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she’s a 10 but she’s a strange in-between thing a neither dead nor alive girl

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999 Week: Day 6 | June in Triple Self-Portrait by Norman Rockwell

Thoughts and original reference under the cut!

Well, I think it's obvious why I'm one day late with this piece! I'm sorry Akane, love of my life, my legend, my muse, I have failed you. But in a way, I have also done you right I think! I'm super proud of the final result for this one, and all the symbolism I was able to cram into this piece.

The rendering for this one was such a challenge. I wanted to maintain sort of a similar texture the original one has, and in the process I became familiar again with a bunch of brushes I had and never use, so that was nice. Perhaps I'll use them again in the future! This was also great practice for drawing various objects and materials.

Onto the piece itself!

Norman Rockwell paints his triple self-portrait in a humorous tone, and yet this piece is also filled with so much symbolism that was so much fun to research and reinterpret for Akane.

"June is... Akane is... Zero."

Let's start with the subject of the painting itself. Rockwell depicts himself as the artist, the reflection, and the subject. This was the main inspiration for choosing this painting for Akane, and the three roles she fulfills in the story of Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors.

The artist is represented as Akane as Zero; the mastermind, the orchestrator, the main agent behind the plot. We see the most of this figure in the original composition, and at the same time, it's the only self-portrait in this painting whose face we don't see.

The reflection is represented as Akane as a child; she sees the image of the little girl she was. Everything Akane is doing, she is doing for her, and yet she also exists on a different plane than everything else. I wanted to go with a slightly comedic, childlike portrayal by drawing her sticking out her tongue in concentration. She still has her childhood innocence. Perhaps Zero is making the same expression too.

The subject is Akane as June; the idealized version that she would never be, that she perhaps wishes she could be, and that she needs to become so everything comes together in the end. She smiles gently, a created image of herself. Notice how in the original, Rockwell wears glasses when he depicts himself as the artist and the reflection, but they're missing in the picture on the canvas.

Other details in the painting all revolve around the Nonary Game. In the original, Rockwell incorporates several interesting objects he either had in his studio or chose to include as a nod to some specific ideas he wanted to convey.

There is, for example, the other self-portraits in the original painting. Rockwell studies several other great masters from art history, including Dürer, Rembrandt, Picasso and Van Gogh. In my version, these references have been replaced with portraits of Erwin Schrödinger (representing the state Akane is left in after the Nonary Project), Morgan Robertson (author of Futility), the dog from the morphogenetic fields explanation (I mean... sorry, the almighty Funyarinpa) and William Thomas Stead (the other author that gets brought up in the Futility explanation). Rockwell also pinned a piece of paper with several sketches of himself to the canvas. In my version, I included sketches referenced from various sprites from the game. I chose sprites where Akane looks sad or anxious (perhaps she didn't end up referencing these when she opted to draw June happy) as well as her outstretched hand with the bracelet in sight.

The ornate mirror frame originally depicts an eagle and a coat of arms with the American flag, which I chose to replace with a lion (thanks to @wyrdle for this idea!) In the original, the coat of arms is the Great Seal. My own interpretation is that, given that Rockwell's works are pretty much synonymous with the imagery of 20th century American culture, it represents what made him become the artist he was, hence why the lion representing Hongou looming over child Akane feels fitting. And yet, his portrayal of the Great Seal also seems to be, at least the way I interpret it, a tongue-in-cheek mockery of America's war machine, as the eagle is supposed to be holding arrows and an olive branch, a traditional symbol for peace, but Rockwell's depiction only has the arrows (thanks to @albi-mander for this information!). I included them as a last-minute addition because I thought the iconography, or my interpretation of what Rockwell might have meant, was interesting. In my version, there are four so as to represent the four Cradle Pharmaceuticals executives, the violence they enact on her, and how she pays it back. The fact that they are in the lion's clutches mirrors the original but also represents how Hongou did this to them and himself.

Other details included in my recreation:

Zero's gas mask displayed at the very top of the easel. Apparently the helmet in the original was sold to Rockwell who believed it to be a military relic but in reality it was the helmet used by French firefighters circa the 1920s.

The can of Soporil-Beta in lieu of the tube of paint.

The open book showing the diagram for John and Lucy.

The glass filled with six ice cubes, adding up to nine when you also count the three that are reflected in the mirror, representing ice-9.

The blue cushion representing how Aoi supports her.

The palette Zero is using with the main colors that represent "the innocent souls" among her kidnapped victims.

The smoke coming out of the bin and the scattered matches representing Akane's (non) death in the incinerator. These were left the same as the original painting (Rockwell had a habit of leaving ashes and matches everywhere, and his studio once caught fire as a result of this).

Whew! I think that should be everything for this piece! Apologies for the delay, but I'm really satisfied with the result and I'm glad I didn't rush it because I wanted to pull all the stops for Akane. I'll try to finish the rest as soon as possible, but I can't guarantee anything at this point except for the fact that they will be completed eventually!

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santa ❄️

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Day 4 of my 999 Week subway themed series : Have you seen this man at station 4?

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Clover time

I think this is my least favorite piece of the week so far I'm sorry clover T-T I'll draw you in a fun outfit or something later as an apology

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Cloger Zero Escape 🍀

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day 4 for @999week - "Isn't this like Locke's socks? Or the Ship of Theseus? You don't know? You haven't heard of those paradoxes? Okay, well pay attention then."

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[ 999 Spoilers below read more.] [Day 3] of 999 Week - Santa [3]

And then what remains? Only you and your failure.

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"She was in my way. She had to die too."

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“I want to be [Clover]. You know, like a 4-leaf clover... Good luck, right?”

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"What do you think when you hear the word "experiment"?"

Clover ~ Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

moodboards tag | ze pinterest board

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@999week — faith

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happy clover day 🪓🍀

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Leaf Words. Day 4 of my Hongousaki themed @999week entry for Clover!!!

I love the thought of Hongou relating (not) to the Nonary game kids lol. Tortures children but also sinks the ship he was once trapped in, this man has issues.

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I just wanted to say thank you for putting your thoughts in the tags when reblogging my 999 week art. My art isn’t very good but getting an actual comment on it felt so so good and felt like my work had been seen and validated in a way. I think thoughtfully engaging with peoples work is how we keep fanart alive and it’s made me want to be better about making comments when I reblog peoples art!!

Aw no problem at all! I'm glad I was able to encourage you!

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Hey everyone, I'm sorry to say that despite my best efforts, finishing Akane's piece today in time for her day feels impossible. I've been working on it all day and I'm so exhausted and the last thing I want is to feel frustrated about this piece because it's something special

I feel like I severely underestimated how much prep time I would need and I really should have started working on these sooner. Feels bad that this is happening on her day given how much I love her. Will try to finish and post tomorrow but it's not a guarantee either

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999 Week: Day 5 | Junpei in Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures) by David Hockney

Thoughts and original reference under the cut!

Junpei time! Although he seems to have run out of just that in this piece. Ouch.

Terrible puns aside, today I bring you the next entry in my themed series! I think I've reached that point where I'm unfortunately cutting corners, especially with the background and rendering... I hoped to finish more of these beforehand, but work has been hectic, though that's no excuse as I really should have started working on this project sooner. Oh well! I'm still proud of the final result, especially considering the differences between the style I was referencing and my own.

The piece I'm recreating is a double portrait, a theme Hockney had been exploring with other pieces. A man swims in a pool, completely submerged in the water, while another stands on the edge and looks down on him. The swimmer is anonymous; his features are not visible, and his silhouette appears distorted due to the refraction of the water. The clothed man looking into the pool is a portrait of Peter Schlesinger, a former lover of Hockney's. This painting was finished during a time in Hockney's life where he was trying to get over their abrupt breakup by throwing himself into his work.

While my piece diverts from the theme of romantic heartbreak in a major way, at the same time I want to say reinterprets that idea through a different kind of relationship; that of the self with the self or selves. The man at the edge of the pool was replaced by 12-year-old Junpei, and the one in the pool, well... has met a rather grisly end.

I think young Junpei is an interesting "character" in the context of the story and in relation to the idea I wanted to depict. The first glimpse we get of what he was like as a child is not through anything he says, but during Narrator Akane's retelling of the rabbit hutch story, a flashback that always happens in the shower room, at which point and unbeknownst to Junpei, his selfish move has already doomed himself to die in the submarine pool. What would brave little Junpei think of what fate has in store for him, especially knowing he did this? His expression mirrors the original and doesn't look any more horrified or sad than it would if he was just looking at an empty pool, because at the end of the day, I think that's not a question the viewer or player would ever know the answer to. That's kind of what I was thinking about with this portrayal.

I would be remiss not to mention that this painting being referenced in Bojack Horseman, and the interpretation of it in the context of that show, also inspired my choice to make both figures represent the same character in two different states. In Bojack Horseman, it represents the theme of treading water; struggling while not actually going anywhere. This theme seems representative of the idea of futility and the failure that Junpei's choice to go through door 3 entails for him. He cannot change what will happen even if he tries.

The blending of present and past, in keeping with the concept of morphic resonance across time and space (not something that Junpei experiences with his younger self, but this piece is already meant to be interpreted symbolically) also references an interesting part of what led Hockney to create this piece; inspiration struck when he accidentally saw two different pictures (one of a man swimming underwater, another of a man ) in a way that made it seem like the latter was observing the former. Learning this during my research made me think of how Akane describes morphic resonance as two movies playing at the same time.

Lastly, I would like to comment on how Hockney was fascinated by Californian architecture, houses and pools as soon as he arrived in the city in the 60s, but curiously enough though, this painting is said to be set in Saint-Tropez in France, despite the aesthetic sensibilities matching other pool-themed works inspired by his time in the States. The ambiguity of the setting, seeming to be one place while actually being another, is particularly relevant to the big plot twist of the game, but out of all the locations on the ship, the submarine room is definitely one that tries really hard to sell the illusion of actually being on a ship. Incidentally, my first concept for this painting had one of the hills in the background instead look like metal, as if it was part of the ship's (building's) structure, while the other would remain a hill covered in vegetation as a reference to the hill Akane and Junpei are at in the flashback at the end of True Ending. I changed my mind because the composition just wasn't turning out in a way I liked, but the reference to this location still applies!

That's gonna be all for today! I really, really need to hurry up with my other pieces now, and on top of that, I have a lot of tags blacklisted for spoiler reasons, so apologies if I'm not as active with reblogging and commenting on all the gorgeous pieces I'm seeing! You're all doing great and I will catch up!