Pure Energy, Up Close

You may have wondered why I have adopted this art style for this (and I enclose in quotes) "hyperreal" take on our cybermessenger, Twipsy. Of course, I could place this on a photo for conceptual purposes, but let's place that aside and talk about this.

Yes, during his mascot days during the Hannover World Expo, many people were confused about who Twipsy really was. He did have a second career as a cybermessenger (the Internet's delivery boy, among others a little like him), but he did explain that he is "pure energy", which poses some advantages – he is able to reach top speed, very important if you have urgent documents to deliver – and he even mentions not only he is strong, but he doesn't see feeding or sleep as a need (well, until he encounters the real world, and we all knew where it went!!)

As we know, it's very hard to visualise items when they are made up of pure energy, but I found out about Kirby-dots, which is utilised in many comics (no seriously, look it up!), but there is one form of inspiration behind the look that I believe has some visual ration behind it... the emotional cast of Pixar's Inside Out. Aesthetically brilliant, who else remembers the family that is Riley's emotions, and their unique construction (because after all, emotions are energy)?

With respect to how I achieved the look, I used a wide range of brushes - the speckled polka dot one for the main body, and the finer sprinkle one for the shading and resulting sparkles. As you can judge by his expression, Twipsy seems very proud of who he is and the very substance he's made of! Smile!

And yes, that is his throat and chin in the magnifying glass, showing off the little energy particles.

Twipsy - © EXPO 2000/ Mariscal