Another Day, Another Masterpiece

It’s been a long time since I created a piece of art that I actually like, let alone it being traditional! So at Ubisoft, we’re moving into a new building soon and HR decided to host an art contest so that the new office’s walls would have some decorations that truly channel the essence of “Ubisoft.” There were only two requirements for the piece:

1. Must be relatable to Ubisoft in some fashion
2. Must use little, some, or a lot of the giveaway game disks

Since we didn’t need to keep the disks intact, I took a mallet to mine.

Rubber mallets don’t work by the way. I looked up alternate ways to break disks and there were some cool videos that talked about soaking the disks in boiling water for 10 minutes to “soften them up” so that you can remove the secondary layer. I tried this. I’ve come to the conclusion that game disks do not have the secondary layer (the film). Must be just CDs? It does not become detached no matter what you soak it in.

Round three, I took a hammer to it. Wrapped 1 disk and 1 pile of chopped bits I’d already labored over in a small towel, then outside I slapped the hammer down a few times. The hammer head piece broke off.

Round four. After returning from Lowe’s with two hammers, just in case, I repeated the process only this time the disk was surely obliterated. The same can also be said for the towel I used and the pavement on my porch.

That’s my disk journey. Let me explain a bit about the painting. The character is Princess Aurora from Child Of Light . It’s a puzzle game with lots of lore, well developed characters, inventive artistry, and a eerily wonderful soundtrack. This game was released by Ubisoft in 2014. I had never heard of it until I started working at Ubisoft and instantly I was hooked. The scene depicts the Princess falling between the realm she once knew and the realm she will now know. I wanted to invoke a sense of stillness, as if falling in a dream.

Art Piece Details: 
-24 in x 30 in canvas
-10 hours of research
-31 hours sketching, painting, crafting 3D elements
-Undetermined amount of time going back and forth to the craft store…
-Multimedia: Acrylics (med-heavy weight), Pearl Ex Pigments Powder, game disks, faux pearl and crystal twigs, 0.1 galvanized steel for crown tie downs

Without further adieu, I present to you the piece!