"Don't you forget about me, please. I don't care about anyone else!

But you, you don't forget about me, I'm telling you!

I'll come back and haunt you if you do!"

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For this week's personal project, I decided to draw Astrid, the lovable lynx character from "Spiritfarer".

"Spiritfarer" is the best game to come out in 2020. I know as far as hot takes that one is glacial, but it's the game I found myself needing the most during the absolute garbage fire that was that year. I did play a lot of "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", quite enjoyed the "FFVII Remake", and I will eventually put my hands on "Hades" and "BPM: Bullets Per Minute", but in terms of what really got to me "Spiritfarer" is without rival. I can't think of any other game I both dreaded and looked forward to more than this one, where practically every milestone was an arduous process of going through the five steps of grief. I've drawn the comparison to "Undertale" in terms of emotional impact, because if that game had one absolute sucker-punch of an emotional conclusion, "Spiritfarer" is that conclusion every two hours, and I won't lie after a while it was eroding on my motivation to play it. Nevertheless I did finish it, and it was a pretty satisfying experience I will never forget.

And then there's Astrid.

Astrid is my favourite character in "Spiritfarer", but perhaps not for the reasons you'd expect. I've come to realise many who play this game latch onto it from a purely personal point of view, and with me and Astrid is no different. She reminded me a lot of a good friend of my family named Caridad Yobero.

Caridad, or Cari as we called her, was this very sweet old woman who lived in front of our house in Madrid for basically all of her life. She was wonderful, sweet, kind of a badass (she lived through the Spanish Civil War), and she struggled during her late life with sarcoma, which ate at her legs. Still, she was as bright and well spoken as anyone, and my God did she have a prodigious well organised memory. She was like a library in human form. Last time I saw her was in 2004, during her birthday of all times. She had invited about fifty people to the event, and it was a wonderful good time. Before I left I did have the chance to give her a hug, and maybe it was a thing of destiny, but what do you think was the last thing she said to me? "Now, whatever you do, don't forget about me. If you forget about me, I'll come back and haunt you".

So you can see why, when Astrid and Stella were going towards the Everdoor, that the moment Astrid said that was when the waterfalls appeared, and they didn't stop. Every trip to the Everdoor hurt, but Astrid's was the only one were I got legitimately upset. I tossed my Switch to the empty seat of the sofa (I played the Switch version), put my hands on my face, and then didn't touch the game for a whole month. I just couldn't will myself, the impact was too much, and it might've been a coincidence but holyshit man what a hell of a coincidence.

Astrid's great, Spiritfarer is great, so of course I was going to draw her.

Please, let me know what you think of it in the comments. I appreciate each and every single one I receive.

You can check the Making Of post right here.

Thank you!

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