BYZANTINE TECHNOBLADE TRIBUTE
This piece was originally done as an extra credit project for an Art History class, based on ‘St. Luke,’ from the ‘Gospel Book of Otto III,’ a manuscript from the ancient Byzantine Empire (approx. 1000 years ago).
The goal was to digitally mimic the style and composition of the original, while paying tribute to the Minecraft Youtuber Technoblade, who passed away from cancer in 2022. This piece is based on Technoblade’s Minecraft character, typically shown as a pink-haired man with a gold crown, or else a pig.
This provided a challenge of creating a compositionally complex and very detailed piece, as well as figuring out a way to mimic tempera on vellum in a digital format. In both of these endeavors, I was successful.
(Manuscript image from Janson’s History of Art Combined Update, 8e)
SKETCH
After a quick thumbnail sketch, I created this base sketch, which I would digitally paint over. The details were more abstract, so I could adjust as needed, but all of the core components of the composition are present. It is a very vertical design, with each asset carefully enclosed in separate areas.
STYLE
Before starting on the actual painting, I spent time experimenting to determine the best way to digitally create a tempera on vellum effect. I worked off of my original reference image to do this, as well as experimenting with a variety of brushes, layering, and blending.
Once the experimentation was done, I began work on the actual digital painting. Below is an example of the layering, detailing, and texturing I used.
DETAILS
Some of the details included are a winged, crowned pig, to represent both his death, and another variation of the character. There is also the crown, which he wears, above ‘sic semper tyrannis’ (thus always to tyrants), as a quote from the character. Potatoes and emeralds are linked to his character as well, the latter as indicators of friendship. Throughout the design, traditional Byzantine coloring, texturing, and shading are used.
FINAL PIECE
After nearly 7 hours of work, the digital painting was complete. It functions as both a style mimic of ancient Byzantine manuscript artwork, and as a tribute to Technoblade.
From this project, I was able to get much more comfortable in digital painting, as well as working in a style drastically different from anything else I had worked in before. It was a challenging, highly enjoyable piece of artwork to be able to complete.
As a final tribute to Technoblade, and one of his frequent catchphrases, the bottom text reads in Latin,‘Technoblade Never Dies.’
