[sources: X / X / X / X / X / X / X / X ]

[sources: x / x / x / x / x / x / x / x ]

"Frutiger Aero - Fish/Aquarium" (Stamps)

8 digital stamps (200x100) plus variations made in GIMP with self-made templates/borders and free stock images from pexels and unsplash. The theme I was going for was Frutiger Aero + Fishes/Aquarium.

Further thoughts beneath the cut:

I saw some stamps pop up on my dashboard and immediately wanted to try and make some myself. I went for Frutiger Aero + Fish/Aquarium as a theme and I quite like how the stamps turned out.

And yes, the templates/borders are my own - for a first attempt, I quite like them, though I am aware they could be improved upon. All in due time though.

These could be used on tumblr blogs, personal blogs or neocities websites (or anywhere else really, though those pages are the most common to use these for).

Getting a new game announced by Garage Heathen AND a new TOV(-related) video by Kane Pixels all within the span of like 24-36 hours is *wild* in the best way.

"Basilisk 2000" (CD Cover Mockup)

[source: x Sternum and right side of rib cage: seen from behind. Line engraving by A. Bell, 1798, from the Wellcome Collection]

CD cover mockup for the game 'Basilisk 2000' by Akuma Kira @stylishkira, made with Aseprite and GIMP and using an image from wikimedia commons (CC BY 4.0). The font name is Dogica Pixel Bold.

This is a by-product of another art piece related to 'Basilisk 2000' that I recently finished and will eventually upload.

I found out via a tutorial that Aseprite has a color indexing option that allows artists to use color palettes while indexing, allowing me to make stuff that looks like old web/low poly/2000s graphics.

This is a result of pixelation (in GIMP), color indexing (in Aseprite) and then further editing the picture in GIMP. I immediately liked the way it looked, kinda ominous and foreboding. I played around with size of the picture and ended up with a CD cover I quite liked. So I decided to finish and post it.

The piece also fits with the theme(s) of the game - an 'unfinished' ribcage and an unfinished game, a ribcage split in two like a certain character in the game, plus it references the 'recipe' that the player can find and the menu screen of the game.

Also, side note, I discovered this game through the video essay by Sagan Hawkes on YT ('The Disturbing Development of a Haunted Game...'), which I (re)watched while making this piece.

amphibizzy's comment(s) in the Kane's Facility server that made me realise something else:

In the context of TOV it makes sense to call this a burial site. The VVM, the Giant, the memories and the past are buried there. But also, at the end of TOV3 there were bodies shown - human bodies and a horse. So yeah, it makes sense to refer to this as a burial site in that context (I was coming at it from IRL too much when I first wrote this post.)

New surprise TOV(related) media let's gooooo!

Also, just my first impressions as I watch this:

"Remains" and "Burial site" are an interesting choice to describe the ruins of the VVM.

Iis it just me or is that the black-white-and-green filter from TOV for the first few frames? The sky later on certainly appears to be a much more vibrant blue than in the first few frames.

(Also considering how and when that filter is used in TOV - in relation to the past and/or death - it seems fitting to use it over the ruins of the VVM.) (something something the ghost of the VVM)

Really cool to see the remains overlaid with scenes from TOV, YT videos or images of what the shops were like before the demolition.

Especially when contrasting the scenes of TOV vs the IRL 2024 footage give such different vibes. Sunlight vs artificial light/inside vs outside, running vs walking, etc.

Is that a voice over of Scott Beck again? "We are gonna turn over a new leaf, we are not gonna talk about what happened in the past-"

Esp with the voice over it really drives home how the mall was closed down and then torn down and the place is just...lying dormant atm.

(09:10 - I bet this is unintentional, but seeing squares holes in the ground it seems like the camera is turning away like "nope! there might be stairs down there, I am not lingering on this!")

It is fascinating how much of the area has already been overtaken by nature/plants again.

(12:50 - Oh a flower! Because...Giant. With flower hands. Or just sun and sunflower. Splendid!)

19:20 THUNDER SOUNDS! THUNDER SOUNDS!

Also - I wonder if this is purely just the creator of the series having the opportunity to do some urban exploring and linking it to his work, OR if this is meant to be in-series; this could just as well be Wyatt walking through the ruins and contrasting it with his own footage. (The video appears in the TOV playlist too, which makes this even more ambiguous.)

"Wheeliam" (Who's Lila)

[sources: x / x / x Sycamore trees, Arkholme by Ian Taylor]

Digital collage made in GIMP with stock photos from pexels.com and wikimedia commons (license), depicting the character of 'Wheeliam' from the videogame 'Who's Lila?' by Garage Heathen. The collage uses the dither/ditherpunk style the game also uses.

Further thoughts below the cut:

Sometimes, you get hit with inspiration and sometimes, it just straight-up body-slams you. As was the case with this piece and a similar one I made. I was completely ecstatic the whole time I worked on this one, especially once the wheel had taken proper shape and when I had sort of figured out what kind of style/finish I was going for.

It always amazes me how making art makes it possible to create something physical that not just exists in my head, or how it allows me to recreate things I enjoy or that are simply cool concepts.

(The only thing that I am not happy about is the fact that whatever the heck it is tumblr does, it completely de-saturates any dithered pic I try to upload. If anyone ends up encountering the same problem, I suggest adding a 'burn' layer of the image and setting it to a low percent opacity, that seems to help.)

Also, random thought, but doesn't Wheeliam technically fit the 'object head' character trope?

Getting a new game announced by Garage Heathen AND a new TOV(-related) video by Kane Pixels all within the span of like 24-36 hours is *wild* in the best way.