Showcase: ArtWatch: E-122-Psi

[Roareye Black]

 Welcome to ArtWatch boys and girls!

Yeah we’re back baby, and what better way to start a new season of ArtWatch than with an in-depth look at un-sung art guru E-122-Psi? You’re going to have to forgive the abundance of images in this article because its impossible to summarize Psi’s artwork in just four or five images, from start to finish Psi’s DeviantART gallery is a visual diary of exceptional talent.

Lets go back to 2007 and take a look at Psi’s debut in the world of Sonic fanart:

 

 

‘Sonic Channel Sally’

The minor mistakes in this image can be forgiven by the fact that it was originally colored using only Microsoft Paint (Psi has since made some slight revisions using Photoshop), that’s incredibly impressive, many Sonic fanartists find it difficult to emulate Yuji Uekawa’s SA Style in Photoshop, let alone Paint. Though this is just one of many incredible art pieces Psi has colored in Paint, take a look at these examples from his E-Series project:

‘E-Series Project’

These pieces are simply breathtaking, to think that somebody could produce artwork of this caliber using nothing but Microsoft Paint is truly inspiring. I honestly cannot find any fault with these that can’t be blamed on the program they were created in, you’d certainly be forgiven for thinking the actual sketches were drawn by Uekawa himself.

 

 

‘Sonic Vs Gamma’

Several months on from his previous work Psi has begun to incorporate slight Photoshop techniques into his work (though the majority of this image was, once again produced in Paint) and, as you can see, the results are magical. The faded colours paired with the striking light sources make for a really dramatic piece of art and tiny details like the turret in the background really show off the effort put into this composition. Tails’ facial expression looks a little weird, though given the situation it’s hardly an error.

‘Merry Christmas, Robot-San’

With the holiday season literally just around the corner here’s Psi’s Xmas ‘07 artwork to help you get in the mood. The deep colored line art on a washed out background really draws your attention to the characters that feature in this image and once again there’s very few noticeable flaws. The light source is seemingly non-existent, though if you’ve ever seen Uekawa drawn art before you’ll see that he tends to focus on what is more appealing to the eye as opposed to what makes sense which seems to be a style Psi is adopting here, and it looks good.

 

 

‘Interrogation’

One of my favourite pieces of Psi drawn artwork. Straying slightly from the SA Style look the characters have in his previous works, this is yet another piece of art that has blown me away. The bars look a little flat compared with the rest of the image, parts of Amy’s dress have the same colours as her body and I probably would have given the inside of Gamma’s gun the same colour line art as the rest of his body but apart from that there is nothing worth criticizing. Everything else about the image is perfect, I particularly like how the hand drawn line art gives the image a really gritty feeling.

 

 

‘We’re Sonic Heroes’

Dropping the use of Paint altogether, Psi has solely used Photoshop to colour this piece, it shows as well; the line art and highlights look a lot crisper than in previous works. You can see vast improvements in the models themselves and somewhat blank faced characters are a thing of the past; this picture REEKS of emotion, just look at the Chaotix and Rouge! Not a single corner has been cut here either, even Eggman, Cream and Cheese are fully detailed despite being considerably smaller than the other characters.

 

 

‘Sonic Channel Wallpaper Project’

This series of images never ceases to impress me. Drawn over the course of two years and continuing to this very day Psi’s Sonic Channel Wallpaper Project has attempted to give characters that will likely never appear as Sonic Channel wallpapers their chance to shine. It’s certainly no easy task considering there are so many characters that could potentially be used in this project, although Psi has really given it his all going so far as to provide Sonic Channel style bios for every character presented, even incredibly obscure characters such as

 

 

‘Sally & Bunnie Sketch Calendars’

Proving that he can adopt new styles with ease, Psi has created wallpapers of Sally and Bunnie in the style of Uekawa’s recent sketch wallpapers. There’s not a lot that can be said about these, it’s a great imitation none the less though.

 

 

‘Birth’

The final piece of Psi’s work I’m going to showcase is this spectacular artwork depicting Gamma’s creation, ironically titled ‘Birth’. You only need to look at the amazing angles and use of perspective to realize just how good this piece of art is, I’ve studied this image extensively and have yet to find a single thing I dislike about it. The shades of green used conjure up a sinister atmosphere and its interesting to see the SA Style expressed in such a way.

In conclusion E-122-Psi is a truly inspiring artist who certainly deserves more recognition than he receives. By applying his own creative input to the already established SA Style he has created a unique and interesting art style that certainly stands out from the hoards of fanart across the internet. There is a lot that can be learned be from him. I’ll leave you with a quote from Psi explaining how he got into the Sonic art community:

‘I was just kinda intrigued in Yuji Uekawa’s Sonic Channel style, and, being a ‘what if?’ type of guy, also was interested in envisioning other characters in the official style (ie. ones that Uekawa likely won’t be asked to recognise), this was fueled even further by recreations by other artists, either fan based or professional (eg. Tracy Yardley and the likes’ redesigns in the Archie comics). Naturally being an attention freak, it was necessary for me to show off my work to others in forums and eventually get a DA account.’

Be sure to visit;

Psi’s FanArt DeviantART account.

Psi’s Non-FanArt DeviantART account.

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