“Motoko S.A.C.” fanart by Loped

No life is truly complete without a lil’ Ghost In The Shell. Although Loped has a shitton of fantastic illustrations informed by their obvious love for fighting games, I picked this piece because of my personal attachment to this iconic maneuver. Honestly, Loped does so many things right here that I could spend hours waxing on about this piece, but I’ll stick to pointing out the crucial elements that make it really speak to me.

The “Motoko Dive” as I’ll refer to this action pose, has such a heavyweight storytelling punch and nostalgia to it that Loped beautifully capitalizes on. As always, the compositional ideas behind a work can heavily determine its success, independent of the mechanical skill of the artist. Diving is such an incredibly dynamic movement that it creates the context to put a lot of energy and detail into this illustration.

The first thing that strikes me whenever I look at this illustration is the juxtaposition between the calmness Motoko exudes, and the chaotic energy of the background. The cool expression Motoko wears along with her static vibe in the context of the rapidly moving scenery puts us in the eye of the storm. The liberal use of motion blurred vertical strokes creates a very powerful impression of falling rapidly, while the perpendicular horizontal strokes create mesmerization. In a similar way to watching passing lights on a long drive, the repetitive scenery has a strong hypnotic effect. As a sidenote, due to the implication of movement, if you look at this painting from far away or at a small size the sense of movement becomes even more pronounced.

Returning to composition, I’m happy to be able to highlight the remnants of Loped’s construction alongside their choice of perspective and foreshortening. As a student of art, I really love that I can see the way Loped builds their mannequin shape by shape. Probably from their experience drawing fighting game characters, Loped is extremely good at simplifying and expressing muscle definition and has a fantastic sense of shape that they use for every part of their illustrations. Not only can you see some of the general simplified forms used to build Motoko’s body, cleverly foreshortened, you can clearly see the shapes in the shadows, light work and more obviously in the background. Probably needless to say, but since the proximity to the POV determines the complexity of detail, the choice to extend her left leg serves as a playground for tons of detail as well. Obviously in the shadow shapes used for the creases, but importantly also in the shapes of colored light, the gesture helps expand on the greater setting of the piece.

Lastly, this piece does such an incredible job of sucking the viewer in both visually and metaphorically. The glow in the background and the simplification of detail coupled with the ambient occlusion further adds to the ambiguity in the piece. Much like some of the other details in the piece, the less explicit elements leave the viewer to wonder about the context of this painting. If we think of a piece as a snapshot in time, great storytelling is about getting people to wonder about the before and after. Rather than leading people to have a crystal clear idea of what’s going on, leaving it to the imagination gives someone an active and ongoing role in an illustration. Instead of figuring things out and moving on, every time you look at this piece there’s something else that pulls you in or another idea you have about it.

All in all, wonderful piece. Just seeing this illustration got me to go back and watch a few hours of Ghost In The Shell content. I think the sign of a great fanart is that it really makes you excited about the media being referenced while also offering a refreshing and unique spin on the familiar content. But please don’t take my word for it. Go watch some ghost in the shell (highly recommend the original movie) and please follow Loped the wonderful artist behind this illustration.