The mysterious Waneella
Retronator Artist Feature
Tumblr blog Waneella started its unassuming debut on February 11, 2013, with a campfire, a hamburger refrigerator-machine thingy, and a cake vending machine. Yes, that’s cake, not coke.
But don’t judge the book by the cover. Waneella’s humble beginnings immediately gave way to a mesmerizing artistic journey that left many in awe.
After the initial explorations of the (by then already well spread-out) #sworcery thin legs style™, Waneella threaded towards huge vertical scenes with abstract tech machinery, towering deities, never-ending clouds and sleeping skylines.
By the way, when a coworker sent me a link to the blog on the onset of its viral takeover of the Internet, I responded, quote:
“This style became very popular due to Sword & Sworcery. This is just a kid that is copying that style, although he still did a badass job with The Lost Vikings.”
Thus began my infatuation with Waneella, which would leave my initial arrogance humbled (and forever haunt me for my incorrect, culturally-biased gender assumption).
What sets Waneella apart (and high into Tumblr’s stratosphere) is that all works are animated GIFs. It’s not a coincidence. Valeriya Sanchillo, the person behind the art, is working towards an animation degree with 5 years already under her belt.
I am left speechless as the body of work presented so far has all been done in 2013 (and I even left half of her stuff out).
New pixel works have become rare in the last year as she’s nearing the end of her studies, but nonetheless spectacular when they do come.
Fortunately, her non-pixel art blog is just as fantastic, especially if you’re into more traditional animated movies beauty.
Awesome animations notwithstanding.
Together with other ladies — Polina Minaeva (direction and animation), Phobs (idea and concept art), Katya Solomina (compositing) — and gents from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, Valeriya is finishing their graduation project King Kills, scheduled to release later this year.
It’s nice to see, yet again, that pixel art is simply a form of art and all art experience improves your pixel art skills.
By the way, if you want some of Waneella’s art for yourself, she has commissions open for the Summer!
That’s it folks, another extended Artist Feature down the road. I can’t say how delighted I am to expand the 10-image Tumblr photosets into even longer journeys here on Retronator Magazine.
Next up will be a repost of the Moonman feature (an early posts from Stampsy before I switched to Medium) as I’m busy finalizing an announcement of my next pixel art project. Till then, happy pixels!
—Retro
