The Metal Gear series inspires artists from all walks of life to try their hands at re-creating some of the games’ iconic characters. Finnish chemical engineering student, Sefikichi AKA Sefie Rosenlund, has taken a break from her studies to tell us all about her amazing digital portraits. Find out more in the interview below.

Art is Never Finished, Only Abandoned
Sefie Rosenlund’s Metal Gear Fan Art

Tell us a little bit about yourself (name, age, job, etc…)

My name is Sefie Rosenlund and I’m a chemical engineering student from Finland. When I’m not figuring out molar attenuation coefficients or grumbling over spectrophotometers, I play videogames (duh), draw and paint (double duh), read and walk with my dog.

How long have you been an artist and what inspired you to start drawing Metal Gear fanart?

I’ve been drawing about 13 years, but that time includes years when I finished nothing and years when I’ve produced over a hundred finished pieces of art. My first Metal Gear fanart is from 2005 after playing MGS3: Snake Eater. I was impressed by Ocelot’s character in the game in regards to how he was portrayed in the later (or earlier) games.

Which Metal Gear game would you say has inspired you the most?

Peace Walker. The game sort of snuck up on me (ha ha); I hadn’t heard a lot about it before I stumbled upon it in the HD Collection for XBOX360 and was instantly a fan. It had a lot of interesting characters and a lot of silliness which I love about the Metal Gear games, but still maintained a serious plot with a strong message.

I could also say Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation, because all the talk about nanotechnology and genetics sounded so impressive and curious that I wanted to study it! The years rolled by doing other things, but now I find myself studying the same things the scientists in the games are talking about. Though I must say, ignorance is bliss in this case as the games mix science and pseudo-science quite easily together.

Your Metal Gear work is so full of personality! Who’s been your favourite character to draw so far?

Thank you! I’m going to say Kazuhira Miller, because he’s my favourite character. (Which anyone can extrapolate quite easily from a glance at my gallery!) All the characters I’ve drawn so far have been interesting, especially as we now have more lifelike rendered graphics instead of low-poly figures where you can’t be sure what’s what.

Which Metal Gear character is the most challenging to draw and why?

Eli, as I don’t have a lot of experience in drawing children. Also whenever there’s a lot of sneaking gear or mechanical stuff present, I get a bit insecure. Someday, I would love to draw the various Metal Gears from the games but that’s going to take a lot of practice!

What tools and/or programs do you use to achieve the ‘painted’ look with your digital art?

I use a Wacom Intuos pen tablet and Photoshop CS6 for all digital artwork. Earlier, I strived for an ultra-smooth finish, blending colours together like crazy to achieve a completely texture-less look. Eventually I got tired of the plastic look and decided to let my brushstrokes be visible!

Are you planning on drawing any other Metal Gear characters in the future? If so, who?

Oh yes, I have a sleuth of ideas always simmering in my brain! I’d like to do a cast gallery for the Phantom Pain, so I’m missing some characters from that game at the moment. Code Talker, Huey, Skull Face… So much to do and only one lifetime to do it!

Are you a fan of any other Konami titles?

Yes! I’ve played Silent Hills (2, 3 and 4) though never ever alone! Silent Hill 2 especially was so scary and really intelligent as well, a lot of research of psychology had gone into that. Silent Hill 4 was extra horrible if you played it in a one-room apartment.

I’ve also enjoyed the various Dance Dance Revolution games throughout the years. I was also a part of the dance craze that inspired the Para Para Paradise games, having actually first learned the dance choreographies before being able to play the game!

Finally, do you have any words of wisdom or advice for aspiring artists?

The words of wisdom that have helped me the most are “art is never finished, only abandoned” and “someone else’s success is not your failure”. I interpret the first one as “don’t get upset because your art is not perfect, it never will be because there is no such thing as perfect”. The second one took me a long time to understand, having “quit” art many times after looking at other people’s superb work and feeling inadequate as a result. Those amazing artists didn’t just wake up one day and produced a masterpiece; they practiced like hell to get where they are now. So in short: keep practicing!

Do you love Kaz as much as Sefie does? Which of Sefie’s portraits is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below!

You can keep up with Sefie’s fan art by following her DeviantART account.

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Platforms	PlayStation®
Release Date	26.02.1999
Player	Single Player

Metal Gear Solid

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