I’d never heard of Sauce man, but yes, yes. A thousand times yes, Brasidas is a Sauce man.
‘rat bastard (affectionate)’
I’m glad people can sense the glint of warmth and love shimmering within Deimos through the hard exterior he often wears :’D yes, HE IS NOT A BAD PERSON. he’s good I don’t think he can be considered theantagonisteither.
A very rambly and pretentious braindump ahead, or, how my Eivor x Basim obsession came to be:
Just attempting to scratch the itch of the paradoxical “impossibility” of non-canon ships.
Whenever I resonate with something on a level beyond anything I can control, I cannot help but daydream it in my own way. My most recent victim, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, is no exception.
I am more than aware that Eivor x Basim is not canon, and with the way the whole narrative unfolded in the game, they will never be an item. And that is OK. This is where all the “what ifs” are born.
Here comes the powerful effect of experience, or rather, how individual experience shapes perception.
I played the mythological arcs of Valhalla very late within the game, waaaay after the Oxenefordscire, Cent and Suthsexe arcs. For 80% of the game, my reality of Basim was that he is a mysterious assassin of Arabic descent who lost everything and has a thirst for knowledge. That was enough for me to completely fall in love with him. To me, he felt complete in his lack of definition. Eivor, on the other hand, was my eyes through which I was experiencing this story, a strong yet vulnerable protagonist. I was reveling in how their differences were unfolding before each-other and uniting them. A dance between “come here” and “do not come any closer”.
Her: boisterous and caring
Him: concealed and protective
Albeit, a very selective view of their arc, especially considering the big picture, it became an unshakable reality for me. Time shapes reality, and with a game as lengthy as Valhalla, I had all the time in world to let this reality truly take shape.
After playing the mythological arcs, completing the whole game along with the the Animus anomalies, and checking out the prequel comic, I concluded that perhaps there was never a Basim to begin with, just little bits and pieces of a broken man lost in his sorrow. Pieces to be used as a façade, housing a shapeless rage not his own.
Yet here I am, rewinding time, holding on to that first experience. Putting these pieces together with depictions of embraces and kisses. Making sense of a memory. A man with his own rage, thoughts and dreams. A man I am drawing with great joy, along with whom I find completes him best.
Thinking more about this… isn’t this applicable to pretty much any character, really? We are some sort of parents, or… co-authors with each screenshot, drawing, video, or fanfiction we create. As long as there is someone watching, characters will continue to live beyond the form of media they were born into. Little copies, all equally real and valid, never truly the same as the original.
I am very thankful for how complex the story of Valhalla is. Without its subtlety and expansiveness, I never would have explored one of its dormant paths so obsessively ;)
I’m too invested in this, aren’t I? Thanks, college, for teaching me to read too much into the lives of fictional people XD.
With the two more close-up-y drawings of them from this year’s Mermay, I never really got to showcase their full sea versions. So here they are! I put these doodles together all the way in April and it would have been a shame not to share what essentially contributed to some of (in my opinion) best pieces to date!
Quick concept ramblings: I based their designs al lot from Betta fish, who are known for their amazing color and fin variation. Males tend to be larger and have longer fins than females, which is what I wanted to keep in mind throughout designing their mermaid forms.
Look! It’s a background I actually put some effort in!
Underwater scenes are amazing and so easy to build.
I do admit, I am feeling rather down for not having made much art this month. However, I think the level of detail of what I managed to get done makes up for it.
Anyway, here are some Close-ups of them beautiful sea assassins! (assasseans, maybe? lol)
I find it fascinating how I tend to associate certain color palettes with the characters I am hyperfixated on. Teals and golds seem to be what I instinctively go for with my fave pixel people
Mermay is here! What a great time to celebrate my favorite mythical creatures! ♀️♂️
After weeks of anticipation, I finally finished this piece which is by far the most challenging and different I’ve ever made. From the lineart to the glorious soft brush, I made sure to change a lot of aspects of my art process. Needless to say, I love the result and this marks a fresh start for me in many ways.
Impatiently sharing a preview of the precious assassin sea people
I pretty much chose to revamp my entire art process and it’s paying dividence! The lines, in particular have been the biggest change and the most satisfying.
This piece made me realize how seldom I draw Eivor with her tattooed side showing. I also almost forgot her bite scar, haha. I’m so rusty with those details sometimes.
As some of y'all might have noticed, I’ve started dabbling in more… spicy themes and I LOVE it. Of course, I will not share such things here in their full versions, or at all, depending on their degree of… spice? haha
My goal is to do art that is first and foremost tasteful, and the same applies to this newfound endeavor.
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Seeing them blush is such an unusual sight, but it gives me life
LOOK THEY’RE KISSING. Like, a full-blown, grab your face type of kiss
It feels a little odd to see them with these facial expressions but I love it at the same time. It is especially challenging, since I cannot get an exact reference of what their faces would actually look like, so I have to be intuitive.
Still getting used to doing such art, haha. As a person who posts 90% of her work, there is a sadness in working a lot on a piece and knowing you will not be able to share it freely or fully. With that being said, the act of sharing itself doesn’t make a piece more or less valid or real. I imagine most artists have a voluminous body of work they do not really share with anyone for various reasons and love those pieces maybe even more than what they publish. That is something I have to learn to accept for myself.
