#but still tho just look at how c l e a n this looks
It was bound to happen sooner or later, though after extensive work and a close eye for attention to detail, I’ve created promo artwork for the Deltarune AU @itsactuallyreigh and I have been working on, DarkLight: Parallel Worlds, based off of the artwork Deltarune uses in its file select menu!
(And there’s quite a tale behind its creation, too, of which you can find a deep dive and additional insight for underneath the cut— concept art included!)
Since Reigh and I began talking about creating a Deltarune about a month or so back, we knew that at one point we wanted a version of the one piece of Deltarune art featuring Kris, Susie and Ralsei beholding a behemoth of a billowing, blue dark fountain (Unintentional alliteration + 100).
The only difference being, naturally, that in place of the usual three heroes of the Delta Rune legend, it would instead feature the DarkLight trio: Reigh,Micah, and— a character that a lot of the Deltarune fandom could argue deserves much more lore relevance— Rouxls Kaard.
I mean, how hard could it be, right? Said artwork is entirely sprited, and if you know me, I’ve quite a history in pushing my spriting expertise to the limit… though, let’s take a closer look at the original’s sprites.
Upon closer inspection, the silhouettes of Deltarune’s trio are not only shaded a very specific way, but also have parts of their outfits flowing valiantly in the wind. The more I began to look at it up close, the more I wasn’t sure if I had the skill to make something of this caliber for DarkLight— I even would have to sprite the trio from the back!
Though, I didn’t want to conclude that it couldn’t be done, not without at least giving it an attempt. Really, all I needed to do was sprite DarkLight’s trio of the legend, as I already had a good, pixel-perfect asset of the fountain itself. So, I took to MS Paint and hastily drew out what the end result would look like.
Key word: Hastily.
As it turns out, it was easier than I thought it would be whipping up silhouettes of the cast by mouse, though I knew for certain that I would have to add a lot more details and accurate shading if I were to attempt a final version.
It was at this point that I discovered a sneaky trick that would, effectively, give me silhouettes that would actually look good, and from then on, all I’d need to do is shade them. The trick in question? Just upscale their overworld sprites, redraw them as solid black silhouettes, and flip them horizontally!
It worked out a lot better than I thought it would, too, and all that was left to do was heavily reference the shading style of the original. I noticed that, in the original art piece, the upper halves of Susie and Ralsei are at a very slight angle— it’s easier to see with Susie, as you’ll notice her jacket is flowing mostly to the left, so I’d have to account for that for Micah and Rouxls.
So, I got to work in shading. It was during this process that I made the realization that I would have to draw in some details so that the silhouettes would look better, most notably, having Rouxls holding his hands behind his back (Which, as any artist who’s drawn said pose from the front, is nowhere near as easy from the back).
Here’s what the fruits of my labor yielded! Eagle-eyed observers may notice that Rouxls’ coat flaps are drawn differently than the original silhouettes so that they look a bit more flowy (Rouxls Kaard fanatics may also notice that his whole design looks a bit different, and the reason behind that is… well… Reigh fixed it!).
This was quite a fun little project to work on, and it won’t be the last time you’ll see this art in action, either, though more on that in due course… in the meantime, I hope you’ve found my sprite process for this piece to be fascinating because I’m REALLY proud of it!!
