ZD Gallery: A Link to the Hoarding Disorder

Zelda Dungeon would like to welcome all you Zelda fanatics out there to one of our newest features, the ZD Gallery. Not to be mistaken with the Nintendo Gallery; there won’t be any cool figurines. However, there will be some amazing fan created art. Every week, we’ll be showcasing a fan who has created something in tribute of the Zelda franchise. Whether its drawn, painted, built, crafted, sewn, played, whatever- we’re going to cover it with a special editorial on not only the art, but also the artist. This week, the spotlight is on Barrett Biggers and his ink blot style creation of a psychological diagnosis on our favorite hero. Go ahead and make the jump to see our interview with Biggers and to check out more of his work!

Barrett Biggers is a digital artist with a passion for all things geek. There’s a fascinating traditional style to his work that has rightfully earned it’s title as ‘Tra-Digital’. With his home studio and Etsy shop, Biggers creates and sells a variety of different prints for each of his pieces. This includes the piece we’re focussing on today; the one that got our attention here at Zelda Dungeon in the first place.

Biggers came up with a concept of depicting a psychological diagnosis of different Nintendo characters through an ink blot, museum quality masterpiece. For Link, Biggers could picture him as a kleptomaniac or a man with a serious hoarding disorder. I think a lot of us can agree that there isn’t much of a stretch there and, perhaps Biggers is on to something.

Thinking about it more thoroughly, we wondered what inspired this idea, and what fueled the rest of Biggers’ Zelda creations. Here’s what we found out!

ZD: When did you become a fan of The Legend of Zelda series?

Biggers: I grew up in the late 80’s with the rise of Nintendo and basically played Zelda and fell in love with it right from the original release in ’87. I also grew up with the progression of the games and technology to an extent, but ended up only having a few core favorite games.

ZD: Do you have a favorite Zelda game?

Biggers: Ocarina of Time was my favorite followed by Twilight Princess. Majora’s Mask is another one I enjoyed more for the symbolism of the masks, but Ocarina of Time was the real game-changer and had such a great story and world.

ZD: What inspired you to create fan art for Zelda?

Biggers: Well one thing about the Legend of Zelda series is the unique and incredible world it contains. I have always been a fan of fairy tales and The Lord of the Rings type fantasy creatures, and I felt that Zelda captured that “world” better than other games. Plus the hero is a single person who grows in strength and experience over time just like you would in real life through different situations. So when I decided to be an artist I relied on my passion for the world to fuel my art.

ZD: Can you explain the message behind this piece?

Biggers: I have a very large assortment of styles that ranges from my vintage advertisement black and white engraving designs, to full color emotional portrait paintings of characters. As for this piece, I wanted to visit a theme that used a single color to create shapes within shapes. I felt this piece really addresses the “humanity” of the gaming characters we love and, perhaps even, exposes their weaknesses a little too.

ZD: How did you come up with this idea?

Biggers: Since I have a Biology degree and had taken several psychology classes, I have always been fascinated by mental health and behavior as part of my studies. Playing games, you tend to “label” characters using psychological behavior disorders. I love symmetry and the “what do you see?” idea in the famous Rorschach ink blot tests. It’s not new to make an ink blot test artwork, but I wanted to personalize it to Link as a kleptomaniac or hoarding disorder, which I think is easily his most obvious psychosis (if he really has one, haha).

ZD: How long did it take you to create this piece?

Biggers: This piece, as with all of mine, start out as experimental disasters, hahaha! I had an idea but no real straight-forward way to execute it immediately. Having looked up the items again to refresh my memory as references, and even playing the games a bit again helped me remember some of the items Link collected and how they looked. I drew sketches of each item and used many ink blot textures, and even made a few of my own and photographing them to help. Also my wide arsenal of Photoshop brushes helped create the unique watercolor/inky look. I had to create duplicates and mirror them to make it accurate to an ink blot test and even fold the paper. Probably took me between 8-10 hours.

ZD: And finally, do you have any future projects in mind?

Biggers: I plan to do more Nintendo and other game classics in this ink blot style over time. As for Zelda related art projects, I think I am going to start on an ambitious project to make at least most of the Major Arcana of Tarot cards. I have made one already of the Master Sword in my vintage style. Also I would like to make a more romantic piece of Link and Zelda embracing since it has always been a secret wish of mine that they fell in love.

Biggers has a couple more Nintendo characters featured in his psychological diagnosis series including Samus and Megaman. Plus he has a plethora of other Zelda themed art including this awesome, vintage poster-like illustration of the rupees of Hyrule Kingdom. If you’re interested in seeing more of Biggers’ work, or even purchasing one of his prints, check out his Etsy shop here. Also, if you’d like to follow Biggers and his work- mostly just hang out and wait anxiously for the release of his future projects- you can follow him here on Facebook.

How amazing is Biggers’ piece? Can you see Link being diagnosed with a hoarding disorder? If he were to feature other Zelda characters in this series, who do you think he should use, and what psychological diagnosis would you give them? Feel free to let us know what you think by commenting below! Also, if you’re interested in submitting a creation of your own to the ZD Gallery and would like a spot in our new feature, send me an email at alasyneletha@gmail.com, and we’ll take you into consideration!

Source: Etsy.