#first actual thing i drew in 2024... figures

[orinthered]

my secret dos2 crackship

#dallis #malady #dos2 #divinity original sin 2 #first actual thing i drew in 2024... figures

[stardestroyer81]

My first post of 2024 may have been cited to be the first look at Star Tower, my arcade-centric Pizza Tower AU, though consider this post to be your first real look at both the AU! This is a post I've been wanting to make for quite some time, and I am simply overjoyed to finally reveal the first set of characters for Star Tower!!! ⭐👾✨

This is a long post packed to the brim with art— some of which aren't featured in the above image— so if you're interested, I highly suggest you read on underneath the cut! 💙✨

As an AU, Star Tower dates back to March 3rd of 2023, which is when I first drew the logo for it. A sprite of myself drawn in the Pizza Tower artstyle predates Star Tower as an AU by about a month, so I think it goes without question that the stand-in for Peppino is Star Tower is a representation of myself!

It's just another day for Star Splitscreen at the local arcade, when all of a sudden, the multicade cabinet bugs out and sucks her inside! It's within the cabinet's confines where she meets the omnipotent Sinistar, who claims it'll set her free if she can best its '20-in-1 Supercade Challenge'.

What follows is an arduous adventure that sees Star venturing through arcade games familiar and obscure, and learning Sinistar's secret identity as well as escaping back into the real world all depends on her success... it's a good thing a seasoned arcade expert like her has what it takes!

I knew going into designing for Star Tower that I wanted each floor boss (I.E. Pepperman, The Noise, etc.) to be represented with an actual character from an established arcade game (With one exception...) and trust me when I say that I spent a fair amount of time carefully going through every arcade game I knew of and selecting a character appropriate for each boss's role.

Ultimately, I'm quite proud of the selection of characters I settled with, so let's jump right in and discuss Pepperman's stand-in...

Goro from 1983's Mappy! I find that, in terms of appearance, Goro was a perfect fit to replace Pepperman. Both are predominantly large red characters who are often depicted with wide, toothy grins— it was the perfect match!

Unlike both his canon personality and his personality in the animated ShiftyLook series, Goro in Star Tower is a lot more nefarious and self-centered, and sends out the Meowkies to do his dirty work when his own efforts don't cut it. I wanted to include sprites of the three Meowkies for this post originally, but I decided to save them for a future post (That's tech talk for 'I'm still trying to figure out how to stylize them').

I think of the four main bosses, Goro was the hardest to sprite in the Pizza Tower artstyle solely for the way his head is drawn. There's something about his face that was extremely difficult to draw at such a small scale, but after drawing pretty much every other sprite featured in this post, he was the final character in this lineup that I drew a sprite for, and I'm quite happy with it!

While Goro is certainly an iconic character, the same can't be said for The Vigilante's stand-in who, in spite of starring in one of the earliest known arcade games, is all the more obscure. Enter...

Mr. Jack from 1979's Sheriff! The Vigilante is the only boss of the main four who originally was going to be represented by an entirely different character, that being Kinzo from 1996's Pac-Man Arrangement.

It was when I remembered about Sheriff that I realized that Mr. Jack was the perfect candidate to replace The Vigilante. I mean, both are represented as mostly yellow cowboys armed with guns and a fashionable cowboy hat. How much closer could you get than that?

The real challenge was finding a good image of Mr. Jack to base his appearance in Star Tower off of. For those who don't know, Mr. Jack only has three known images of him that exist despite the fact that the game he hails from is over forty years old, so it wasn't exactly the easiest task.

I decided to base his appearance off of how he looks on Sheriff's bezel as that's the only full-body look we've ever gotten of him. The guy already looks like a Pizza Tower character as it is (A long lost cousin of Burton, perhaps?), and I find that his sprite looks the most like something you would actually see in Pizza Tower!

On the topic of arcade characters that are perfect fits for stand-ins of certain Pizza Tower characters...

Charley Chuck from 1983's Food Fight was, without question, the ideal choice to replace The Noise. One look at this flyer for Food Fight should perfectly encapsulate as to why. He's a little brat who's primary objective is to make the lives of the local chefs miserable. Sound familiar? It should!

Charley has had numerous different designs drawn for him around the time his game debuted, and it was pretty difficult settling on just the right one. I decided to give him a white and red striped shirt which he wears on the Food Fight arcade cabinet, and draw him as similar to the Noise as I could— I even sized him so that he stands smaller than Star, which took a lot more time than I'm willing to admit.

What's particularly interesting is that, fairly recently, Atari announced a Splatoon-like game for their VCS console, and you'll never believe who's the poster boy and what the game is a sequel to. I'm fairly certain that just before the announcement of Food Fight: Culinary Combat, I was the only person who was doing anything with Charley Chuck, and here he is starring in a brand new game some forty years after his initial debut. Not bad, kid!

One must wonder if I was the one who manifested Charley's return into existence...

With Charley Chuck properly introduced, I can move onto who may just be my favorite of this post's lineup...

Crazy Star.

With the success of 1981's Donkey Kong, an officially licensed clone was created for use in Japan only, though found its way outside of the country without the license to do so from Nintendo. This clone's name is Crazy Kong, and to say it's uncanny wouldn't be doing it justice.

Originally, I was a bit hesitant on just designing a 'fake Star' and calling it a day. I wanted there to be some arcade theming to it, and when the idea of a 'bootleg Star' came to mind, I quickly turned to Crazy Kong as a point of reference and Crazy Star is what came out of it (I should also mention that Crazy Kong released in 1981... now that's what I call meant to be)!

Out of everyone featured in this post, I've definitely drawn Crazy Star the absolute most because, as I mentioned before, it's just about my favorite of the Star Tower bunch! My favorite detail about it is that its color palette is made up of colors hand-picked from Crazy Kong itself!

Originally, I had screen-picked its colors from a YouTube video of the clone, resulting in a slightly different color scheme, but once I found a sprite sheet for Crazy Kong, it resulted in the Crazy Star you see in this post! Crazy Star may look unsettling, but in reality it's just as welcoming as Star, and all it wants is to be just like her.

Just like her... just like her... just like her...

Beware... Sinistar from the 1983 arcade game of the same name lives! Yet another instance of the perfect replacement, both Pizzaface and Sinistar are giant evil floating circles, and it was clear to me from the get-go that Sinistar would make a perfect stand-in for the former, especially since half of its name is 'Star'!

Drawing a sprite for Sinistar was both a cakewalk and a challenge. For one, seeing as its sprite is on the larger side, that meant I had a lot more detail to work with. On the other hand, however, I struggled for a while to get a good design drawn for Sinistar. Eventually, my good friend @panurei-derogatory suggested that it would be funny if Sinistar was hyper-realistically detailed compared to the other sprites, and that was something I had a lot of fun with when drawing its sprite!

Anyone who's played Pizza Tower knows that Pizzaface himself is merely a facade, as the true mastermind behind Peppino's misery has been hidden in plain sight since the very start— the comically villainous Pizzahead! I think out of every 'arcade stand-in' I chose for Star Tower, coming up with one for Pizzahead was the absolute hardest, because none of my ideas really seemed to stick the landing.

But then, I thought "What if it was a completely original character?"

And that's where Richard Benito Townsend (More commonly known by his alias 'Richie T.'), the self-proclaimed 'king of video games', enters the scene!

Richie T., who is absolutely not based off of any notorious cheaters in the arcade world record scene, is a washed-up video game master has-been, once highly regarded in his heyday for being an icon in the world of video games before his supposed 'unbeatable world records' were discovered to be fraudulent.

Shunned to a life of seclusion, the ever boisterous Richie T. now pilots Sinistar within a multicade cabinet where he's free to call the shots, daring to go toe-to-toe with Star once she proves herself worthy of being a Supercade Superstar. After all, she's just some girl— she can't possibly trounce the Richie T., can she?

Spoilers: He has no idea.

And with that out of the way, that's just about everything I wanted to touch base on in pertains to this first set of Star Tower characters! As I said before, this post has been a long time coming, and it's ever so wonderful to finally get this out onto tumblr!

You can expect a part two of sorts to this post sometime in the coming months, as there are still more stand-ins I've yet to post... this time, replacements of the supporting characters, such as Gustavo, Mr. Stick, and a couple of others! For now, I hope that you've enjoyed your first real look at the world of Star Tower! 💙✨

#⭐ Star's Art ⭐ #Star Tower #Pizza Tower #Pizza Tower AU #Arcade Games #Star Splitscreen #Goro Mappy #Mr. Jack #Charley Chuck #Crazy Star #Sinistar #Richie T. #Aseprite #Sprite Art #Coolness #STAR TOWER WILL BE REAL IN ZERO SECONDS!!! #I spent a solid two or three hours writing everything for this post from the write-ups to the image IDs #I was simply THAT determined to get this post up as soon as I had finished every sprite featured in this post. #For those who have read the entire post I realize I keep repeating how nice it feels to have these sprites out there now... #And I truly mean it! Now I can post all the miscellaneous stuff I've made for Star Tower I wouldn't have been able to post before! #Such as the OODLES of Crazy Star content I've drawn XD #I'm considering on drawing a render for some of the other bosses like I did with Richie T. and Crazy Star #I think it would look particularly cool to have full-sized renders of Goro and Charley Chuck in particular! #Hopefully this post properly illustrates just how big of a love letter Star Tower is to arcade game fans the world over #My best friend Kintsu knows full well of just how many arcade references I've packed into ideas for Star Tower #I again want to give her a shout-out for encouraging me to go all in on this AU— it wouldn't be where it is now without her 💛

[grimvestige]

2023 Summary of Art!

This year was full of experimenting and trying new things, and I think it really paid off in the end. I'm getting more comfortable with pixels, I finally have a way of painting I can do reliably, and I feel like I refined my main cel-shaded style a lot! I also feel like I improved on fundamentals just a bit more, with more solidly constructed anatomy (which I want to get even better at in 2024), and shading that actually makes more sense.

I feel like I'm finally getting to a point where I like my art - and a huge part of that is my partner picking up the habit of asking me what I like about a piece whenever I showed him something I made this year. It was super hard when he started, but now I can find at least one, maybe two things that are my favorite. I used to feel really, really neutral to bad about most of my work. I just did it and it was done, and on to the next piece. I knew I was "good" at art, but never really in the way I wanted. Now I'm daring to set my own work as my desktop and phone wallpapers.

I also finished a yearly challenge for the first time ever! Not that I completed every day of it, but I tasked myself with drawing a "Daily Snake" each day - as in Metal Gear, not the creature. It was sort of like those year of Miku challenges, but with Snake that left me room to draw any version of him. It was a fun thing because at the end of the day it ended up being like a little diary of my art, I could tell how I was feeling, whether I had lots of time to draw, all that. I think there was one time when I drew Liquid, there was an ACAB Snake in there, and also a trans one for fun.

Going into 2024 I have three big overarching art goals I want to work towards.

I want to learn and improve my anatomy enough to be able to solidly construct a body in perspective without needing to grab reference. (Not that I'll stop using reference, this is meant to be a goal that forces me to learn even more anatomy to feel confident with it)

I want to push my colors to be a lot wilder and more interesting. Rather than just picking the correct "local" color and working with light, shadow, and gradient maps to tweak colors, I want to be able to make interesting color choices right off the bat.

I want to at least try to start figuring out 'the style' for ttrpg art. (That nice rendered painting style you see in core books!) I'd really LOVE to start working on those projects, but I know most of them shoot for a different art style than I have.

The general plan is to keep doing studies, with the first half of the year being anatomy, the second half being color, and the ttrpg style thing being spread out throughout.

Thank you to everyone who's supported me and hung out on Tumblr! It genuinely means a lot, as this has been my go-to site when I'm down, and the one where I feel most comfortable sharing my art because the platform itself isn't predatory. I hope 2024 brings everyone lots of comfort and joy this year 💕

#art summary #2023 summary #my art #tw blood #tw body horror #daisy rambles

[rainyraisin]

2023 YEAR IN REVIEW!!!

My artstyle changed a lot this year, especially after my shift from ibis paint to procreate after getting my iPad (drawing on an iPad is the BEST btw 100% recommend I love it way more than a phone and it didn’t die after a month like my old wacom 💀💀). I’m relatively happy with where my art is atm and I hope to continue to improve in 2024!

Explanation of all the silly art down below! (Mostly so I can tell y’all who the fanart is for but also cause I like rambling)

January: A drawing of my Rise Leo human design I did to test out a pixel brush I found for Ibis Paint. He’s very fun to draw hehe I need to draw him more-

February: I wanted to learn how to draw the future designs of Leo and Mikey along with CJ so I planned to draw them all together! I struggled with Leo though so I just got rid of him. Sorry Peepaw 😞😞💔💔💔

March: Fanart for @beannary ‘s TLP au! I love it so much so I had to draw smth for it hehe 😈😈💥💥💥 which reminds me I need to draw more at some point- might redraw it at some point cause I’m not super happy with how it turned out but I do like the idea a lot

April: The month I created Reticent! April’s Fools was the first episode I came up with so I drew a chapter poster! It ended up being very different to the chapter cover I drew a couple months later but it’s still cool :D Leo is being weirdly affectionate to Mikey though what the heck that isn’t like him smh. Although I guess it was meant to be purposefully exaggerated sooooo 🥰

May: Reticent Casey!!! I don’t have much to say it’s just Reticent Casey HDKSGXKSHD this wasnt a very good art month

June: Krangified Donnie is literally my favourite concept ever thats it that’s all I have to say dbskdbwkh I adore Krangified Donnie and if the Rise brainrot takes over the Reticent brainrot for a while then I will probably be drawing Krangified Donnie during that time sorry not sorry

July: Reticent Chapter 3’s cover yippee!!! Still my favourite Reticent cover although Chapter 8’s is a close second (I can’t wait to post it once it’s been betaread yippee!!!). The scribble over Leo’s eyes is literally just because I was struggling to draw his eyes and i was getting annoyed dbskdbskdb it’s actually a very common issue with him (common Ret!Leo L). Also Mikey being reflected in the mirror is a reference to Mirror Man by Jack Stauber which I’ve basically considered his theme song since @aaronymous999 introduced it to me ebwjcbkwhd thank you Mr. Aaronymous! Also somebody said he was in the barbie box and I still need to draw that to this day because Mikey would’ve killed to go see Barbie.

August: RET DONNIE WOOOOO he’s being bullied again!!! I drew that piece for a colour palette challenge request and realised I got the prompt wrong so I just made it into its own thing 💥💥💥 it’s usually a flickering light gif but I chose to just use the version with the light on for this post. The photos in the background were really fun to draw hehe either April’s or Mikey’s is my favourite.

September: MY 500 FOLLOWER DTIYS YIPPEE (/my 150 follower DTIYS for tumblr). This one took me. Forever to draw and I love it to pieces hehe it was really fun to design Mikey’s room and figure out outfits for the sillies and idk the concept of a sleepover just seemed really fun to me dbskbdkdb- and all the entries I got were so so awesome I loved them all to pieces!!! I still look at them all the time hehe

October: FANART OF @endlesslogo ‘S HUMAN RISE LEO DESIGN WOOOOOO!!! This was the piece I started rendering on hehe it was so much fun to draw!!!! Although I did have a fight with rendering the hair for over an hour svsjegksbdk HOW DO PEOPLE DO IT FR!!!

November: Me and my friends were working on a crossover between our TMNT iterations so I drew all of our Karai’s together!!! Confluence Karai is on the left, created by Salem and Marine, New Stars Karai is in the middle created by Starla, and Reticent Karai is on the right created by me! All our Karais have such cool designs AHHHHH literally dead over them constantly/pos

December: Most of December I spent drawing Christmas presents so this was my present for Salem!!! Confluence!Jonatello my beloved….

#rai rambles #tmnt #year in review #tmnt fanart

[jariten]

January-March 2024 Roundup!

Trying a new thing this year where instead of just "one off" "single volume" "limited run" "compilation" works I read "long form" "serializations". I must say it's already doing my soul good to prioritize and work through the way too many unread series that have piled up in my room while I was prioritizing short form works.

First I want to highlight is Chiisana Ochakai by Nekojuujisha! I already posted a very short description of the work but would like to share my own encounter and quick impressions. I first learned about the series from Futabasha's mook Natsukashii! 70-nendai Shoujo Manga Mook (type of mook I love to collect but can't spend too long looking at lest my demons make me go online shopping). This mook highlights both true classics as well as works and authors who have fallen a bit by the wayside in the manga landscape (but to no fault of the quality of their work). Chiisana Ochakai got a VIP treatment in this mook and I immediately knew this was something I wanted to read. I finally got around to reading this past month and was so blown away by this work and the atmosphere it created. Part of me wasn't expecting anything more than a charming fantasy slice of life set in a world of cats, but I many times found myself very moved by Purin and Moppu's view of life and their philosophical musings. The fairy tale world was truly that. I loved the little encounters like when Moppu met The Sun itself at the bakery. This is also by far the closest thing I've come to reading a manga that embodies a lot of the wistful qualities of the original Moomin novels by Tove Jansson. Can't recommend or praise it enough.

Also noticed how so many libraries have Osamu Tezuka's Buddha? I've encountered plenty that has but I finally found one that actually had the whole series and decide to do my obligatory one Tezuka title per year right then and there. And wooooow by far the best of his works that I've read, I was especially struck by the paneling and multiple viewpoints that were carefully balanced. A true epic and despite it being the retelling of the foundations of a world religion, Tezuka enjoyers who enjoy him being self referential or goofy will still find plenty of that.

Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? by Hirochi Maki was a manga that years ago got propagandized on Tumblr and I was just soooooo sure it would get licensed. Which it did, but digital only. I finally resorted to the Japanese edition. The propaganda post absolutely sold how charming and fun the protagnist sister pair is, but neglected to mention the varied clientele and what an amazing tour of the less known neighborhoods in and around Tokyo it is, with real life locations and spots to check! Worried most of these spots don't exist anymore post-COVID? check the post COVID sequel series!

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is a manga adaption of Kotaro Isaka's novel by the same name by Ikuemi Ryou. I'm not familiar at all with Isaka's bibliography but I could tell this was a great combo (Isaka even admitting to being influenced by Ikuemi's work). I love one shot collections that focuses on characters that are connected to each other or the same incident seen from multiple points of view. Isaka's cast is varied and all at different points in life with different wants and needs.

I have a more detailed summary of A-ko san no Koibito by Akino Kondoh in the queue but oooooooh my god. This was my dedicated commute read for a bit and talk about a series that only got better with each volume. Eventually I didn't even want to arrive at my location I wanted to keep reading. Its one of my favorite explorations of relationships, facing your past ones, and figuring out what it is you actually want that I've read so far in great deal due to the blend + repetitions of past and present. These smooth transitions are done so well and drew me further into the characters and their conflicts. Truly nothing like any other manga I've read but fits perfect into my own slowly expanding mini canon of manga about late twentysomething and up characters trying to figure out what romantic relationships mean to them.

Also eeeeeek I'm beyond late just wanted to highlight Hunter X Hunter volume 37. I will always think that when one can deliver at a quality this high you have the right to take all the time you want. So intrigued by how everything is developing would love to reread what we have of this arc some time soon.

#recommendation corner #long post #my scans #buddha taken from the publisher page #roundup #will be posting from vol 37 soon too

[gokucarrot]

Rest in Peace, Akira.

I was actually going to come back to writing soon, but it may be a little later than expected now…

I don’t know how to make memorial posts, especially for someone I don’t know personally. I really don’t know how to react… I know I’m heartbroken and devastated though. To anyone who may be reading, I’m sorry if this is how you found out, though I have a hopeful feeling it won’t be.

On March 1st, 2024, Akira Toriyama passed away at the age of 68, due to an Acute Subdural Hematoma. The announcement was made by Bird Studio on March 7th/8th, or the day of writing this. 

First let me say; Rest in Peace, Akira Toriyama. You’ve given a family, a successful career, art, and fully fulfilled stories. One story of which has given life to a continuously blossoming community of people who want to share your work with the world. A story that I doubt hasn’t touched a huge amount of countries, and the people’s hearts. Your legacy will live on. I’ve had many criticisms of his work, and possibly his character (related to certain works) and do still feel weary of them. Regardless, I’m still a huge fan, and am honestly in a bit of distress writing this.

For many people, his works are just something that they have a lot of interest in. Maybe it was their childhood, or their adulthood, something to help them get their mind off of the hard things in life. Or maybe, you’re like me. Honestly, all the options I stated are probably way more healthy than how it affected me. I’m a little embarrassed to share what I’m about to say. Regardless, here I go. 

When I discovered the Dragon Ball series and read it for the first time, I knew it was the start of something wonderful for me. I was in a lot of turmoil at this point and needed something to help me cope. I really liked the way anime/manga looked but never got into it, so I thought I’d start with a classic, the original Dragon Ball. I immediately fell in love (somewhat overlooking the… interesting jokes that happened), I was reading it everyday and every night. Then I watched it, then I drew it, I daydreamed about it, I sang the songs, I wrote about it, I fully immersed myself into the fandom. It even helped me to finally gain the courage to learn Japanese, even though I had already been interested in Japanese! If I were to be honest and blunt, it took over my life, almost quite literally. First, it was just my special interest, then my Maladaptive Daydream issues made it all I daydreamed about, and then slowly became part of, what I best would say, *possible*, fictives of a system. I think my friend @favszamasu (on instagram) put how I feel best, “Dragon Ball was a great escape for me. It’s my second life and for a long time I acted like it was my first”. Despite this, I honestly don’t mind. My love for this series has been fulfilling in so many ways. It has helped through my darkest days, my weakest hours, and so much more. You’re very much allowed to call me dramatic, as I mean it quite literally; there is no way to express in words the way Dragon Ball has helped me, or how much I love it. My room is filled with plushies and figures, my bookshelf is almost completely dedicated to the Dragon Ball series. Yet even saying this, does not fully express it.

I mention all this to give an example of the effect Akira Toriyama has had. His works have reached so many different corners of the world, so many people look up to him, there are literal festivals that he inspired. His death is one that possibly thousands will mourn, and are mourning. I can’t even imagine how his family is feeling. I wish the best for them and I hope they find some peace in life right now.

Rest in Peace, Akira Toriyama, Rest in Peace.

#dragon ball #dragon ball z #dbs #akira toriyama

[askroahmmythril]

Wall o’ Text : The Nintendo Direct

Figured I may as well type up my thoughts on everything from the Direct.  I have it going in the background to remember everything that was shown.  So yeah, if you care about trailer spoilers, now’s your chance to bail, yo.

So let’s get to it, and hopefully not get interrupted by another powerout.

1) Pokemon ScVi DLC - I’m looking forward to these.  ScVi can be a buggy mess, but I still overall enjoyed the games.  Since I’m not super competitive, I don’t look at a bunch of new legendaries as “OH GOD WHAT WILL THIS DO TO THE META QUICK BAN EVERYTHING,” I just see them as “Oh, cool, new things to collect and train, yay!” I do however hope there are still some things they might be hiding.  I’d like to see some new Paradox forms show up.

2) Sonic Superstars - Honestly looks pretty good.  I do wonder if we might get more characters as DLC.  I’d especially love to see what a Classic style Cream would look like.

3) Palia - ...... (checks “cozy farm sim off the bingo sheet”)  Nothing really stood out to me here, other than the phrase “free to play,” meaning microtransaction heck.  No thanks.

4) Persona 5 Tactica - Tactics games usually aren’t a go to for me, though this looks maybe more like the kind of tactics used in things like Mario + Rabbids, which I enjoyed, so I might be interested in this one?  Not super high priority, but on the radar.

5) Mythforce - This honestly might be on the “I’ll want to see more” list.  The artstyle is actually pretty dang nice, it definitely captures that He-Man style saturday morning cartoon look.

6) New Splatfest - Well, I can’t play online, don’t even HAVE Splatoon 3, but as far as choice, I’m torn between Strawberry or Mint Chip, love both of those.  But hey, Vanilla is good too.  Honestly hard to pick on this one.

7) Detective Pikachu Returns - Okay, was NOT expecting that.  I enjoyed the original, so definitely happy for it.

8) Super Mario RPG Remaster - Oh gods it looks beautiful.  It’s one of the rare RPGs that I really did enjoy, so I’ll likely be interested in this one.

9) Untitled Peach Game - Intrigued, but we know like, nothing.

10) Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon Port - I have the 3DS game, but never actually played it, so this might spur me to do so.

11) Batman : Arkham Trilogy - I might actually want this.  I loved Assylum and City, never got to play Knight, but I quite enjoyed the ones I did play.  A case of “wouldn’t mind an excuse to play them again.”

12) Gloomhaven - No real strong thoughts on this one admittedly.

13) Just Dance 2024 Edition - (checks the year)  Hey, you can’t do that!  Anyway, no real strong feeling here either,

14) Silent Hope - I’m not sure anything really drew me in on this one.  The concept of no one being able to talk, I at first wondered what that would do for storytelling, like, how they’d work with that concept.  I figured it could be interesting, but also would run the risk of if everything’s just pantomimed, it could get tiring.  But then we just get an NPC that talks for everyone anyway, so... (shrug).

15) Fae Farm - Oy, I already got the “cozy farming sim” checkmark.  No strong feelings here.

16) Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged - I never played that previous Hot Wheels game that came up, but it looked like it could be interesting.  Was the original any good?

17) Manic Mechanics - Basically Undercooked but with car fixing?  I’ve played Undercooked solo which, uh....  Oof.  It’s a lot to keep track of, haha.  Definitely something that would be more fun with other players.

18) Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope DLC - I still need to finish the first game, but it is enjoyable.  So happy for this, and already have the pass so got it downloaded.

19) Dragon Quest Monsters : The Dark Prince - Heck yeah new DQM, I did enjoy those games, so might want this.

20) Pikmin 4 - (hype intensifies)  Super looking forward to this.  I’m happy to see Pikmin 2 style dungeons return, I enjoyed those.  Wonder if we have a time limit this time or not, I can enjoy with or without, but I do wonder if this might be more PIkmin 2 style “take your time,” which I can appreciate.

21) Pikmin 1 + 2 - Heck yeah, all four Pikmin games on one system?  Well, no Hey Pikmin, but the mainline ones, which heck yeah.  I’ll probably wait for the physical version though.

22) Metal Gear Solid : Master Collection Vol. 1 - I’ve never been too into the Metal Gear series, buuuuuut I might be thinking of getting it as a holiday gift for my uncle.

23) Vampire Survivors - Already got it on Steam.  And still haven’t figured out how to survive a full minute past Death’s appearance which is like, a requirement on every stage.

24) Headbangers Rhythm Royale - My only real thought here is Team 17 made a pigeon game, so they will explode violently and not where you told them to.

25) Penny’s Big Breakaway - This looks super fun, I hope it turns out good.

26) Mario Kart 8 DLC - I’m kind of surprised Kamek got in as the Tour rep over Pauline.

27) Star Ocean The Second Story R - I have no real nostalgia for this one, never played the original, don’t know much about the series.

28) WarioWare : Move It! - My only concern is how responsive will the motion controls be.  I usually find motion controls frustrating.

29) Nintendo Live - No way I’d be able to attend, so no real thoughts.

30) Tears of the Kingdom amiibos - These look cool, definitely want them.

31) Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Honestly, yes please.  This looks super fun.

So yeah, all in all, very strong Direct.

[orbmanson7]

There's only two things I've decided I'll do this year...

The first one is to actually start posting the Logangst animatic project. The main playlist has 25 songs, so it'll come out bit by bit, and probably not in any particular order, and I'm not even sure how I want to format the posts (to credit the song properly, post my animatic and the timestamp that it applies to, and any notes about the song or the scene I drew). I already have almost all the initial sketch work and thumbnails done, and I've been slowly recreating them digitally in my downtime...but working two jobs has kind of made that harder than I expected. Oops.

Hopefully I can get one of them posted soon, though, and try to ride that momentum to keep posting more.

And the second one is to actually make that video I considered doing once my ridiculous 16.9k-word long analysis essay about Logan's playlist was finally complete. I posted the essay, but I never did sit down and make a video reading it out, hopefully to make it slightly more accessible for people. This was mostly because I thought I'd have to figure out a way to be in front of a camera somehow as I likely wouldn't have enough clips or images to use for how stupidly long the video would end up being, and even though I could cover my face, it'd fuck up how I'd speak into the mic, and I don't have a good camera, so it'd look bad, and just... stuff like that.

I haven't fully resolved that particular issue, but I'm kind of just hoping I can get away with letting people see me as an actual orb and just draw that a few times to use as a way to break up all the clips and whatnot.

It's gonna be an editing nightmare but I do want to do it, and if it happens to go okay, maybe I'll do the same with a couple other essays I've posted. But we'll see...

I'm not aiming too high for this year as I know I'll just fuck it up and fall short, but that is at least the Plan for 2024, assuming I get through most of it!

So, I guess, here's hoping!

#fingers crossed or what have you #knowing how i was editing the podcast episodes forever ago i already know I'll be so annoyed with my voice right away #but oh well #orbs thought bubbles

[punk-pandame]

updates!

thought i'd give a general update on what i'm up to. haven't been posting a lot lately- being sick and tired tends to limit productivity after all lol- but that doesn't mean i stopped writing or drawing! i've been working on bits and pieces of a lot of things when i have the time and energy. i am still drawing or writing something for everyone who's helped with nova's vet bills at a slow and steady pace while i deal with some health setbacks. thank you all for your patience and generosity. it's appreciated more than you know and we're getting closer to paying it off!

a few people have asked for process pics/videos, and lemme tell ya, i *tried* okay XD i tried to do like a process video but it stressed me out so much i couldn't draw, and stopping to take screenshots or videos as i go along really throws me off my rhythm. so right now, this sketch practice page is about as close as we're getting to a process from me. if you bounce around the page, you can tell for the most part what i drew first and what i drew later; the later stuff is way better (peep that old man asume at the bottom as an example lol, i'm so proud of him). the point of this one was just to get used to a new brush and figure out what i want various styles to look like, from super cartoony to more realistic.

[ID: a greyscale sketch page by Punky. The character faces featured, from left top to bottom right: Iruka, Kushina, Chouji, Temari, Kurotsuchi, Hinata, a teenage Shizune, a teenage Kisame, a sickly Nagato, Orochimaru with a snake tongue, a black Shikamaru, an older Konan, Tenten, an older Anko, Tsume, Itachi, Genma, Shikaku, Ino, an older Ssume, Yamato, Shino, and Kurenai. Random objects also pictured are: Kakashi's Icha Icha Paradise book, a scroll, dango, a fan, a shuriken, Zabuza's Executioner's Blade, Sasuke's sword, and a piece of narutomaki. End ID]

monthly recaps have als fallen to the wayside for a while now (sorry!), so i wanted to share with you all my goals for 2023 instead:

- draw a comic: i've always loved comics but never actually learned how to draw them, so i've been reading tutorials artists i follow have put out over the years and learning more about comics in general.i think they're a valuable form of art, and would be a perfect way for me to mesh some of the stories i'd like to tell with scenes i want to draw. hence sketch practice

- start including fanart with my fics: this is likely going to be partially dependent on what i'm learning about drawing comics, but also provides an opportunity to throw in the kinds of pieces i already do. i'm already fixating on the writing, may as well include art, right XD

- finish louboutins. we are so close to the finish line besties i just don't wanna deal with emotions right now hahaha. i only got like two chapters left for it, and the emotions will be resolved i promise!

- get to the chuunin exams arc in tto1us

- start updating 1-800-FAKE-NUMBER again

- yes i'm insane and i'm doing kinktober again for 2023 BUT not 31 individual fics like. half that at *most*. i'm not gonna overdo it and it's all gonna be silly rarepairs. more details in a few months.

- that big art project i wanted to finish in 2022 didn't pan out but i'm not giving up! hoping to finish by the end of this year and have it ready for 2024, but if not, push it another year. i'll release more details if i manage to get close but i am promising nothing lol

-if the inspiration is there, do some more high school series drawings that i never finished.

i hope you're all well. i have not forgotten about you all. i love you, and thank you for your continued support even through the silence <3

be the first to get updates and see new stuff, view exclusive ficlets and drawings, request commissions, and more on my patreon and buymeacoffee!

#punky draws #punky's fics #updates #textpost #imagepost #naruto #notsns #but also #sns #if anyone can give just a bit more for nova's old vet bills or even my current medical bills that would be uhhh. fuckin superb lmao #but none of it's urgent at the moment

[chuya-chuya-blog]

Congratulations to the winners of the My Copic Moment contest. I thought third place was super talented and would come in first, actually. That person is really skilled. Second place is really charming to me. It looks like a children's picture book and makes me feel nostalgic. The perspective in first place is really good.

I was bummed when I saw I didn't win. Call me a sore loser, I don't care! I really had my hopes up! And it was super disappointing to see I didn't even place. Is my art bad? Were my concepts bad? I don't know. This is also coming on to the realization that I will not be able to enter the Pixiv Global Contest that I wanted to, either.

I had PLENTY of time to complete an entry for that contest and continue working on my own web comic afterwards but I just couldn't find the motivation. I had a cute and funny concept and I really enjoyed drawing it but eventually the motivation just died. Somewhere between my usual struggles with making backgrounds look like anything but bland boxes and my inability to draw dogs, my drive turned to fear, and I just froze.

I would sketch here and there but just couldn't bring myself to do my absolute best. I'm ashamed because I've always been this way when it counts. I just couldn't buckle down and do it. Not even the free three years of Clip Studio could get me to do it. And I really wanted that too! But I guess I just didn't care enough. I couldn't make myself do the work. And it's not like I'm still a kid, either. I'm a full blown adult who can't manage discipline and time management and it's embarrassing. So many people around me have been able to get stuff done through consistent steady work and I can't figure out how to manage myself. And no I don't have ADHD. I actually got really REALLY good grades in school. So I can do the work when it counts. I just couldn't do it this time.

It's worrisome because if I want to start making money off of my art, I have to be able to meet deadlines. I have to be able to finish things. I have sooooooooo much trouble finishing things! I don't know what's wrong with me! It's why I barely post because I can never finish anything. Sometimes I'll be really motivated and will love a piece I'm working on, but I'll just put it somewhere and forget it exists. I really wanted to produce more work in 2024, but the fear that I'm not actually cut out to be an artist is creeping up on me. I have to improve my focus and discipline this year!

This sucks, but I wanted to be transparent. One of my resolutions this year was to draw a lot more and complete a lot more art. I haven't given up, but I need to improve my workflow. I need to work out the kinks beforehand so when I get to a road bump I can navigate it. This whole time I put my other projects on pause because I HAD to complete this contest entry...and got nothing done. I was completely stuck in some weird limbo and could not make it out. I did do the script and layout but after a while, I just didn't CARE. And when I don't care, my art immediately devolves and when my art devolves, I start hating myself for drawing crummy art. The gag is that when I'm drawing random things in my sketchbook without even thinking, some of it comes out SO COOL! It's part of why I opened a sketch dump!

I wanted a publisher to notice me and say, "wow, she's good!" But I can't seem to get my artwork to agree with me when I want it to. I can't even win a drawing contest! I didn't even get an honorable mention! (And that hurts, I thought I'd AT LEAST get mentioned.) This isn't a one time thing, either. I have NEVER won an art contest, NEVER had my work accepted to a magazine I submitted to. The ONE time I got second place in an art contest was something I did in high school and was just screwing around because I had no idea what to paint, and was sure an "official art contest" wouldn't accept anime art. And you know who won? Someone who drew anime.😐 (I was SOOOOOOO mad! Are you toying with me, universe? Are you telling me art is not my calling after all?)

What if a publisher DID contact me and ask me to draw something I don't care about? I have the worst discipline ever, and if I can't force myself to do good work when I need to, then I am of no use to them. I've accepted that I'll probably never do commissions, either.

If a publisher comes across this post, I don't mind. A bad work ethic is bad for business and the manga business is tough. They want people who grind HARD. It's well documented. We've all heard the stories about the mangaka struggle in Japan. And I've been in the workforce long enough to know that employers don't care about your feelings or your mental health. They only care about the results they can pay you pennies for. And that's life.

I'm still happy with the art I did for the My Copic Moment contest. (It's actually one of my favorite pieces in my portfolio right now, and I want to draw more pieces like it.) I actually want to try and enter their big copic contest for the year now, but wasn't going to because I only have like five markers of theirs and for this contest, you HAVE to use their products. But maybe I can screw around and mysteriously win this time. (The grand prize is 300 markers! Or something like that.) You can draw whatever you want, too. Maybe I'll do something really really crazy. I'll just unleash my emotions on the canvas like the first episode of Barakamon. (And then he went right back to struggling with his work. WHYYYY are we like this?😭)

I've also decided to set some time aside for scripts and planning. Since my excitement tends to come in waves, I'll try to get pre work done so I can heavily focus on a task at hand when the time comes. For instance, since I'm scripting right now, I'm really excited about the stories I'm making and fleshing out the plot points for them! I love coming with ideas and dumping my creativity out whenever I can. So if you give me a paper and tell me to just write, it feels so freeing. I'll hopefully work on these scripts and come up with a bunch of cool stuff to draw this week. Then I can do the layouts and get excited about the focus on flow and design of the pages. I tend to come up with new ideas and change my mind about things during the layout stages, so I'm going to proceed with caution. But for now, the plan is set and I'm going to move forward. The task is a lot less daunting when I have my ducks in a row.

[szalamireaktor]

Odnecsrec

by devianDog & Odnecsrec

March 23rd, 2024

================================================

D: a drawing of the titular Odnecsrec, staring at one of my patented Big Fucking Things™.

this is my first time drawing any sort of living creature, & i'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out! the shading probably isn't the best, but it's functional.

i'd like to note that i spent a good hour trying to figure out how to draw Odnecsrec's leg. anatomy is hard, and having my first time actually practicing it be on a fictional animal probably didn't help.

O: I don't have all that much to say here, since Devian was the one who actually drew it - I just told him what I wanted him to draw.

Yes, what I wanted. Devian was being kind of a jerk (long story), so I bullied him into making some art for me. Thank God he's such a pushover, because I really like what I got. It portrays me in a good light, I think.

#deviandog-art #odnecsrec-art #paint.net

[kinocomix]

metal band story devlog 12: Making art in 2024, a survival guide but also DOGGO

first things first, as I oh so subtly implied in the title of this devlog, have a dog:

I’m sure someone is out there yelling at their screen with anatomy complaints, but I like it.

This is a braque d'auvergne dog and it kinda looks like, well, every spotted dog ever. 

image from 101dogbreeds https://www.101dogbreeds.com/coat/spotted-dogs

The drawing above is the initial draft of what I kind of want the dog to look like for the most part. I’m taking the liberty of changing some things here and there, since I want the dog to be a mutt.

Here you can see I changed the torso shape, and made it so that I can redraw the design faithfully using simple proportions. I also took extra care to decide what the eyes looked like, so I tried several things there:

I ended up settling for, once again, the initial once I came up with (I swear I don’t do this all the time). I felt like I wanted the dog to feel like it could talk, but subvert that by having it be just a normal dog. During my research I also came across something cool that I will not be including in the design. Which is the fact that if a dog sustains an intense scar, the hair grows back WHITE.

also, this could entirely be me and my bias but it’s… hard to find pictures of deformed dogs that are ugly? like dogs are always so excited to exist that even if their entire lower jaw is missing they’ll look like a vibe and be having a good time if you’re nice to them.

on a final note regarding dogs, have this. It’s out of context and I won’t explain it cause I’d like to have everyone try to figure it out.

With that being done, you might notice I don’t have a final design yet, because the four sketches I drew were the only things I was able to accomplish this week. This is realistic progress. So let's talk about art in the internet age. you thought this was going to be a straightforward devlog about a dog? well think again. 

This week I had a lot of thinking to do outside of the context of comics and art. I’m 27, and although the internet has led us to believe that it’s straightforward to be a microcelebrity for a living it’s actually very difficult, and the mental toll it can take on you is equally as worth noting. it’s weird and volatile and you’re fighting an ever changing landscape of other people trying to get heard. I currently work at a board game store, one of the nicest jobs I could have hoped for. My boss is a fun guy, my coworkers are awesome and the people who come to the store are nice and from all walks of life… but it’s not sustainable for me. It's the night shift which goes against my natural circadian rhythm and the pay is mostly being spent on transport at the moment. One time I offhandedly said “art is made by people with day jobs” and while I meant it at the time the true meaning and depth of that statement is still unfolding to me. While writing this devlog, I had a job interview to attend. If we’re being realistic, while it’s possible for me to make a living off of making my comics for a dedicated niche audience that supports me on patreon, the chances of that actually happening are quite low given the fact that the rate at which I output things doesn’t work with the modern internet’s unquenchable need for more stuff.

this isn’t a new thing or will it ever go away. Art is an extension of us as human beings, it’s our desire to project meaning onto an uncaring world that we are part of. it’s ironic if you think about it for a second, a more pretentious person would call it something like “the duality of man” or some shit but I wouldn’t like that to be me. god, it would be so hilarious to look back at this devlog years from now and realize I unironically said “the duality of man”. Anyways the value of art, as we know, is not dedicated by how much attention it gets otherwise hominids all those years ago wouldn’t have put color to stone

Cave drawing in the upper Paleolithic cave of Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, Ardeche, France

you see there’s no real way of saying “I want less digital things in my life” without the internet seeing you as a 4567 year old grandma yelling at a cloud but that’s it really. The way I see it, artists on the internet can end up somewhere on this graph:

I think I fall where the red dot does. On top is my friend fouad, working on his graphic novel having left the internet entirely. closer to the left are most youtubers, to the right are people like my dad’s uncle, who would paint for himself and family members exclusively. 

Today was the first day where I looked at someone whose art was exclusive to one very specific place and said “I get it”. beyond a certain point the feeling of making something cool can get overshadowed by all the people running towards it. Meaningful connection gets replaced by a wall of words from many people where your ability to engage with it gets harder and harder the bigger the wall gets. Which is why I think I’m going to put the comic here on tumblr and tapas, and not bother with other places really.

Eventually, I’d like to be an art teacher. Until then we’ll make it work with what we have, and even if I don’t get my dream job I think I’ll still be happy.

Devlog update on Tuesdays.

#comic #webcomic #webcomics #kinocomix #devlog #graphic novel #metal #art #career #doggo #disabled dog

[aerinis]

Doing my belated 2023 art review. Putting it below a read more because a lot of stuff happened this year and some of it is kind of heavy.

2023 was a pretty good year for me, both personally and artistically. I had a couple of annoying minor medical issues that I'm still dealing with, but I'd say I was able to maintain my goal of drawing at least one little doodle a day for most of the year. I will say though that the vast majority of what I drew this year - probably like 95% - was personal art. Hopefully someday I'll be satisfied enough with it to post it. I'd also like to spend 2024 focusing more on painting and practicing landscapes. I spent the first three months of the year working on a piece for a local art gallery competition, which actually ended up getting accepted and subsequently spent the rest of the year touring around the state in several different exhibitions. That introduced me to the wonderful world of trying to figure out how the hell digital prints and shipping work, but everything turned out fine in the end. It remains the largest piece I've ever made at 18"x24", and hopefully once I get it shipped back to me I'll be sending it off to my parents. I also found out that I HATE writing artist's statements, like fuck off you don't need to know my background, just interpret the piece however. I'd like to post here, but I want to make sure first that it hasn't been uploaded to the internet by any of the galleries since I'd like to keep my personal info off this blog lmao What's funny is that I feel like I've come so far as an artist ever since I submitted that piece, that every time I look at the B-grade prints I have lying around I'm like "oh my god this looks terrible, I can't believe this got accepted". I guess that's just what being an artist is like Following that, I took the next month off from art, which was a nice little break. I did a bunch of art parties in FFXIV, which are always great for improving, because as counter-intuitive as it seems the best way to get good at art is to be forced to draw a whole bunch of different things under strict time limits. I feel like I can definitely see my lineart improving as the months go on. I also started working more with color, my eternal nemesis, and I'm hoping next year I can really start to nail down a style. I did Art Fight for the first time ever in July and it ROCKED, definitely going to do it again this year and I'm still pretty proud of the drawings I did. I love an event where it's socially acceptable for me to draw people's OCs. I think I'll probably focus on doing more WoW OCs this year. Unfortunately July is the busiest month for me at work, where I'm waking up at 5AM for basically the entire month straight and working in 100+ degree weather, so we'll see if I can maintain the energy for it.

And now the heavy stuff. Some of you might know that I'm pretty involved in the secret finding community in WoW, and back during BFA when we spent 11.5 months trying to find Jenafur, I did paint-overs of a bunch of cat memes to try and keep spirits up during the hunt. Unfortunately, the Make-A-Wish kid who created the pet ended up passing away in April. You can read about her life here in this article that will make you want to guillotine a chemical executive, and this older interview from 2020 about the secret. But what really got to me was this one line from the PCGames interview:

And like, I don't want to be presumptuous but like. I think she was talking about my art. Every time I posted on she'd comment on it, and she even DMed me about them. This line fucking destroyed me. I'm not even going to exaggerate. For several days after we found out about her death I was a wreck. The thought that my silly little drawings actually had an impact on someone and made their life a little brighter just ruined me. The bill she was fighting for ended up passing, and I hope that someday the idea of 'forever chemicals' will cease to exist.

Downer ending but I'm kind of too bummed out to write more

#my art

[rosieuv]

I have just realised that it's new year's eve.

Well, staying up past midnight is easy for me as my sleep scedule's a bit of a wreck. I don't have anything that I'm really thrilled about for 2024 (apart from deltarune chapter 3 and 4 possibly coming out that year) and I'm ending on a really lame year art wise as I still don't have my computer and I don't want to have to reinstall drivers and stuff. At least I have the excuse to make the 2024 drawings folder on my backup USB.

I like having things in chronological order.

Anyway, here's the first and last drawings from each year because why not.

2019:

This one only dates back to the 20th July as this was before I took art seriously as a hobby. I drew this in MS paint for a roblox game I was making.

This dates back to the 25th December and I drew this in ibis paint x on my dad's old phone that me and my brothers shared. To play music in the background, I would have youtube as a window at the top and listen to the same 5 songs on loop. This took a considerable amount of time for some reason.

2020:

This dates back to the 18th January and I drew this on my phone as I just got it at this point (the same phone that I still have currently). I had no idea what I was doing and it shows.

This dates back to the 29th December and it seems like I've discovered undertale. This was when I started using my crappy laptop again and I drew this with the touchscreen it had (it was one of those hybrid laptop-tablet things) with my finger and autodesk sketchbook.

2021:

The first one is technically the first of 2021 as it dates back to the 16th of January, but I've posted that one a lot whenever I redraw it every year so here's the drawing I drew the day after. It was for an animation meme but I saved it into the folder anyway for some reason.

I was trying to model in blender for the first time towards the end of 2021 so the last picture is a boring sketch of anatomy from the 31st December to be used as refrence. The last actual artwork was a day before and at this point I had a little drawing tablet and was posting art on Newgrounds. I also started using medibang paint pro as autodesk sketchbook stopped working.

2022:

The first drawing I have in my 2022 folder was technically from 10:30 PM on the 31st as I got impatient, but I put it here anyway. It's a gif but I made it into a png so I can put it on a tumblr post. Technically the first one was this drawing I made about 12 hours later on the 1st January. On newgrounds it's regarded as being in 2021 as it's in EST and my time zone is a couple hours ahead.

The last drawing I have dates back to the 27th December where I was experimenting with art styles as I had just gotten a new idea for a game (what is now known as Roboska LV).

2023:

Both of these date back to the 1st January however the seccond one was exported 40 minuites later according to the meta data. The first one is another redraw while the seccond one is a character profile and I just realised there's no shading on the hoodie.

This dates back to the 9th December and I haven't been able to draw anything digitally since my computer's botched surgery on the 16th. I have drawn some stuff in my notebook though, so here's the "final" drawings of 2023 (basically anything in my notebook since the 9th). The dates are in the bottom corners. I didn't bother with fixing the lighting.

I drew that picture of Kokichi Oma in the dark with only the light of my phone torch as I drew it while a film was playing in my school sports hall with dominos pizza. The last 2 I drew on the last day of school while completly ignoring everyone partying in the form room.

I got a book on how to draw in a manga art style so this is me trying to figure out how to adapt the tips into my artstyle to make it not suck.

This is technically the last drawing of 2023. I drew it on the 26th. It also featured in the post about my personal best pencil drawings of 2023 too: https://pearlhikara.tumblr.com/post/737810429204643840/best-drawings-of-2023-notebook-12-and-13

Looking back, I don't think my change in art style from 2023 is as stark as the other years. I don't like how my art keeps changing and I want to just keep it at a consistent "very very good" and leave it at that as the little changes annoy me as I like consistency.

In terms of actual new year stuff, I'll probably just rewatch "who framed roger rabbit?" and go downstairs when it's near midnight to watch the fireworks on TV.

#art #digital art #digital drawing #artwork #drawing #digital artwork #illustration #traditional drawing #traditional illustration #traditional art #sketch #digital illustration #new years eve #new year #new year 2024 #happy new year 2024 #happy new year