The OP Limitations List (12)

🎨 unexplored treasure for art buffs

and

Dec 06, 2024

Welcome back, Traveller,

You just bought a pack of your favourite trading cards, it’s sealed and oh-so-shiny. What’s in it? Please, be a rare thing…

Scroll to open our imaginary package and enjoy these lesser-known gems of the internet’s geeky side.

Here comes the collection that is based on our latest newsletter’s topic. Where we explored:

the problems with remakes;
what makes art interesting and fresh;
types of limitations that can elevate art.

If you crave a deep dive into these themes, there’s a link to our previous post at the end.

Let’s observe out of curiosity and the love to learn or even mimic like Omnimorphs.

🎨 Drawing: Arik Moonhawk Roper

“When I look at Arik Ropers illustrations, I’m instantly reminded of those old school ink drawings, that many 70-80s fantasy books have. The simplistic, not too vibrant palette he uses, which basically consists of coloured paper with white and black ink on top, creates a very nostalgic feeling alone. His recent inktober series is probably my favourite so far, so make sure to check those out!”

Dani

🎨 Drawing: Murray Smoker

“I found Murray Smoker, because one of the better features of Instagram, that when someone with a larger following likes any of my posts, I get a separate notification. I really liked the profile pic of Murray, so instantly went to his profile and was blown away. Beautiful, intricate inks, that feels a bit inspired by Sergio Toppi, but has its own style. I especially enjoy the crazy background and the forms are wrapped around with gorgeous lines.”

Dani

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🎨 Drawing: James Harren

“James Harren is a pretty well-known comic artist, and what I enjoy the most about his work is that it has a bit of a fun and exciting twist. Their world feels whacky, characters are super exaggerated, but they for whatever reason remind me of comic books I’ve seen as a kid. Even though I know this isn’t exactly true, as most of the stuff I read were traditional DC Comics like Batman. Regardless, I’m a big fan of his stuff, especially the attached Star Wars piece.”

Dani

🎨 Drawing: Chase Conley

“Probably one of my favourite cartoons as a kid was the animated X-Men series, which I always watched on Fox Kids. So I’m a big fan of all the cool heroes & villains it included, and when I saw the illustration of Gambit by Chase Conley, I was instantly hooked. I was even more excited when I saw that this was part of a series he did and there’s more!”

Dani

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“The graphics of Wild Bastards are a prime example of how being slightly stringy with a VFX budget and optimization can translate into a unique and fun visual experience. The game was released very recently, in September 2024, improving upon every aspect of its predecessor, Void Bastards.”

Huba

🎮 Gaming: Harvest Hunt

“Harvest Hunt is another, lesser-known indie title that turns its weakness into strength, on the visual side. The art direction of the game makes low-poly models, rough textures, cardboard-cutout decorations, and relatively simple lighting not just viable, but actually an important part of the unique visual experience that the game offers.”

Huba

🎮 Gaming: Eclipsium

“Yet another retro-inspired horror game. The release date to this one is yet to be announced, but it gathered some momentum on social media with absurdly unsettling gameplay clips. It is not yet clear what the game is supposed to be about exactly, but it’s clear that it’s rocking some serious VHS-era aesthetic.”

Huba

🎮 Gaming: Mouthwashing

“This is the last low-fi psychological horror game on this list, I swear. Mouthwashing is a short but awesome narrative experience, with 15K overwhelmingly positive steam reviews. An awesome indie success story. The reason there are so many horror games on this list is that this is the genre that is the best in accommodating visual limitations, in the sense that they only add to the eeriness of the atmosphere.”

Huba

🎥 Movie: April and the Extraordinary World

I am obsessed with French-Belgian comics, so no wonder this was a huge find for me. And despite my being biased towards the steampunk style, this animation delivered over my expectations. The designs are fresh and intriguing and the story has some new kind of mystery, and a decent amount of humour to it, that saves the weaker characters.

🎥 Series: Animals.

So many times edgy adult cartoons created for TV lack the money to have fluid animations. And it seems that Animals had the same problem. Although I bet they put all their money into scripts, character designs and art direction. It is such an accurate, and hilarious satire about human archetypes and biases. I love it.

🎥 Movie: Paperman

This might not be so undiscovered as the others, but is a must, if we talk about limitations. This animation is not only a beautiful love story but one of the cornerstones towards Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. A love how Disney had the courage back then to experiment with 3D animation in different styles.

🎥 Series: Ugly Americans

I wish somebody revived this series, I enjoyed it so much. Most of the jokes come from the otherworldly visuals, but I think character development is interesting, too. And if it reminds you of Flash animations from the early 2000s, you are not mistaken. It was actually animated in Flash.