#999 week

Well, I think it's obvious why I'm one day late with this piece! I'm sorry Akane, love of my life, my legend, my muse, I have failed you. But in a way, I have also done you right I think! I'm super proud of the final result for this one, and all the symbolism I was able to cram into this piece.

The rendering for this one was such a challenge. I wanted to maintain sort of a similar texture the original one has, and in the process I became familiar again with a bunch of brushes I had and never use, so that was nice. Perhaps I'll use them again in the future! This was also great practice for drawing various objects and materials.

Onto the piece itself!

Norman Rockwell paints his triple self-portrait in a humorous tone, and yet this piece is also filled with so much symbolism that was so much fun to research and reinterpret for Akane.

"June is... Akane is... Zero."

Let's start with the subject of the painting itself. Rockwell depicts himself as the artist, the reflection, and the subject. This was the main inspiration for choosing this painting for Akane, and the three roles she fulfills in the story of Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors.

The artist is represented as Akane as Zero; the mastermind, the orchestrator, the main agent behind the plot. We see the most of this figure in the original composition, and at the same time, it's the only self-portrait in this painting whose face we don't see.

The reflection is represented as Akane as a child; she sees the image of the little girl she was. Everything Akane is doing, she is doing for her, and yet she also exists on a different plane than everything else. I wanted to go with a slightly comedic, childlike portrayal by drawing her sticking out her tongue in concentration. She still has her childhood innocence. Perhaps Zero is making the same expression too.

The subject is Akane as June; the idealized version that she would never be, that she perhaps wishes she could be, and that she needs to become so everything comes together in the end. She smiles gently, a created image of herself. Notice how in the original, Rockwell wears glasses when he depicts himself as the artist and the reflection, but they're missing in the picture on the canvas.

Other details in the painting all revolve around the Nonary Game. In the original, Rockwell incorporates several interesting objects he either had in his studio or chose to include as a nod to some specific ideas he wanted to convey.

There is, for example, the other self-portraits in the original painting. Rockwell studies several other great masters from art history, including Dürer, Rembrandt, Picasso and Van Gogh. In my version, these references have been replaced with portraits of Erwin Schrödinger (representing the state Akane is left in after the Nonary Project), Morgan Robertson (author of Futility), the dog from the morphogenetic fields explanation (I mean... sorry, the almighty Funyarinpa) and William Thomas Stead (the other author that gets brought up in the Futility explanation). Rockwell also pinned a piece of paper with several sketches of himself to the canvas. In my version, I included sketches referenced from various sprites from the game. I chose sprites where Akane looks sad or anxious (perhaps she didn't end up referencing these when she opted to draw June happy) as well as her outstretched hand with the bracelet in sight.

The ornate mirror frame originally depicts an eagle and a coat of arms with the American flag, which I chose to replace with a lion (thanks to @wyrdle for this idea!) In the original, the coat of arms is the Great Seal. My own interpretation is that, given that Rockwell's works are pretty much synonymous with the imagery of 20th century American culture, it represents what made him become the artist he was, hence why the lion representing Hongou looming over child Akane feels fitting. And yet, his portrayal of the Great Seal also seems to be, at least the way I interpret it, a tongue-in-cheek mockery of America's war machine, as the eagle is supposed to be holding arrows and an olive branch, a traditional symbol for peace, but Rockwell's depiction only has the arrows (thanks to @albi-mander for this information!). I included them as a last-minute addition because I thought the iconography, or my interpretation of what Rockwell might have meant, was interesting. In my version, there are four so as to represent the four Cradle Pharmaceuticals executives, the violence they enact on her, and how she pays it back. The fact that they are in the lion's clutches mirrors the original but also represents how Hongou did this to them and himself.

Other details included in my recreation:

Zero's gas mask displayed at the very top of the easel. Apparently the helmet in the original was sold to Rockwell who believed it to be a military relic but in reality it was the helmet used by French firefighters circa the 1920s.

The can of Soporil-Beta in lieu of the tube of paint.

The open book showing the diagram for John and Lucy.

The glass filled with six ice cubes, adding up to nine when you also count the three that are reflected in the mirror, representing ice-9.

The blue cushion representing how Aoi supports her.

The palette Zero is using with the main colors that represent "the innocent souls" among her kidnapped victims.

The smoke coming out of the bin and the scattered matches representing Akane's (non) death in the incinerator. These were left the same as the original painting (Rockwell had a habit of leaving ashes and matches everywhere, and his studio once caught fire as a result of this).