Community Spotlight - 0wl

While many pirates surprise and delight us with visions of the Sea of Thieves via wonderful #SoTShot entries, there are also many artists in the community who like to capture their adventures on the sea via the old-fashioned medium of paint and canvas. One of these artists is 0wl, who has taken to not only creating Discord emotes and artwork from around the Sea of Thieves, but has created a space for fellow artists to come together and share their work.

In our latest Spotlight, we talk to 0wl to find out what made her set sail and the reasons behind her reinvigorating the @ArrtClub!

[Q]: Can you tell us a little about what got you into gaming?

[A]: I vaguely remember playing The Land Before Time and The Amazon Trail on the computer when I was really little. That was my first taste of gaming, I’ve just always been a gamer. My first console was the PlayStation, I played the heck out of Spyro 2 and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. I still have the disk for Spyro!

[Q]: Were you a Rare fan before Sea of Thieves? Do you have any favourite Rare games?

[A]: My only Rare game before Sea of Thieves was Viva Piñata, and it was a bit of a traumatic experience. I was looking for a cute, uplifting game after the loss of my childhood cat, and Viva Piñata looked like just the right game. I fell in love with my little Mousemallow and decided “this is my baby, I will make the best garden just for her”.

Shortly after, she got into a fight with another Piñata. She exploded into candy and I watched in horror as the other Piñatas in the garden happily munched on her candy corpse. I didn’t play for a few years after that. My relationship with Viva Piñata is much better now, though.

Also, am I allowed to ask when the Everwild concept art book is coming out? Hello?

[Q]: What other games are you currently playing? Any favourites?

[A]: Currently I’m invested in Valheim. I love base building; I’ve got a birdhouse-inspired build I’m very proud of. I’d also like to give a shout out to Superliminal, which I just finished. It’s a mind-blowing, extremely creative game. Journey, Feather and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure are all games I keep going back to as well.

[Q]: What brought you over to Sea of Thieves and its community?

[A]: I was talked into trying Sea of Thieves by some friends when it first came out. I was deciding on a pirate when one of them said “just pick one, 0wl! You won’t play this game in a week!”. Boy, that aged quite badly. We were chasing a white Sloop when the wind caught our own sails and the sunset behind the Sloop was gorgeous; I knew then that I was truly in love with the game. I took my first in-game screenshot of that moment!

What actually brought me into Twitter and the further Sea of Thieves community was this crazy idea. My friend wondered if the Pirate Legend shanty opened anything besides the Pirate Legend Hideout in the game. So we put it to the test. It took about six weeks, but we played the shanty on every single island in the Sea of Thieves. I carried it to every rock painting and landmark I knew to see if anything would happen. We also managed to play it on a couple of volcanoes! In the end, nothing happened but it was worth it, just in case. That’s also where my Twitter handle came from, @CarryTheLegend.

[Q]: You recently re-established Arrt Club – can you tell us about this community and your motivation for setting it up?

[A]: A few different factors went into setting up the Arrt Club. First, art is an escape. The world is nuts. I wanted to encourage people to use art and creativity to relax for a moment. Sometimes getting your head into something for a couple hours can be so refreshing.

Secondly, I find it so interesting seeing threads on social media where people draw the same topic, but it all comes out so differently! I wanted to see what Sea of Thieves artists could come up with when given prompts to do whatever they wanted. Art is so subjective. Everyone creates differently. That’s why I specify that anything you create counts as ‘arrt’ in Arrt Club. Someone who is okay at drawing may be a fantastic builder in Minecraft, or a talented vocalist, or a gifted writer. I want to (and love to) see people work in a variety of media.

Finally, I really wanted to create a space where people who don’t necessarily feel like they’re good at art are welcome to still make it. That goes hand-in-hand with the ‘anything counts’ rule. If you create, you are an Arrtist. You’re welcome to join us, do whatever you like, whether you’re working on a prompt or not. Just come hang out and have some fun with it!

[Q]: How do you come up with the prompts you give the Arrt Club?

[A]: 90% of the prompts are screenshots I grab in the middle of a Voyage where I think “that would look cool if I did the painting pose in front of it”, then I come up with a relevant topic to go with the picture. Some of them are staged, when I make someone hold an object for me, but those are usually in the moment too. I still put a lot of thought into the actual prompt, as I want things that may inspire people to take different directions. I try to vary them so it’s not a bunch of the same topics over and over. It ends up being a bit of work!

[Q]: Which prompt has been the most entertaining so far and do you want to give a shout out to any artists in particular?

[A]: Don’t make me choose! Prompt 16: Splashtails and Explosions definitely had some of the most fun responses. But as I’m frantically scrolling through the Arrt Gallery in the Discord, I’m having the hardest time picking which ones to talk about: Mr. Watson writes entertaining stories about Captain Chris Crossbones to go with the prompts, Castaway Miller’s drawing style brings out the emotions in his cartoons, Lily~Artz draws some amazing and colorful pieces, Captain GGstache has been improving in leaps and bounds with her work… I could honestly go on forever about all these guys.

I feel bad that I can’t list everyone! Every single drawing, painting, doodle, sketch, short story and poem makes me smile. We see so much other art shared in the Discord as well, everyone is TALENTED and so helpful and supportive of each other.

[Q]: Thinking back, are there any standout moments for you in Sea of Thieves since you started playing?

[A]: Oh gosh. There are so, so many. My go-to story is the one I call the ‘Miss 0wl Story’. I was solo Slooping when these two rude teenage boys attacked and sank me. When I ran into them again, they were attacking a Brigantine with white sails that had gotten itself stuck on an island. I helped the Brigantine crew defeat them, patched them up and got their ship unstuck. They were three young kids. One of them was very friendly and it was honestly really adorable. I started walking them through how to use their sails and how to navigate using the map. I would say, “Turn the sails left!” and my friend would say, “Yes Miss 0wl!” or he’d start a question with, “Miss 0wl, how do I…?” I helped them sail their ship back to Galleon’s Grave.

On the way, I kept checking the map, and every time I noticed someone had drawn a rather inappropriate picture. I didn’t say anything the first couple of times, I just erased them. But when we parked at the Outpost, I checked it again and saw the drawing. So I went onto the island and asked my friend to come over. “Yes, Miss 0wl?” I asked him if he knew who was drawing the rude pictures. He started to stutter before blurting out, “Um… um… It wasn’t ME, Miss 0wl!” and ran off giggling.

[Q]: What are your favourite additions to Sea of Thieves over the past year?

[A]: Well, of course Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life has blown any recent update out of the water. Seeing the Kraken’s face, exploring the Bayou, battling a whole slew of Ghost Ships… so many moments that are uniquely Sea of Thieves are packed into those Tall Tales. Can I also say, while Cursed Sails was an update that came out a long time ago, I remember fighting those Skeleton Galleons and thinking “this is what Sea of Thieves is meant to be”. I feel that way about a lot of the updates you guys come out with.

[Q]: What are your greatest achievements in a game, Sea of Thieves or otherwise?

[A]: I played Conker’s Bad Fur Day all the way through, start to finish, on stream. That was a big deal for me for a couple of reasons. One, streaming is terrifying to me. Two, Conker is a horribly difficult game and I actually managed to complete it. There were so many moments where I was telling myself “I can’t figure this out, I’m never going to finish this game”. Then the solution was always something I didn’t think of! It kind of opened my eyes to how I could tackle other games and finish them.

My greatest Sea of Thieves achievement is probably defeating Joe Neate, Mike Chapman and Andrew and Shelley Preston in the Race of Legends. If you guys are reading this, I’m down for a rematch!

[Q]: If you had to choose a pirate and ship name, what would they be?

[A]: My pirate name is 0wl, or The Little 0wl if we’re getting fancy. Super creative, right? That’s just what I’ve always called my pirate. My choice for a ship name would be Screebird.

[Q]: What kind of other hobbies do you enjoy outside of gaming?

[A]: Outside of gaming, I’m usually keeping my hands busy with artsy stuff. The colorful world of Sea of Thieves inspired me to pick up art again, and I chose acrylic painting to start with. I’ve also been doing a lot of digital art. I have so much to learn! Right now I'm splitting my time between drawing Discord emotes, trying to learn to animate and working on my journal page project for Everwild. Those pages take forever. I spend a lot of time looking up real-life animals and applying them to the creatures we’ve seen so far in the trailers.

I also love cooking and baking. I’m always looking for vegan recipes that I can make and share with other people. I especially enjoy making cakes and cupcakes to decorate. Art you can eat!

[Q]: Share a fun fact about yourself. Anything is fair game!

[A]: I love animals a lot. Growing up, I had a very sweet rooster who loved to cuddle, go on walks and climb trees with me. He taught me a lot about seeing animals as individuals rather than food. I currently have an old terrier, Molly, who is very clever and sassy and loves puzzle toys. My kitty is Sage, who showed up one night starving and blind. I’m just about as blessed to have her as she is to have me. She’s such a sweetheart.

That concludes our latest Community Spotlight! Thank you to 0wl for talking to the team – we can’t wait to see more of her creations and those from the members of Arrt Club. If you’d like to see more of 0wl’s beautiful work you can check out her Twitter, or if you fancy your own hand at those art prompts, head on over to the Arrt Club Discord.

If you’re eager to hear more from our community, check out some of our previous Community Spotlights, catch regular creative updates in our Community Hub and keep up with all the latest from Sea of Thieves by following us on our many social channels. Until next time!