Creating Fortnite Skins of Myself!

The Idea

Something I used to practice a lot was the concept that you ‘don’t need permission’ and that you don’t need to wait for someone to tell you that you are experienced enough to go ahead with your idea. I’ve not really been practicing that mindset enough in the last few years and I definitely want to exercise more of that attitude in 2023.

If you follow me on social media you might have seen the Fortnite skins I created of myself last year. At that time, I really got into Fortnite and played it most days, it’s so much better now they have zero build! One of the things that Fortnite does really well (amongst many others) are their skin designs. They are both great at creating their own skins unique to the game and adapting existing characters; stylising them to stay true to the original whilst also fitting perfectly into the Fortnite world. 

I’d absolutely love to be able to work on some Fortnite skins one day, but then I realised that I don’t need permission to be able to create Fortnite skin concepts! When I originally created these, it was around the time that people do “Meet The Artist”, so I paired the two together and decided I would create Fortnite skins of myself and the different versions of myself day-to-day. Let’s just say I got very into designing the skins and trying to match up the style so they never ended up being a Meet The Artist after all!

Before I did jump into the designs behind the skins, I spent some time breaking down Fortnite’s style, particularly the anatomy of their characters. This was an important step for me as I imagine a lot of the skins fit onto the same rig and keep the same animations etc. I also looked at their concepts to see what an artist usually presents, this varied a little but mainly consisted of a skin design, back bling and a pickaxe design. Some did also include things like weapon skin designs and a glider concept, something that I should probably go back and design for these or keep in mind for the next lot!

The Skins!

So a little bit about the skins! First up is just plain old me! This is what I tend to look like on a day to day basis; usually in black, ripped jeans with a chain, Vans and a t-shirt. I hope people know by now that I love sharks! So I thought a shark plush for the back bling would be a nice touch (I do also have a massive shark plush in real life!). I spend a lot of my time drawing and I thought a huge pencil would actually make a really cool pickaxe, it did nearly end up being a Wacom pen but I feel like more people would instantly recognise a pencil!

Next up was summer me, it was summer when I designed these and I tend to spend a LOT of my time barbecuing. We always try to make the most of the nice weather and our garden in summer, so we even use our BBQ even to cook our tea sometimes! I also burn very easily when it’s hot, so I thought it would be funny to add some sunburn onto my arms and lots of charcoal dust everywhere. You can get dual pickaxes in Fortnite too, so I leaned into the idea of having some BBQ tongs and a spatula as a pickaxe for this one. Having a decent BBQ is great, but it’s also great when you can have a BBQ wherever you are, so this one has a nice little instant BBQ back bling!

I definitely have different version of myself when I’m in the house chilling and relaxing too, even if I’m not gaming, when I’m in the house, I’m in my comfy clothes! I tend to wear the same things a lot of the time on my top half especially, it’s generally just the bottom half of my clothes that change. However, I wanted to make sure all of the skins were really different to each other. So next up was gamer Rach, with a head set, a pizza box back bling for all that snacking, one of my very few non-black hoodies and a foam sword. I find that Fortnite is also really good at getting some humor into their designs, something I try to do in my own work!

Last but not least is onesie Rach, I might be an adult but I genuinely think onesies are so cosy and warm, especially in winter! I based this one off of my own onesie with a little pillow back bling to stick with the theme. No pickaxe for this one but I thought it would pair quite well with the foam sword anyway!

Here’s all of them together.

So if you really want to work on your favourite game or there’s a certain studio that you really want to work for, then just do it! Come up with a plan to create something fun for yourself but also hitting of the points that your goal game/studio aims towards. You don’t need to wait until you actually get work from that place, show them what value you can add to what they do now. I also think that’s the best way to produce fan art too, don’t create fan art of what already exists, make it your own and add value, take what they do and show how you can make it better!

Hope this helps! If there’s anything in particular you’d like me to write about, then let me know