Clockworkalien on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/clockworkalien/art/Ready-Player-One-Acererak-s-challenge-328512166Clockworkalien

Deviation Actions

Clockworkalien's avatar

Ready Player One: Acererak's challenge

Published:
9.4K Views

Description

Update 9/24/12: This velvet painting was featured on Ernest Cline's blog (the author of Ready Player One).

"It suddenly occurred to me just how absurd this scene was: a guy wearing a suit of armor, standing next to an undead king, both hunched over the controls of a classic arcade game. It was the sort of surreal image you'd expect to see on the cover of an old issue of Heavy Metal or Dragon…"
-Ready Player One, p. 82. Ernest Cline

…or a rendered as a black velvet painting. Here we have a said painting of the floating demi-lich Acererak as he switches to the stork (Player 2) in Joust. For some reason, I imagined Acererak looked like a polygonal World of Warcraft lich inside the Oasis. However, he does wear the same crown that appears on the Dungeons & Dragons Tomb of Horrors module cover.

A tip of my hat to Ernest Cline for writing Ready Player One. Reading it gives you a rare opportunity to call upon obscure video game and 80's pop culture knowledge.

Format: Oils and black light-reactant acrylic paints on black velvet
Size: 14x19in
Date completed: 9/19/12
Bonus info: To give it a true arcade cabinet feel, the Joust title screen is backlight reactant.
Image size
576x726px 156.36 KB
© 2012 - 2024 Clockworkalien
Comments15
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
RaziyaTheSeeker's avatar

A-Acererak is in Ready Player One?! I have an even bigger reason to read that now! The picture captured that retro AD&D art style well, gotta say.