Reimagine a game character

Even Mehl Amundsen takes the iconic Link, of The Legend of Zelda fame, and updates his look while remaining true to his gaming origins

Even Mehl Amundsen’s fresh take on Link.

The idea for this piece is to try and flesh out the character of Link and get a look at what he would look like in a gruffer, starker reality.

Because Link is used as somewhat of an avatar for the player in Nintendo’s classic The Legend of Zelda, and is mute most of the time, it’s hard to get under his skin. So I also want to try and imbue the character with some aspects of personality that make good sense to me. I really want to make my Link stand out from other versions that I’ve seen. So on top of his usual equipment I plan to take some inspiration from old games and comics, and make him the adventurer I have in my head. To do this, I’ll try to apply details that will develop the character: for example, his armour and weather-beaten face. For this workshop I’ll take you through a step-bystep explanation of my process, and give you some tips and ideas on how I work.

In treating Link as a piece of character art, a lot of elements are already set because there are certain elements that need to be on the character, and so from that standpoint I’m a little limited. But I can play around with his arms and armour, as well as posing and lighting. So, focusing on these, I try to add enough differences between earlier versions of Link and my own, without straying so far off that he wouldn’t be recognisable to gamers as their Hero of Time.