I still remember attending a conference in 2009, where I got to watch a keynote talk by Casey Hudson and thought to myself: “Mass Effect sounds exactly like the game I’ve always wanted to play.”
It’s true. Since then, I’ve guided 3 different versions of Commander Shepard through the trilogy (more or less completely) and lost my heart to their crew.
Consequently, I had a strong urge to paint these characters myself – or to interpret them in an entirely new way.
Digital Painting
A hypothetical encounter between my Shepards.
Rebecca and Theresa definitely wouldn’t get along – one is an emotional street rat dating a Turian, and the other is a cold-hearted, xenophobic killer.
Therefore, Nancy would be busy protecting them from each other.
“Crush my heart into embers, and I will reignite.”
This particular painting was inspired by the fan song “Reignite” by Malukah. Rebecca is a version of Shepard with the “sole survivor” background – too stubborn to stay down.
Her specialization in biotics – and most importantly, the effect with which those powers are shown in game – also goes neatly with the concept of “reigniting.”
Rebecca Shepard with her partner, Garrus Vakarian.
My favorite combination among the available romances – when I learned that this was an option in the second game, I did a little dance across the room.
And somehow, the authors managed to make Garrus even cooler and more adorable in part two.
(Nancy’s Kaidan was lucky that I didn’t know that on my first playthrough… and that Nancy is a bit too reasonable to experiment with incompatible biochemistry.)
3D Prints
What happens when a brain full of Mass Effect looks too closely at the lyrics of Christmas carols? In my case, additional figurines for the nativity display.
So I started modeling Nancy and her “sheep” in Blender. I then had the models printed by the Shapeways service and painted them with acrylics.
This ewe is inspired by the character Ashley Williams and, therefore, a bit confrontational.
And still rather generic – she was the first sheep of that series and I was not yet sure how close I wanted to get to the in-game depiction.
This ram is inspired by Kaidan Alenko. Including the headaches caused by his biotics implant.
This ram is based on Garrus Vakarian. A little bit scarred after Omega.
This ram is based on Urdnot Wrex. Massive and laid back, but nevertheless ready to fight.
A ewe inspired by Tali’Zorah nar Rayya vas Neema/Normandy. A protective suit wouldn’t have worked for the style of the flock, but at least the hood did.
A ewe inspired by Liara T’Soni. She’s busy digging for secrets.
There are a few more for which I didn’t get around to taking proper photos yet. But Miranda Lawson, Jacob Taylor, Jack, Grunt, and Mordin Solus already found their place in the flock.
