Elisa Fortes is a highly talented artist who resides in Spain. She has not only created a huge catalog of Silent Hill inspired work but also has a Silent Hill book called 'A tale of Birds without a voice' which features some of the most famous characters and locations from the town we've all come to love. Along with this she recently release a Silent Hill game as well and produced work for the upcoming Silent Hill fan film, Silent Hill Requiem.

I really wanted to find out more about Elisa, her work on all things Silent Hill and what we can expect from her in the future. 

Check out the interview below:



Tell me something about yourself?

My name is Elisa and I am a 29 year old lifelong gamer from Spain. I have a bunch of weird hobbies such as Japanese music and I am a weird person in general.

Have you always been creative?

Yeah. My first memory (related to drawing) is when my Mom was in her first job. She brought me there and I remember there was a desk and I had pencils and paper. She says I always asked for pencils and paper wherever I went.
Also, I remember there was a school-run kind of magazine where older students and teachers wrote,  one of my drawings was featured because my teacher found it super cute. This happened when I was in kindergarden and I remember the drawing - a woman cooking in a pot with a cat by her side. I would also draw comics featuring my family and people I knew.
But then I always took part in junior drawing contests and I think I only won once or twice, but always minor prizes.
It was devastating, and still nowadays I feel I could do much better. Being an artist is not easy, as it is super hard to become remarkable among all the sea of artists out there, you know. So, even if I've always been drawing - and I even have an education with a minor on Illustration - sometimes I feel I need to sit tight and think that maybe my future is not in this world. Sometimes I think it is. It's really difficult as I say.

What attracted you to Silent Hill?

One day I went to my usual videogame rental place and I rented Silent Hill. I remember reading reviews on magazines and they would often complain about how awful the fog was and all that. So I wanted to see it myself. I am glad I did, since those reviews were just graphics-based and they didn't understand the fog had a purpose.
I remember how anxious it made me feel while playing it, but it was an addictive anxiety. It was like, "I NEED to leave the pad and turn off the system" but then I couldn't do it until I got to a certain part or got a certain item. And then, I just wanted more and more. It was so addictive.
On the weekend I rented it, I finished it. And shortly after that, the rental place was closing down and had everything for sale so I bought that very same copy. I remember it was quite a pricey game back then and it took several months until its price lowered.
Also I have to admit one thing that really made me attracted to Silent Hill was how it was the "rival" of Resident Evil. Everyone around here loved RE because it was all about the action. But I just didn't see the appeal of it, so being a SH fan made me kind of a rebel.  I have always loved to be the opposite of everyone else.

You published a Silent Hill book titled ‘A Tale of Birds without a Voice’ which features beautifully illustrated characters and locations from Silent Hill. How did this come about?

I wanted to make something solid for my portfolio. Illustration books allow you to do whatever you want, not only content-wise but also design-wise. I learned to use Indesign at school, which is a program by which you can make layouts of books, magazines or whatever you want, with the exact results you need. So I thought it would be a really challenging project, since all of it would be a creation of mine. I chose every texture, every font, every color. Then of course, I had to choose the quotes and everything carefully. My intention was always of not spoiling anything.
Regarding the illustrations, I had done a lot of projects at Illustration school which were inspired by SH. I had done even a board game, which was inspired by a Spanish board game called Parchis, and had cards with illustrations. The illustrations were both digital and traditional. I really needed to break into the digital illustration world, so this also led me to work hard on digital illustrations for the book.
I wanted to recreate moments in the main games. Moments which struck me and as you can see there are moments which we, as players, see but others we don't. I think the implied situations are my favorite ones in any game, since they let your imagination fly and that's awesome. Silent Hill is full of these.
On top of that, I was (still am) used to working the human figure, but I needed to start working backgrounds as well. This is still a weak point of mine, I admit. So that's why there are also locations from the game, because I wanted to achieve a good skill at drawing backgrounds. I illustrated generic places or important ones, which a focus on a specific detail sometimes.
My goal with these illustrations was to try and make the person who views them a first person spectator of each scene. I hope people enjoy it.

Can we expect another Silent Hill inspired book in the future?

Maybe, who knows. I find it really challenging to put together a full, coherent project. It requires lots of work everyday and I tend to grow bored of things that take me too long to finish, so I need to find ideas that require different things (for instance, making not only illustrations but also the layout for the book). Right now I want to get involved in another big project, but I don't know what. So if anyone has suggestions, please tell me!

On top of this you have also released a dress up Heather game. What made you want to make a game? And were there any difficulties along the way?

I've always loved these games as a child, paper dress up dolls and stuff like that. Some years ago, my final project for illustration school was one of those books too. It took me 3 or 4 months. I wanted to do something like that again, but I couldn't find the reason why... until last year, when I decided I wanted to improve my pixel art skills. That made me decide to do it.
And honestly, I had no idea it'd be as big as it turned out to be. I wanted to make one or two outfits, maybe a weapon. But I ended up doing them all and it was nuts. About 90% of the time I put into the game was solely work on the graphics. And this graphic work was all possible thanks to Amy and her website, Silent Hill Alchemilla Hospital, because I made them on the textures she ripped from the games.
The difficulty came when I programmed it, because I programmed it on Flash (which I had some previous experience with, but only with animations), and it kept on bugging, giving me errors, etc. I tried following tutorials online, but they were all outdated.
So I started joining Flash communities but nobody really wanted to help. In the end, I had to go through it all on my own. Which sucked, but I got it to work in the end.
In hindsight, I would have looked for another type of layout because it looks so crowded. But I could only work with the most basic code I could find, as I found no help. Still, it was a really productive experience.

At the end of this interview Elisa sent me this adorable Robbie the Rabbit illustration as a thank you which features quite possible Robbie in his cutest form. Thank you so much Elisa! :D

Check out Elisa's work on Facebook, The hilarious Derphill on Tumblr and if you want to get your hands on some of Elisa's work yourself why not order her book from Lulu and her Merchandise (T-shirts, Mugs, art prints etc) from Society6. Want to play the Dress Up Heather Game? You can play Here or Here.

Why not check out a previous interview with the the voice of Angela Orosco and Claudia Wolf, Donna Burke  right HERE and for everything else like Paradise on Facebook.

Donna Burke is an Australian singer, voice actress and highly successful business woman. Currently living in Tokyo, Burke not only runs a successful sound production company and talent agency but also has a number of albums under her belt. Not to mention a long list of voice work that is more than highly impressive. 

She has worked on games such as Shenmue, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and Silent Hill. I wanted to find out a bit more about Burke and her time working on Silent Hill as well as future projects and more.

As Angela Orosco is my all time favorite Silent Hill character, this really was an honor to be able to speak to the voice behind her.

Check out the interview below:


You originate from Perth, Australia but currently live in Tokyo. Did you manage to find your feet well due to the cultural difference or did you settle right in? 

When I came it was just for 2 years and I didn’t think I would be here for long. After 3 years I realized I didn’t want to leave so started studying Japanese but I was never very good at it :(
I love living in Tokyo as it is a vibrant, safe and interesting contrast to my home town of Perth, Western Australia. 
 
What do you love most about Japan? 

The food, the seasons, skiing, mountains, the culture of politeness, the food!

 
You’ve managed to work with some big names so far, including voice work on Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Final Fantasy and more! What would you say was the most enjoyable to work with and why?

I really loved working on Silent Hill 2 and 3 as it was an acting job that stretched me.. I enjoyed working with a new company from Taiwan called Rayark on a song for their new game Implosion..but I have to say working with Akihiro Honda, Ludvig Forsell and without doubt Hideo Kojima and his team including Sean Eyestone (who also directed me for some voice acting on MGSV)
Akirhiro Honda was always cheerful and upbeat - I love non moody people especially at work! Hideo Kojima is also cheerful, full of good humour and yet exact in what he wants. It’s so nice to have a pleasant working atmosphere- whether it’s in a bank, mechanic shop or studio doing voice acting or singing. The people make the work more enjoyable. I could shovel shit all day if my co workers were good people.

 
Within Silent Hill you voiced Angela Orosco and Claudia Wolf. Out of the two which one appealed to you the most? 

Definitely Claudia- she was amazing!

 
As we all know Angela has had a rather tragic past, did you find it difficult at all voicing such a sad character? 

Yes, because I didn’t actually know her past when I was acting- it was all hinted at- I never had the whole story spelled out- it was all done scene by scene

 
Overall how long did it take to record both Angela and Claudia? Was the recordings set over a period of time or was it recorded all in one go?

This was pre- google calendar but the motion capture took about 5 days each and 1 day of recording the voices
I’m especially proud of my zombie voices in SH3!
 

Would you like to return to Silent Hill again in the future if the opportunity arose? If so what kind of character would you love to work with? 

Yes and honestly anything- I’ve done a young American girl, manic British psycho villain, now I’m doing a robot voice for Metal Gear Solid V.. I’m sure next up is ..a middle aged man, with small feet..er who has a stutter and is from Fiji??!! Bring it on!

 
Silent Hill aside, you have released a number of albums, do you have plans for any future releases? 

I do.. I plan to release some tracks this year followed by an album.

 
You and your husband Bill set up your very own Talent Agency called Dagmusic, How did this come about? And what has been the most rewarding thing about Dagmusic so far? 

There are many things that are rewarding about running a company- it’s very challenging even if it’s a small, boutique agency like mine. Number one is seeing my staff grow and mature. Second is being able to create products like music for games-not just provide talent. Recently Dagmusic did the voice casting and I wrote the lyrics and sang the theme song for Implosion which comes out in April. 

It’s fantastic to be part of the production of something. I’m proud that the vocals for Sins of the Father wore recorded at Capital Records in LA and also at Dagmusic!

 
And finally you’ve had a hugely impressive career which can only get better and better, out of everything so far that you have achieved what would you say you are the most proud of? 

Sins of the Father is a truly epic song. I remember in 2010 Akihiro told me after I had sung Heavens Divide at an event for Konami that Hideo Kojima wanted me to sing the next song and it would be even better.  We started doing demos in October 2012, then in May 2013 I flew to LA to record the vocals for the E3 trailer and it still is yet to be released which is very exciting knowing how much the fans and also people who don’t even know the game will love it.
I’m working on some exciting things now that the fans will LOVE but..alas, I can’t mention them yet!

__

Find out more about Implosion and Dagmusic by clicking the links. You can also keep up to date with Donna Burke via her Facebook Page.

Why not check out a previous interview with the creator of Silent Hill Requiem, Gareth Morgan right HERE and for everything else like Paradise on Facebook.

Silent Hill Cold Heart is the original idea behind Shattered Memories and was revealed by Climax Studios via their Facebook page. The reveal was through a giveaway to win an original Pitch Document for Cold Heart. Luckily I managed to get my hands on an original Pitch Document and have broken it down to show what Cold Heart is all about and why I wish this game had been made.


Cold Heart follows the story of Jessica Chambers, an athletic college student, plagued by nightmares and an emotional vulnerability that has lead her to become dependent on her psychiatrist. She is slowly being eaten up by something deep inside her and needs to escape. She decides to go out of state and visit her parents but along the way she becomes trapped in a freak snow storm and ends up tailing an ambulance to hopefully a safe location. Sadly she is very wrong and soon realize's when she arrives in Silent Hill. The world around her has been conjured up from Jessica's cold, icy heart. 

Starting on the intersection between Nathan Ave and Bryant St, Jessica heads towards Toluca lake. On route she passes through a park. Nearby she can see a group of figures around a merry-go-round. They're all motionless and frozen. As she shines the flashlight over them they begin to twitch and move, turning into monsters. 

This part of the game changes on how the player reacts to the monsters and from their psychological profile. You can either run or try and fight, these actions affect the weather and monster appearance. 


Jessica begins to run from them, using the flashlight to slow them down, along with knocking over bins for them to stumble and climb over. After the chase Jessica appears on the lake front but it's not over yet. As she runs over to the jetty more monsters begin to appear. One of them launches at her, knocking her into the lake. She appears seconds later, panicked and freezing. In the distance a showboat can be seen as the lake begins to freeze over. The boat becomes frozen and still. The ice now trapping her head above the water and a flashback begins...

A therapy session begins with Dr Fairchild and begins with questions about fears of tight spaces. The following questions are asked, the player must answer with a yes or no answer (minus the last question):

“Are you scared of tight spaces?”

“Have you ever dreamt of being buried alive?”

“Any dreams about drowning?” 

“Would you rather die by drowning or by being buried alive?”

Following this Dr Fairchild holds up flash cards, one of drowning, one of being buried alive. The player then has to “Point to which you fear the most." 
Next the player has to choose from a series of abstract images as to what best looks like a monkey, an eye and a snake. The therapy scene ends with Fairchild asking:

 “You scared of snakes?” “They’re really nothing to be scared of, they don’t attack unless provoked, you know? Well most of them at least…”

We return to Jessica in the lake, she's quickly loosing consciousness in the water. A figure approaches in the distance, monsters appear to be close by but they appear to fear/obey the stranger. As they get closer Jessica's recognizes him, she saw this man in a bar earlier. 
"I know you" she says. He replies with "I know you" and smiles. 
She shouts for help and notices he doesn't seem to show any urgency in helping her. He replies to her call for help with "Better the devil you know..." and then stamps on the ice breaking it around her. The screen turns black.

The mans behavior is driven by data gathered so far in the game. His appearance and dialogue alters dependent on the player.

We return to Jessica lying on the ice next to a hole she has just been taken out of. She is cold, her temperature dropping fast. If she doesn't get inside soon, she will die. She heads over to the frozen showboat and climbs aboard, taking a chocolate bar out of her backpack to restore energy as soon as she's inside. On the boat her temperature begins to return to normal. Using the Wii remote, the player is able to take a pipe from the wall to use as a weapon. The goal here is to reach the engine room. The player needs to use the flashlight to investigate corners and hidden details throughout the boat. On the way to the engine room you're attack by two monsters which once again you can fight or run from.

As soon as the monsters are out of the way Jessica's phone begins to ring, it's the man who helped her out of the ice. 
“If you ever get off the lake come see me at the Boathouse. I’ll be there, i'm meeting my Mother” there's silence then a baby begins to cry “Not NOW, Quiet!” he says angrily. The call ends. 

The engine room is dark and empty, lower parts of the room are frozen over, it's as if a leak has occurred. At the bottom of the ice a key with a tag is visible.  At the end of the boiler room is the boats boiler engine. A nearby note lets the player know what they need to get the boiler working. At this point the player needs to find dry, splintered wood to burn. Once lit the boiler warms the room causing the ice to melt. You grab the key which reads 'Captain Quarters'. The key appears on screen and can be turned using the Wii remote, this allows the player to fully examine it. 

Making your way to the Captains Quarters you're attacked by monsters once again. As before the player can run or fight.

When you enter the Captains Quarters a cut scene begins. Inside Jessica finds a girl weeping in the corner. She ask's what's wrong but is ignored. The girl jumps up and stabs Jessica in the chest with an icy knife that she concealed in her dress and then runs out of the room. Jessica looses consciousness and another therapy session begins. 

This therapy session begins with Dr Fairchild Showing abstract pictures once again. “A fish” Jessica says. “It looks like a fish.” “Yes it does doesn't it.” 
Dr Fairchild mentions about how last time she was talking about her father and she should continue. 

“Would you say you were closer to your father than your mother?” 

“Were you an only child” 

“But you feel you were your parents favourite child?”

The player once again has to answer yes or no.

“Ah ok, now then, please take a look at these four drawings. Pick the one that most looks like the sort of thing you used to draw as a child.” 

In this example the player points to a sketch of clouds and a girl with a  dog. “Nice choice” he chuckles. “Now let’s get creative. Here’s some pencils and an eraser.  Jessica, can you draw me your idea of the perfect home… take as long as you want.” 
The player can now sketch on screen and switch color pencils and use the eraser. 

“Fantastic, is there no end to your talents?” and the the therapy session ends.

We return back to Jessica in Silent Hill. Jessica wakes up and checks her chest, there is no sign of a wound at all. She looks out the window and notices the lake is no longer frozen and the boat is heading towards the shore.  The boat shudders as it docks and Jessica makes her way outside…

So there you have it, the full Cold Heart pitch document broken down in full. What do you think? Like the idea of Cold Heart? or are you much happier with Shattered Memories? 

Although Shattered Memories does contain a lot of the original ideas, I would have loved to have seen another female protagonist but i'm happy with how Shattered Memories turned out in the end. You can view fully scanned images of the pitch document right HERE

This years Wonder Festival 2015 finally revealed the upcoming Silent Hill 2 Bubble Head Nurse figma figure. Although it's not yet completed the images released show a pair of nurses standing together while one holds onto the famous steel pipe. 

The Figma's are taller and skinnier than I thought they would be but I really like the look of the dresses and face/head so far. I'm hoping the final design will look great overall. 

No release date or price has been revealed for these yet however I assume they would be around the same price as the forthcoming Red Pyramid Thing Figma that is also due for release in April. 

What do you think of the Bubble Head Nurse Figma? Let me know in the comments below.

Sources: Image 1 and 2, Image 3

New Hellpainter Silent Hill figures have been revealed via the official Hellpainter website. 
These will be exclusive to Winter Wonder Festival this year (2015) in Japan. Although I expect some of these to appear on Japanese auction websites.

As you can see a new Pyramid Head figure has been made along with Numb Bodies, Pendulum and a new Valtiel figure. I'm loving the look of these and would love to get my hands on any of them, especially the Valtiel figure. 

Prices range from ¥8000 ($67/£44) - ¥27,000 ($227/£148).

Check them out below. 

Would you like to get your hands on one of these? If so which one?

Credit to Silent Hill Memories for the heads up.

Starting today (February 2nd) right up until March 1st you can grab yourself a Silent Hill comic in Paradise's weekly Comic Giveaway.

Starting with Silent Hill: Among the Damned, each week ill reveal a new comic that you can win and it's so simple to enter. All you need to do is head on over to the Paradise Facebook page and give it a like then like the pinned post on the page which contains all the details about this weeks competition. Then like and share that post and that's it. 

The winner will be announced the following Monday and it's open worldwide.
On top of that I will reveal the next comic (right here) that will be given away every Sunday so you can see what's coming next, a day early. 

The winner will also be posted here too so if you miss it through Facebook you can find out if you won here too. If I manage to get my hands on additional comics before the competition is over, the competition will be extended.

Good Luck! 

Week One Comic: Silent Hill: Among the Damned
Week Two Comic: Silent Hill: Past Life issue 3
Week Three Comic - Silent Hill: Past Life issue 2
Week Four Comic - Silent Hill: Paint it Black

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.