Sky commander, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Sci-fi and fantasy of Kirokaze

Retronator Artist Feature

If I was giving awards for 2015, there’d be a couple like:

• Biggest name of the year: Pixels Huh
• Best community: Pixel Dailies
• Best community project: ISOtopes by PixelJoint
• Most improved: Faxdoc

But there was another newcomer on the 2015 scene that’s not only improved a lot, not only captured the atmosphere like Waneella or 1041uuu, but also churned out so much quality work that I’d be happy to award Most prolific artist trophy to him. That artist is Kirokaze.

Final Strike — spaceship, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Kirokaze comes from Lima, Peru where he goes by the name of Gerardo Quiroz V. Not much more is known about him, he lets his art speak for itself.

Flying Bike, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

From the humble, yet very promising pieces he shared at the start of 2015, the pace quickly picked up until he delievered over 80 works, about half of them animated, in a span of less than a year.

From things he posted in February …

Cyberpunk city 8-bit version (top), Golbin Sleeping (left), Lost in space (middle), Dark Knight (right), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

… to what we were seeing in April:

Neon Lights (top), Rainy day (bottom), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

But the Blade Runnerish cyberpunk wasn’t the only theme that emerged early on.

Knight in town (top), Fallen Knight (bottom), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

His fantasy scenes were just as epic.

To slay a warrior, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Ice Giant, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

And don’t forget, these are his early works from the first half of 2015.

Gunner — Post apocalyptic theme, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Mech building (left), Elevator (middle), Mecha arrival (right), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Flamekeeper, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Another constant theme are game mockups. As Kirokaze often points out on Twitter, he’s not a developer and there really are just mockups—works that could be game screenshots, but they’re just handcrafted to portray what a game could look like.

Pocketron -paltform mock up, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Mockup space pirate ships, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Shoot ’em up — mockup, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

RPG mockup N2, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

RPG map mockup — Choose location, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Chess pieces — mockup, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Isometric Shoot ’em up mockup N 2, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Cyber K — platformer mockup mix style, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Rpg mockup N3 2d, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

If you’re a regular reader you know that I like to showcase versatility in an artist, so seeing semi and non-pixel art works in a pixel art magazine shouldn’t surprise you. Like I always say, pixel art is art first and pixels second, so whatever you learn in pixel art can be applied to other mediums and vice-versa.

Potion store — adventure game mockup, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Card RPG mockup N4, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Neo Crusader — Mecha, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

But enough about that. If you were not impressed enough by now, well, the best stuff is just coming.

I think the first work by Kirokaze I saw was this piece from July that struck me with its HD lighting (dynamically shaded style that’s popular in pixel art games nowadays), but it’s really not HD at all, it’s all manualy placed with hand-selected colors:

Dungeon mockup, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

From here on, only a few pieces were left without animations.

Sending Signal, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Dragon Attack, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

King’s ruins, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

As anyone on Tumblr eventually realizes, the GIFs are the name of the game. Here are some of his cheerful ones:

Llama stuck (left), Hounds (right), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Mountain town, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Training, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

The rest … The rest is what I’d call Kirokaze style. The edgy low-poly look:

Young at night, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Mech Walker, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Pilot, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

A mix of mechas and spaceships:

Mech Hangar (top), Space Commander (middle), Shooting Stars (bottom), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

His own version of medieval warriors:

Valkyrie’s fall (left), Soldier’s Rest (right), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Mercenaries, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Garden (left), Tomb of Knights (right), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Bard, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

Gloomy cyberpunk that would make Philip K. Dick proud:

Factory 5 (top), Blue Balcony (middle), Coffee In rain (bottom), Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

And last, but far from least, he combines it all together into medieval cyberknight-mechas and paladins with laser swords:

King’s throne, Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V., 2015

And that’s Kirokaze. I couldn’t be more excited to see what he brings us this year.

I hope you have enjoyed the first artist feature of 2016, a look at the amazing 2015 portfolio of Gerardo Quiroz. There are many more names already on my to-do list to continue my tradition of featuring outstanding artists that started over at my tumblr blog, as well as games, communities and other articles that will break this mold. I’m looking forward to continue this journey with you.

Cheers to many more,
—Retro