The mew and pew of the Sprodling draws close, a mushroom patch glows deep beneath Fortuna, and the essence of The Vallis Undermind is exemplified in a bounty of softened colour.

Our next Update brings much, including a new Community Art Pack, featuring four artists and their creative insights! This art pack was created more ‘physically’ than previous packs: being painted and drawn, rather than digitally created!

A first of the series, our wonderful artist Pyrah drew up Nokko before his official reveal on Devstream 189—with more to say on Pyrah’s Glyph later in the article!

Disfusional

Warframe: Lavos
Pronouns: She/Her
Socials: Instagram

Hi Disfusional! Before we start, can you introduce yourself and your background in art before we talk about Lavos?

“My friends know me as Dis or Disfusional. I have been creating and exhibiting my artwork professionally since 2005. After receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Art and Design (with concentration studies in welding and painting),”

“Whether I am creating a traditional art piece or fabricating a cosplay, I strive to present my artwork with an extremely high level of fidelity and a strict adherence to craftsmanship. Each piece of art I create, I strive to learn and implement new techniques and work with new materials; whether it be selecting a specific choice of paper or canvas, to learning electroplating and different sewing approaches.”

What’s your favorite Warframe thing to make art of?

“The Warframe fandom as a whole is a favorite; from cosplaying frames and NPCs, paintings of landscapes, and even sticker creations. There are many elements of Warframe that continue to captivate my artistic need to fabricate from this fandom over the years.

“The Warframe community only assists in fueling this desire. Their excitement, enjoyment, and overflowing love for this fandom is magnetic!”

Magnetic, indeed! To roll with the pun, what element of Lavos spoke out to you the most, and why?

“The diversity and combination of organic and use of geometric elements are among the many ways in which Warframe has spoken to me. As an artist, you are not ‘stuck’ dwelling on one element, but rather executing multiple to create one piece.”

“Each Warframe composition continues to push me as an artist to grow. There is so much fun in adding infested elements into a mall in Höllvania. The enjoyment of problem solving and the struggle engineering and fabricating a military-inspired tactical harness with unique buckles and torso accessories. I learned new wig styling techniques to finish a proto frame wig that defies gravity with vibrant spikes. I embraced the perspective battle when I was painting exaggerated proportions of an engineer-inspired arm due to techrot infection.”

“I have found that Warframe as a whole speaks to my personal artistic style and eclectic need for diversity within the art I create.”

Did any portion of your cosplayer background or cosplay experience inspire (or not!) certain elements of your piece?

“It would actually be flip-flopped. With my background in traditional and sculptural art - this background has heavily influenced my cosplays. It has pushed me to add elements like block printing on fabrics. Traditional art basics had taught me the importance of adding depth and weathering to armor. Everything comes together to make sure there is a sense of realism within the sci-fi and fantasy fandom.”

Can you describe your creative process and personal inspirations when creating something with Lavos?

“I find much enjoyment in the ‘research’ stages of creating. You need to know your subject matter, whether it is different layers of a costume or the different layers of a painting.

As an artist, it is always easy to draw what we know, but sometimes it is challenging to draw what we see. Everyone knows what an apple looks like, but apples are not perfect, and those imperfections are what turn a basic piece of art into something exceptional.”

Thanks, Disfusional! It’s always a joy to absorb such vivid and rich depth in the creative process.

Next up: Irisillych!

Irisillych

Warframe: Hildryn
Pronouns: She/Her/They/Them
Socials: BlueSky

Howdy, Irisillych! Can you give us a quick snippet of who you are?

“I'm Iris, and I'm just a weird artist doing whatever makes me happy!”

Short-’n-simple! What’s your favorite thing in Warframe to make art of?

“I like boiling down Warframes to their basics. It's like seeing what are the most visually important parts of these intricate characters. How much can I smooth down and buff out, without losing what makes them unique.”

The basics, eh? What about Hildryn then spoke to you the most?

“Her big arms...” “Because, I mean, she's got the guns. I mostly just wanted her to look strong.”

And strong she is! What was the creative process like in making your Glyph?

“The #1 thing when I start drawing is I need a pose idea, and I found one from a model that was similar to my Hildryn Prime painting. So, I then downloaded her TennoGen model and rigged it as best I could. I posed her based on the Pinterest art, and some other ideas, and waited for the "green light" to start drawing.”

“It was nerve-wracking.”

Nerve-racking! Can you speak more to that?

“With pixel art, I'm afforded limitless chances, and infinite possibility. I can mess up to my heart's content...”

“With traditional [art], I need to be much more reserved and strict with myself. So, normally I'd just sprite the whole thing (sorry), and I would wait for approval like a racehorse at the starting gate. But, with traditional [art], it's the opposite, where I'm taking a deep sigh of relief each time I finish, and there's no problem.

“I'm always second-guessing if some line is good, or my hands shake sometimes, and I worry I'll mess up a brush stroke, or that my bird will stealthily poop on my paper.”

Don’t fret; it came out fantastically! Thank you for creating Hildryn in such a fantastic form!

Now, we have Dyana Smythe, with Jade!

Dyana Smythe

Warframe: Jade
Pronouns: She/Her
Socials: Instagram

Hi, Dyana! Like the others, can you introduce yourself and your art?

“I am an artist who loves to create across many different mediums. I guess the main attraction to anything for me is the creative element, and as a result, I have, maybe, perhaps picked up way too many hobbies (I manage somehow, lmao) and keep picking up new ones.”

When it comes to Warframe, what are some of your favourite things to create art out of?

“It's a hard choice between the fun little comics I sometimes make and my Operator/Drifter fashion series.”

“I ended up doing a lot of the small comics, despite finding this a tough thing to get into before; it somehow flowed naturally, making little Warframe bits of humor that everyone can have a little laugh at. The TennoFashionShow, as I named it, allowed me to lean a lot into a forgotten passion for fashion design, and I loved doing it so much!”

When it came to Jade, which elements of the Warframe spoke to you the most?

“Jade's quest and story truly touched me. I wanted more of it, and when I found her note plumes in the relay, I admit I cried. The quest had a storyline of its own, but the plumes really spoke about Jade's sacrifice throughout the ordeal, a promise made and kept, and a refusal to hate despite everything, and fill herself with love instead, an overflowing love channeled towards her unborn child with all the stubbornness needed to give a chance to come into the world despite everything and everyone.”

How do you like to apply your background of cosplay and props to find inspiration in adapting Jade to a Glyph?

“Something that I like to do, particularly in the mediums that allow me to, is adding color to a piece. Yes, sure, seeing it start to take shape is nice, but then you start adding layer upon layer of color and start seeing it come out more and more until eventually it's "real" if that makes sense. An added bonus to this and I feel like this is coming from my cosplaying methods, when I was trying to get the pose for Jade (yes, it did involve me taking stupid pictures of myself propped up all silly in front of a mirror, I have proof!) I was constantly thinking like, ‘does this make sense? I know fantasy is one thing, but can and WOULD a pregnant woman move like this?’

“This thought process ended up shaping the pose I ended up using and eventually the piece itself!”

Now that’s commitment (and let me say: it came out amazingly). To end on one more question, what was the tone you wished to achieve with your piece?

“I wanted to portray warmth, everything centers back to Jade, even the Ophanim Eyes are looking curious and soft towards the weaving of the memories.

“I had this idea pop up in my head as soon as I knew that Jade was going to be the subject, because the Glory form to me looks like the opposite of destruction, it's a revelation of that which is precious to her. The piece is meant to look and feel like a gentle embrace.”

Thanks, Dyana! You’ve achieved the tone; warmth is ever-present (crying break, brb...).

And last, but certainly not least: Pyrah, with Nokko!

Pyrah

Warframe: Nokko
Pronouns: She/Her
Socials: BlueSky

Hello, Pyrah! Before we talk about Nokko, can you introduce yourself?

“I'm Pyrah, and I like to describe myself as the self-proclaimed Warframe Critter Lady! I love the designs for the endemic life in the game and like to explore how those lives might interact with other aspects of the game.”

Awesome! And what’s your favorite thing to make Warframe art of?

"Cervulites! Those funky little weird deers! While initially they didn't grab me with their debut at TennoCon 2019's Art Panel, 2020 saw me painting my first one as part of a 19-part series for the Critters of the Plains Project that encompassed all the critters from the Plains of Eidolon."

“Since then, I've lost track of how many I've doodled, illustrated and painted. I'm simply enamored with them, and I hope that we get more to Tagfer's story in the future!”

With a penchant for the funky, let’s move on to Nokko: what was your initial reaction to seeing him early?

“Oh, very fun!"

“I could sense right away that he was going to be a boisterous Warframe akin to Yareli! It would not surprise me if he turns out to be some kind of trickster!" (Note: this answer was written prior to Devstream 189!)

What was it like adapting a never-before-seen Warframe to your art style?

“Honestly, not too bad, until I got to the underside of the mushroom cap. When I worked up the courage to tackle that portion, I essentially divided up each section of the cap as I worked on it from my reference photos from various Captura (Thank you, Charly!). Doing that made it less scary to work on, but seeing as it was quite literally a large feature displayed, it was still a daunting portion to work on. Not my usual forte for sure.”

And to ask one final question: did you have any particular inspirations when making your Nokko piece?

“What really helped a ton was finding out what his personality was going to be like so that I could get a vibe for the character.”

"Once I found out, I made an initial sketch using Captura of my own Banshee in similar colours (funnily enough, she was already in similar colours to Nokko and I called her my Squash Banshee) using Yareli's Noble animation set and found the perfect pose that came from the Speargun Idle.”

Thanks, Pyrah! You’ve brought Nokko to life in the best way!

A huge thank you to all our artists bringing their A-game with Community Art Pack IV! All the Glyphs can be found in the In-Game Market on October 15th with The Vallis Undermind’s release!