"Way of the Hunter" Borderlands art series by Klopotinsha

[Klopotinsha]

Thank you @ziddersroofurry! Saw your comment on DA I’m glad you came here!

Calling this ‘fan art’ doesn’t seem to do it justice.

Indeed. People who called it so should feed the skags.
NO not with their dead corpses! They should rise and bake some muffins
AND THEN FEED ALL MUFFINS TO SCAGS!! MWAHAHAHA

Actually I have no idea what term “fan-art” means; this concept has not formed at all, does not have clear frames or definition and in many ways contradicts to itself, but it’s already widely used. Surely term “fan art” cannot be classified as genre of fine art because it has not based on sets of stylistic criteria, mediums and ways of performing, or any other genre signs. The only criterion that it implies is that such thing alludes to registered trade mark, so most likely in modern understanding this solely capitalistic term means: “waste products of processing registered consumer products”.

And the notion “headcanon” in case with BL:WotH is not suitable either, since it materializes outside my head and able to jump from pages and screens into heads of other people… and the official continuity was already synchronized with something of it literally… I mean geographically.
Seriously, it would be stupid and meaningless if they would have done like whatever they planned before beginning of 2015, after they have already wasted too much time and all possible patience (three times) around this dumb rotten chicken.

… and actually both versions of this moment from first episode of TftBL was edited.
In the first version of the tale the moon was too dark and with sharp outlines, which are not natural for this time of day and air density on Pandora, so it is definitely montage.
In final cut version (which is definitely a montage too, as can be seen by suspicious shape of clouds) developers have painted over the spoilers without replacement, because they received the rights to tell a tale based on true event. But the viewers don’t really need to know all the details from the beginning, so they have to assume that narrators simply haven’t mentioned such minor detail.

All this time Elpis the Moon was watching over them with this weary smirk.

I think in case with BL:WotH the most suitable term would be “spin-off”,
or to be more precise - Legends. And it’s true, all of it.

You may ask for example “Bonzo” the Chronicler who joined Vaughn’s tribe, this former Hyperion engineer was in the midst of the “Beast flood” and was miraculously saved because sincerely repented and prayed for “Nature Spirit’s” mercy while snot was flowing from his nose. Of course, his version of Legends will be very fabulous because he’s out of his mind, and good enough to instill reverent fear to other Children, generating superstitions, bizarre rituals and other lulz.

I would also like to mention, that when I was creating the illustration with Ruins of Helios, I took basic portion of inspiration from live and unwrapped version of White Ashes (different from OVO album version)
I listened it many times while I was bringing down the “Evil Tower” on Pandora over and over again on paper, calculating the trajectory of scatter of wreckage and dead bodies of innocent robots.
Taking into account the laws of physics, relatively common for the known universe, more logical option would be the one where it all turned into a huge horrible crater on the surface of the planet. But eventually I decided to make it less realistic but more symbolic (at least to make what should happen clearly visible) The picture was very dark and ominous when it just come into being, but when i came to the colouring of sketch of the final version, my thoughts have gone much further to the times of the third act, when the travellers came to this location reminding about distant past, in the context of completely different story.

Daym… translated into the language of TTG forums, crashing of the space station might sound like - planetary scale “shipping” - Heldora! Kek.

[Klopotinsha]

Two Tribes

(from note dated 27.10.2015)

Along the Way I came across variety of communities with very opposed views on Borderlands.
I’ve met a lot of haters from groups dedicated only to specific episodic part of setting, mainly inhabited by little girls whose place in a vat of acid who haven’t even played the original game (and certainly won’t understand this joke about little girls in a vat of acid); and where is hardly to find philosophers, travelers and lovers of aesthetics.
Not disdained to get dirty I watched over their perception and mindset for a while and right from live model wrote a classy concept about tribe of savages for BL3!

In that isolated tribe, which inhabits fetid wasteland poisoned with slag, there is a legend about the horrible monster – half four-legged scythid half man with tentacles instead of hair and soulful eyes whose pertly glitter violates the darkness – bloodthirsty henchmen of terrible Eridians, whose wicked calm and friendly speech drives people mad and makes them explode in a fit of rage. He descends from the mountains at night, rapes women, steals babies and eats them with all the giblets!

Every night, trembling with fear at the high wall of plastic, sentries stand in hope of meeting the monster with volley of lead, though he no longer appears in these dull lands…

Three hundred miles to the northwest, where dense crystalline forests stretched as far as the eye could see, among high cliffs with protruding architecture elements of the ruins of ancient alien civilization, inhabit another tribe, probably descended from the archaeologists who walked through the Arch on Promethea and were considered missing for a hundred years, until they came out on Pandora. They have close trade ties with the Slab Kingdom, Children of Helios and nomads of Balls-in-a-Head cartel.
In this technologically advanced tribe of planeswalkers, wearing emerald-purple clothes, there is a legend of wise Spirit of Nature, who takes the form of tall Truxican man to talk with people, but travels in form of a large white raven, whose wings shimmer like pearlescent in the starlight; and each feather in the wing is beautiful as good, reliable as the right word, lasting as wide song, wise like a magical tale, strong as mighty heroes and bright like the great dream…

Such different perceptions have formed in two tribes about the same “phenomenon”.

By the way, I do not think he actually able to eat a human baby… he is very fastidious in this regard.
And by the way, I would not trust to screams of this sick woman, who has cut off her own face and was trying to drown stolen baby in the slag swamp to “resurrect Handsome Jack”.
Any touch of faceless creatures poisons with critical dose of slag, but they have very stupid AI.
So, Mordecai and Horse masterfully dodging escaped with the “quest item” unscathed and most likely did not even understand that this repulsive creature was a woman.

And most likely in the second tribe Talon was taken as Mordecai’s flight form… but who knows what this weirdo actually smokes while hanging out with Eridians…

[Klopotinsha]

Guardians of the garden

I’ve carved this chubby Mordecai sculpture from coquina in 2014-2015, now he guards my grandmother’s house and eats squirrels.

[Klopotinsha]

By the way, Mordecai’s riding scythid’s name is Horse. Although in character he(Horse the scythid) is more like a very intelligent dog … and mollusk.

Horse - is not only fast and hardy mount, but also reliable assistant in battles and ranching. He’s able to execute commands, or rather consciously understands human speech (or rather, the mental impulses). But listens only to Mordecai (only with his original voice, of course), because Horse was raised by Mordecai from a tiny crawler.
If any other person would try to yell at Horse in such manner, Horse will pretend he’s a stupid cattle for a while, and then will do everything wrong, or will simply splatter mucus in a face. Because Horse such a proud.

Favorite Horse’s treats are rakk “honey” and human liver.

At sight of Moxxi, Horse usually makes a shrill whistling-farting roar, signifying “Hey Lady, I brought your spouse!”, which usually provokes laughter of the rider and shameless excuses like “I haven’t taught him this!”

If to scratch Horse’s back correctly, he begins to sing (the sound resembles a bird’s trill with elements of didgeridoo, jew’s harp and grunting)

Horse also may extract livers of those who touched the forbidden areas without special permission.

By the way, originally Mordecai’s scythid was named José, but when he grew up and transformed to four-legged runner and Mordecai took him to get acquainted with the inhabitants of Sanctuary, Kingdom of Slabs, The Great Arch, Tamaghis, Ba’dan, Yass-Waddah, Waghdas, Naufana, Ghadis, and representatives of the neighboring tribes; Someone of Volunteers mistakenly called the scythid foal - “Horse”.
And José liked a slight difference in the pronunciation of his name, as it symbolically evokes memory of ancient legends with the animals that were among the first (after dinosaurs) who tamed a human.

[Klopotinsha]

#Dissolution of Eternity
(Origins of the Wrath, or how Klopotinsha no longer going to hint politely)

scroll up volume in your headphones
use the link to pick up the nails

Let the nails impale your brain while I continue the tale about things,
which for our perception of reality are no more than fiction.

As you might noticed I am very worried because of absence of Mordecai’s Voice.
Of course 'cause he’s awesome, but there is another significant point.
You see, all the good dreams of future adventures which I told here before,
will never occur if the Good Man will turn to empty costume.
Unsophisticated consumers can admit any crap, but who gives a shiт about them when we talk about Art.
Despite the all the efforts of Jason Liebrecht, he only causes GVHD which exacerbates agonizing process.

After all, without the Void, the Light cannot exist.

And that’s what happens in worlds where Gearbox keep on behave disgracefully and make the following Borderlands story not good enough to interest Julio César Cedillo in generating some negentropy to charge the Egregor :

Mordecai hasn’t reached eternity in Jimenez or dunes of Singapore.
Having lost the Primary Soul Core Mordecai fades slowly and painfully, slipping farther and farther onto more ancient and obscure dimensions, falling apart to tiny bony magical echoes fated to wander aimlessly through time. (in this case whole Borderlands considered as WASTED, by the way)

We can recognize them as Overlord and his Wrath little ones during Trent Ranger’s marvelous adventures in ancient catacombs of “Quake”.
I call these monsters “malen’kie Mordecaichiki” because of their similarity to Mordekai the Summoner
(but technically, Mordekai the Summoner is similar to them).
In many worlds Mordecai reveals magic powers… (no matter the chicken or the egg)
But these little ones can’t remember that once they were alive. There was nothing left in them that ever made them alive; no love, no sorrow; only sharp bones and wrath that tears them from the inside; speechless and depersonalized, driven by residual instincts they punish everyone who dares to disrupt discipline of the underworld.

[Klopotinsha]

-HISSSSSS! (Look at this! I found another piece of a spaceship.)

-Squeak! (It’s like Christmas!)

[Klopotinsha]

Asymptotes

This illustration was lying for over a year on my hard drive, I planned to use it in the context of large abstruse dialogue about quantum mechanics and multiverse architectonics, where I would have come to some logical explanations about why “Eridians” need help of Humans and other creatures with time perception, and how many variations of Ultimate BADASS Mordecai’s right upper limb got stuck in singularity and why he’s in no hurry to fix it, and why the deal he offered to “Eridians” is so dangerous… Well. No risk, no tequila! Jahaha…

But eventually I decided to not disturb you with mountains of scribbling which you probably won’t even read, so I just show the picture and offer to listen to another music playlist!

By the way, Ultimate BADASS Mordecai sometimes refers to himself as “We” or “some of Us” for lulz.

And this Arch Guardian was named Anticulus (which means “against anus” in latin.)
Hey! Which of Mordecai’s minds come to this idea?!

[desisadiablo]

I absolutely love your artwork and the articles/ concepts /amazing information you write for them. I always look forward to what you post next, thank you for the fantastic work you put into your posts!

[Klopotinsha]

[Klopotinsha]

#Undiscovered: Wam Bam Island
(It’s a magical place)

illustrations from the beginning of 2014 related to
“Future Reflections: The Pre-Final Epilogue to Borderlands 2 by Klopotinsha” :

06.2 - Seagulls

Close view on creatures (presumably relatives of Stalkers) that was eating the corpse of Crawmerax’s Son. I decided not to use extra illustrations like this one, as 83.4% of the test subjects does not simply synchronize the pictures with the song and not stare at freaking seagulls for 10 minutes.
I also did not want to show again the views on which not yet ruined contemptible fascist H-station of Babylonian whore was visible to not to spoil the fun.
Silhouettes of these freaking seagulls might be seen on illustration “06 - Followed in its father’s footsteps”

26 - i can’t remember how actually I was going to name this frame.

It has taken place after the very last illustration;
after a short silence the playlist was supposed to play one more music track

Tiny Tina found Mordecai with Talon on the beach.
Ironically, by the end of the day Mordecai was the only sober adult on the island, so Tina called him to show him the castle she built of sand and to play some campaigns in Bunkers & Badasses setting.
Talon played Proto-Hipster-Dragon and Mordecai instinctively became Badass Lich Sorcerer who mispronounces Latin proverbs.
- Asinus iacta est! Jahahahaha!!

All through the night they drew quaint maps of catacombs on the sand, played with bioluminescent waves, caught small crabworms and fried them on a stick.

And it appeared the awesomest fantasy dlc ever, because True Mordecai never was lamer and downer like stinking simulated half-measure “mordy guy” from game-numbered-2 who sounded like horribly dubbed androgynous girls with sore throat from cheap anime for indiscriminate 12 year olds!

Note from the Executor’s diary:
“Future Reflections” epilogue was created before we’ve found the solution. Only a fool wouldn’t notice the progression of the disease that Gearbox has put on Mordecai. If sounds of cheap substitute replaced his Soul Core in minds of the children, Mordecai would be gone for them.
Pale and gaunt, fearless as always though, he was just enjoying every moment of his fragile existence that was slipping like sand through fingers.

[Klopotinsha]

BL:CDLV teaser 2

One day I realized that I never tasted taco.
However, I can clearly imagine what it’s like.
Not the taste, but the very essence.

Painted characters can afford taco.
The philosophy of taco.

This time I tease with a little piece from one page of my BL1 graphic novel
and share the songs with the smell of burnt flesh which makes me calm.

[fuz]

Amazing art as always. Love the colors in the second picture.

[Kurtdawg13]

Whoa! I am now a @Klopotinsha fan.

Mind blown!

[Klopotinsha]

Boom! HEADSHOT

Ok, you probably had read in this thread about “reincarnations” and connections.
It’s none of your business.

Multiverse is a dangerous place. We checked. There is nothing interesting, except infinite agony. All gateways must be locked for good.

I must keep on the story in the context of single linear MOST BADASS cycle of sci-fi Mordecai, no matter which continuity defilevelopers from GBX will choose for BL3.
However it doesn’t mean bitches that chronology of narrative in this thread will become less chaotic!

[Klopotinsha]

If you wanna make a beef pie from scratch, you must first create the universe yo.
It always works so. To capture even a tiny moment, we live da sh~

Yee-haw!

My little Mordecai: championship is magic.

long story short, I needed to reify teenage version of Mordecai for a little flashback in graphic novel, I described this ruthless arena hustler like “evil twin of sport games dealer from TV show about the dog who likes classic books” dressed up like “larva of typical Epicmegagames character” with elements of “ethno-punk” style and my favorite old sneakers, and here he is - está mi campeón!

Before becoming a freak we know on wild wastelands of margin of the universe, this dark horse with an old revolver and team of other gone rogue kids has kicked everyone’s аss not only in sharpshooting competition. Of course, flawless victory of such exotic would be not beneficial to representatives of stinking corporations…

* * *

In a distant time separated by thousands of years of outer space travel, where Mordecai is already not so young, red-haired lady named Gaige(who likes stroggification porn) volunteered for slave labor on his scythid ranch just to hear some of those tournament stories about people who were dancing instead of looking only at numbers in inventory. Of course, the most exciting for her will be the one about duel with Ga’Gorib. One careless move could leave Mordecai without right eye and with crushed upper limb on the side, so he would have to wear ugly cyber prosthesis like on early concept arts for Borderlands 1, but the hunter turned out to be cunning enough to save all his soft human body parts and defeat the beast with a single bullet.

[Klopotinsha]

Rahu’s Polaroid

Apparently this photo was taken in 2290s, and in the 5260s exposed at This Location, between a splendid view of triple eclipse of moons on Artemis (taken by Mordecai at age 11) and spicy pin-up portrait of Moxxi’s boobs (taken by Mordecai at age 40 a couple of thousand years later)

Tiny Mordecai’s teammate and a good friend Rahu abandoned his clan to beat at organized human arenas long before it became mainstream, because according to his insectoid-reptiloid-pacifist logic “it is much more kosher when the prey can remember how its life was taken multiple times”.
Rahu is certainly not one of “those haughty douchebags who came to flaunt superiority in some military conflict ьullshit”. Rahu is a fan of Human Culture, especially thrilled of chewing gum stickers, toothbrushes *, cat’s eye glass marbles and classical music.

*he’s just wild about the look of these weird tools, for teeth cleaning he has a special gland.

---

Actually I was going to tell a new joke from series “the funniest joke I’ve ever heard” (yeah, that very series with old classic joke about a severed head that flies around in Hell)
So. The joke:
My friend approaches me and says, "hey’yo, rememba juvenile Tony from Cap: Civil War"
And i just start laughing out loud because it is one of the funniest jokes I’ve ever heard!
Got it?
Actually it’s not quite a joke, It’s kinda technical sort of humor.

This picture was causing very strange sensations, not comparable to uncanny valley or something bad, nevertheless I could not understand at all what is happening to my mind when I feel something like that.
And then when I recalled that example with Tony from MCU, I realized that when a character who we accustomed to see adult is needed to be rejuvenated in story to that age when the skull is not yet fully formed and this character being based on his adult actor who was also at that stage a while ago but it was slight different and you also remember it… and yet you just do something with the textures of usual version we accustomed to see adult and, daym, this is really weird! So weird that causes unrestrained fun!

[Bentu]

Mord is my favourite character by far so I’m supper impressed with your artwork.

Magnificent!

[Klopotinsha]

Oh hai doggy.

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this thread. Perhaps firstly worth making here synchronization with few other correlative threads that were created while this awhile.
Although it is quite simple to track them all (according to Klopotinsha who writes this) since all my notes obey single narration, I place here links for decency.

In thread about Klopotinsha I suggested G-man style appearances of one of Klopotinsha’s Golems.
Klopotinsha’s Crow Tengu Golem named Klopotinsha, or simply Klopotinsha.
I guess that it’s hard for you to pronounce this name correctly.
There you can read comprehensive description and see more detailed concept-art:
https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/gearbox-community-badass-klopotinsha/1128332/29?u=klopotinsha

You may notice that in addition to repairing Mordecai and praising all precious things from BL1, we also contribute in demolition of undesirable content brought by BL2.

So if you get tired of Klopotinsha’s complicated parables…

Stay awhile and listen a story about Timmy, or simply T, the most pathetic and wretched creature that your boots can ever kick on Borderlands.

Initially I just wanted to mock on fans of faceless fascist who presume that one Doppelganger might survive, but eventually it turned in pretty cool concept for Borderlands3:
https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/t-and-his-tiny-digi-unicorn-bl3-concept/1639093?u=klopotinsha

Join the discussion about T and write, for example, how you’d beat up this pitiful creature using a board with rusty nails, or how you’d chain him to the rock and check how fast he’d die of hunger, whatever you want, have fun and don’t forget the meat hook gun!

And now the most important link:

General thread about Immortal Steel Cojones, True Mordecai the Undying, Protector of Jimenez, Sworn Enemy of the Incubus! [In context of THE ENTIRE BORDERLANDS series]

https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/general-thread-about-immortal-steel-cojones-true-mordecai-the-undying-protector-of-jimenez-sworn-enemy-of-the-incubus-in-context-of-the-entire-borderlands-series/1640935?u=klopotinsha

Turned out that it is not quite possible to explain the theme of the thread to «Handsome Jack VIP tour from the fourth episode of TftBL», so firstly I had to defend the thread from mobbing, I was even banned for a few days and have lost «community buttass» title.
But now you can freely join the discussion on-topic and even find there all the «cheat codes» and «walkthrough guides» for understanding of Way of the Hunter series.
Someone may start whining that there is too much text, but I recommend reading all my posts carefully and better several times.
Seriously, I no longer want to be involved in this situation when someone writes to me ‘blah blah blah, love the drawings, i follow the thread n years’ and then when i ask some simple check question, this someone replies ‘who is Julio Cedillo?’ and I can’t understand if it was trolling or dumbassitude, coz i make alludes to the subj in almost each damn post.

By the way, remember sassy fresco which i published as illustration for the story about two tribes? Archaeologists are beginning to slowly guess who depicted on it…

Borderlands 3: Time for a nice, relaxing ride.

I named this painting Ezy Rider, same as Jimi Hendrix’s song,
and made a special thread for it, lot of conceptual stuff to discuss!
https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/borderlands-3-time-for-a-nice-relaxing-ride-gameplay-concept-painting-by-klopotinsha/1781737?u=klopotinsha

[Klopotinsha]

Table scene

Klopotinsha presents the homage on scene from Denis Villeneuve’s film Sicario, adapted for setting of satirical cosmic sci-fi western videogame Borderlands.

‘Don’t forget about The Doorbell’ (“The Doorbell” is probably another Eridian artifact)

The idea of such badass combo came to me because «the final boss» of original Sicario, Faust Alarcon, and main protagonist of True Borderlands, Mordecai Neverdying (do not confuse with shoddy Mor-decoy from BL2), were performed by the same ultra-amazing actor, the one and only Julio Cesar Cedillo.

The adaptation required some changes in the plot:

I don’t think that Mordecai would throw a deaf girl into a vat of acid; he’d rather shoot the barrel next to her.

And Borderlands version of Alejandro, besides The Lawyer-Childkiller, should contain details from other Benicio Del Toro’s characters like The Collector from MCU and The Thief from Star Wars. This mercenary is probably working for someone like Mr. Blake, and came to steal Mordecai’s rare pets and Eridian artifacts.

Of course, the son of Bloodwing, Talon, won’t let anyone distract Mordecai from his meal.

Good boy!

By the way, this Alejandro can stay alive after this scene like the one from truly awesome comedy sequel «Wannabe Sicario» (Sicario 2: Soldado), only with holes on other places.
Talon just wants to play with new friend, but first he has to disable the cyber eye with tracking system, as daddy Mordecai taught.

Oh, almost forgot, this happens in location Jimenez. It’s a magical place!

I also picked the song for closing credits:

[fuz]

I haven’t seen Sicario but your art (and the way you convey a story through it) is always amazing.

Is Mordecai getting fatter with each subsequent drawing?