Aurélien Gâteau

Inktober 2021, StarCraft!

written on Thursday, November 4, 2021

This year I once again participated to Inktober, the yearly challenge where you draw and ink one drawing a day each day of October. The Inktober web site provides a "prompt list": a list of words for each day, which you can (but are not forced to) follow.

Inktober 2021 prompt list Inktober 2021 prompt list

I have been playing StarCraft II in the last few months so the first word: "crystal" made me think of a Protoss pylon... this ended defining my theme for this year: 31 StarCraft II drawings! Some words required a bit of creativity to find a StarCraft link for them, but I somehow managed to find an idea for all of them.

Some of them are reproductions of existing art found on StarCraft II fandom wiki. Those were not super creative but I think they were a good exercise. I learned a lot, especially on the topic of filling empty areas. It was hard though, some drawings took a lot of time.

This year I limited myself to 2 colors in addition to the black pens. Unsurprisingly, by October 18th my two markers were dying, and I had to replace them :)

Here are my drawings of this year:

  • 1 - Crystal. Protoss uses crystal to build their powering pylons.
  • 2 - Suit. The "Powered Combat Suit" of the Confederate Marine Corps.
  • 3 - Vessel. Another Starcraft 2 Terran unit: the science vessel.
  • 4 - Knot. This one was a bit hard to associate with Starcraft 2. I settled for Nova trying an hair knot.
  • 5 - Raven. The Raven is a StarCraft 2 terran drone capable of detecting cloaked and burrowed enemies; as well as building turrets, defense drones and seeker missiles on the fly. Quite an impressive piece of engineering!
  • 6 - Spirit. This is a dragoon, a Starcraft protoss unit. When a great protoss warrior is critically wounded, his mangled body can be transfered into a dragoon. The cybernetics core then bond the warrior *spirit* with the dragoon machinery, allowing the fallen warrior to control the dragoon as if it was his own body.
  • 7 - Fan. Today is a bit more creative than the previous ones. Here is an angry Arcturus Mensk fan. Notice the "Make Dominium Great Again" cap :)
  • 8 - Watch. "All hands brace for warp jump on my mark!" Matt Horner's watch from one of the first StarCraft 2 cut scenes.
  • 9 - Pressure. This marine is under some serious Zerg pressure. Let's hope the medivac is not too far away...
  • 10 - Pick. Even Protoss have to eat! This high templar picks a fruit from an Aiur Apple tree to satisfy his hunger.
  • 11 - Sour. Hydralisks do not like when marines use stim-packs: not because they become harder to kill, but because it gives a sour state to their meat! It is not a well known fact, but they have a delicate palate!
  • 12 - Stuck. This Viking got abandoned on the battlefield, and is now stuck in Zerg creep.
  • 13 - Roof. Another abandoned piece of equipment. This time it's a terran factory. It has been turned into a cosy house by some ingenious mind. The roof now features a clothes line and a toboggan for the kids.
  • 14 - Tick. A new Zerg mutation has been reported on the battlefield: The Zerg tick!
  • 15 - Helmet. A Protoss zealot helmet.
  • 16 - Compass. This one is a bit far fetched as I couldn't find a compass in StarCraft universe. I imagined that if units had one it would be integrated in their Head Up Display.
  • 17 - Collide. When ultralisks defy each other, you'd better stay away from their charge!
  • 18 - Moon. This one is a cross-over: I had a hard time coming up with an idea to mix "StarCraft" and "moon". I hope you enjoy the reference :) Also, my brown marker is dying, so next drawing might use a slightly different color.
  • 19 - Loop. Contrary to public perception, Zerglings are actually cute creatures: look at this two buddies chasing each other tail, looping around a spore crawler!
  • 20 - Sprout. Nature is taking over this old abandoned Protoss nexus, and sprouts have turned into a sizeable tree. Trying a more minimalist approach on coloring with this one.
  • 21 - Fuzzy. I don't know which one is more frightening: the regular ultralisk or its toundra cousin: the pink fuzzy ultralisk!
  • 22 - Open. You really can't trust this Bob guy.
  • 23 - Leak. This Hellion got hit pretty badly. The armoring protected most of the vehicle, but one bullet punctured an oil tank, causing a serious leak.
  • 24 - Extinct. Terrans do not need anyone to kill themselves... The population of this planet just got annihilated. Not my most joyful drawing, but the theme was pretty dark.
  • 25 - Splat. This wounded Protoss warrior did not have much time to enjoy his return as a dragoon. One has to be careful when ultralisks are around.
  • 26 - Connect. A Protoss connecting to a Xel'Naga, Protoss creators. Hope you got the reference ;) Tried something different with coloring this day. It's a good thing I replaced my almond marker a few days ago!
  • 27 - Spark. Rory Swann, chief engineer of the Hyperion, is busy welding something in the armory.
  • 28 - Crispy. Don't trust firebats with your meat!
  • 29 - Patch. Had a hard time coming up with a StarCraft idea today. I thought about going meta (or Meta? ahah…) and draw something about game patches but instead I decided to create a patch for an imaginary Terran mercenary org: the "Riot Tigers".
  • 30 - Slither. For this one I tried to imagine what a Zerg snake would look like. Ended up with lots of spikes, pointy teeth and some hydralisk-like shape for the back of its skull.
  • 31 - Risk. Even for a fully cloaked ghost, infiltrating a Zerg base like this is a risky move.

Which one do you prefer?

This post was tagged drawing, inktober and starcraft