StarTropics Serving Plate My Girlfriend Painted
Last year my girlfriend painted a ceramic fruit bowl with a Ghosts 'n Goblins motif that can be seen here. A few months ago, as summer was approaching and grad school was finishing up for the semester, she would have some free time and wanted to work on another piece. The ceramics lounge had a large serving plate that we thought would make a nice base and we got to work on thinking of something she would enjoy drawing and painting. For a long time we kicked around the idea of a Galaxian / Galaga / Gaplus / Galaga '88 mashup but none of the ideas really translated well to a ceramic piece. The sadly underrated arcade game Bosconian was the next subject of consideration but that wasn't working out either - maybe that'll come back as a cookie jar eventually. It should come as no surprise to people who have been around here for awhile that my all time favorite NES game is StarTropics. Colorful and lush, still decidedly eight bit, and a little bit away from mainstream it ended up being the perfect subject for the piece.
After a couple of false starts we settled on a layout that I think represents and complements the game. The idea was that the plate would more or less be like a tabletop. A map of some of the islands would make up the background. The still images shown after the credits at the end of the game would be drawn as photographs and sit atop the map. Then Mike's Island Yo-Yo (complete with the Southern Cross) would be set atop one of the "photographs." More or less it would be like a collection of memories of Mike Jones' summer in the tropics that would be on a table in his room or something. After a few months and many sittings, she picked up the plate on Wednesday night.
For the background map we went with, starting from upper left clockwise, C-Island from "Chapter 1 - Prelude", the lighthouse island from "Chapter 2 - Dolphins", and the small island that is home to the village of Howdoyoudocola where all the island elders live from "Chapter 6 - Reunion." The "pictures" are, starting in the upper right clockwise, Peter in Chapter 5 "No gift, no chat.", the parting shot of the game with Mike Jones sticking bananas in his ears (the game's inside joke), Maxie at the end of Ghost Village in Chapter 3 being revealed with a Rod of Sight, and Octo the Huge at the end of Chapter 2.
Of course it wouldn't be StarTropics without what's on the back of the plate...
No need to dip it in water!
The piece is pretty big, as was the G'n'G bowl, here's a copy of the game for scale...
With how much time can pass between sittings and how varied the brushes and conditions are each time I think it came out great. Before anyone asks, I do have an idea for a complementary Zoda's Revenge plate. I won't say the second game was spectacular by any means but I do enjoy it quite a bit.
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Excellent work, just like the previous bowl.
