#Horizon Series

[godliath]

artober 2/??? - aloy

[horizon-forbidden-memes]

I'm not surprised about the backlash against the remaster of a seven-year-old game but I for one am absolutely thrilled! Zero Dawn will be even better with all the updates that made Forbidden West visual eye-candy!

[sorbetowl]

🌈 Happy Pride 🌈

[lorekeeper-backset]

Horizon Zero Dawn is the first game I've played where I feel like the main character is actually as interested in learning about the world as I am. Aloy reads the flavor text.

[kelsochronicles]

✨Celebrating All

🌈 Happy Pride

[bs-fangirl]

Always there to lend a hand!

[wideningmyforbiddenhorizons]

In the third game, Kotallo should be able to throw his prosthetic at someone when they're asking for him to lend a hand. As a treat

[madame-helen]

[horizon-art-ref]

Welcome to Horizon Art Reference! We are a blog designed to be a resource for Horizon fanartists new and old, providing in-game HD shots of characters at various angles, expressions, and poses, to best help you create your works of art. From time-to-time, we may even have tutorials or guides with helpful tips in drawing your favourite Horizon characters.

All posts will be single-image with a comprehensive tagging system to help you narrow down your search, be it by character, by angle, even armour or expression.

In addition, we highly recommend viewing this blog on desktop to access our filterable search to easily find the reference you need. This resource is intended to always be growing, so follow and watch!

Have reference shots you’d like to submit yourself? Our submissions are open, but we will only accept and post those that follow our guidelines.

Requests for references are open. Please specify which character you’d like to see, as well as poses and expressions (we ask that you limit poses and expressions to two each). For Aloy references, please also include face paint and armour (please limit to one each).

At this time, we are only open to characters, not machines or environments.

While we are focused solely on providing references for Horizon characters, we’re happy to provide links to other resources for artists!

Other Horizon Resources

Horizon Armor

Base Photos Google Drive by @/chloefraazers

Pose References

Adorka Stock (free, various body types)

The Pose Archives (some free, some paid)

Backgrounds & Stock Photo References

Unsplash (free)

Art Tutorials & Tips

Coming soon!

Art Resources

Clip Studio Assets (CSP, some free, some paid)

[aradia117]

Complicated thoughts

[dumplingcatho]

hawk showing off her thrush <33 closeups under the cut

[pose ref from mellon_soup, background painted over screenshot]

[howlingguardian]

Elisabet Sobeck would be four when The Wild Robot came out

Baby genius seeing a film about a shiny robot learning the value of nature, wildlife, kindness and community.

I like to think that would have had an effect.

[horizon-forbidden-memes]

Different universes, same “are you fucking kidding me?” expression

[godliath]

a commission for @vanguardkalir of their oseram oc. thank you so much!

[zanazirafanfic]

Charles and Kotallo

Been getting into Horizon a bit lately, and of course Kotallo became my favorite almost immediately. (Who's surprised? No one.) I couldn't resist asking @noshirdalal what he thought would happen if Charles and Kotallo were ever able to meet, since I see a lot of parallels between them and their personal journeys. I asked what they might discuss, and what they could teach one another.

This was his answer (transcription under the vid below the cut). I did have to chop off a couple of seconds from each end to make it fit in the under-10-minute limit, and have noted those lines in brackets in the transcript, but none of the answer itself is missing, only the intro.

As always, very insightful, and thought-provoking.

I have some years of martial arts experience myself in the past, and I agree that you do learn different things about a person sparring with them versus speaking to them. I can definitely imagine Charles and Kotallo needing to lock horns and test each other before they can let their guards down enough to have any kind of meaningful conversation.

I personally like to think there would be an unspoken but strong mutual respect between them pretty early on, an understanding of how it feels to be judged and labeled an outcast among your peers for things entirely beyond your control. Both have to constantly fight to prove - to themselves and everyone else - that they're more than the labels placed on them by society, and try to stay kind and levelheaded despite the myriad reasons it's easier to be callous and cruel. I think each would recognize and empathize with that struggle in the other. Of course it's helpful having friends like Arthur and Aloy who see and accept Charles and Kotallo for the flawed people they are (and likewise, it's helpful for Arthur and Aloy in return). But I think knowing, as Noshir said, that there's "a similar soul on the journey with them" would have made such a difference, especially for Charles. Even though they're roughly the same age, Charles seems a lot "younger" in terms of his search for inner peace and belonging. When I think about his line at the campfire, "Other human beings seem to understand why they were born but, for me... it seems like I was born to hurt and suffer myself..." I think knowing how Kotallo's story turns out would've given him so much hope, especially in the years between losing Arthur and reuniting with John.

Anyway, just rambling now. I love these characters so much, and I'm so thankful to be able to hear headcanons from the man who gave them life.

Thank you again, Noshir, it means the world!

Transcript (cut lines due to upload time constraints are bracketed):

[Hey, Zana. Oh man, I love your question, especially 'cause Kotallo and Charles are just two characters that I love so much.]

They do have a lot of similarities, huh? They both, I think - my headcanon, I suppose - they've both been betrayed by their fathers. They both have, at some point feel like they've lost their purpose. I think they're both incredibly proficient at combat, but struggle because they don't want to be defined purely through their ability to destroy other people. And I think they're both seeking redemption, of sorts. 

Yeah, that's really interesting. That's really interesting. 

So, if Kotallo and Charles were to meet [laughing], what would they do? Honestly, I think they would fight. Not fight because they're being adversarial. They're both men of action, and I think both of them carry a lot of suspicion, at best, for people who do a lot of wordsmithing, you know?

I'm a martial artist myself, and it's interesting when you... When you cross hands with someone you get a better understanding of who they are, in a way that in the normal everyday you just don't. You learn how they deal with pressure, you learn how they deal with pain, how they deal with adversity, how they see the world. How much control they have over themselves, how disciplined they are, how proud they are. Does their ego run the show? Are they easy to manipulate? And just kind of at the core of who they are, like, how quickly do they break? And I think that would be a test of mettle that they just couldn't pass up.

And while I think the victor would show mercy, I think they'd be out to kill each other. To see how far it can go. 'Cause that's really where you learn about a person. But then after that I think they'd be great friends. [laughs]

As far as like the things they would talk about and what they would teach each other, well that's really interesting, because, um... Y'know I think Charles comes from a land where all of both predator and prey are organics, right? Whereas for Kotallo, the vast majority of both predator and prey for him is mechanical. And they're very different.

So I guess it would depend on what world they're living in, right? If they're living in Charles's world, then I think... I mean what a magical place that would be for Kotallo. Like, tracking by spoor and all these other traits that, like, animals have that you don't have with machines. And then for - vice versa, if it was in Kotallo's world, Charles would have to learn very very quickly that even with the sawed-off, he can't just go in blasting. These things require tactics and precision, that he'd be very capable of because of his work with the bow.

But y'know, you shoot a deer with a bow, and if your skill is poor, I mean at worst you'd miss completely, right? But I guess the next worst thing would be to injure the animal and cause it to suffer without actually killing it. And then it runs off, and now you have to track it, and all this other stuff. Whereas in the world of Horizon, I mean if you don't severely injure or kill that - that robot, there's a good chance it turns on you, and all of its peers turn on you, and you're dead. So... [laughs] a very different circumstance. 

I wonder how long, if ever, it would take for them to open up about the redemption that they're each seeking. Y'know, Charles from his darker past, when he was really, you know, driven by fury. And then Kotallo - this is my headcanon, but - I think he's scarred by the things he did at Barren Light. That would be really interesting. And to hear, like, y'know, Charles try to talk to Kotallo about his best friend Arthur and what he's like and stuff, and Kotallo trying to talk about his best friend Aloy and what she's like. Oh man, that'd be a trip. [laughs] I think there'd be a lot of fun conversations to be had. Yeah...

As far as things that they could teach one another, besides the things we talked about with like tracking and - and the killing of the inhabitants of either world... It's funny, I think they'd actually learn a lot by watching the way the other one interacts with the people in that world. Both what to do, but I think a lot of also what not to do.

I think they're both very socially awkward, and really struggle with that. And I wonder if they each wouldn't have more courage to kind of put themselves out there a little bit knowing that there is kind of a - a similar soul on the journey with them. I think Kotallo would teach Charles a lot about visual art, sculpture, painting, color. And Charles would teach Kotallo a lot about music. Harmonica, song. I think they'd complement each other really well. 

[I love that question. Thanks so much for that.]