Shadez Art

Tag: fanart

  • Seven Years of Illidan Fanart

    Seven Years of Illidan Fanart

    On December 14th, 2018, I drew my first ever drawing of Illidan Stormrage. For almost six years, he was the main character that I drew. There’s so much that I love about this guy. His design. His story. His personality. His angst. His weapons. His voice. He’s definitely one of the characters who has stuck with me the longest. I remained absolutely obsessed with him for most of my teen years.

    My first Illidan drawing. Forgive the image quality. I screenshotted it from my old Scratch account. That’s right. I posted my art on SCRATCH when I was younger.

    This all started because I was playing through Legion for the first time. I had just gotten to Argus, so I was seeing Illidan a lot. And, while I was playing through Argus, I was also reading through the Illidan novel that was a prequel to Legion. Basically, young Shadez was seeing Illidan so much at that time, and decided that he was the coolest character ever.

    I still ship Illidan and Khadgar. I know that they’re never becoming canon. They’re just really fun to write fanfictions about.

    I drew him probably around at least 500 times all together. I wrote a ton of fanfictions about him—two of which passed the 100,000-word mark (the current one is getting close to 200,000 words). I dressed up as him for Halloween three times, I believe. I read the aforementioned book 20+ times.

    Basically, I was completely obsessed.

    And, seven years later, I still am.

    I love the lighting on this one!

    My Illidan phase took a brief break towards the end of 2024. I’ve mentioned before that I ran into problems on social media that led me to quit. These problems were fandom-related, and, unfortunately, tainted my love for Illidan slightly. I came to associate him with social media and the toxicity of fandom. So, I decided to step away from social media and from Illidan for a little while. I didn’t want my love for this character to be completely ruined.

    In the meantime, I became obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog. I started playing Sonic Frontiers shortly after I quit social media. I quickly became hooked. In the next few months, I also played Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic Adventure, and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog.

    And, then, towards the end of Feburary of 2025, I played Sonic Forces.

    And this is how all this Sonic nonsense relates to Illidan.

    You know Infinite? Yeah, the villain from this game who never showed up again? The one who just so happened to be another edgelord voiced by Liam O’Brien?

    The edgelords!

    Being as obsessed with Illidan as I was, it was only natural that Infinite would remind me of him. Seeing him in action got me really excited. I got attached to Infinite really fast. He was a really cool villain, obviously. But, like I said, he reminded me so much of Illidan. The voice. The edginess. His attitude. Very full of himself and a little overconfident. He has that same dramatic way of speaking.

    After playing Sonic Forces, my Illidan phase came back. Infinite reminded me of how cool Illidan is. I picked up my Illidan fanfiction again shortly after playing Sonic Forces. For most of 2025, I’ve been obsessed with both WoW and Sonic.

    And, then, in October, Legion Remix started, which definitely helped me get even more obsessed with Illidan again. I was thinking about giving up on my fanfiction again recently (my confidence struggles are really bad, okay?), but then I brought one of my Timerunners to Argus. That inspired me to continue working on my fanfiction again (not on a strict schedule, just whenever I feel like it).

    A funny doodle based on my fanfic.

    So, thanks to Sonic Forces and Legion Remix, my Illidan obsession is back in full swing. While he’s not my primary obsession right now, Illidan will always be one of my favorites.

    My four current favorite characters: Illidan, Alice (Madness Returns), Infinite, and Sonic. Based on a Draw the Squad meme I saw on Pinterest.

  • Sonictober: Days 29-31

    Sonictober: Days 29-31

    For my last Sonictober page, I drew three more of the Halloween skins from Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. This game has some really awesome outfits, okay?

    On the 29th, I drew Mummy Knuckles. I’m really happy with how his crown turned out!

    Yesterday, I drew Witch Rouge. I always enjoy drawing witch/wizard hats!

    And, today, I drew Reaper Metal Sonic. As far as I know, he doesn’t seem to have a scythe in the game, but I decided to give him one on my drawing.

    And that wraps up Sonictober! I had a lot of fun doing these doodles all month! And I didn’t miss a single day!

    Happy Halloween, everyone!

  • Sonictober: Days 27-28

    Sonictober: Days 27-28

    Day 27: Werehog

    This week, I’m doing some Halloween-themed Sonic drawings! Yesterday’s drawing was Werehog from Sonic Unleashed! I’ve never played Sonic Unleashed before, but it seems cool! I know that it was kind of the start of the Boost playstyle (the modern Sonic playstyle that I love). And the fact that Sonic turns into a werewolf is obviously really cool, too!

    Day 28: Vampire Shadow

    Today, I drew Vampire Shadow from the Sonic Forces: Speed Battle mobile game. I think that Shadow looks pretty great in a tophat!

  • Sonictober: Days 25-26

    Sonictober: Days 25-26

    Day 25: Sonic: Madness Returns

    Another game that I’ve been loving lately (and haven’t done enough fanart for yet) is Alice: Madness Returns. I bought it during the Steam Autumn Sale last month because I wanted to try something different and I thought it would be a good time to try out my first horror game. Because it’s almost Halloween, I’ve been playing it fairly often for the past couple weeks (whenever I’m not playing Legion Remix in WoW, of course). I finally finished the first chapter of the game a couple days ago. Yes. It took me around a month. I like to joke that I’m a pro gamer, but I’m really not. I had to set this game to easy mode, and it’s still very difficult. But that makes it even more satisfying when I do get past a part I’m struggling with! Over the past year, I’ve become a very patient gamer, as I tend to struggle with the Sonic games at times, too.

    Anyway, I drew this drawing because I just wanted to draw my two favorite video game protagonists together. Because they’re both so cool!

    Day 26: Therapy Session

    Infinite: “Don’t even get me started on the mushrooms…”
    This is something that happened last night when my siblings and I were hanging out. Let’s be real, Infinite probably could benefit from therapy (he’s got some serious issues he has to work through). But it has nothing to do with mushrooms.

    And, for anyone who’s wondering, the Infinite therapy session went on for around a half hour. I was just rambling, doing my amazing Infinite voice impression, and my brother joked that he was picturing Infinite in therapy the entire time. That’s how this drawing came to be.

  • Sonictober: Days 23-24

    Sonictober: Days 23-24

    Day 23: “HORSES!”

    This one’s another Mario and Sonic at the Olympics one. Sonic and Amy are super excited to ride horses!

    Day 24: The flashlight

    Of course, this one came from one night when my siblings and I were hanging out and goofing around. I was trying to play with our cat with a flashlight, and ended up shining it in my face (Don’t worry. It didn’t hurt my eyes that much, because it was just for a split second). And I was doing a Knuckles impression when it happened, so I put Knuckles on the drawing.

  • Sonictober: Day 22: New Evil Scheme

    Sonictober: Day 22: New Evil Scheme

    Eggman: “If Sonic runs on a treadmill—-“

    Eggman: “HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

    Eggman: “Wait… Where was I going with that?”

    This something my younger sister said once when she was playing Sonic CD. To this day, still no one knows what will happen if Sonic runs on a treadmill…

  • Sonictober: Days 19-21

    Sonictober: Days 19-21

    Day 19: “Don’t hit Illidan with a lightning whip!”

    This is based on the second Infinite boss fight in Sonic Forces. My favorite strategy is just hitting him with the Lightning Wispon over and over again.

    I’m sure you all recognize my Warcraft OC, Shadez, here. Basically, he heard “Illidan” grunting in pain a lot, and got really upset. My Sonic OC—her name’s Raven the Cat, by the way—is just trying to fight her nemesis.

    That’s actually one of the reasons why I like Infinite. Yes, he’s obviously an antagonist to everyone, but he’s very clearly set up to be your OC’s bad guy. And, as someone who’s always coming up with stories for my OCs, I love that!

    Day 20: Magical Metal Sonic

    This is another Mario and Sonic at the Olympics one. This one’s based on the Triple Jump minigame. When Metal Sonic’s warming up, we all think it looks like he’s using his magical powers to open a portal or something. I don’t know what that animation is supposed to be. But it’s really funny!

    Day 21: Murderous Sonic

    Sonic: “DIE!”

    This is based on the first Eggman boss fight in Sonic Forces. You’re running around, throwing boulders at his giant mech.

    Only the first time I played Sonic Forces, I got a little too excited, and kept throwing boulders at him even when he was already defeated. So, I joke that Sonic got a little bloodthirsty there.

  • Sonictober: Days 16-18

    Sonictober: Days 16-18

    Day 16: The Achoodles

    Knuckles: “Aww man! I have the achoodles!”

    This is another one that came from a time when my younger siblings were playing together. My younger sister was sneezing a lot, and made Knuckles say this line, that we still quote a year later.

    Day 17: The Roughest of Rough

    This one happened last week, I believe. I was singing Infinite’s theme, and instead of saying “I’m the roughest of waves”, I almost said “I’m the roughest of rough”. I think I was playing Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, and I was working on unlocking him, and I started singing the song to get myself all fired up or something. And, yes, I did unlock him, just a few days ago. I was very excited! And now I’m never uninstalling Sonic Forces: Speed Battle again, so I won’t lose him.

    Day 18: Super Sonic Fishing

    In my second Sonic Frontiers playthrough, I got very into the fishing part of the game. I didn’t do it at all in my first playthrough, but, this time around, I loved it! In fact, I did it so much that I was able to buy enough keys to pretty much speedrun the game!

  • Sonictober: Days 14-15

    Sonictober: Days 14-15

    Day 14: Like a True Warrior

    Sonic: “Fight me like a true warrior!”

    This is yet another Mario and Sonic at the Olympics doodle. For a while, my younger sister and I were playing this game together at least once a week. This is based on something I said when we were playing the boxing minigame.

    Although the funny thing is that she was playing as Knuckles, and I feel like that’s more like something Knuckles would say. But it was Sonic telling Knuckles to fight him like a true warrior.

    Day 15: Math

    Infinite: “How old are you?”

    Metal Sonic: “Math.”

    This one is based on something that happened just yesterday, when Dad was teaching us about computer programming. I had a strange glitch where the program entered its own input. I knew I had to do a drawing, featuring Metal Sonic. And Infinite’s the one asking, because of course he is.

  • Sonictober: Days 12-13

    Sonictober: Days 12-13

    Day 12: “You can practice!”

    This one is from right after I beat Sonic Forces for the second time. Both times, I beat the game in less than a week, so, theoretically, I can play it once per week (surprisingly, I haven’t started doing that yet).

    If you’ve seen enough of my Sonic art posts, you probably know that I enjoy doing the character impressions while I’m playing. And I’d say I’m pretty decent at doing most Sonic character voices. But one of the ones I just can’t figure out how to do is Infinite’s. And, ironically, he’s the one where I’ve been practicing his voice the longest (because he sounds exactly like Illidan Stormrage). Despite all this, my Infinite/Illidan impression is still hilariously bad. If you want to know how bad it is, I literally make them sound like Wario. I’m not too upset about it, because it fits the chaos that ensues whenever I’m messing around with my siblings. But I just think it’s funny that I’ve been trying for about seven years, and still can’t do it. I think the problem is that I can’t get my voice deep enough.

    So, the joke here is that, if I play Sonic Forces once a week, maybe I’ll learn how to do his voice better. But I kinda doubt that would change anything. I am by no means a professional voice actor. I just do the voices to be funny.

    Day 13: “We’re going to Burger King.”

    Rouge: “We’re going to Burger King.”

    I don’t know. This is something random I said once while I was playing Sonic Adventure 2. I was struggling with a Rouge level, and slowly losing my mind, probably.

    It was nice to finally draw Shadow this month! He took a weirdly long time to show up, and I usually draw him fairly regularly, because he’s one of my favorites. My top three at the moment are probably Infinite, Sonic, and Shadow. My favorite constantly switches between Sonic and Infinite, so they’re usually tied. But I do go through phases where I’m slightly more into one than the other, and I’ve been very into Infinite lately. Shadow’s almost always right behind those two these days.