Paint a heroine from Fallout 4

Zezhou Chen introduces a relaxed way of working, as he paints a believable character who would fit into the Fallout game universe

Zezhou Chen shares his relaxed way of working.

The Fallout series of games has long been a favourite of mine. So when Fallout 4 came out at the end of last year I spent a lot of time playing it, immersing myself in its fascinating, nightmarish world. And it didn’t take long for me to start imagining designs for my own Fallout characters.

I suppose you could say that this makes my workshop a simple piece of fan art, but there’s a twist. I don’t want to adapt too many references from the game. Granted, I’ll get ideas for concepts from what I’ve seen in the game, but then I’ll recombine and twist them in my mind.

When I think about my Fallout character, I actually have a image that basically conveys the same style and feeling of the game, but the details are quite different. For example, the character’s armour is a variant of Fallout’s metal armour. However, I still took a direct reference from the game. It’s the character’s laser pistol, which is actually the same one I’m using in the game!

If you’re unfamiliar with the Fallout premise, you only need to know that it’s set in a world where life struggles to continue after a global nuclear war. Everything is broken and ruined. The basic idea of my painting is quite simple: I want to depict a female hero in the wasteland. I think it’s interesting to put a beautiful female hero in such a brutal, desperate environment.