@FrostyNovaPrime
Deviantart: FrostyNovaPrime
Twitch: FrostyNovaPrime
YouTube: FrostyNovaPrime

Welcome to our first Creator Spotlight, a monthly blog to highlight and celebrate Warframe Creators! This month we are shining a light on FrostyNovaPrime, a talented fan artist and content creator.

Tell us a bit about FrostyNovaPrime and the type of content you create!

I'm currently a 21-year-old pre-vet university student that sold 85% of her soul to Warframe: Ninjas Play Free™. I create fan art ranging from cute chibi-esque Warframes to illustrations and silly doodles of my Operator, Kyrie, as well as other original characters of mine.

How were you first introduced to Warframe, and when did you begin creating fan art?

I was first introduced to Warframe in August of 2015, so it has now been five years since I first started playing! I mainly played League of Legends at that time so it took awhile for me to get used to the controls and play style, but the RPG and PvE elements had me immersed in the game in no time.

I did not really begin creating Warframe fan art until the summer of 2018. While I have a history of art dating back to 2012, high school was unfortunately hectic enough that I had to go on hiatus for a few years. Luckily, the creative spark came back to me when I entered university and had a lot more free time. My first piece of digital art was a drawing of my Operator and Frost. The encouragement I received from some friends in a Discord server was really inspiring. What really convinced me to continue making fan art was a doodle of Equinox I posted to the subreddit for Inktober that gained a lot more traction than I was expecting. Thinking back on it, it's kind of funny how Equinox kickstarted both my Warframe and fan art journey!

What exactly led to the username FrostyNovaPrime?

My original username was actually Valkyriie22. I decided to change it around the same time I restarted my drawing hobby to rebrand a bit. It was also kind of annoying having people assume I was a Valkyr main (not that there's anything wrong with that!). Since I was super invested in Warframe by this point, I wanted to incorporate my two favourite frames into my new name: Frost and Nova. Nova Prime was the very first Prime Warframe I built, and I would sometimes call Frost "Frosty," so the two together had a nice ring to it. Contrary to the name, my Nova Prime is default colours as I like the blue and purple too much and unfortunately does not have any frosty elements to her.

You create a lot of incredible digital fan art. How would you describe your “typical art style,” and is there anything else you dabble in?

Thank you! I would say my typical art style is largely inspired by a mix of 1990s-to-early-2000s anime and Disney. I like to use a thicker style of line-art paired with bright colours and a soft or blurred style of shading. I've tried a bit of lineless or painted styles and...I definitely need more practice in those areas (props to those that do it as their main medium!). I also want to try animation sometime in the future!

What is your process of creating your art pieces? How do you decide what to create next?

I'm not really one for having a ton of works-in-progress laying around - I generally work on a single piece until it's completely finished. In terms of actual work, I of course start off with some kind of sketch, work most of the finer details in with line art, add a couple of base layers of colour, and then top it all off with shading. If I'm thinking of a background, I mess around with ideas for that after either line work or shading is done and add layer effects to make everything blend in at the very end.

When it comes to deciding what to draw next, it usually comes about in one of two ways. The first is connecting one element to another. For example, my chibi of Khora Urushu was heavily inspired by a pose Evelynn from League of Legends makes, as the ribbons reminded me of her lashers. A 'painting' I did of Gara's upcoming deluxe was also inspired this way, but the connection was to Satsuki from Kill La Kill (even though I still need to watch that show). The second way is when an idea sort of plays on repeat as I listen to a certain song, regardless of how the song relates to the idea if at all. The concept behind a recent piece of my Frost, "Ice Wave", was actually thought up while listening to House of Wolves by My Chemical Romance. I would always picture Frost in battle, casting Ice Wave by dragging his hand on the ground and lifting up as opposed to his typical animation.

Which piece of Warframe art are you most proud of?

I would have to say it's a tie between Harrow Reliquary and Titania Prime. Both pieces required me to pay attention to various amounts of details which took me countless hours. I still quite like how I did the effects on each piece and the sense of satisfaction I get while looking at them is as strong as when I first finished.

Where do you find most of the inspiration behind your content?

A lot of my inspiration comes from making connections to other sources or music as I mentioned, but I also find inspiration within my friends in the Warframe art community! I'm super fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet so many amazing artists.

Beyond your fan art creations, you also have a Twitch account. Where do you hope to take that in the future?

I don't really know where I want to take my Twitch channel. For the past year, it's been a pretty low-key way of both focusing on my art projects as well as being able to connect more with those that follow me. I have a lot of fun streaming once or twice a week, but I don't think I'd make streaming my full-time career anytime soon. The VODs from my art-centred streams are very useful for making speed paint YouTube videos too!

As a student, how do you find balance and make time for your art and content creation?

Of course, my student responsibilities always come first. I use my art and game time as a way to reward myself for a good day's work and to unwind in the evening. Sometimes I'll also take a quick break from the endless sea of veterinarian school essays to hop into a quick mission or doodle before returning to my work. The background noises from Warframe and other games also helps a lot with my focus weirdly enough - for both studying and drawing.

I will say though, the COVID-19 quarantine has not helped with keeping this balance whatsoever.

What is next in store for you as a Warframe Creator?

I had a goal of joining the old Partner Program as a way to contribute more to the game and community that I've been proud to call my home for the past five years. Now that I've reached that goal as a Creator, I'm not sure what my next step is!

I'm still very young in the world of content creation and have a lot to learn, so I feel like baby steps are the best course of action for me. Hopefully, with wherever the Creator Program takes me I'll be able to continue creating fan art for the game I love while growing as an artist.