SatEve Update

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    What's up people?  I'm gonna try things a bit differently than usual now.  Before I was uploading work both here and to my dA on the same day, but now I think it might be a better fit to save blog updates until the weekend.  Particular pieces-mainly fanart-I'll probably be uploading to dA first when they're complete (I'll be aiming to do at least one a week now, whether digitally or by hand, MOTL), and tbh I do get *slightly* more traffic there vs here.  Maybe when I become more prolific, people would take care to search out me blog more often x3.

    But yes, while I will be updating finished fanart pieces to dA first now, I'll be cutting out all the WIP posts there, and I've already stopped uploading non-fanart pieces to the site as I said I would.  And given I won't be doing anything w/ CA.org until next year, that gives me plenty of time to work on getting as much content as I can to this blog and working on my Pro-Spec site (which I'll actually be doing l8r today).

    Okay, so this is a bit of a big update; let's just get to it then shall we?

    First, a new venture.  I've always been particularly interested in wanting to make my own video game, and a while ago I got a lot of inspiration for an idea I'm now working on moderately btwn pictures.  That's all I'm saying of it now, but suffice to say it'd be neat to get it into playable form.  Only problem is, I don't really have any programming experience and my artwork is only now beginning to get to a point I think could work well in main projects such as a video game.  I could just as well get a group of experienced programmers to do the hard work for me, but not only is lack of money an issue there, that's also a bit of a cop-out.  This is my project, my first project, and I'd like to devote as much of myself to it as possible.  It'll take a little while to learn how to do the technical stuff, but I know I have the capability to do it.

    Rather than using a programming language or a proprietary software like Flash, I'm going to attempt coding the game in HTML, particularly using the multimedia tags and <canvas> element.  It seems like the W3C group has paid solid enough attention to the innovations of the net since Adobe bought Flash on-board, and I've seen some very neat examples of what the technology can do in capable hands.  There's also the fact that the opportunities the new HTML5 standard can bring may-if the pieces fall into place as they should-remove the need for heavy-proprietary plug-in software like Flash which, good as it is, is also a bit expensive.  There's also plenty of other potential benefits to HTML5, but long story short, I'm gonna give it a try and using such a standard will allow me to keep most of the money spending to game assets and marketing, while still getting to the largest possible web audience (most browsers support many HTML5 standards, the exception being the newer Internet Explorers :P). 

    At the moment I'm *just* learning HTML (well, again...I spent some time a few years ago at a technical college where it was one of the course material) and it's going pretty well.  Just basic stuff, and I'm hoping by the time I get to the game-relevant stuff I have a solid base of how the technology works and can be implemented.  In fact I'm going to attempt putting together pseudo-sites as I learn and maybe even create a website out of all of this l8r down the road next year, but for now I'll just keep things modest.

    This is the first picture update I have, it being the base to the background for my Pro-Spec site.  Haven't had much time over the week to work on this actually, but that should be less an issue now.  I'm not sure just how much detail I'll explicitally draw and ink, as I won't be using the lineart in the finished piece anyway (it's a background!), but at least I know what to do w/ the scenery's mood.  It's set in late evening, about shortly after sunset.  I want it to be very neon-intense w/ a slight cyberpunk complex in there for good measure, while still keeping it grounded to what you'd expect of a modern-day metropolis.  I'll have updates as it gets attended to.

    Some more work on my Alita fanart piece; got around to doing the inking and starting some clean-up now.  Although I was considering NOT doing any inking this time, I also think my initial reasons for wanting to stop that were ill-informed.  The Bilstein picture had some really chunking work on it which I wasn't happy w, but I only have myself to blame for that.  And it's not like I don't know how to moderate my pressure (although it's a bit difficult to do so when you're outdoors and it's feeling like 40 degrees).

   So this time, I've taken more precautions, mainly to only ink in room-temperature conditions and to not be so lazy w/ 'reading' the pencil work.  This'll be one of the next pictures to get painted, altho I'll have to do this in addition to two other fan-art pieces I'll post some roughs of next week.

    Finally, the Bilstein picture.  It turned out pretty well; I learned a lot more about lighting and NOT working too much w/ the underpainting base layer this time, and definitely got a stronger handling on contrasting values.  Even managed to tone down most of the lines where appropriate.  I still wish I could've drawn him a bit more 'badass' like, but there's always next time (which will itself benefit w/ me now being familiar w/ his design much more). This picture also solidified my color palette approach and has taught me in balancing the palette.  In truth I think differently than most others in deciding what colors to put on the palette, but at least I know now that way of thinking-which I might elaborate on some day when I'm on my deathbed xD-has been paying off. 

    I'll also take this time to make a vow to begin doing more traditional painting again.  Even tho oils would be preferable, I still like the acrylics and doing some traditional work should help balance out the monotony that eventually sets in when doing so many pieces digitally in a row.  That's really all I care to say of that right now; as usual, letting the actual work do most of the talking when it's ready to present itself.

    Oh and, if you can, check out the South Park episodes 200 and 201 again.  I don't think CC is ever going to re-air them, but I have a couple of links to them here- http://akirathedon.com/blobblog/watch-south-park-14x05-200-stream/ -, and here- http://www.watchsouthparkonline.net/season-14/episode-6-201/ -.  Very much worth watching, probably the most fun I've had w/ the series since their 13th season reached the halfway point. 

    'Kay; that's all for now.  Be back soon, so try and have fun even when the frost is locking up your joints (particularly for those of us on the East Coast, it's always like that this time of year) and turning you into an ice statue Sub-Zero would be proud to demolish.  L8r!

Bilstein Update

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  What's up?  Today's going to be a mess around here, it's raining and-tho I've yet to check the weather forecast-I get the feeling it'll be this way on through 'till bedtime.  I like my outdoors time :(.

   Not a big update like I wanted today; I've been working on a group of new illustrations but want to hold out until Saturday to post them (that would include the background image for Pro-Spec), so in the meantime I have a considerable update for Bilstein.

   The flats have pretty much been put in and the first wave of underpainting's done for the big man and his chair.  When I say it was a tall order given all the little details, I really mean that.  But I know I'm getting much faster at this 'easy bulk work' now as well, and that's a good thing b/c it means the difficult stuff can be given more attention, particularly the effects and finishing touch.

  As of now, I'm moving the picture in a different mood than I originally considered.  It was going to be a sort of 'golden renaissance' piece w/ a dominant hue range of cool yellow and red earths and a warm cadmium-like yellow.  Basically, something warmer and 'royal'-like I'd suppose.  Well, had I been serious w/ that, I'd of actually picked some Terra Rossa or Golden Ochre on my palette, but instead I picked some dark greenish-blue, earth greens, cool earth reds and warm earth yellow (I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out the colors).  That's what has led to this very grim-ish, almost cyberpunk-worthy color palette, and I like that.  Always wanted to do something a little darker and forboding, and since this guy is technically a villian (and the series invested in high-tech awesomeness), it fits him like a glove.  Plus I learned some neat stuff about the colors on my palette so far, and expect to learn even more as I finish this up.

  Since I only have 'till the 30th to complete this, the next update will be the finished piece.  After that, I have another project entry to get to work on while I also begin tackling the background for the Pro-Spec site.  Just b/c the holidays are around the corner doesn't mean there's time for a guy like me to rest down and hit Santa Claus on the cell.  Indeed, he'd probably be using Rudolph emoticons in his texts...that idea's always bothered me for some reason...

   Okay that's it for now; see you when I come around the weekend.  L8r.

Bilstein Lineart

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  Good Wednesday people; I'm not up to posting a lengthy blog today, but as per usual I come in w/ a midweek update.  This time, it's the finished inks for my Bilstein boss tribute entry.  These should've been finished earlier, but I ran into the issue of working on multiple pieces.  Some of those are on hold @ the moment as I continue painting this one (I'll probably post some painting progress next week if it isn't already done by then or close to being done by that time).

 

  I'm still experimenting w/ line weighing to achieve the best results, and it doesn't help that-on the paper I use-my smallest pen (at least the Prismacolor one; haven't given the Fabel-Castell one any use yet as there's no need) still goes a little heavy-handed on some areas, tho I could use some further refinement in adjusting pressure of the hand on the surface.  Indeed, I didn't really 'get' into the groove for the inking until around halfway through, and seeing as how I have to ink the image twice (once to cover details, then again to close gaps after erasing), I could've gone much easier on the 1st round.  Notice for next time.

  Also went ahead and changed his left arm quite a deal from what I had going for a while.  The old position (not sure if that's in the WIP I posted earlier; doubt it) just wasn't convincing.  Inking this image was somewhat a nightmare, and like I've said before the sheer amount of detail and non-organic features on Bilstein was a big factor.  I definitely will be trying more inorganic, geometric objects to draw in the future (might as well go look for that ruler while at it) so characters and instances like Bilstein aren't as much of a problem.

   Even so, I'm fairly satisfied w/ how the lines have turned out.  Due to the way I paint, a lot of these lines will either end up getting chopped or trimmed down a lot, something I thought of doing w/ Mai but only sparingly did so.  In fact, as I attest to in the opening, painting's already started.  Hoping to have the flats done today (no biggie), and working on the underpainting w/ what time can be afforded.  In any event it should not take long to finish this one, even tho the amount of detail is heavy, simply b/c the overall color palette is going to be smaller (if that actually qualifies for noting if anything's gonna be easier x3).

   Next week I'll come back w/ an update on this, my Alita pic and the background image I'm using for the Pro-Spec blog (yes, I finally got around to the damn thing xD), all at various points of completion.  Meanwhile I'll be drawing, living and tying up loose ends.  Take care; l8r.

 

Chun=Done, and stuff

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  What's up everyone; I was going to hold off on any posts until tomorrow, but seeing that I'll be busy tomorrow not just drawing and painting, but studying and doing some chores an' whatnot, it seems like Wednesday would be a day too far behind.  In addition I just want to clear the air on what's already done, so the slate is clean to move on to new stuff.

   First off, tho, I'll just re-state my current goals.  I already got my accounts for ConceptArt.org and Game-Art-HQ set up; @tm I'm doing various sketches and drawings to post to a sketchbook on the former, and if I can submit art directly to the latter that cuts out dA for the middleman.  I did mention dA would just be a dumping place for my fanart now, but maybe it could just serve as a central hub for selected work.  No sketches or WIPs (I got this here blog and CA.org for stuff like that), just certain finished pieces that "fit in" around there.  I doubt I'll ever be a mainstay on that site but if there's an audience, any audience, for at least some of what I do, I would like to make it somewhat easier for them to see what's up.  Any case, I should start posting on CA.org by the end of the week, and if GAHQ has direct submissions I can start sending more stuff around there directly that's fanart-related.  I'm also still looking for some serious job boards to scour around if in case I meet any criteria for a gig ('cuz damnit I need some good work!)...craigslist doesn't count (really).

   Okay 'nuf of that shit; it took a little longer than expected but the Chun-Li picture's finished.  Here she is:

  I combed back to some stuff I had done w/ all my works prior in Corel to push this one out, and I'm happy w/ how it turned out.  From here I hope to develop more complex and scenic pieces emphasizing greater depths of composition and emotion, but for this one in particular I just wanted to capture her as if outdoors in natural sunlight, a bit different from the original idea but good all the same.  The Mai picture should take only a couple of days to finish now since I've gone through the hurdles of figuring stuff out w/ Chun-Li (they're supposed to be similar in execution style), but alas, I have a few other pics to attend to.  Like that avatar monster-thingamajig (<-lol it's a real word!)...knock that out, maybe color in a few sketches, and then get to Mai.  But I also need to (finally) start on Bilstien...don't wanna half-ass him like I did that Vice entry a few weeks ago.

   Right, so that'll conclude it for today.  When I get that avatar pic up (maybe a day or so from now), I'll post it here and update my avatar on all my networks as needed, but in the meantime this'll do.  There are a lot of things being worked on right now, and I'm just attempting to figure out the best time to attend to them, and completing them as soon as possible.  But still, I'm most trying to up myself to handle a good showing on CA.org and (very soon) put out some portfolio-worthy work to attract clientelle, local, national, global w/e; just as long as they have solid ideas, open minds and some cash to pay for services.  Wish me luck everyone, and I'll return shortly.  Until then, I'm out.  L8r.

ChunLi and Mai

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  Afternoon all; thought I'd stop by quick to put up some progress for a couple of new pictures.  I already mentioned one of these before, but she's being accompanied by her eternal rival.  Meanwhile the Blue Mary picture will be resumed as hastily as possible, but it is a complicated beast, hence why I'll do these ones in the meantime.

   Just some lines for structure as I get ready to paint them today.  I'm definitely using my acrylics for these ones..the big question now is how far.  If I fancy it I might complete them fully by hand, which would be nice, and I think I can do that now.  But I've gotten some neat stuff out of Corel...oh if only my mouse weren't such shit xD!

   I'll be steady w/ these two, have them done in a few days.  Meanwhile I'm going to need to eat some lunch, so catch 'ya all on the flipside :)!

SatMorn Update

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   I'm back, peoples, and it's kinda been a long time.  I skipped posting up any art last week b/c I felt I hadn't made enough progress (and the fact I've abandoned the Suzuka and cloud pictures, MOTL), and throughout the time since then I have just been focusing intently on finding my strengths w/ Corel and the real direction I want to take my stuff in.  Welp, I'm back now; I feel like I've gotten a fair deal of tough shit done, some ample progress, and I'll also show off one of the newer pieces I'm now just starting on.  So let's jump in there, eh?..

   Like I just said earlier, Suzuka and that cloud painting have been put on hiatus, indefinitely.  I've learned a great deal from the effort put in both, but finishing them won't allow me to do that much in terms of reflecting what I can do *now*.  And, that's what it's really about; I need to do pieces that reflect relatively well where I'm at right now.  I drew those Outlaw Star pics weeks ago (my drawing skills have improved dramatically sense then, if I do say so myself ;) and the clouds one was just started on a whim to get used to painting them (which I am now,...well, at least cumulonimbus clouds are x3).  It's probably true that you can turn anything to a high level of polish regardless of its starting state, but everything can only be improved by such a measure, if the underlying foundation can accommodate.  That's why I've moved from those pieces for now; I have a pursuit to push myself to the levels of the artists I admire such as Joe Vriens...

Genzoman...

and Artgerm....

  ....and it might seem a little impossible to try and cram so much effort in so little time but I'm just that hungry to improve, I'd say.  Of course, I can't neglect what progress I make at any time or depreciate that feeling of satisfaction over any piece, so even w/ these works I have discontinued, I feel eternally grateful for what they've helped me learn, as all of that carries over into the newer works (the ones here, I WILL be finishing btw!).

 

Newer version; grainy, rough, but the foundation's there...

   This is the new 'Blue Mary' piece I may or may not have mentioned a while ago.  I think this drawing's about maybe 2-3 weeks old by now (if not older), but it's still newer than Poison.  I've always been a sort of semi-closet fan of SNK's characters; the original FF3 movie got me hooked into ther aesthetics and universe, and while I may tend to favor Capcom fighters from a pure playability POV, in comparison to the older SF games I think many of the later FF and some of the KOF games more than hold their own.  One thing that's always impressed me w/ them is their sense of detail and atmosphere in their backgrounds; by comparison I don't think it was until Darkstalkers where I began really caring for backgrounds of Capcom's fighters, but SNK had that on-lock from the original FF.  A small cavet sure, but still...

 

A much older drawing done back February of the same char

   Anyway, I actually decided to do Blue Mary b/c I had drawn her a few months ago and inked her out, but never finished.  I was going to color her digitally and all, but I just kinda moved on.  Looking back, I can appreciate what I was able to do w/ that one then, but I knew I could do a much better job now and henceforth I'm carrying onward w/ the new rendition.  I'm really trying to push for 'full-inclusive' sorts of shots now; work in some focus, some drama, some strong sense of perspective, proportion, foreshortening and composition.  It amazes me sometimes how some really technically awesome artists, when you really think about it, stay in some very basic rooms on some of that mentioned stuff.  That's the sort of box trap I'm hoping to avoid.  Certainly I can see why some may be that way, b/c personal struggle @ this moment indicates that just getting one or two of that sort of stuff down is very challenging, and w/ different subject matter only that much more so.  But yeah..back to the picture (lolz)..at the very least I hope it seems like Mary is "reaching out" to the viewer.

    Although painting has started on this one, it's so crude @ the moment I'd rather not upload it just yet.  Next week tho, I can definitely put up the painting (for all I know it might be finished by then too...just shot myself in the foot, didn't I?)

 

I would've put the coloring for the jeans and shirt up, but the shirt is terrible atm and why put up the jeans w/o the shirt x3?

P.S: Also, still no lines; haven't inked them yet :S

   Now w/ Poison, I've finally gotten most of the base work done; the areas to tackle from here are the textures and lighting.  Oh, and I still need to do the linework as well (the paper will be getting got TODAY, thankfully).  It's been a tall order, and in-between the week I've had to really reorganize some files to make them easier to access and compressing active memory consumption, but all the effort's been worth it.

 The original reference photo...

  Somehow, I seem to be pushing for a more realistic look, not necessarily hyperrealism but not quite as simple as some of the more 'basic' anime shading either (which would actually be harder w/ my mouse setup, plus the fact I don't tend to use colors directly, aka I'm a Glazeman).  Somewhat unexpected but maybe just natural coincidence.  Yesterday alone I spent a good deal of time trying to paint some convincing lipstick/lipgloss  and some skin texturing...the issue of constraint and finding a balance btwn too little and too much realism is really daunting, but one step at a time, I would suppose.

     Btw, a closer look at the lips: busted my ass trying to somewhat replicate the ref but not ripping it.  Some more tune-up work and could have something to go w/ for real ;)

 

..and my result, many layers and strokes l8r...

   
   I'll leave it @ that for today's update.  I do have an inkling to catch up on some games and films I haven't had the chance to do so w/ over the week, but at the same time...I REALLY don't wanna stop drawing and painting x3.  Will definitely continue to try painting more of both pics throughout the day and just noting what works for me and what doesn't.  At the very least, it feels good to have a head filled w/ some useful jargon again.  Hope you all enjoyed the stuff, pleae look forward to next time.  L8r and have an awesome weekend!

Poison Proof

  Cool everyone, nothing too special or big here.  I'm actually ready to eat dinner before I resume work on the actual painting in an hour or so, but this past Saturday inbetween Zelda, Mario and some other games I had an urge to play around in Corel and test out some painting for the Poison picture. 

  I also went ahead and created most of the palette that day too.  I've been most curious in how to get more realistic coloring, and taking what I've learned from classical approaches and some curious tinkering of my own, I think I've gotten somewhere to a sweet spot so far.  This here is really just a test of the color depth; the shading's all messed up and it's very obvious some stuff wasn't even proofed any further (like her short skirt and hair), but as I said this is the low-res version and I have to begin painting the real version later tonight, just making sure I have time to finish up the lines of my Garuda picture ;)

  Okay that's all for now; be back Wednesday.  I'd like to give an extended thanks to my followers; truly I didn't even think anything interesting enough was going on here to warrant you guy's interest.  Special big up to Enrique; your stuff is truly awesome man, keep up the gr8 work.  Alrighty then...I'm gonna stuff my face.  See you all l8r. 

SatMorn Update

    

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     It's Saturday again, and you know what *that* means!  Finally somewhat of a break xD.  But before I go and do any recreational activities (and it feels really good outside at the moment; perfect breeze, sun's up, just enough clouds in the sky...watching my step before this becomes some poem) or wind down on some gaming goodness needing to be goodified, I'm here to post up some more progress on a couple of artwork pieces.

     Before that, though, I do feel the need to mention that I cancelled the Valkyrie comission w/ the client between Thursday night and Friday morning.  Thankfully they did not take it too hard and I even said that if and when I feel up to that again, they can reinstate the request and I'll likely do it.

   However it has donned on me the past couple of weeks that this was NOT the proper time to start comissions.  I had been working w/ this client for a while actually, when in truth I maybe shouldn't have.  I say "maybe" b/c doing those pictures for them helped expand my skill reach, and likely helped give the motivation to begin my own push for self-improvement again.  On the other hand, I probably kept changing styles and direction w/ each piece, which isn't so much a sign of being daring as it was a sign of being very unsure on even basic fundamentals like anatomy, perspective and the properties of the tools I was using.

     So yeah,..that was then xD.  I've been focusing very hard on improving in all the fundamentals and pushing myself to try harder each time, and it feels as though I might finally be producing some results that are living up to what I want to do.  As I say, art is a continuously evolving process of improvement and experimentation; I can never be sure if I've settled into a "groove", and when that does happen I have to be careful not to get too comfortable or else the boredom and complacentness begins to settle in.

     For now I'm feeling just the right balance is there, and would like to keep it that way.  As for the "commission" stuff, well it's like I told that client; maybe sometime in September.  There would still need to be a lot done in terms of setting prices, some payment model etc, but at this point I'm really more concerned w/ producing good enough work to get some publishing, maybe w/ a few magazines, books or comics.  Commissions can be set to the side in the meantime.

   Alright, so enough of the boring stuff eh?  Let's get to it...

    I said I'd be giving Poison a shot and am living up to that tease.  First off I have to say 'damnit' to Ono and Harashi-san for forcing Ikeno to make a Poison so sexy.  Or maybe I should say slutty..those are some *really* short shorts after all.  Secondly I have to say 'hell yes thank 'ya!' to Ono and Harashi-san for forcing Ikeno to make a Poison so sexy.  Or maybe I should say slutty...those are some--ah, well, you get the idea x3.

    She's an enigmatic character despite being so flamboyant, but you could say I was only going for some sexiness here and not much more.  I definitely wanted to show off her glutes in this, since that's what recently attracted me to the character.  Hmm...'exxaggerate' her glutes his maybe more like it.  For anyone worrying that her holiest of holies is getting a squeeze too tight into cameltoe territory, keep in mind it's kinda more like a skirt those jeans are now.  Or atleast are supposed to be..they might need to look more skirt-like.

    I've been trying to find a balance between my influences for a while now, and this Poison pic is sort of an evolution in that regard.  Talking about a "style" isn't really relevant; it's just a reflection of what I've been learning for a long time now and am managing to put into practice.  What others make of it is on their hands.  I just want her to look hot xD.  Painting hasn't started on her yet; I haven't even settled on a palette or color scheme/mood, but tomorrow looks alright to get that done.  And from there hopefully it won't be much time to finish.

      If it's not a problem, can we divert for a second?  Up above is a sort of "test" I've been doing to see how certain elements would mesh together in terms of the art.  The drawing itself is of a character named Anubis from the really old anime series Ronin Warriors; he was my favorite character in the show :).  Anyway, I've been trying to get a better grasp of color, shading, and lighting and just sorta used this old picture as a test to see how my manipulation w/ certain painting and brush techniques would work out in combination w/ line art.  The palette I drew the main colors from is about the same as the one I'm using for Suzuka, minus the skin, which I made a more unsaturated, deeper color.  So far I'm really just doing this to see if my understanding on color saturation and temperature is on-point, although I wouldn't call the coloring on his face near finished :S. 

     Specifically, since I want a more realistic style in general, I have to adapt to more realistic rules of lighting.  I come from a traditional background and that will always shape my view on color, which is a very good thing.  A while ago I read up on some stuff speaking of how the temperature of a light source can affect the shadow of objects contained in its range.  I think the general rule is, in real life, the way colors and light works in that regard is that brighter, saturated colors (on the rainbow scale) absorb more light while darker, 'purer' (unsaturated, is what I'm trying to say) colors reflect more light.

     This is immensely interesting, as we also know that brighter colors reflect heat while darker colors absorb heat, so there's maybe a proportional relationship between a color, it's saturation level, and the amount of light it absorbs being counter to the amount of heat it absorbs.  If I can keep this in mind while painting, I maybe can finally break past some of the color and lighting barriers I feel have been keeping me on lock for some time..though I still need take many other things into consideration.  Honestly, a topic like this is too in-detail to talk about in a post like this, but I just needed to get that out there, it's been on my mind like forever and will be there for all the same.

"Nevermind the orange streak there...working on it..."

    Okay, so w/ that in mind maybe this Suzuka picture can be seen in a different way..or not x3.  So far the painting is still in the other stages, as is the blending.  The blending is actually very tricky; I want the colors to still stay clear and somewhat present, but too much blending will start making things murky.  Maybe this piece has an Impressionists tone going for it right now?  Truly I wouldn't know; I've only been trying to work w/ color and blending in a way that feels good and by some chance it is going in this direction x3.  I don't even know much about Impressionist art, so maybe that's worth reading into in the near future as well.

   Regardless I think I'm starting to get a solid grasp on how to shape the rest of this picture, so now it just comes down to how soon it can be done.  Being the way things are, I'm in no rush to speed through this piece unless I'm being very careful along the way (I've barely been touching the Undo button except when the mouse gets super-screwy when I lay a stroke, and most of the actual painting is being done on one layer...yeah, that's more traditionalist habits carrying over).

    That appears to be all I got for this week; well, there are other pictures around but I don't feel ready to show anything about 'em just yet ;).  Their time will come, surely.  Meanwhile I just want everyone to enjoy their weekend so they're refreshed for next week.  Do what 'ya gotta do, basically.  I'm off to have some fun (well, wash clothes and cook lunch, then fun) for now, and next week I'll part some words on that crappy movie I saw (sad really; the prequel was pretty awesome).  L8r out everyone.

Midweek Post: What I Play

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   Good Wednesday to you all; the past few days I've been toiling away on Suzuka, restarting Valkyrie, and polising up Poison (still haven't started painting her yet, sadly :S; maybe today'll change that) and beginning work on another girl (on the one hand, having this many ladies around is quite pleasing...on the other hand I don't think I've drawn a dude in who-know-how-long).  But I'm actually not here to post up anything on that stuff; it can wait until the weekend.  Instead I'm going to start mid-week updates that have nothing to do w/ that stuff.  I can take this time to talk about stuff that interests me in general, or just what I've been up to.

    I'd like to consider myself a big gamer.  True, I don't play as much as I used to (the time simply isn't there, and it'll only get worst in that respect from here) but when I do, I like to absorb myself into their world and turn each play into a little adventure.  I enjoy seeing how the game works, and somehow bending its reality to my twisted sense of humor.  Also, I do thoroughly enjoy messing up a lot, but that's something else entirely. 

    The past few weeks I've been making a transformation from being a guy who plays mostly fighting games to being a guy who plays mostly Zelda.  I was never a big Zelda fan before, but that had more to do w/ not getting an opportunity to play them.  As A Link to the Past has shown me, it's probably Nintendo's best-regarded series for a reason.  It's simply pure fun and a smooth-going (in terms of the absorption factor) affair from start to end.

   So far I've managed to grab all three pendants, the Master Sword and that Triforce-looking symbol thingamajig (as I mentioned in the last blog post), so sometime this weekend I would suppose it's back to the Castle to once again save Zelda...yep, she's been kidnapped again.  You would think the King would have the witch create some anti-kidnapping amulet or atleast give his daughter a dagger and weekend swordsman practice; if Link can attack w/ the equivalent of a broken toothpick (sorry, still can't get over that, coming off the Mongolor boss) and survive pretty well, Zelda should do about as decent w/ a sharp daggar.

    But continuing w/ this old-school feast of playing games I missed out on when they came out (b/c, understandably, I was too young to play them then), I also decided to start up Super Mario World.  I actually tried playing through the other older Mario games earlier (or at least tried getting a feel for them), and the general concesus was:  Mario 1- jump=bad; Mario 2 (US version)-me=dumb, Mario 2 (Japan version)-game=HARD (tho I might can do it now), Mario 3-sun=bastard (tho I owe Arino of Game Center CX a thanks for showing a, honestly obvious, method to dealing w/ him.).  In other words, Mario was serving me some nasty pasta :S.

    But, who would think it would've taken World to finally get me on his good side!  Everything feels just right here; I have no issue w/ his jumps and the stages ramp up nicely in difficulty.  Right now I'm around 3-3 (having just gotten past that Boo house; those green floating balls kept giving me some headaches, not to mention times in 3-1 and 3-2 where I died needlessly, forcing my own restarts), so this weekend I'm aiming to get atleast through the end of World 4 completed.  If it's like the other Mario games, that'll be half the quest complete, which is about good enough for me given the time frame.

     Then there is, of course, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.  There's no reason for me to lampoon on it's story, history or mind-exaberating challenge; this is all historically and scientifically documented.  Yet being the fiend I am, I come to relish that challenge.  Spending a good deal of time w/ the American version and some w/ the Japanese original, it's pretty obvious Capcom skimped on the challenge in the former, though that's only relatively speaking.  I was almost ballsy enough to just play the Japanese version through..I got up to start of Stage 2 before things really discouraged me, but for now I'm content to try and get through the American version first.

   Still, there's a vast deal of differences (little differences to some, but they do add up) btwn the two I'd love to outline the future once I get through both versions, though there's no solid time I'm aiming for doing that.  Maybe this weekend I can have the stride to beat the Level 2 boss and carry onward to Level 3, as Level 1's pretty much a joke by this point (gasp, how could I even think of saying such a thing on a such a...lol nah it really is now, I swear) but the watercraft part of level 2 is still causing some headache.  Most brutal of all is the set of...arrows I believe?...it gives you in the middle of that ocean.  As any respectable GnG player will tell you, the holy trinity of weapons in those games are (in order of power) Daggars, Chakrams, and Lances.  Play w/ any others and you are asking for an early(ier) demise.

   Given all this, right now of all the games I'm playing through the one that impresses me most is actually a Sega CD gem...on a system that had a lot of pretty bad games, a few good games, a handful of greats and a couple of gems, can you guess what game it is?  I'll give you a hint:  it doesn't involve hedgehogs.  I'll give you another hint:  it's company is currently in danger of being accused of pimping out Metal Gear Solid.  Yes, I'm speaking of none other than Snatcher, and I'm happy to finally get into this one.  "Happy" is a bit of an understatement; "estatic" is more the word.  I'm already a HUGE sucker for dark sci-fi and cyberpunk everything (well, it has to be GOOD too, but you get the picture x3), and Snatcher covers both highly well. 

    However, it's not just that; huge doses of Blade Runner notwithstanding, I can tell Kojima poured his heart into this game's story and universe.  It's crammed w/ extremely meticulous and thought-out backstories and mythos, interesting concepts and well-written characters that are very human.  It also has some of the best animation, visuals and voice-acting I've seen of any 16-bit game; even the action segments (this being a graphic adventure game..or a visual novel-meets-graphic adventure game...action comes off as very smooth which isn't typical of these sorts) are well done.

    The level of story to this game, honestly, puts most modern-day efforts to absolute shame; they try to be cinematic in ways that are overly artificial (or end up feeling that way, since the substance for that 'cinematic feel' is not there), forgetting to create a WORLD for their characters to inhabit, even the parts that the player may never visit.  Something should be there, something should let the player know of these interesting tales and oddity facts.  Kojima's one of the few designers out there that I think still cares and has the drive to do that sort of stuff...I just wish he'd do it w/ properties other than MGS.  I...smell a Snatcher/Policenauts sequel petition in the works here x3...

"And since I am calling it here..."

        That's all I have to say for this afternoon; just some general thoughts on four games I've been circling through.  Moreso than just playing them, I'm more interested in the little oddities of these games and seeing how they work and why they work, so some time soon inbetween all the artwork I'd love to do some deep analysis on each one and other games I happen to really enjoy.  All I can say is, it'll be interesting to see what happens w/ this, and it is a nice break from the artwork, as I mentioned above.  So while I'll be back this weekend w/ some new progress on current pictures, at least next week I'll maybe try this again, just a general blog post...there's a bad movie I want to wash out of my head at the moment, maybe I'll talk about that xD.

         Anyway that's all for now; thanks for reading.  Take care and see 'ya l8r.

Dead Samurai...An Early Beginning

  Been a few days since I posted anything up so far..I'd upload the current progress on my Mai painting but actually figured to take a break from that and switch to something else.  This is a quick post of my very early-in-the-rough WIPs for a Ronin Warriors and Resident Evil character, combined here for convenience.  I'm gonna get cracking on them (and another pic) tonight in just a few...no stream tho sorry (lolz, who would watch anyway?).

  I would try to finish these up but I have another painting to get started on first for a 1Up friend of mine, and a simple drawing/painting for my eldest sis's science class project (which was fun in it's own right to try, since it gave me a damn good excuse to use my Prismacolors once again).  And then there's the Mai picture, which will likely end up coming out btwn a few of the others, if time is on my side (it never is tho).

  In other news...welp E3's come and overall it was sorta a mute show.  Not that many big announcements.  I didn't bother to watch either Microsoft or Sony's shows, mainly b/c I wasn't captivated to do so.  Microsoft stuck mainly to Kinect and badly timed gaem reveals, while Sony actually did announce some cool stuff like Sly 4 and Vita, but it was pretty much Nintendo's for the taking.  Actually watched their press conference, and it was quite nice; always good to see Shiggy on the stage (but whatever happened to that woman who used to speak...u know, that very Sarah Palin-looking woman?).  Mario for 3DS looks good though a bit different than other Mario games (mainly to do w/ the camera, which reminds me so much of Saturn's Bug! games it's not even funny), but Wii 2...ouh I mean Wii "U"...nice. 

  Nice controller (they hit a home run w/ the golf game example in the reel) and acts almost like a handheld console of its own.  I don't like the Apple-like design philosophy they're continuing w/-and the console looks nothing like the SNES-inspired thing they mentioned earlier-but it seems like they've put a lot of thought into the controller and it could open some hard-locked doors in the Creativity Room. 

  So, uhm, that's it for now.  Dinner time and drawing time, basically, so I'll see u all sometime l8r.  Byez.