Fallout New Vegas Reimagined As Romantic Painting
Fallout New Vegas is already a beloved classic among RPG and PC gaming fans, but artist Deimos has managed to make the Mojave feel completely new again. Instead of screenshots or basic fan sketches, Deimos paints New Vegas like it belongs in a museum, using a style that feels closer to romantic era fine art than typical game art.
His work has caught the attention of some major names. Fallout New Vegas director Josh Sawyer has highlighted his pieces, and actor Danny Trejo, who voiced the ghoul vaquero Raul Alfonso Tejada, has shared Deimos’ art multiple times and clearly loves the way his character is portrayed. For fans, it is like seeing their favorite game turned into a series of grand paintings that match the way the game lives in their imagination.
One standout piece is called 2281 Overture. It shows an NCR aligned ending at the Battle of Hoover Dam, with every companion gathered around the Courier in a moment of heroic charge. In the actual game, especially without mods, you can never quite achieve this exact scene. In Deimos’ work, though, it looks like a battlefield painting in the spirit of Liberty Leading the People, with the Courier at the center and the companions forming a ring of color, motion and personality.
That is the running theme with Deimos’ entire New Vegas collection. His art looks like snapshots from a dream version of the game: the way you remember it or wished it could look with an impossible level of fidelity and drama, beyond what the aging engine can render even with heavy modding.
Turning Brutal Quests Into Cinematic Moments
Many of Deimos’ most popular pieces focus on moments that PC players remember all too well. You Feel a Little Woozy shows the Courier leaning heavily on the Dinner Bell shotgun, surrounded by the bodies of Cazadores, those infamously hated poison wasps that terrorize so many New Vegas runs. In the background, the Nightkin companion Lily proudly holds up an antidote, like the reward you finally earned after suffering through a brutal encounter.
Another piece, Quarry Junction, zooms in on a Deathclaw run that will be familiar to any player who has tried to steal eggs for the Bleed Me Dry quest. Deimos paints a panicked Courier hiding behind a rusted car, clutching Deathclaw eggs while fumbling with an explosive. Deathclaws stalk in the background, and the entire scene captures that heart pounding mix of fear, greed and chaos that New Vegas players know well.
These are not generic wasteland scenes. They are specific, shared memories from the game given dramatic weight. Deimos takes gameplay moments that most RPG fans experienced through janky animations and rough edges, then rebuilds them as intense, cinematic stills. It feels like seeing a remaster that only exists in paint.
For Deimos, that connection is core to why he keeps returning to New Vegas. He describes it as the first RPG where he truly roleplayed, imagining extra details and emotions in his head while he played. Those mental images evolved into the paintings he creates now. Even years after release, New Vegas still rewards repeat playthroughs with new outcomes, and that sense of depth continues to fuel his art.
The Courier, Mods, And The Community Behind The Mask
One of the most interesting parts of Deimos’ style is how he paints the protagonist, Courier Six. In the game, the Courier is intentionally a blank slate for players. Deimos respects that, but still gives the character a strong visual identity. In many pieces he depicts the Courier in Ranger armor, but with one eyepiece of the mask broken out. That small detail lets the viewer see a hint of expression while keeping the character anonymous enough that any player can project their own version of the Courier onto the figure.
He often paints two favorite outfits. One is the Elite Riot Gear from the Lonesome Road DLC, a fan favorite armor set with a distinctive silhouette. The other is inspired directly by the New Vegas modding scene. Deimos references a community made Courier armor mod that mixes Ranger gear with a shorter utility jacket and other custom details. He even uses the Desert Ranger combat armor helmet from the Honest Hearts DLC to give it a unique profile.
Deimos explains that he never wanted his Courier to look completely canonical. Every player has their own version of the character, and he wanted his design to feel like something born out of the community rather than just copied from official art. By folding modded designs and even cosplay inspired elements into his work, he turns his Courier into a kind of tribute to the broader New Vegas scene: modders, cosplayers and long time fans all get a piece of themselves in the finished paintings.
This approach underlines a key part of New Vegas culture on PC. The game is more than just what shipped in 2010. It lives on through mods, community fixes, new gear and fan interpretations. Deimos’ Courier armor is essentially a painted version of the modded New Vegas experience, where the line between official content and community creativity is blurred in the best way.
Real Art In An AI Heavy Era
In a time when AI generated images are everywhere, Deimos is very clear about his stance. His profiles carry prominent No AI messages, and he often posts sketch versus finished piece videos that show the full human process behind each painting. He has noticed that even when strangers suspect AI, his followers quickly step in to correct them, defending the fact that each piece is hand made.
Deimos is not shy about calling AI art disgustingly prevalent, but he is also hopeful. He believes there will always be a strong audience that genuinely values human made work, especially for something as personal as art rooted in a beloved game. For him, that audience is the one worth focusing on, rather than people who treat AI images as disposable content or, worse, claim them as their own effort.
The result is a body of Fallout New Vegas art that sits at the intersection of classic painting, modern PC gaming culture, and a fiercely human creative process. Whether you first played New Vegas on an old rig back in 2010 or just installed a mod pack to get it running smoothly on a 2025 gaming PC, Deimos’ paintings tap into the exact way many players remember the Mojave: dangerous, heartfelt and larger than life.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/my-favorite-fallout-fan-artist-paints-new-vegas-how-you-imagine-it-and-he-refuses-to-touch-ai-tools-i-believe-its-innate-in-humanity-to-appreciate-real-human-made-art/
