Self portrait: ‘Cass the Villain’

I have tried creating myself, my own personal character based on other nostalgic video game characters, characters from television shows, and hip hop music. I decided to recreate myself as a villain, as it reflected my personality whilst I was in my high school years. I used to be a delinquent who would listen to evil rap music, always wanting to be known for fighting, and loved it when I knew that others were intimidated by me. lately I’ve found since I’ve been attending Art School I have become a more peaceful, positive and patient person.

I have found when I voice or write things I think about in my mind, I feel free from negativity. One thing that also helps me, Is making art as I find it quite therapeutic. One thing that Im trying to achieve in life is finding true happiness. I’ve found out the more that I analyse things and understand them more, the happier I become. I believe that knowledge is One way of finding happiness, but i believe that I can’t find true happiness if I have no understanding of evil in its purest form. So I was thinking deeply into the reasons I was angry and also reasons I could relate myself to other villainous characters. I also questioned myself, ‘why do I and also my friends have such a dark humour?.’ We can hear and discuss the most outrageously evil and offensive content and then laugh about how extremely cruel our minds can be.

This is what got me thinking of the music that influenced my thoughts whilst I was at high school, and then I came to realise that the closer friends I have made at Art school, also have similar villainous qualities as myself. This made me enjoy coming to Course as I found people I could finally relate to, besides my brothers at home. I also thought that It would be a good idea to incorporate my music that I listen to into my artwork as I’ve found that many people (even at art school) are so ‘closed minded’ when it comes to hip hop music, as they are only exposed to the music that they hear on the radio or the popular hip hop songs on YouTube.

They show no appreciation for the creative lyrical content within other Songs that are ‘not so popular’ to the radio stations, or even songs that ‘were’ popular on the radio but are not of this time. I myself prefer hip hop music that is from the 90’s, but lately I have found new artists that have reopened my ears to their style of music, which contain the similar vibes to the music I used to listen to during high school. Ideas began flowing to my head, when I was shown ‘the birth of captain murphy’ YouTube clip from one of my breethas ‘Aaron’ (the guy who was helping me during my screen printing practice.) I then began listening to more from the Artist ‘Captain Murphy’ and previous Artists that I used to listen to before. I was finding that all these musicians I would listen to,  all had the mind sets of ‘villains,’ they would admit that they were ‘bad guys,’ I appreciated the honesty and creative way that they would express this. With my works I was trying to create my character, ‘Cass tha Crook’ who would be described as ‘the villain of all villains.’ I would imagine that my character would discover other villains from video games and television programmes, destroy them and then consume their souls.

My villain would then begin wearing body parts of those he had slain as a trophy to show those who chose to approach him, who he had defeated. For example, my villain begins to grow horns which are shaped like jaws. That is to symbolise that he had killed and skinned the video game boss, ‘Andross’ and had then wore his jaw bone as a trophy. My villain would then morph into a similar shape to the next villain he would destroy. I also wanted my villain to Kill all Heroes, anyone who would stand in his path, and take things from them to symbolise how Evil he was. I always wanted my villain to be wearing my bucket hat, so you would know It was me who would be defeating all of these individuals. I wanted to think the most evil thoughts I could possibly think of, so I would scare myself and never want to think of evil thoughts again.

The music I would listen to paid great influence to my work, the results terrified certain viewers which was exactly the kind of reaction I wanted from the works. I feel that I managed to get my point across, through my works. Leaving me satisfied and making me feel eager to continue to create.

Background made from screen shot from ‘birth of captain murphy’ episode

My character with a white background.

black background

My character, with a black background.

white background

I was trying to mimic the shading from the characters of the show. particularly around the nose. found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0uWDDq0F8w

I was trying to create my character having scorpions vest but a dark purple. As it’s my favourite colour. found at: http://wallpoper.com/wallpaper/mk4-scorpion-by-mtz-54655

Link is the main character in the legend of zelda franchise, he inspired the ears for my character.I tried to create a zombified character thats why I chose to give him a pale blue skin colour.found at:http://picshype.com/zelda-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of/legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of/16220

Mf dooms album cover influenced my art style and also the usage of gold chain as his hoodie straps. Found at: http://skoodmusic.net/tag/mf-doom/

The breetha Aaron showed me this video, which was an introduction for the new alias made by the musician ‘Flying Lotus’ which he goes by now for his rap persona as ‘Captain Murphy.’ I was captivated by the psycadelic/pop arty style of the art work of the video, the different ideas that each of the characters came up with and also the evilness that Captain Murphy brings into the video and also into his music Found at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R0uWDDq0F8w

He creates electronic type music that also has a hip hop vibe to it, and also incorporates retro video game sounds into his music, which I really enjoy. When he became Captain Murphy he created really dark Rap music, rhyming about how he lives his life as a cult leader and describes his other evil deeds which he commits, which frightened me a bit, that I kinda liked for some reason. I loved how he created a new character for himself which reminded me of other rap artists like ‘MF DOOM’ and how Badass he describes himself reminded me of the Other artists I used to listen to at high school, like ‘Big L’ and ‘Kool G Rap’ Found at: https://news.beatport.com/hear-flying-lotus-go-extra-large-for-his-last-bbc-residency-show/

He created an alias for himself based on the comic book super villain ‘Doctor Doom.’ Which inspired me to recreate myself into my own type of villain. DOOM is known to be always wearing his metal mask to hide his identity, which I thought was awesome as no one can judge him on how he truly looks and can only listen to what he says in order to understand what his character is trying to express. When I first tried listening to DOOM, it sounded like he was speaking a whole bunch of gibberish, but I got to listen to him a little bit more and thought more into what he was saying and I found that his lyrics were actually quite simply said but had very complex meaning. DOOM is a lyrical Genius. Found at: http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/2015/06/05/history-of-a-hip-hop-villain-a-guide-to-mf-doom/

One of my favourite hip hop artists of all time. His lyrical content was crazy, he had some of the greatest punchlines in hip hop history. He would often speak about how much of a badass he was, he even had a song that described himself as ‘the Devils son’ he wasn’t the most positive influence, but one thing that I respected the most about Big L was that he lived by the words he spoke. There was truth behind most of his creativity, as he described his life in Harlem like living in Hell, where death was an every day thing that people had to live around and try to avoid, One thing that he couldn’t do as he was shot. Listening to his songs made me realise that growing up in such a harsh environment, explains how someone can have such a negative view on society. I could relate to Him although my lifestyle was no where near as rough as his. Found at: http://www.okayplayer.com/news/90s-rap-cookin-soul-big-l-put-it-on-remix-video.html

I took an image from google typing ‘captain murphy’ background and placed my image overtop.

I found I preferred the Image with a black background, It created a nice effect with the the hair lighting

 

when it was floating in a white space makes you appreciate the outlines compared to black.

I tried to make him have shiny gold teeth, with rotten gums, like he was a zombie.

I always like the effect that black adds to the piece.

I was influenced by the video clip of ‘Mighty Morphin Foreskin’. I was focussing on figures placed in the middle of a continuous focus on the skull in the middle of the screen, so I tried creating the same effect but using my own figure.

my image over background found from google.

My image overtop a white background.

my image over black background

black background

white background

Black suits most of my digital drawings. It creates great effects.

I took an image from google, typing ‘psychedelic background’ then found this piece which its line work was similar to mine.

Used my previous work as a background.

Becoming recognisable as bosses in video games.
like ‘Andross’ from the nintendo 64 game, ‘Star Fox 64.’

This video game boss was scary as shit when I was younger, and sort of freaks me out today still. Thats how I wanted my villain to look, menacing inflicting fear into those who witness its presence. found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZh5gFHQATA

I found it to be quite interesting how Andross was in his own little realm waiting for you to face him, so I decided to make my character have its own little realm also. Using my previous works from photoshop as a background. found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZh5gFHQATA

I used the inverted background from last module.

work in progress I need to finish his hands.

I used the inverted background from last module.

Aku inspired the body shape of my character. I enjoy how evil Aku can be on samurai jack,so much that I even find certain remarks he makes, quite humorous. found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvNzuj79jRM

Akuma inspired the shape of my characters hair. I’ve been trying to research into Akuma and found that he is one of the most evil characters in the video game street fighter. I found that he killed his master and then stole his beads which then turned him from the man named ‘Gouki’ into a ‘demon’ (Akuma) who’s sole purpose was to kill anyone who opposed him. Akuma meaning found at: http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/japanese-mythology.php?deity=AKUMA found at: http://jimbobox.deviantart.com/art/Akuma-397283262