Never in my life have I felt like the screenshots I take while playing games are worth printing out and displaying on the wall. They’re barely good enough to stick under a magnet on the fridge, mostly because they’re things like map locations or places I promise myself I’ll come back to and never do. But occasionally I’ll take a snap of a pretty in-game landscape, or the odd cute critter (the most recent example being the shrimp from RuneScape: Dragonwilds—don’t ask) to shake things up. Again, these don’t breach the containment of my Steam account, but at least they’re more visually appealing.
I never really considered a screenshot of a game to be aesthetically pleasing, which is where the wonderful work of ArtbyEri comes in to prove me wrong. In fact, this artist specialises in bringing screenshots to life through oil painting, which sounds obscene on paper I’m sure, but when you see them, you’ll see just how impressive they really are.
Character Select
Welcome to Character Select, a weekly column where PC Gamer takes a look at the art and cosplay created by you. Each week, I’ll highlight a few of my favourite pieces, spotlight and interview creators and artists, or generally just chew your ear off about the talents of the gaming community.
The vast majority of paintings by ArtbyEri are from first person shooters, which I think is a hilarious decision to make. Screenshots from games like Valorant, and Call of Duty have been taken and turned into genuinely impressive works of art, including a brighter colour palette and some girlypop additions like weapon charms and decals, or the odd sprinkle of glitter. This in turn has made me question if maybe I do want to display what is essentially a videogame screenshot around my house.
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If you’d rather not have these pretty in pink versions, you’ve still got the option to have more authentic screens too. For example, ArtbyEri has recreated areas from both Halo 3 and Halo Reach in their standard colours and appearances without all the additions. If first person shooters aren’t your style at all, fret not. ArtbyEri has ventured into recreating screenshots from games like Hello Kitty Island Adventure, specifically inside of Hello Kitty’s cafe after baking a strawberry shortcake, or a character amongst the blossom trees in Animal Crossing New Horizons as well.
My favourite piece, however, is an oil painting based on The Sims 4 listed under the name “Just 5 more minutes” on their shop. Unlike the other pieces, I’m not sure if this was directly based on a screenshot from the game or if ArtbyEri took some creative liberties with the overall design, but it shows a Sim hunched over their keyboard playing Minecraft on their PC which is something I relate to a little bit too closely to, especially with the yellow Plumbob above their head suggesting that their needs aren’t quite met for them to be comfortable.
This is definitely one of the more subtle paintings, since the only giveaway that it’s based on The Sims is the colourful Plumbob, which is probably why it’s my favourite of the bunch. I already mentioned how much I love more subtle videogame art when I shared the work of Holly Sweet Illustration with you, and this painting definitely fits into that category. It certainly helps that I can see a bit of myself in the character within the painting too, through the messy desk, Hatsune Miku drawing, and Rilakkuma plushie tucked away.
ArtbyEri shares the entire process of bringing these paintings together through Tiktok videos too, which I’ve spent far more time than I like to admit scrolling through. When you see the colours on a palette, it’s hard to picture what they’ll turn out to be, but it’s certainly never disappointing. Maybe I have been too quick to judge my screenshots, and all I needed was an artist’s perspective to make something more displayable. Or a load of adorable decals and charms on my weapons—that might also help.
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