In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, I was reminded this year of the time I drew my sylvari reaper playing a tin whistle (which is also known as the “Irish flute”).
The original painting is from 2019, and was part of a collaborative project organized by Angelique van der Mee. Several artists drew our own characters in support of the “#Love4ArenaNet” hastag, which to my memory was a spur-of-the-moment way to show a little support for the devs at the studio who were laid off at the time. It was a rough time for the studio, and a very sweet idea by Angelique and everyone else who was involved with the idea. Angelique then made a lovely composition involving everyone’s contributed artwork.
For this 2026 paintover warmup, after I drew the musical notes (which aren’t in the original), I idly thought perhaps I should have drawn “Fear Not This Night.” But for the holiday, I wanted to draw one of my favorite tunes I enjoy playing on tin whistle, instead. I would be very impressed if anyone can recognize it from the music notes, and I mentioned on socials that if anyone does guess it, I’d do a sketch for the – because it’s such an esoteric bit of knowledge, I would marvel if someone could recognize it!
Tin whistle is my favorite instrument, though sadly I rarely play it now since moving into an apartment. It’s why I moved more into practicing guitar – I’ve always liked guitar, too, but used to play tin whistle more often. Guitar has the benefit of being able to play at quieter volumes, as necessary!
In the original 2019 version, I drew my reaper, though this paintover is only showing a crop of the full-body art. I did add more to the full-body in today’s paintover, but it’s not really presentable. Maybe if I have a chance, I’ll add it to this post at a later time.
2019 version in the full post below because I’m not keen on how it looks when I saw it again today, haha:
In the 2019 version, his head looks like a cabbage! I’m almost offended on his behalf! Though, I suppose it is exceptionally appropriate for the holiday, haha.
I thought about including the full artwork in this post (the version with everyone’s characters, I mean), but I’ve sadly somewhat fell out of touch with most of the artists who also contributed to the project. I lost contact with many after I left Twitter a couple of years ago, and especially after many left the ArenaNet Creative Partnership in the years after 2020. I don’t know where many of them ended up now. I hope everyone is doing as well as can be, though I’m guessing it’s generally been a rough couple of years.
There probably wouldn’t be any issue if I did so, but due to the age of the group art I don’t know whether the artists for their characters have preferences about it. So, it seems to make sense to keep this post to only the art I did. At least for now!
- Edit ~12 am:
- Updated with a slightly updated version.
- Edit March 18, 2026:
- Added more background info I meant to add yesterday.
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