the story that played a huge role in their appreciation for her. Rather, I believe her design was what really appealed to them. Also, it may have been caused by them assuming deer were my favorite animal (which isn't true, my #1 favorites are Komodo Dragons). Either way, their enjoyment of the Reanimated Deer was what caused me to continue fixating on her, doodling her, and thinking up ideas for the fawn (and by association, the moth) in my noggin. Some time later, "Library of Ruina" released. And with this release, a whole slew of new information about Project Moon's world for me to grasp and mess around with. Among the many, many AU ideas I had for Ruina, one stood out. "What if I took my Wing's monsters, and made them humans in a Ruina AU?" And that's where the idea of 'Reanna' was born. Originally her name was going to be “Reanni” but I’m glad I stuck with “Reanna”. Her last name, “Deir” (in some other lives, “Faun”) is a paronomasia on the Deer/Fawn part of the Reanimated Fawn’s name. Unfortunately at the time, I was unable to draw figures correctly.

So most of the ideas surrounding Reanna were left to my noggin, note-taking, and the occasional writing when possible. Without getting too into detail, I decided she could be a 'Fixer' (essentially, they are "mercenaries" that do a variety of different jobs, from house cleaning to man-hunting) and that she would work with three other individuals. Jade Moon, Veronica and Colt Echoes. I would try adapting Reanna and the moth's (later named Luis Drone) stories in this Ruina AU.

Sadly, nothing came of my efforts outside of developing some ideas that I would hold onto for later. But, I couldn't get the idea of the human design for Reanna out of my head. I wanted to draw her a lot, and the other humanized-Kaiser characters that I developed alongside Reanna. So after some more time and a variety of anatomy studies I was able to finally draw who I felt was 'Reanna Deir'. This was from 2022, and I still think it's a fairly accurate depiction of what Rean looks like, outside of my usual style.

And... For now, this is where she stands. A woman living her life as librarian in a modern AU I created. Which is an amalgamation of all my major works leading up to 2023. Even ideas from highschool.

…I think the most interesting thing about Rean’s development over the years is how much she’s changed from her ‘original’ self, but still retained that same… inclination—that same personality that I created for her during my period of doodles with the deer. She has kept details and story bits from her Kaiser Corp. life that still follow her and her friends to the various AUs I conceptualize around Reanna.

She’s also become something of a vent character for me—among a few other characters. If I had to choose a part of me that Reanna represented closely, it would probably be my trauma or resentment. My pain and my sorrow. I can’t quite convey with words how much this character means to me. It’s like holding your child. Or a prized possession. And I honestly couldn’t be happier having created her.

It’s so interesting to think how a certain event—a game, a movie, a conversation… Can just birth these special things in our minds as people. I sometimes wonder if these characters would exist post-2017, had I not picked up Lobotomy Corporation. Had I not enjoyed art, and the natural human ability to create “a life” in your mind…. Would these characters still exist? And what characters have I missed the opportunity to own and create by focusing so much on Project Moon’s works?

I sometimes ponder over this. And I can never truly know the answer, because that point in my life has come and gone. I don’t make many OCs nowadays. And I don’t thinks it’s a lack of creativity. Rather it’s satisfaction. And my philosophy of just recycling the same characters for different settings. Even if I stop drawing a certain cast, or move on from one group to another… I never truly forget about my characters or their desires, their stories. They always stay with me. They always travel with me down this treacherous, brutal societal highway of hell.

And for me, that’s as comforting a hug from a loved one.