Community Spotlight is a regular feature which highlights amazing fan projects in the Remedy community. This week I'm excited to talk about Gruvu's great Alan Wake-inspired pieces and upcoming creative projects.
This Community Spotlight has been a long time in the making! I contacted Gruvu just before the holidays with the optimistic belief that there would be quiet days inbetween Christmas and New Year to write. Unfortunately things didn't work out that way, so to make up for it I wanted this community spotlight to be the first post of the year. (Apologies for the delay, Gruvu!)
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| Watercolour of Alan Wake by Gruvu. |
Most of the work are scenes or impressions from the original title, but every now and then there's a "Prototype-Alan" the look the protagonist had back in the early 2005 trailers, or an interpretation of what's to come like with Nightingale's sketch. The most recent piece is a watercolour featuring the former, where Wake rejoins with Barry at the Anderson Farm. It's colourful and cheerful, with Wake smiling as fireworks and sparklers are set off around him, but maybe even more than that, it's bittersweet. Looking at the photo, you can't help but be reminded of that scene; your appearance on stage where you suddenly face waves of Taken only armed with a revolver, a torch, a Barry and the Old Gods of Asgard. It's a scene that has become a community favourite, and with good reason! Gruvu's recreation of this moment is a perfect tribute to that moment and to the game as a whole.
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| Sketch of Jake Fisher by Gruvu. |
Gruvu very kindly took time out of the busy holidays to answer some questions about their interests and artwork:
Tell us a little about yourself!
I’m a newly 20 year old. I live in the states; PA [Pennsylvania] to the exact. I haven’t gone to college yet, I've been working straight out of high school. I like snow, dogs and you can normally find me doodling.
How and when did you become an Alan Wake fan?
It was what...my senior year? I found this game, Alan Wake, for really cheap at my local game/comic book store. It was, like, five bucks at the time, and reading the back I was interested. So I played the game, the first episode hooked me like a fish and since then I've been stuck as a fan.
Where did you get your passion for art?
Well long story short, third grade. I wanted to impress a crush and my art teacher saw my drawings of this person and encouraged me. Since then I’ve been drawing art, not for others much anymore but for myself. To impress myself, which is motivating for me.
What made you want to create artwork inspired by Alan Wake?
Ooh man uh... Tumblr. I really REALLY was disappointed by the so-little art moving around in the fandom and decided to change that. The game is beautiful for it's time and has wonderful well placed characters that I plan to draw more of.
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| Sketch of Barry Wheeler by Gruvu. |
I hear that you have some Alan Wake inspired pieces coming to your store soon, can you tell us a little about them?
Well I haven’t made the store yet, I want to plan this well out. Money isn’t exactly easy to come by with the current job I have, so I need to be careful. But I do have plans on making Alan and Barry acrylic charms, maybe adding Scratch and the Anderson brothers, Zane, maybe a crow or so? I don’t want to make too many at once. Again because of money, it isn’t cheap to make these things. However if I get plenty of feedback I will take the chance on making more characters but for now I am set on just Alan and Barry.
What would you like to see in a possible Alan Wake 2?
Now that is a tough question, well American Nightmare wasn’t... fulfilling to say the least. So I don’t want just another one of those of course. I would like to see Mr. Scratch, he was an interesting villain for Alan and I don’t think the way he was defeated was... satisfying?
As well, I would like to see more of Breaker and Barry. Those two have fantastic chemistry with Alan. Not to mention the Anderson brothers, those guys are a hoot.
Oh and answers! As in is Nightingale the new face of the darkness? Who is Thomas Zane really? We haven’t gotten much backstory, and what he actually looks like which drives me bonkers but gives me the freedom to think of a design. Honestly I just look forward for some life coming back to the fandom, and enjoying the mystery and cliffhangers. I doubt we won’t be completely disappointed, Sam Lake is a extremely brilliant person who hasn’t disappointed me... besides the fact he killed Rusty off. I’ll never forgive you Lake. Never.
Thank you for the interview! :)
For more Alan Wake artwork, check out Gruvu's Tumblr page.
