An accomplished artist creates an excellent digital painting that harkens back to the glory days of the Xbox 360 and captures the sentimental longing of many fans for that era.
Recently, a digital artist decided to share a piece with the internet that was a throwback to the days of the Xbox 360. Anyone who had a seventh-generation console during its peak popularity in the early 2010s may experience a pang of melancholy upon seeing the amazing drawing because it pays homage to that generation of consoles.
The Xbox 360 was first shown off to the public by Microsoft in May of 2005, and sales began in November of the same year. The gaming console was available in various configurations at retail, with the enhanced Xbox 360 S and Xbox 360 E being released in 2010 and 2013, respectively. Early models of the Xbox 360 were plagued by hardware restrictions and technological issues, such as the iconic “Red Ring of Death.” As a result, the console’s lifetime sales lagged behind those of the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. Despite this, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was a huge economic success, large thanks to its extensive collection of excellent games.
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The picture by digital artist Amadeus Chavez, titled “Simpler Times,” is a tribute to the console and the feelings he and many other fans still have for the Xbox 360. It depicts a matte black Xbox 360 and a matching controller resting on a table with three of the 360’s signature green game boxes sitting in the space between them. On two of them, the box art is visible. The artist has done an excellent job of reproducing the artwork for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Grand Theft Auto 5, which are still quite popular. Hidden beneath the packaging for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is a third game. A Coca-Cola bottle with the cap off might be the finishing touch for a scene and assist in depicting the mood of the time.
Chavez drew “Simpler Times” using an iPad using the Procreate program, but he put in a lot of effort to make it look like it was painted. The attention to detail on the console and the packaging art are amazing. For instance, if one looks very carefully, one will be able to spot the Xbox logo in the disk tray and the green quarter-circle that indicates one controller connected to the console. Meanwhile, Chavez faithfully replicated the box art for Grand Theft Auto 5 and Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and incorporated minute details like the games’ region codes and a warning Grand Theft Auto 5 requires an external storage device.
It is interesting to note that this is not the first time Amadeus Chavez has depicted a sentimental flashback to consoles that were popular in the past. In September of the year 2020, the artist published a sketch with the same subject matter titled “My Childhood.” The image shows a black PlayStation 2 with the disk for Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas visible behind the open lid of the console. The box rests nearby, along with a little pile of more games. As a result, “Simpler Times” functions as a sequel, and the series chronicles the artist’s life through the consoles and games he was playing.
Source: StreamerBans, Twitch
