#nortsop week 2024

[owenfelford]

Day 3 - Mushroom

Oh man I love Call of the Abyss 7

I started off this day with a lot of notes, I wanted to keep in mind some design choices that were made, why certain things the way that they were, and also how specifically Lord of Calamity works.

My conclusion?

Now Aesop and Norton, something you need to know about them is that they are complete opposites when it comes to wanting.

Aesop wants for nothing - not just because he's fairly well off under Jerry Carl's care, but because he doesn't want anything. The most he wants is quiet and to embalm another person, even that want is more something he feels he needs to do. Aesop Carl wants nothing because he is simply a vehicle for other's peace. He is basically not a person in his own eyes. That is who he is simply...

Even if he can't acknowledge his want to embalm is another form of grief, even if he can't acknowledge he has literally lost everything and has nothing to show for it.

Norton on the other hand, has never had anything and as a result wants so much. He wants riches, he wants comfort and a stable income, he wants to stop working in the shitty mines that presumably killed his father... He wants the people who wrong him to die and go to hell.

None of what he wants is unreasonable. It's all very. Human. Even if he uses extremes to actually get what he wants.

So then, to have the man who wants everything and goes to extremes to get it fall so easily to the Lord of Calamity and the man who wants nothing and only mourns to chase after him, once again losing someone else he cares for...

I'll tell you something it's too fucking easy.

So!

I got to work with that concept in mind. I changed around a few things for Norton in the final - such as the ribbon that was originally Aesop's going from an ascot to an arm band he wears on his lower forearm, but, everything is relatively the same.

Maybe Aesop fell into the Lord of Calamity's hands because he he continued to lose, because he thought it was his 'own time' or any number of reason - hell maybe he was a part of the initial scouting mission and just died.

Either way, Norton chases after him.

He'll meet him again in the after life.

Just as Aesop had always hoped for.

[owenfelford]

Day 6 - Crows

Very loose interpretation, but I always think about the fact in the furry sprays Aesop's a crow. I also thought it'd be nice to do yokaisop from ichiban kuji as a contrast to Two Faced's aesthetic. Also this might be my favorite piece linework wise. All the same brush, by the way!

edit: I forgot I drew this to get inspired

[owenfelford]

Day 1 - Poetry

Nortsop week has officially started and this is my post stating

Under the cut for each day will be my thoughts and process throughout each day, so if you wanna skip that- no worries, just enjoy the art.

So for today.. I thought two things;

1 - I don't like writing poems aughggggh what am I gonna do

2 - ...Isn't there a whole game about what is essentially a poetry club?

SO! After that without even doing thumbnails- I went with that second thought.

Aesop is sporting Monika's iconic pose from that one sprite meanwhile Norton is carrying around a duffel bag - with some supplies for the school fair.

To be honest, I wanted to give this a background, but as I kept drawing, it kept feeling kind of... Wrong? The empty space sort of lends itself to a bit to the idea of them being the only two people in the universe.

So... I guess all I have to say is...

Just Aesop !

[owenfelford]

Day 5 - Blessings

It's a blessing they even get to spend time together, what with their busy schedules and one of them being in a cult, and the other being.

Y'know. Yeah. No big paragraph this time detailing my thoughts and feelings on this piece. Maybe I'll say that I almost scrapped this to put Aesop in a wedding dress, but decided against this bc.

I like them.

[owenfelford]

Day 2 - Tarot

...

Only us together.

I DIDN'T EXPECT THIS TO BECOME A LOWER REFERENCE EITHER, OK.

There's a lot of ways I could talk about this. But let's just start from the top.

I struggled a lot even deciding what I wanted to do, so I went with basics.

So first off - Fool's Gold doesn't technically have a Tarot assigned to him - but Norton does. Aesop doesn't either, but after consulting a friend who knows tarot better - she assigned him Hermit. I agreed, and I went forward.

Next was the posing, so for a bit I was really considering how I wanted to do it. I wanted to do one where Norton was hanging upside down as he is the hanged man, but couldn't quite get it right. Then stumbled upon this image on pinterest apparently I think it's from the movie The World To Come? Well anyway I liked it a lot...

They were supposed to be laying down in a field, actually. BUT THEN. BUT THEN. THIS MOTHERFUCKING SONG THAT'S BEEN HAUNTING ME FOR A YEAR+ CAME BACK TO ME AND HIT ME IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD.

Thus, I put together the primary color pallet of Lower by Nulut and went to work. What you see before you is the culmination of all of that.

Individually - they are Hanged Man and Hermit, together they are the Lovers.

I'm very happy with this one and only hope I can keep this energy up for Day 3- I have a very specific image in my head for it.

[owenfelford]

Day 7 - Lowering the Curtain

I don't think Inference gets paid enough for this.

Anyway! I didn't have a lot of motivation at first for this day, but by sheer willpower and reminding myself I can do the values first and worry about color later I managed. Somehow that was a bit more fun?

Yeah.

Anyway. This week was really fun to do! It's going to be running through out all of august so if you're interested it's primarily being done on twitter . I had been hoping for a while to have something like this and well. I got it and it was very fun. I hope either to participate again next year or. Maybe not I don't know.