Control Mk2

(click to zoom in)

Dang this was a fun exercise!

So the start: below is the original reference, a 3d model I made in 3ds Max many, many, MANY years ago, before I learned most of what I know about 3d modelling and general not-being terrible:

Original

It was inspired by and was the cover for a Elliquiy roleplaying game inspired by a request someone for a pairing I never personally got: Portal 2: Chell x Wheatley.

As said, I really don't get that pairing, or really Chell x GLaDOS, which feels like it'd be really dark, whereas Wheatley is not someone I can really see as all powerful - but what if there was a third option somewhere in between, an AI with the power of GLaDOS but the friendliness of Wheatley?

Introducing Control - the AI operator a long abandoned testing facility configured for testing the emotions of people. And what better way to test emotions than in a moment of peak emotions, a moment likened to heaven and death, to utmost need and total satisfaction, with potential for every manifold of emotion at once in union and opposition, the moment of - well you guessed it (you guessed it right?)

So that was the setup - Portal 2 but with more adult themed tests, yet the same all-powerful AI rigging the game to make it ultimately unwinnable, ultimately inescapable.

But there was also an alterior motive - to show that adult content involving robotic or mechanical tentacles did not HAVE to involve cold metal, electricity, and sex-drills, two words that NEVER should be put together (like, EVER!)

I wanted to show that robotic tentacles didn't have to be cold and metal, but could be warm, soft, something that combined the functionality of every kind of advanced sex-toy imaginable with synthetic flesh that's silky to touch.

With this redesign I also wanted to take the opportunity of trying something new - denying myself the use of solid outlines. A lot of my art is heavily line-work based, so I wanted to try forcing myself to make an artwork that used lines ONLY as overlays or half-transparent layers, and instead achieving form and shape through colour and shading.

It was ALL the fun to do, and I learned heaps. It's always good to push yourself outside your comfort zone once in a while, just to see what's out there - it may be cookies!

So without further exegesis, here it is again, the remake, Control, Mk 2.

Enjoy!

P.S. I also wanted to attribute Marjorie Greene for the design and shape of the top-right tentacle (the mouth tentacle), whose shape I copied directly from her informative work: An Illustrated Handbook of Tentacles.

Though I found out after first writing this that in truth this work isn't Marjorie's - I honest have no idea whose work it is, but am endeavoring to find out. That said Marjorie has some great and informative tentacle art and you should definately check that out here. (Phew, smooth recovery)