This weeks Power User is one of my favourites of the current crop of creators to have joined the community in the last few years and, much like Nug from 2 weeks ago, one of the forum members I enjoy interacting with the most. In terms of his art, he has created a wonderful world that mixes fantasy and steampunk and is served up with oft beautiful, sometimes blood-soaked, but always stunningly put together visuals. Plus he the mastermind behind one of my favourite contest entries of all time (his entry for the Steampunk contest, though I know he'll disagree with me on this) and certainly one of the best contest winners we've had this year, with his 7 Deadly Sins contest winning The Seven. So ladies, gentlemen, trolls and dwarves, please welcome Stulte.
Online Username: Stulte
Origin of Name: It means "fool" in Latin. I started using it online a couple of years back, and only later found out that it's technically incorrect, grammatically. But I've grown accustomed to the name, so I don't feel like changing it.
Photo of you in real life:
Real life name: Algot
Real City/Country/State: Halmstad, Sweden
Real Age: 22
Real Job: Server at a restaurant, and struggling writer.
Gender: Male
Relationship Status: Recent single
Online archive of your creations:
Favorite Artwork: Tricky question... I've got a lot of stuff that is close to my heart, but this one is probably my favourite:
Favorite Geeky Movie: Maybe Satoshi Kon is mainstream enough that his work doesn't quite count as geeky, but if they do, then his Paprika (2006) is not just my favourite geeky movie, but my favourite film of all time. And I don't even care that much for anime.
Favorite Geeky TV Show: Game of Thrones, most definitely. I quit reading the books, so that they wouldn't spoil the show for me.
Favorite Comic Book Character: Scrooge McDuck, as Don Rosa writes him. No, seriously. I love that old duck.
If You Could Have One Super-Heroic Power In Real Life: Time manipulation.
Wanna go slap Hitler in his smug face? No problem. Wanna hang out with your ancestors a thousand years in the future? Go ahead. Wanna extend your lunch break by five minutes? Nothing's stopping you. Wanna slap your teenage self his/her smug face? Hell, that should be priority one.
Trult this is the ultimate power!
In Your Leisure Time: If I'm not working or studying I tend to write a lot. Been working on a tabletop roleplaying game for the last year and a half, and most of my HeroMachine creations are meant as illustrations of the setting or the game mechanics.
Character Design Turn-Ons: Competent colour compostition. A good, balanced colour scheme can easily make a good design look fantastic.
Character Design Turn-Offs: Unnatural designs, colours or posing really rub me the wrong way. I'm not saying every creation needs to be hyperrealistic, absolutely not, but there needs to be some semblance of coherency to any visual medium to make it appealing. Garish, contrasting colours are perfectly fine if they fit with the setting; disjointed, malformed posing works great if that kind of bizarreness fits the character. But the design needs to adhere to the rules set up by the narrative it's placed in.
... Not entirely sure if that made any sense.
I guess lack of coherency would be my short answer.
Any Personal Message You’d Like To Share With The Heromachine Community About Geek Life: Everyone's a geek in some respect. Everyone has some interest that they perhaps spend a little too much time thinking about, everyone is a bit of a purist in some regard. We all pour our hearts into some subject that engages or excites us.
Geek life is a part of human life.
