The “Doctor’s” Puppet

[Image ID] A digital painting of 2 characters. The one in the foreground is being ‘operated’ like a puppet, by the character behind, via strings attached to their limbs. The character in the background appears as a large head. A pointed mask, with no eye holes, covers their face. They are wearing black gloves, with talon like fingers, and are holding the strings attached to the first character. [description end]
 

This highly symbolic piece was inspired by a particular part of Genshin Impact’s storyline. Due to both its symbolic nature, and the amount of game storyline it references, it is impossible to fully explain all of the meaning laced into this artwork.

I represented the concept of the foreground character playing into the background one’s hands, without fully realising it, with the puppet strings. In places the strings are taut, with the puppeteer in full control, whilst in others the puppet has begun to claw back some agency. The vortex effect at the bottom is based on the ‘Elemental Burst’ animation the foreground character uses in game.

I consciously tried to paint this piece in two different styles; keeping to my usual techniques for the foreground character, as I wanted him to be the focus of the artwork. But changing to a less detailed painting technique, and a more muted colour palette, for the background character. The intention behind this choice was twofold, firstly to help create visual contrast between the different parts of the illustration, but I also hoped the muted colours would give the background character a more foreboding aura.

I also have a timelapse of my process on Youtube which can be watched below:

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Time taken: 6.5 hours

Program: FireAlpaca

Drawing Tablet: Gaomon M106K

Characters:

Scaramouche/Wanderer (Foreground), & Il Dottore – ‘The Doctor’ (background),

from the game ‘Genshin Impact’

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Artwork ©Dragonsflyatsunset 2023, all rights reserved.