flatbeek art thread

[Laqzi]

yes exactly like that

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 6 OF A PIECE A WEEK
"When it's Mii, it's you."



THIS PIECE MADE ME START TEARING UP LIKE ACTUALLY

i recently found a Mii rendering tool that you can use to build Mii's online and spit out either renders or RIGGED 3D MODELS of them. this has been my dream tool for so so so many years. (side note: you can find that tool right here !)

so i played around with it, and an idea formed. i thought back to old nintendo ads and how they'd use a single photograph and maybe a tagline to make a strong statement. i wanted to play into that so i dug through old wii files and my 3ds mii channel and made as close as i could to the way i used to make myself over the years. i had the idea of a line of miis showing the growth of someone, and then progressively getting less saturated in color the older they were. the idea of "an avatar that grows with you, wherever you grow" seemed not only like a REALLY cool caption, but something i felt was distinct to Mii's in particular.

at least for me, the Wii and 3DS were such a big part of my life and got me into making music and art and so many of my fondest childhood memories were built on their backs. all throughout, i'd constantly be changing my Mii to look how i "wanted to look." at some point it kept actually looking like me irl and i realized that i kinda hit a personal goal in that regard.

when it all came together i realized i'd sort of unintentionally made a piece about my relationship with the Wii and the subsequent consoles afterwards and with my gender. it's a weirdly specific but scarily accurate way of showing my personal growth as a human in how i've slowly come to grow into the girl i really wanna be.

i realized i'd never really had it laid out like this before and something just kinda broke inside of me. where i started and where i am were literally 50m away from each other and they're so clearly two different people. but in between those, it showed the journey i took to get here. and i suddenly found that i was very proud of myself.

not just for making a good piece of art this week, but for getting this far at all.

'til next week <3

 

[flatbeek !]

May the best* Mii win.




Not counting this as my piece of the week given that I made it a while ago, but I wanted to share this piece that was posted today that I made as part of a promo push for WiiLink! I love the guys that run everything and I'm really proud to be a part of their content team (as relatively new as I may be).

If you're curious as to who those guys are, they're pretty much a revival service for the online capabilites of the Nintendo Wii. If you've heard of RiiConnect24, they're the successors of that team. They brought back a multitude of channels, alongside localizing and reviving a few Japan exclusive channels as well! If you want to learn more about them, by all means please do. They're doing such important and really cool work for the Wii homebrew community.

I'm so certain that this is not gonna be the last time I post one of these either, I made like three and am still working on like three more LMFAO

Piece of the week will be coming in the next few days, I'm taking a (not school designated) day off tomorrow, so I'm sure a good bit of my work will be happening then lol

 

[Laqzi]

May the best* Mii win.


View attachment 1860

Not counting this as my piece of the week given that I made it a while ago, but I wanted to share this piece that was posted today that I made as part of a promo push for WiiLink! I love the guys that run everything and I'm really proud to be a part of their content team (as relatively new as I may be).

If you're curious as to who those guys are, they're pretty much a revival service for the online capabilites of the Nintendo Wii. If you've heard of RiiConnect24, they're the successors of that team. They brought back a multitude of channels, alongside localizing and reviving a few Japan exclusive channels as well! If you want to learn more about them, by all means please do. They're doing such important and really cool work for the Wii homebrew community.

I'm so certain that this is not gonna be the last time I post one of these either, I made like three and am still working on like three more LMFAO

Piece of the week will be coming in the next few days, I'm taking a (not school designated) day off tomorrow, so I'm sure a good bit of my work will be happening then lol

omg is that

 

[flatbeek !]

omg is that

yes

 

[digionline]

that shit look like mii

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 7 OF A PIECE A WEEK
take it with a grain of salt



okay cool so the headache is gone finally.

school kicked my ass this week, and overall the tone of this week has been very drab and boring in comparison to previous weeks. given that i received some huge news this week you'd think the energy would be higher, but nope! :D

idk just a little something to put up this week to keep the streak <3

 

[flatbeek !]

some scraps :)
Agony System / it happened again.

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 8 OF A PIECE A WEEK
AFTERALL
you've returned



out of respect for my family's privacy, i will not be providing a detailed write up on the events that have lead to this piece.

it's been a long week. a very long week.
this one hurts a bit, but i'm glad i got it out.

that's it. 'till next week.

 

[Thingie]

🫂

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 9 OF A PIECE A WEEK
NAIVETE



hi i'm getting this out because i really wanted to get the piece done this week before i went on a little adventure!

i get on a plane in 10 hours :D

i am TIRED

and also i deliberately wanted to do simple things this week without just being lazy because i'm actively afraid of maximilist design LMFAO. but also i think my renders can be fine and i'm pretty good at compositing, i just really wanna work on design aspects (the BANE of my existence i think)

if anyone has any tips on such things in terms of like how to work that kind of stuff into pieces, PLEASE let me know it's so intimidating for me

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 10 OF A PIECE A WEEK
NEVERENDER

i forgot to post this one !! i was in new jersey when i made this !! i miss hoboken !!! i miss my besties !!!!! im gonna cry !!!!!!!

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 11 OF A PIECE A WEEK
don't get too comfortable

bee made an underscores reference holy moly who would've guessed?

i can't unbold my text help
anyways, i took a week long trip to new jersey to stay with two very close friends of mine and yeah it reinvigorated every bit of "i'm gonna be okay" that was ever in my spirit i love them both very much and i'm determined to get out of mississippi just to be able to be with them more

also i've been getting sorta lazy it feels like with these pieces so i wanted to do something more blender heavy and with more of a cohesive shot rather than falling back to abstract stuff again to express how i feel. i really liked this one shot from underscores' "my guy" video so i made something kinda similar. i like how it turned out even if it did crash my blender once over in the process.

yeah but also i miss my friends.

that's unrelated but its what im feeling right now so waaaaaaaaaaaaa

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 12 OF A PIECE A WEEK
There's only one of me in all the world.

technically managed to post this one places before the end of saturday so this still counts

this week's piece echoes the sort of "lesson" i've been taught these past few days. both as an exercise in writing, and to give the full scope of the weight of this phrase and this piece, the following is what will possibly be the most in-depth write-up for any of the pieces this year.

two big things happened this week.

on march 21st, 2025, i turned 20, officially marking the end of my "teen years" and indicating what i've been told is a more "serious time."

and, i mean it kinda is?

i struggle with dwelling on my own mortality and aging. it's something that's only been heightened over the years and it feels like it hits a peak whenever something big like my birthday happens.

i worry a lot that i haven't paid enough attention to the things i've done in my life. a lot of it i can chalk up to me just being too young to remember or care (as drastic as that sounds).

up until recently, i just sorta saw myself as a decent person who tries their best. it takes a lot of effort to be a good friend, a good artist, a good student, and i do my best at all of those things.

i didn't realize the impact i'd had on others until i was talking with my best friend recently.

i haven't really been a witness to the impact my work has had on others, what with the whole "can't remember what you weren't there for" rule.

but it was after hearing her talk with me about it all, about how much i'd done for her just as a person, let alone as a musician, it really drove home that i did the one thing i aspire to do:

have an impact.

the following is heavy. if you're not in a good spot please don't read this it will likely not help.


on march 21st, 2025, i lost a close family member to cancer, officially marking the end of his many years and indicating what i'm being told is a more serious time.

because it is.

i struggle with dwelling on my own mortality and aging. it's something that's only been heightened over the years and it feels like it hits a peak whenever something big like a death in the family happens.

i've worried a lot lately that i didn't pay enough attention to the things he'd done in my life. a lot of it i can chalk up to me just being too young to remember or care (as drastic as that sounds).

up until recently, i just sorta saw him as a decent person who tried his best. it takes a lot of effort to be a good friend, a good father, a good husband, and he seemingly tried his best at all of those things.

i didn't realize the impact he'd had on others until i was in the hospital visiting him.

i haven't really been present for everything he'd done, what with the whole "can't remember what you weren't there for" rule.

but it was after seeing what all his death has affected, about how much he'd done for those around him, let alone my family, it really drove home that he did the one thing i aspire to do.

have an impact.



the constant churning of time fumbling over itself scares me in a way i have trouble expressing.

and in neither of these situations will you find me believing the people i'm writing about are perfect or even "great people."

but if there's one thing i know factually, one thing that's been driven home time and time again over this past week. no matter how many people walk this earth, no matter how many people may follow in my footsteps after i'm gone, i have to make what i have count.

because there's never gonna be another brooklynn ivy.

(i hope you all find this as powerful as i have, despite the piece just being miis)

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 13 OF A PIECE A WEEK
saoirse dream - (self titled)


the piece of the week is fanart because I LOVE THIS ALBUM AND SAOIRSE DREAM IS THE REASON IM MAKING THE KIND OF MUSIC I MAKE NOW AND YEAH AND HOLY MOLY THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN

aoty unironically LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 14 OF A PIECE A WEEK
impact

this is my favorite piece so far from this entire year.

i've had a consistent issue recently.

i'm being told that i've drastically changed the course of some of my friends' lives. the people i love loving are looking me in my face and saying that i've helped them in ways i can't imagine.

that's incredible.

the issue comes in when None Of That Internalizes Ever.

i understand that my point of view is limited past the life that i lead, i don't know the daily goings of my friends until they tell me. but there was a particular call this week that i shared with my friends. just about every one of them told me genuinely that they wouldn't be where they are if i wasn't there.

as much as that's all i've ever wanted, it's kind of horrifying in a way. has every seemingly pointless decision i've been making been crucial to someone else? is it obivion that prevents me from seeing the impacts i've had or willful ignorance? is this just the way being a good friend works? i truly don't know.

all i know is what i've been told. and what i've been told implies a much larger, brighter, and fuller trail of life i've left behind than i've ever given myself credit for.

take a look back. your view may be limited and there are things you'll never know, i'm certain. but maybe we've all had a larger impact on the world around us than we wanna give ourselves credit for.

 

[flatbeek !]

WEEK 15 OF A PIECE A WEEK
Forcing Inward


so the story goes a little something like this

i had a render out of blender that i made into linework for this piece, but i decided for some reason that i wouldn't use the paint bucket tool. in a moment of pure "this would be really funny," i decided i would hand shade the entire form. in a span of time i described myself as "cosplaying sisyphus," i spent 10 and a half hours shading this in with the brush tool. thank fucking GOD i have a drawing tablet for this.

i'll see if i can put the empty form in a status on my profile (if any of you want a 10 hour long coloring page lmfao)

BUT.

taking on such a task had me thinking about why i chose to do APAW. it was for practice, sure, but i wanted to start hammering in the idea of making art as a form of expression for myself. i wanted to unload every part of what i was feeling into what i was working on. and while i feel like i've done that, it's not something i'm really used to. being this consistently open with myself about what i'm feeling and really digging into understanding everything that crosses my mind is not something i used to do (at least, not Nearly as often as i do these days). this piece felt to me like what the process has been for so many pieces this year. an aggressive slamming into my feelings, not letting up until i understand "why," a desire to know everything about myself By Force.

it's a message that was spoken to me more clearly through the process than the finished piece. i hope that, in sharing that process, it's clear to y'all as well. :)