They may look like digital creations, but these stunning illustrations are in fact entirely hand-drawn in coloured pencil. 17-year-old artist Polaara is a young British student who made these painstakingly detailed drawings in between studying for exams.
Join us after the jump for beautifully rendered fan art of Link, Zelda, and other video game and anime characters – plus some videos from Polaara herself showing how it’s done.
Excited about new game Hyrule Warriors, a Zelda/Dynasty Warriors mashup, which is scheduled for release in the West in September, the budding young artist made this set of three illustrations of characters from The Legend of Zelda:
▼ Polaara uses watercolour pencils to complete her illustrations, like this one of the Princess. “Gotta love her new armour, when else has she ever looked so badass” she comments.
▼ Midna.
▼This is Link.
She also uploads timelapse videos showing the process, like this one:
▼ There are some occasional skips in the footage, but it’s still well worth watching!
▼ This illustration of Hatsune Miku was a response to fan requests.
You can watch how it was made here:
Some of Polaara’s work was created in order to demonstrate a particular technique, like this drawing of Zoro from One Piece, which was made to show how she renders skin tone:
▼ Cloud Strife
▼ As this beautiful drawing shows, Polaara can turn her hand to realism too.
▼ Link again!
▼ Natsu Dragneel (Fairy Tail)
▼ Toshiro Hitsugaya
▼ Light and L
▼ Lelouch Vi Britannia
You can find more how-to videos (‘How to color using colored pencils’ is pretty cool, and focuses on manga eyes) on Polaara’s YouTube channel, or follow her on Facebook or deviantART. We’re sure this talented young artist has a bright future ahead of her!
Source: Inside Games JP
Images: Polaara (deviantART, YouTube channel)
Newsflash: Wii U Zelda hack ‘n’ slasher Hyrule Warriors arriving in Japan on August 14
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