The Reapers are one of the most fearsome enemies in the Mass Effect franchise with their iconic design and ruthless nature. One fan commissioned their artist father to paint a picture of one of the massive machines.
Mass Effect is a sci-fi video game series where players take on the role of Commander Shepard in their goal to save the Milky Way Galaxy from destruction over the course of the main trilogy. The Reapers are a race of sentient starships that cause massive, galactic extinctions every fifty-thousand years and are the main antagonists of the Mass Effect Trilogy of games.
Reddit user VanVulten shared a painting of a Reaper from Mass Effect painted by their father. In the title of the post, they explain that their father is a watercolor artist, and they commissioned the piece from him. The picture is framed and depicts one Reaper landing on a planet with dust and smoke around it. There is also some vegetation and another background piece of architecture setting the scene. There are clouds in the sky, and it looks like the sun is setting in the background. Some rocks span the foreground showing the distance between the viewer and the Reaper.
The Reaper itself is wonderfully recreated with very nice detail in watercolor form. The clouds and the setting sun are most likely hinting at the dawn of the destruction of whatever planet it's landing on. It really seems like the artist either took inspiration from images of Reapers from the game or otherwise, or knew at least a little about what the Reapers are and what they do. Either way he captured the subtle essence of Reapers and their destructive nature in one image.
Since this piece is a commission, it can still be considered fanart, just as when a fan made a mash-up with 007. VanVulten's father is extremely talented in his craft with this watercolor painting barely looking like one normally seen of its kind. Watercolor paintings might be known to be bright and colorful, but when the Reapers are involved, nothing is positive about it.
Art is a wonderful way to for someone to express themselves, but when a fan lacks the skills to have their favorite character drawn, artists can be commissioned. VanVulten, as a fan of Mass Effect, is very lucky to have this kind of artistic talent in their family to have a cool Mass Effect piece like this made just for them.