My favorite Fallout fan artist paints New Vegas how you imagine it, and he refuses to touch AI tools: 'I believe it’s innate in humanity to appreciate real human-made art' | Retrui News | Retrui
My favorite Fallout fan artist paints New Vegas how you imagine it, and he refuses to touch AI tools: 'I believe it’s innate in humanity to appreciate real human-made art'
SOURCE:PC Gamer|BY: Ted Litchfield
Static remaster.
(Image credit: Deimos)
Artist Deimos' Fallout: New Vegas-inspired work is so good, it's been highlighted by the game's director, Josh Sawyer, as well as actor Danny Trejo, who voiced ghoul vaquero Raul Alfonso Tejada and seems to have taken a special shine to how Deimos portrayed the gunslinger's early exploits in Mexico.
I'm not a huge fan art guy, but Deimos' work speaks to me—it reimagines this classic game through the lens of fine art, a style that emulates romantic painting, but applied to the side stories and characters of a 2010 RPG. 2281 Overture feels like a particularly illustrative example, showing an NCR-aligned version of the game's final battle with every companion ringed around the Courier (something you can't pull off in an unmodded game). I always think of Liberty Leading the People when I see it.
You Feel a Little Woozy and Quarry Junction are great too: The first shows a weary courier leaning on the stock of the Dinner Bell unique shotgun, surrounded by dead Cazadores and with the Nightkin companion Lily proudly waving a poison antidote in the background. Quarry Junction shows a panicked Courier clutching Deathclaw eggs and hiding behind a car, hastily fumbling with an explosive's trigger while the endgame monsters search for them.
Deimos took the experience of being brutalized by New Vegas' memetically terrifying nightmare wasps and a moment from an arduous fetch quest, respectively, then dramatized them well beyond anything the game's now 15 year-old iteration of Bethesda Game Studios' frankenengine could render, no matter how many mods you pump it full of.
Deimos' pieces are like little snapshots of an impossibly perfect New Vegas remaster, or the daydreams you had about the game when you first played it. I had to get in touch with the artist to find out what the game means to him, how it informs his art, and, most importantly, what it felt like to get shouted out by Machete himself—twice.
"It felt amazing," was the unsurprising answer Deimos provided over email. "A big star such as him being very supportive of my work is such a surprise, it feels like he’s a very proud, caring grandpa sharing my works on social media."
While Deimos is "pretty sure there are a lot of people out there or any long video essays that can articulate the wonder of that game way better than I do," he had a well thought-out response for what draws him to New Vegas. "People don’t lie when they say that they still keep finding something new about it after each playthrough," he said. "Every small thing you do there really does affect the outcomes and endings.
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"Perhaps it is special for me since it’s my first RPG where I actually did try to roleplay and imagine things in my head as I go, and of course those little things that I keep imagining while playing is what gave birth to the art that I've made."
After first coming to the series through Fallout 4, a friend got Deimos hooked on Obsidian's cult classic spinoff, and scrolling back through the artist's Instagram, you can see how it's been a source of artistic inspiration for a long time. "I just know that I’ll be drawing a lot about it for years to come," Deimos told me.
One signature of Deimos' I particularly enjoy is how he draws New Vegas' protagonist, Courier Six, who is a classic RPG blank slate. Deimos shows them in variations of the game's signature Ranger armor, but with one eyepiece of the mask knocked out, allowing a degree of expression while still preserving the character's anonymity, and the viewer's ability to "see their Courier behind the mask," as Deimos put it.
One of his go-to outfits to portray is the Elite Riot Gear from the Lonesome Road DLC, but the other draws on New Vegas' modding community in a clever way, incorporating what is, for many players, an essential part of the New Vegas experience. "It’s my interpretation of the Courier armor mod by TheCourierModder," said Deimos.
The mod in question pairs the pure drip of the Ranger gear with a shorter utility jacket and some other flourishes. Despite some artistic liberties, like using the Honest Hearts DLC's Desert Ranger helmet, Deimos thinks his take still has "the spirit of that mod, which was heavily inspired by a cosplay by TheGeeksterChief on Reddit, which also has the same jacket and scarf silhouette.
"I always wanted my Courier to not appear 'canon' to the game, since every Courier is different, and I wanted to personalize mine. The reason why I picked that design is that I want the centerpiece of my paintings to make it feel like it's part of the community; hence, I add modded aspects of the game to my paintings."
I wanted Deimos' more in-depth take on AI image generation, not just because of its general relevance to working artists, but also his own prior statements on the matter. In addition to "No AI" messages in his social media bios, Deimos' many sketch vs. finished product videos almost read as proof of work in an environment where even legitimate artists are getting hit with the AI accusation.
"I am eternally grateful for my fans, as if someone suspects me of using AI, they immediately correct them," Deimos told me. "Anyone who thinks that I use AI, I won’t hold it against them, as AI art is so disgustingly prevalent nowadays.
"I need every artist to hear me in this part, I believe it’s innate in humanity to appreciate real human-made art, I think there is still a great and functioning market for people who are still into actual art, that’s where we would have to appeal to nowadays, but the silver lining might be is that we will never appeal to shallow people who wrongfully claim AI art as their own hard work."
In addition to following Deimos on Instagram or X, you can get high-quality prints of his work via Etsy or his website.
Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.
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