Hello everyone. Welcome to Halo United. The place that unites all the Halo Community goodness in one place. Another Sunday means another Halo Spotlight Weekly Roundup for you all to enjoy, and this week is of course no different.
This piece will be showing off artwork by !MOK (Exclamation_Mok). If the name sounds familiar, that’s because they have their own Halo Spotlight Presents page, so often get mentioned in these weekly roundups.
!MOK has never had their own spotlight piece, so we’re happy to change that. The Writing Spartan asked !MOK to give us some background on how they got into Halo, and what their creative process is. Please enjoy the response below:
“Halo has been affecting my life since I was five. It started with watching my dad play with friends, playing Halo 2 with my best friends a few years later, and being an artist, it was only natural that I’d draw Halo stuff eventually but I was not prepared for how hard it would be.
It’s very important for people to know that I struggled to learn these designs for years. Just like anything, it takes time.
In 2016 I opened my first art based social media account on a terrible place called Halo Amino and I looked to the community there to help me improve. Turns out that everything I drew just looked cute to people.
I legitimately tried to make the proportions correct and struggled to make sure things were detailed and it didn’t make a difference so I bit the bullet and began intentionally making cute “chibi” Halo art. My account sits dormant at just shy of 6500 followers so I think it was successful.. though I also think it’s mostly bots so I moved to Instagram.
Before, I was figuring out “my style” as many artists do but now I’m full steam ahead on sharing my love for Halo’s designs with bold lines, vibrant colours, and way too much white gellyroll pen.
Halo has changed my life. I could talk about it for hours honestly… It’s like a match made in heaven. My birthday is even on bungie day! While I may not ever know what the future has in store for me and my life, I can guarantee Halo will always be involved somehow.”
It’s always wonderful to hear stories from creators in the Halo Community and learn how they got to where they are. A huge thank you to !MOK for sharing that information. Below are some examples of !MOK’s incredible artwork.
Halo Infinite Elite Mercenary
Christmas 2020
GRUNT GOBLIN
The HYRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mk I Prototype
Smooth Jazz
Yapyap The Conqueror
The Dragon
Active Camo Elite
Normally the cut-off date is days prior but it somehow caught the attention of someone at 343 in the span of a few hours… and since it was featured, there was a whole uprising of people who were mad at me for this. Genuinely. I even had a friend block me over it!”
Thank you once again to !MOK for providing the above images, along with such an in depth breakdown on how they got into Halo and artwork creation. If you’d like to see more from !MOK, you can do so on their Twitter account.
Now it’s time to move onto the pieces that went up over on Halo Spotlight. We’ll give a sneak peak at the past week of features that have gone live over on Halo Spotlight.
Halo Spotlight Weekly Roundup
This past week featured Q&As, both of which have written and audio versions. The first was related to a content creator, and the 2nd was related to a Halo Creation, so be sure to check out snippets of both below.
Content Creator Q&A: Radiactivepeter
“Question: You’re currently an admin over on Halo España. How did you end up being in that role and what do you do for Halo España?
“That’s a very nice story. I basically met most of the people that now administrate Halo España with me a few years ago. We were friends and we used to play on Xbox online on Halo: The Master Chief Collection.“
If you’d like to find the full Q&A, you can read it on Halo Spotlight here. The video version is fully unedited, so you can also check that out above.
Halo Creation Q&A: The Warthog Build
“Question: How easy has it been to bring the scale of Halo into real life?
“In general it’s been hard. I’ve been working on this thing for 7 years now when I thought it’d take me 6 months. I’m not dogging any other productions or any other Warthog projects out there, some people have done some amazing things, but they’re usually built a little bit smaller.“
Much like the other Q&A, you can read it on Halo Spotlight. The video version, much like the other Q&A, is fully unedited, so you can also check that out above.
Halo Spotlight Presents
Halo Spotlight Presents hasn’t slowed down this week. In fact, it’s had more than 10 new pieces in total, so check out the general page here.
AphonicWanderer / Areogous had 4 brand new pieces added to their page, so be sure to check out their awesome artwork here.
Much like Areogous, Rookie425 also had 4 brand new pieces of artwork added to their page. To see more artwork by Rookie425, be sure to check out their Halo Spotlight Presents page here.
!MOK has added some brand new pieces to their Halo Spotlight Presents page too, so you can go and check out all their new art that wasn’t featured in this piece over on Halo Spotlight.
The Thrilling Conclusion
That’s it for another week, until the next Halo Spotlight Weekly Roundup. As we rack our brains trying to figure out what the ending heading should be for the next piece, be sure to check out the links below for more content.
You can check out more featured community members and fan content on Halo United. If you want to talk to the team, answer some polls, have a discussion or just post some memes, you can also find the Halo United team on Twitter. We also have a Halo United Discord for those who would like a more personal discussion or a friendly chat in the voice channels.
If you want to check out our partners over at Halo Spotlight, you can do so on their website. They also have a Twitter account where they post updates. If you’d like to nominate or suggest anyone for featured pieces on both Halo United or Halo Spotlight, you can find out how below.
You can check out my Twitter if you want to suggest or nominate anyone or anything for future features. You can also say hello and watch some Halo gameplay in my stream.
