How Do You Want to Do This?: On the Art of Kit Buss

Above is a picture of something that those among the nerdy of us are probably pretty familiar with: fan art. This is art depicting one of the first major encounters in an online show titled Critical Role. Critical Role is a show that premiered on the Twitch stream of the website Geek and Sundry, that is about a group of nerdy, famous voice actors, and longtime friends, who gather together to play Dungeons and Dragons. Among them are actors who have voiced perhaps some of your favorite characters from your favorite games and animated shows, from Fullmetal Alchemist to Attack on Titan, to Overwatch. There are even famous guest stars from some of your favorite forms of media at times, from all across the spectrum of geekdom. It’s a niche show full of weird and crazy things that happen. I mean on its face, it’s basically a show where on average from three to five hours you sit around watching a bunch of professional voice actors sit around, make funny voices, crack jokes, and roll dice in the hopes that they can fend off whatever monster the DM, Matthew Mercer, has decided to mercilessly throw at them. It should be boring as all get out, but with the kind of theater of the mind that Critical Role creates, all the fighting, exploring, conversing, and cracking wise feels real. Hence why the good Ms. Buss was inspired to make this, one of the first pieces of major fanart for this show, and a part of the reason why she was made the official portrait artist of the show. You can now see why I chose to talk about her.

In all seriousness, I wasn’t kidding when I said that this show really knows how to fire up the mindscape. To paint the picture (no pun intended, since Kit has clearly done a much better job than I ever could) this portrait depicts what was one of the first great boss battles of the show, against the evil, megalomaniacal, half-undead Beholder known as Kvarn, an aberration from beyond the farthest reaches of normal reality, that bound itself to the Horn of Orcus, a powerful, demonic artifact, and was attempting to raise a subterranean army of dark dwarves and brain-sucking psychics known as Mind Flayers. The party of heroes, known as Vox Machina, had made a plan to destroy a giant, diabolical construct that Kvarn had attached to the ceiling of his fortress by having a mind-controlled giant smash it using his own body from above, and then having their druid Keyleth, drop down in her Earth Elemental form to lead the charge by laying a smackdown on the one-eyed abomination… Okay, now please tell me you guys followed at least half of that. No? Well, perhaps the show and D&D lore can be a bit hard to follow, but the work can speak for itself. Note the way the one-eyed Kvarn is wreathed in shadow, with only a bit of scant light surrounding him, while Keyleth is much more illuminated, perhaps helping to establish the dichotomy between good and evil. Perhaps one could even say that the way she is descending is reminiscent, in terms of pose and lighting, of older artwork of angels, perhaps further cementing this division. This is helped even further by the angular horns that jut from Kvarn, making him further connected to demonic iconography. Then there’s the way we see Keyleth, by the change we can observe beginning in her left arm, morphing into an Earth Elemental, which I must say is really, really cool. No, really, that’s all I want to say, it’s absolutely wicked awesome.

This is a portrait of the entire original roster of Vox Machina. From left to right, we have the Human Gunslinger Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, played by Taliesin Jaffe, then Keyleth, a Half-Elf Druid of the Air Ashari, played by Marisa Ray, followed by the Dragonborn Sorcerer Tiberius Stormwind, played by Orion Acaba. Sharing approximately the same space, from biggest to smallest, the pale fellow holding the goblin’s head is Grog Strongjaw, a Goliath Barbarian, played by Travis Willingham, while the two exceptionally smaller ones are Scanlan Shorthalt (the one holding the lute), a Gnome Bard, played by Sam Riegel, and Pike Trickfoot (the one in plate armor), a Gnome Cleric of Sarenrae, played by Ashley Johnson. Bringing up the rear, the lady with the quiver of arrows is Vex’ahlia, a Half-Elf Ranger, played by Laura Bailey, and her twin brother, Vax’ildan, a Half-Elf Rogue, played by Liam O’Brien. Last, but definitely not least, to address the elephant in the room (or in this case, bear), the heavily armored bear is named Trinket, who is the constant companion of Vex’ahlia. Also, incredibly adorable, just to clarify that. I have seen this piece quite a few times and I think it sums up every character pretty well. Percy is apprehensive but curious; Keyleth looks the part of the peaceful flower child; Grog is the angry, befuddled meat grinder of a man; Scanlan is the boastful, flirtatious performer with a need to be at the forefront; there’s even a slight shadow enshrouding Vax’ildan as he hangs understated in the back, showing his sneakiness.

Here’s a proper set of portraits of all the characters, including the illustrious, and occasionally sadistic, DM. They’re the ones they use on the show to show who is who throughout the episode and, again, they all hold on faces and poses that depict them to a tee. Pike’s radiant serenity, Vex’ahlia, and Trinket standing side by side, and our DM ready and willing to don whatever mask is needed to make the world that little bit more colorful. It’s the kind of beautiful intersection between what the consumer of the media sees in their mind’s eye and the wonder of the facsimile before their eyes, creating the image that would define how they looked at the characters ever. It’s why I like Kit, she seems to have tapped into the dreams and visions of the Critter fandom and just splashed it onto the screen.

You know what, her work speaks a hell of a lot better for itself than I ever could, so just here it is. Head to anemonetea.com if you want to look at more, she has done work for so many things, beyond Critical Role, and it’s all incredible. Enjoy!

 

Mike R.