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First art of the year and it's the feeble scholar himself. Also if you recognize where I referenced the pose from how are your 20s going after rewatching Hannibal more than 3 times? "Cringe is subjective and has no parameters Kaveh."

Image ID: "I am cringe but I am free" with Al Haitham gesturing in two panels.

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He's so pretty, and for what

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Plotholes aside, what if many years after the events of Cyberpunk 2077, Arasaka have perfected the Relic into Stacks, Corpos are immortal Meth gods, humanity has discovered aliens and conquered planets, and people have given up on containing rogue AI?

And then there’s the little things like Netrunners and Dippers, VR scenarios(scenes) and Braindances, synthetic bodies and organs, and all the horrors that come with an alluring cyberpunk city.

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Some old Warframe memes I made for twitter.

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Zuke and Mayday from No Straight Roads in carnival themed costumes. I really really really like this game. This was supposed to come out on Halloween but I got carried away as usual, so let's just pretend they're wearing Christmas outfits. 

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My precious mutant doggo, from the awesome Warframe game. It took 3 days on account of all the other stuff that's been keeping me busy. Anyway, hope your New Year is going well so far! Until next year😆(joke though).

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Sketch of a Giraffe brought over from Instagram. I don’t know how the Perpetua filter worked this one time, but it did...

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Me: *hears someone watching the Black Panther trailer*

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Another collab to create fan art of Killmonger with @astronaut_nemo. 

He’s the villain, I swear.

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We're gearing up for the big project starting with some Black Panther fanart by @astronaut_nemo. Enjoy, and watch this space! 😎

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Why does Black Panther look Like That? Trailer 1(Part One): Wakanda

I’m breaking down the Black Panther trailer(yet again I know), but this time focusing on it’s aesthetics and trying to point out the reasons behind some of the design elements, and the cultures that inspired them, in another super long, super detailed blog post. No, shush I am not obsessed okay just go with it.

Looking through it(for the hundreth time) I realized that Black Panther has pulled from a vast number of cultures and communitites, so I may miss some, or get others wrong. The points below will be largely based on my own cultural experience(and meagre education on Traditional African Society) and some google :3. So this is like 60 percent speculation. Feel free to correct me. I also try to avoid spoilers below, but here’s a potential spoiler alert just in case.

With that out of the way, Enjoy!  

Part One: Location; Let’s Talk About Wakanda

You can read about its history here but it’s basically a futuristic African country.

In the trailer we get this great overhead reveal of Wakanda. Note the shapes of the buildings, especially the roofs. Despite looking contemporary at first glance, they follow a similar design to grass thatched huts.

Next we have a shot of the people receiving their King as he returns from a journey.

This Wakanda follows some African countries in that they are a people of different comunities or tribes with different ancestry,culture, customs, mannerisms or attire(or even languages) living together. Where I’m from we’re 47 tribes living in a country about the size of Colorado.

There is also the guy in purple in the middle ground of the photo. I’m guessing this is the King’s personal advisor or the royal witch doctor, or both(more on him below).

In this shot, it looks like T’challa is taking a stroll in some Wakandan town(I’m assuming because of the grafitti on the walls) with Lupita’s Nakia as the Dora Milaje(the royal guard) stand guard nearby. Note the building behind them is covered in art made up of colorful shapes. That is very similar to the architecture of the Ndebele located in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

We also have a shot of the king’s throne room:

The Dora Milaje stand guard(along with two guards of Mr. Green?). It looks like the elders, or representatives of every tribe, are coming together to have a super important meeting. Maybe a trial? In traditional African society the chief would make the decisions but he would often be surrounded by a counsel of wizened elders who would advise or caution him. In some communities people who broke the rules would be brought to the elders who would decide the right punishment for them. They would also resolve conflicts among the people, and preside over special occasions like naming ceremonies, weddings, funerals among others. In some, there would be no chief, only a council of elders. Some communities still have councils to this day.

However, it could also be representatives of the different tribes or clans of Wakanda, meeting to discuss an issue that affects or will affect them all. This is not uncommon. Some tribes would be divided into different clans, if something important needed to be discussed, each would send a representative. They had to be well spoken and knowledgable in the rules of the community.

Note the colours chosen for the achitecture of the throne room. Instead of portraying materials like marble, they have stuck to earthy tones and gold(which may have been used to symbolize royalty).

Here we have Nakia, Queen Ramonda and Everett Ross at what looks like a shrine high up in a mountain:

I brightened it up a bit.

At first I thought it was a shrine, but it looks more like the base of operations, or home, of one of our antagonists(more on him under attire). It would also explain why they have fur in their attire, because the live high up on the snowy mountain peak. Some mountains like Kilimanjaro,(that one in the opening scene of the Lion King) are so high that they have snow at their peaks, despite being in tropical(hot all year) places. See the gif below for the Lion King scene...

Just kidding here is the real one. And a photo of the real thing for comparison.

Moving on, in this shot we have some Wakandans performing what looks like a ritualistic task:

They could be making the herb that gives Black Panther his abilities, in preparation to ‘anoint’ the next Black Panther.

Many communities have had close relationships with nature. People could easily recognize which plants were food, medicine, poison, for toothbrushes or even toilet paper(yup). And in villages there was often a lineage(often that of the witchdoctor) specializing in herbalism. Today, industries have been built around providing herbal remedies. I assume that this herb is considered to be royal or even of divine nature.

I also think that this is happening right before or after the fight between Killmonger and T’Challa. I say this because the children of the community, who have been gathered and their faces painted in a distinct, almost ghostly style, similar to that of the face painting of the Surma of South Sudan and Ethiopia, are given the task of stirring something off screen. 

Only the children seem to be stirring away as the adults stand solemnly in the background. To me, it looks like this is an important, even sacred, ceremony for the community of Wakanda. If they were following traditional African culture and this was just casual cooking, it would be the women handling the food, with the children doing errands(and the men out on the farms or something).

Take note that our royal advisor/witchdoctor is present, possibly supervising.

Next we have a waterfall reminiscent of(but isn’t actually) the Victoria Falls in Zambia. If you go to the image here, you see that the Victoria falls look like a literal crack in the ground with water flowing into it, like the pic below.

There was also something similar in The Lion King.

And that’s it for now!

Thank you for making it this far in my long rambling rant. I like inspiring people to discuss so don’t feel shy to disagree or agree. If you love it, hate it, let me know!

I’m still working on Part 2 and 3, (ALAS I SAW THE LAST TRAILER TOO LATE. I’m posting this before I watch it) but I hope to finish the series before the actual movie. Once I have it ready I’ll link it here.

Thanks again! Here’s your potato.

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Hey guys, still here, just working on a new piece different from the usual.

Hey guys, still here, just working on a new piece different from the usual.

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A piece of my two favourite doggos Eddie and Duma.

Eddie is selfish, but affectionate. Duma is eager, and sometimes trips over his own feet.

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Collaboration with a fellow artist and a youtuber. A quick speedpaint of an alicorn that you can watch here:  https://youtu.be/QlRt0KTxgog

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Comission for a writer, of his original character Az from his book Son of Mabin.

Peppy and athletic, she is the healer of the team and protagonist's love interest...? 😏 This was a tough one but I love how it turned out. Thanks again for commissioning me!

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Feeling kinda old...thanks for the birthday wishes though!

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“The last two humans in the galaxy.”

Fan art of Valerian and Laureline, the anime. This one is a romantic, comedy, sci fi. It has that pleasant 90s charm and great voice acting in the French dub. And Valerian and Laureline are officially my new otp.