LO: My Inspiration

My inspiration for this portrait came mostly from the video game and anime art of the 1970s-1990s. Games like Policenauts and shows like Urusei Yatsura have been a consistent source of inspiration for me in my art. (In terms of storyline? Ask me about Ursula K. LeGuin.)

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In particular, when it comes to digital art I’ve always been inspired by the pixel-art mastery of the PC 98 games. (yeah yeah I’m a nerd) Shallow romance novella games aside, the PC 98 series has one game which really interested me, the aforementioned Policenauts.

A digital visual novel from 1994, it is probably one of my favorite examples of pixel-art character design out there. This game was developed by Konami and the storyline was written by Hideo Kojima. Kojima had worked on other projects like Snatcher before Policenauts, and this heavily influenced his characters and storyline. Additionally he drew from real life and television to come up with his plot points and other story and design aspects. Despite having never played any of these PC98 games, I’ve watched run throughs and have always been amazed at their quality and how it’s held up over time. The pixel-art graphics rival those employed by contemporary retro callback games, and the character design is full of color and life! (despite only existing in pixelated format) To me the plot isn’t as relevant as the art, so the pixel=art scenes, given the limitations of tech at the time, are really fascinating to me even if I find the dialogue and the plotline boring. Kojima also created a new scripting engine for the story aspects of the game. (the reasons for which are irrelevant but humorous if you look into it)

The game wasn’t as popular as some of his other work, but it got an overhaul in the early 2000s when it transferred to other consoles and had cel animation grafted onto it instead of the pixel-art. I however prefer the pixel-art, as it leaves some of the more shocking colors and gives a rougher quality to the linework.