The Lair of the TX2

OH SHI-! A GARGOYLE!

2012-01-28T18:28:00.000-08:00

Not sure there's much to say here. Ran out of room for the wings, but I drew what I could for it.

Love how the rib cage turned out, but the spine cheats out a bit too much when I should have relied more on foreshortening. In the end, just a lecture sketch. It does remind me how much I loved taking anthropology. I should see if they have any classes on that next semester.

I'm getting better at showing more definition in the face without making the person look too old. I used to avoid those details like the plague, but now I can't get enough of them.

Also getting better at drawing noses from different angles.

Ask PC is back

2012-01-25T19:15:00.000-08:00

http://ask-pc.tumblr.com/

Sean and Vic return to their wacky question answering antics. This should be fun.

Here's a my tumblr for more random shit

tx2tumbln.tumblr.com

Sacred Stones Comic

2012-01-23T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'd be more upset about a how this month has gone if I hadn't managed to channel my emotions into my work so well.

This comic features Ross and Lute from Fire Emblem 8. They've been a favorite pairing of mine for the last 5 years, but I've never been able to draw them well until now.

This time I think I finally managed to incorporate Fire Emblem's unique style into my own, and I even managed to pull off some really complicated hand poses on top of that. I'm especially proud of the hands in the final panel because they do the most to describe what's going through lutes mind, and most important of all, the hands actually look like their her hands.

I'm still very confused/frustrated/worried, but she's always been very quite and the last thing I want to do is be angry about what is probably just a misunderstanding.

glare

2012-01-20T21:59:00.000-08:00

I think we've all been through this more than once as a kid.

You do something wrong, but they want you to learn what it is on your own. You don't realize that though, and instead you just start think there's something wrong with you.

Pluto Practice

2012-01-18T18:02:00.001-08:00

One thing I learned from Animating that kitten last month was that I need more practice with quadrupeds... actually I already learned that during the Pony deluge, but this just shows how much practice I need.

Real dogs would be an ideal choice, but Pluto does a lot of dynamic poses to learn from, and his design is simple enough that the derivative doesn't break down.

And with him being a dog among anthropomorphized dogs, I should learn a little bit more about the differences between the too expressively.

The cartoon I referenced for this is viewable here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umZUgfk_EOk&feature=share

.

2012-01-15T10:53:00.001-08:00

Orpheus lead Eurydice out of Hades, deemed never to look behind him to see if she was there. He could not hear her presence or her footsteps; all there was for him was faith that she kept up with him, and that she wanted to follow at all.

But the illusion of this isolation ate away at his faith. The long trek piled doubt on him with every step.

Such a simple quick motion, to turn his neck. Yet the damage such a simple motion did.

And she was not behind him. Whether Hades' promise was a lie and she was never there, or whether she chose not to tempt fate, or whether she was wisped away to quickly for him to see her a final time, she was gone.

Another Ent (and the first ent)

2012-01-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

I seem to draw these Whenever I get too anxious. Kinda intended as an ent, but more of a person rooted and stiff and struggling and turmoiled.

Drew something similar to this about a year ago. Thanks to a hefty schedule, a long commute and some sparse bus scheduling, I had only about a 5 hour break between a shift on new years Eve and a morning shift new years day...

This is what came up for the commute home between those shifts. Definitely one of the deciding factors that led to me going to Monterey. Anyway, That recent picture at the top of the post isn't nearly as stress induced. I WOULD feel guilty about having these feelings again when my current situation isn't nearly as bad as it was last year... but that would only increase my anxiety. I have to be a little selfish at some point.

This picture is not as related, but I never remembered to post it either. It's more cybernetic than tree related, but the inspiration came from wood paneling.

Model Green in the Rain

2012-01-11T00:50:00.000-08:00

I've got something Really fun for today. This is a scene for Bridgette Brian and the Bunny Detailing what Brian Green goes through Shortly after the events of this story, and shortly before she meets Bridgette.

She's run away from her home unable to accept the death of her only friend, and also in fear that she may fall under the same fate. Unsure of what to do, she begins escaping into her memories of her friend, but the more she does, the more they fade away...

This scene concludes with her finding the hair styling products and dying her own hair red so that she can see Model-Red whenever she looks in the mirror.

It's sort of a twisted way of coping, but she overcomes it as the story progresses.

Not sure where I got the energy to do this all of the sudden. I did finally see the little match stick girl recently, that's probably what led me to use the switching back and forth between Green's Memories and the bitter reality.

Back shoulders

2012-01-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

Shoulders and backs were always a little hard for me. The contour lines of it are always covered up by the arms, and there's little definition in the middle of the back, So even when I drew the frame of the posture before drawing the actual picture it still looked off. I guess this is something just just relied entirely on practice.

Ok, enough of that, here's a quick joke.

'Cessy's character

2012-01-05T13:40:00.000-08:00

Simone Caldera is an original character Francesca developed for a story she's set in the Buzz Lightyear of Star command Universe.

Sim's story is pretty engaging, but I'm not at liberty to share any of it. This shot here is when she returns to her home for the first time since training and right before she decides to leave her team.

My take on the design ended up looking a little too james bond-ish, but I like the way the hair turned out. I usually fail miserable at hairbands.

In any case, I completely went out of style with the source cartoon. I might take another go at this...

Model Blue's Mirror

2011-12-29T21:23:00.000-08:00

Model Blue from Bridgette Brian and the Bunny. I usually draw her more expressive.

This really bled onto the page, though. I was drawing completely bind and even though the framing unravels as when it reaches the legs.

That's stool is really off too, but it's close to something model blue would have in her room.

Headshaking kitty

2011-12-09T23:53:00.001-08:00

Worked on one hell of an animation over the last few weeks. Honestly did not think I had it in me. It's been ages since I did something fully animated of this length.

The whole think was 30 second commission for my roomates short film, so I won't share more than this, but if it shoes up on youtube, I'll link it.

It's good to return to bigger things.

holy shot! look at this hand!

2011-11-14T23:12:00.001-08:00

Even she's amazed at how well that hand turned out. And there was barely any work put into. But the size is perfect, it fits witht the rest of the arm perfect (the arm itself might need a little more foreshortening work around the elbow).

More sketchy animation

2011-11-14T00:36:00.000-08:00

and some pony!
I haven't mentioned the ponies yet have I?

Chips hit the fan

2011-11-11T18:36:00.001-08:00

Rapid sketches.

I should do more of these.

No thought no structure, just F7 - Drawframe - F7 - Drawframe

hands

2011-11-10T00:04:00.001-08:00

Huh, I think I improved a little on hands over the course of this project.

Had to draw an automail hand at the last minute this morning. I was in a hurry so I just applied stroke order lining while using a visual aid.

It helped a lot with the fingers, but I think would really helped was how I dealt with the palm. I don't think I pay enough attention to drawing that part of the hand.

Anyway, I ended up using what I learned in the next M8BG comic and it's still holding up.

As for that project that's been taking up most of this blog, It's done as far as being a school assignment goes, but I still need to tweek it a lot before I show anyone here.

Moment of Doubt

2011-11-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Overcame something today that I never thought I'd be able to,

Because up until now I've only ever faced it alone.

Winry

2011-10-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

This is more of the opening sequence I'm animating for that class. I'm getting closer to finishing it (thank goodness it's due wednesday)

Today's post is not nearly as pretty as yesterday, though. :P

hmmm... I could always make every character in this assignment look like 'Cessy. My teacher hasn't seen this cartoon, she'd never notice.

Sexy Cessy session

2011-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

Super!

More FMA stuff

2011-10-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

I gotta work faster on this assignment, so it's going to be taking up the blog for a while.

Luckily this projects mostly animation and timing and has little drawing, so I can get this done fast if I really focus.

Oh, and here's this.

Full metal alchemist arts

2011-10-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

Power outage at an inopportune time. Let's look at a project I'm working on for class.

Doing sort of an opening sequence for Full metal Alchemists as a motion graphics assignment.

This is one of the last shots where you descend down these columns of the homunculi down to Ed standing on a philosopher's stone.

Originally Envy's whole mouth was going to open so wide it would span across the screen, like the other mouths, but I never found a decent way to make that work with the whole picture, so he just serpents around it now.

Also, here's sonic as beserk or something, I forgot why I drew this.

Ada's dead.

2011-10-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

Let's take a moment to remember Negative 8 ball girl... by looking at the process I took to kill her

We start by drawing it, along with the rest of the comic, in a bit of a messy splash page on a notebook in the middle of the college dining commons, Probably raising a few questions from people stealing a glance at it.

Using the sketch as a reference, but not a direct outline, I redrew it in photoshop

Backround is added next now. this doesn't help the picture, but it helps the overall comic a lot better to position everything and then color it. Really I wish I knew sooner, it's made the final steps a lot easier. The gradients a bit strong here, but the bulk of it is covered up, so I kept it.

Coloring is a bit desaturated for this panel to draw more attention to the bullet. I'm told to put them on a separate layer than the outline to make adding effects easier, but it's a bit clumsy for me, so I only do it when I really need to, like with the forehead there.

So here's the detail around the forehead. The bullet exit wounds are supposed to be pretty messy. I didn't use a reference (probably should have) but I think it's pretty clear how it looks

The bullet took a bit of work to get the perspective right. Of course the reader's going to know it's a bullet, and they're going to know what general direction it's going (away from the gaping hole in the head. But It's not exactly something you can phone in.

Added some spinning blood for flare. Kinda haphazard in hindsight, but it doesn't take it away too much.

Final touch is a noise effect that I blurred the heck out of. It's mostly to mute out the rest of the picture around the bullet, though.

I abuse the heck out of that noise effect recently. I guess it's because it's the one effect I was completeyl unable to reproduce when I drew the comic in flash.

myself

2011-10-23T23:49:00.000-07:00

I've gotten a lot more comfortable drawing myself

I'm not sure if it's because I'm happier about my appearance, or I'm happier with what I can draw, but I used to have so many issues with every self sketch I made.

Then again, I'm cheating by removing the eyes here

relearning style

2011-10-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

Starting today 1 sketch a day again

I'm more than capable. I have the time again. and I have a new reason to be on blogger!

This is Francesca. She's made me remember how far of I've come, how far I need to go, and why it's important I keep going.

The face was drawn by her, trying out my tablet, and I couldn't leave well enough alone, So I drew a little more and colored it.

Anyway it's been over a year since the last update, but what I need to do even more so is cover what I've been summerize what I've been learning. especially over that bleak 2 years.

But what might be more interesting is what I've had to unlearn

The better I got at anatomy, the more expressive and experimental and expressive I got with it.

However, as much as I kept pushing my work further and further with what I wanted to occur as I sketched during lunch breaks and brainstormed on long walks home... my capabilities with the final product were harder and harder to meet.

The character artwork dictated the comic so much that dialogue became much harder to edit, and backgrounds were given less than bare minimum. and paneling was nigh impossible. The dialogue became convoluted, the locations became static at the worse possible time, and pages barely ended on a joke anymore. This was the worst the comic had ever been.

Flash was also having trouble keeping up and I switched to photoshop soon after. It was a rough transition, but as I busied myself learning this new program and overusing it's different effects,

The real problem though was how stiff everything was and I think the main reason for that was all the layered structure.

Tons of shapes making contorted figures that were traced directly over and crammed into tiny areas, which were made even smaller to due to word balloons.

The structure still exists, but I'm not using it as a crutch anymore. How I draw with a pencil is far different from how I draw on a tablet, so I'm trying more to re apply my older styles of characterized stroke-order-focused drawing. So while I still draw the structure and skeleton and function on paper, I only use it as a reference, creating a mental buffer that allows for more flexibility.

Puppet work

2010-05-14T12:54:00.001-07:00

Progress on the Old spoon man is going well. More urgent though, is the Mawile puppet I need to finish in about 2 weeks.

So far the foam skull and felt head are about done.

But I still need to add some extra features and alterations before it can fit the exact shape. I've been doing some minor sketches

And here's the picture I'm using the most for reference.

This guys been easier to make than I thought, though. I might just do this more often.

The Creepy old man and the fork

2010-04-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

This one is a joke I've been meaning to animate for about 6 months now. I don't want to give away anything about it, but I can at least say I'm far enough into the project that it will definitely be finished.

Eh!? what now?

2010-04-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

I draw people giving a wtf look way too often.

The old guy was wierd to draw because of how his cheekbones were inside the contour lines. I don't think I've done that before now.

Back on the Sigma star Saddle

2010-04-16T11:40:00.001-07:00

Plowing back into that Sigma Star Saga cartoon sketch I stopped working on last year. While I work to find a better suited style for Bridgette brian and the bunny, I'm going to at least fit this project into my schedule.

Magic 8 ball girl's current fillers are taking longer than expected, but the exercise of doing a small comic each day is getting me used to my new living conditions.

wraking my brain here

2010-03-27T00:06:00.000-07:00

So I decided to rework the physics engine for the magic 8 ball girl adventure game from scratch, which widdled down to rewriting the way the jumping and falling worked so that it fit into an exact grid and I didn't have any more risk of falling through the floor.

Worked so far, but the jumping lacked that nice gradual feel to it. So I'm currently working out a script that would make the height of the jump gradually decrease until they started falling.
I'm overthinking a lot of it, and there're probably some in depth tutorials on it, but I've got a stubborn streak when it comes to stuff like this.

More character concepts

2010-03-24T00:28:00.000-07:00

This little guy's been in some planning stages for a long time. Probably will never see the light of day outside of this blog, but if he does, it will take a hell of a lot of work.

and no, he's not related to Tiny Fortune.

I've never been to good with shading, but then I remembered this blogs supposed to be about improvement, so that's no excuse. On that note, maybe I should draw more backdrops.

Brian rework possible.

2010-03-23T00:20:00.000-07:00

Other than a few test drawings, I haven't really really drawn Brian Green in years. So I drew Brian blindly without trying to keep her looking like her original design.
The eye's I'm not to sure about (possibly playing too much cave story). I do like how they make her look a little less human and her eyes are supposed to be prosthetic, but they'll be a lot trickier to make expressive.
Her right arm's always been damaged, but I've never visibly shown the damage before. Might be too much though.

I do like how Urchin like she is in this picture. fits her character pretty well, although she may look a bit too weak.

Bringing back the blog

2010-03-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

It's time to keep myself in check again. Daily updates are back.
This comic was made over the weekend. I actually haven't played Dragon Quest three since I stopped updating the blog so it's surprisingly appropriate to make this comic.
Here's a sprite I used for reference

One thing that was taking up a huge amount of time over the year was sketching up the comic. Having to draw the same picture in pencil and then in flash made me realize how different the mediums are. I even noticed differences in the pencils when I switched them

These sketches were from when Collin confronts Ada about her being the Ace of Clubs. At the last minute I realized Ada would be finally admitting it was Stacie that she was going to have to kill and if this was the same time this was happening. And while it made for big moment there were too many things to focus on at once.

Luckily, Timboy already knew about Ada, and didn't know much about Stacie, so he was a perfect neutral to talk to Ada, while Collin's part of the story kept his own focus talking against Jody.

I've gotten too used to drawing comics

2009-02-21T19:47:00.000-08:00

This guy is not going to be easy animating this guy. This is a random Krill grunt for one of the Sigma Star Sketches

Sigma Star Shockwave: Scarlet keys practice

2009-02-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

Trying to get more work done on that Flash Toon I promised. I have a sketch planned out that includes Scarlet keys from the game, but I was having trouble getting this one expression right. I decided to see if a little practice would help.

Scarlet Keys Concept art by Matt Bozon

I decided to use the concept art version of Scarlet as a reference, which gives her a bit of a sharper face. Then I sketched up a picture of her in the exact same pose using the above picture as a reference. After a few tries, I stopped useing the reference and tried drawing her on just memory.

Left: my practice from having the direct reference in sight.
Right: working directly from memory.

I felt a lot easier with drawing her after that. Here's one of the poses she needs to make during the flash.

If the pose here looks familiar it should

Adventure Game Design Ada's House

2009-01-29T22:31:00.000-08:00

I got the designs set up for Ada's home in that game I'm working on

Ada starts the Game in her room and finds that he options to leave the room are pretty slim thanks to one of her Billiard bombs clogging the staircase. After she escapes the only way she can get back into her room is through that ceiling. Even later in the game, the Billiard Bomb will fall through stairs leading to a new location.

The pawn shop seems like an obvious place to buy items. Collin's computer would be a good place to get access a walkthrough for the game, but Collin is not about to just let you walk into his room to mess with his stuff.

The Comic is taking a lot longer to draw

2009-01-09T00:59:00.001-08:00

This is what my framing process has sort of Become. Keep in mind, I don't study drawing or talk to many people about it too often, So I'll probably say a few things that sound really stupid or obvious.

In the past I would try to do the posture line or the chest before the shoulders. I'm surprised I didn't realize my problem was I was working from the inside out, when I can get better control of my shape working from the outside in.
One thing drawing Magic 8 ball girl all the time has taught me (this is a frame for Quat' not ada, BTW) is what my prefered arm length is in proportion to the body. My rule has become to keep the Elbow at the same distance as the 8 ball vest (or the persons chest.) The rest of the arm keeps it size from that for me.

After that Comes writing, setting, inking, and coloring, then framing and posting.

The first 3 steps usually take the longest. Just because I can never get enough room for everything.

One last note. I'm going to a bad place when I die for drawing something like this.

Lit Trailer. Do want!

2008-12-23T14:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_DxR7qaLrE

Oh, this game can't come soon enough. I made a desktop image for it:

Similarly related, I managed to find a new copy of Sigma Star Saga, including the box and instructions.
It's a good thing my work on that Flash cartoon halted, because it looks like I made a few errors on Reckers Krill armor.

Had to post this one

2008-12-19T01:39:00.000-08:00

God I'm so glad they didn't go for that ending. It would have messed me up so bad as a kid. (Like that cartoon about the guy trapped in the egg being crushed by a bigger guy in an even larger egg.)

Comic's upgrade

2008-12-15T01:19:00.000-08:00

Every Few months, it seems I get a little less pleased with the Quality of Magic 8 Ball girl. Overall it ends up being a good thing. What else is going to motivate me to draw better.

However, a the recent spike in quality has been a bit of a doozy. After drawing all the animated Cells for the Magic 8 Ball Girl game and the Sigma Star Saga cartoon, I now can't even draw Magic 8 Ball Girl without using framing:

I had been able to get by with only visualizing the frames for a good while, but that is no longer enough. The drawings are getting much better, true. But it's also taking me forever to do so, and It's a little discouraging.

Zelda Song

2008-11-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

Not sure what I'm going to do with this one, but:

It was 1998, my skirt was short my hat was long
Caught somewhere between the now and then
There were 7 Sages and time travelin' through the ages
It was Wintertime I spent with the Big N
Ahh Ahh Ahh
Ahh Ahh Ahh

Slashing Bongo Bongo
Smoking King Dodongo
Plus the simple tricks like webs and fish and crates
We didn't have game F-A-Qs
But if I ever had to choose
I'd rather solve those puzzles with my mates

[Chorus:]
And we were finding different hearts
We were sequence breaking parts
Making up some crazy shit for the Scarecrow's song
Trapping Fairies in a bottle, playing strait 'till tomorrow
Singing Sweet home Ocarina all winter long
Singing Sweet home Ocarina all winter long

Forgot to change the last 2 lines

Phantom Legs

2008-11-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

I haven't done a big animated project since BBB2, I hadn't realized how drastically my style has changed since then. I hope I get this project finished soon so I can really see differences.

Best thing Peta's ever done.

2008-11-17T18:31:00.000-08:00

Had to share this one. Peta's made a flash game against cooking turkeys using an Evil Cooking Mama.
It's maniacally brilliant, just thinking up the idea of an evil Cooking mama. They even have a wallpaper for her.

Then they had to go and throw the tofu-turkey in there. I get what their TRYING to do, but out of all the Vegetarian meals to serve as an alternative to Turkey, I giant mass of Tofu does not sound appealing. Tofu is best in smaller varied portions like in rice bowls and as breaded fake chicken wings.

Boarding the ship

2008-11-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

Here's more of the animation I'm working on.
I want to get it done before christmas, but this was all I had time to animate this week.
Case in point: I'm going to go into overdrive for it.

Here are the references I used to draw those backgrounds.
And here's one last picture.

As long as I put my standards as low as possible, I should be able to get things done fast enough. I know it would probably be better to take my time, but I might not ever finish it if I don't accept my pace.

Sigma Star Shockwave

2008-11-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

I got a lot sketch ideas from playing this game, and I'm going to go ahead with a flash cartoon.
Oddly enough, none of those jokes revolve around the skimpyness of the Parasite Bikinis.
Running animations have been so much easier for me since I studied those Shantae Sprites. I didn't have a need to animate the legs, but I it probably wouldn't have taken me another hour to do.

M8BG Game level sketch

2008-11-05T23:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if I'm going to start working on this game right away, but I've already got a few ideas for this new game outlined so far, including story, characters, overall structure and such.

What we have here a detailed look at how the intro sequence will play. There's a man trapped in his gigantic basement, and it's up to Magic 8 Ball girl to dive down there and carry him out. She can either hoist him on her shoulder (weighing her down and making the Platforming difficult), or she can put the man in the bucket, leave him over on the other side of the level, open the box to find the rope, and then use the rope on the convienient pully to lower it to the man in the bucket and lift him up.

There are also other tricks like pulling the level to make a bridge, and going through a door instead of making a tricky jump. I also figured I'd add a clock, just for kicks.

New Character: Quat'

2008-11-02T22:22:00.000-08:00

I had a sketch of her original concept, but it got deleted, so here's a photo of the FBI agent from heroes who looks kind of like her:

Game Progress continues

2008-10-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

Progress on the game goes well. I think I have a working item inventory figured out. It got a little overwhelming when I realized how many variables and conditional statements I'd have to use to get it all working.

It shouldn't be long before I start working on an actual game based on this thing, but I'm getting tired just thinking about it. I'm not even sure what Variables I'm supposed to store to make save files yet. And testing something like this is going to be a real headache.

This counts as two posts

2008-10-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

Making a game. I'll have more details later, but for now, here's a look at the sprites

This walking segment here (click to play) takes a lot of notes from the animation to the game Shantae. Nothing is traced over or directly ripped, mind you, but considering how well I usually do on walking cycles I learned a great deal.
And I do know the benefits of taking reference from real life, But in this case those references were not helping.

Shantae also caught my attention because she has a similar playful attitude to Magic 8 Ball Girl. However, when it comes to responsibility and Conscience, Magic 8 Ball Girl probably has more and common with Sam and Max.

Retrospective

2008-10-12T01:36:00.001-07:00

Legend of Luik

It's time for a retrospective. When I started that Cartoon in '05, I thought it would be a simple animating out of Mookie's My Angel with limited use of artistic license. By the end of it's production it was entirely different cartoon and one with a story that I was pretty proud of. Even still I had some issues with Legend of Luik's plot upon its completion, and it has only been recently that I realize why.

The Main scene I had problems with was the one during the Bridge (2:55 to 3:25) Here the girl Katharina is supposed to make Luik realize what a monster he has become on his journey, but nothing she could do felt natural to the story. He practically realized it on his own while the rest of the time was padded with shots of the people he killed (just in case you forgot- dur hur hur).

The issue from the story is actually rooted to a scene (which also takes place during the bridge) in My Angel's story, but the blame is still mine, as this was the very first scene I gutted during my first rewrite. To show the moral high-ground that the hero possessed, Mookie had one of the villains Seduce the hero as a last resort and he resists her because he's fighting for more than lust. As Necessary as this scene was it seemed like a highly out of place move for the villainess to make (easily misinterpreted as a sign of the artist's deprived needs). In an attempt to fix this problem, I changed the Seducing woman to an innocent daughter of the villain. I took it too the opposite extreme by making her much more sympathetic as I developed the plot. The Girl and Luik end up switching roles as villain and hero over the course of the movie. Both of our movies ended up making the same mistake.

In both of these cartoons the character who should have been focused on to fix this issue was the Captured girl. In My Angel the girl is unconscious for the entire show, and in Legend of Luik she does nothing but forgive and enable the murderous side of the hero. I did flesh out a lot of this girls character in her story preceding the events of legend of Luik, but if I had developed a Passive heroine from her character and not made her accept the destruction of her village and death of her loved one, then I could have had some much better motivation in these characters and the plot would have been a little more solid..

In the end, I learned that Mario really messed up my view of the Hero rescues princess story structure, what with the entire focus on mario and making toadstool just wait there as a goal and not a character. I also learned that just building onto your characters more and more is a blind way to develop a story, and I should always continue researching on things I can apply to my writing.

More Cave story art kinda

2008-10-07T21:13:00.001-07:00

I was had some writing thing planned for today, but that can wait for next weekend.

Quote the raven... not a raven

2008-10-06T10:59:00.001-07:00

Here's a bunch of quote sketches. Sprites are so easy to misinterpret.
I'll have a big post for tomorrow.

Just dropping this off here.

2008-10-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

This isn't saturdays sketch.

Exsquirrellsion

2008-09-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Someone at my School said a squirrel knocked out a transformer and got killed while causing a blackout.

So I drew it.

Zero as a Meme

2008-09-27T21:58:00.001-07:00

I've drawn some questionable stuff for this Blog in the past... But I think I've really scared myself this time.

This is from a rather odd meme that uses the facial expression of this girl from some recent doujin and pastes it over various pictures. My favorite one is this:

Here's megaman

2008-09-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

This has been the longest weekend I've ever had. It gave me plenty of time recover from that awful flu, but it still felt like I went through 5 days instead of 3...

It is still sunday right? I didn't forget to update Magic 8 Ball Girl, did I?

Really sick today

2008-09-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

Man I don't know what Happened, but Today and yesterday I have gotten sicker than I've ever been in a long time. I think I actually got delusional the other night.

Here's hoping I recover by tomorrow.

Teenage Ada

2008-09-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

And so we say Farewell to Teen ada for now. Here's a collage of all the sketches of her from this flashback sequence, as well as some concept sketches from when this story was first conceived back in february.

I've gotten so used to drawing Teen Ada, it may make going back to the old look a little difficult.

Dos Games and BBB

2008-09-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

This blogs gotten boring, and since I no longer have M8BG hanging over my head Everyday, I guess I should bring this up to two updates a week.

So Look out for updates every saturday and Sunday.

Anyway, I've been playing a ton of old games lately. I've got the ScummVG engine running point and click games on my wii, I just Beat Athena on an NES emulator (A game I used to play when I was only 3), and I even have a mock dos system running on my Mac to play some of those old programs back when PC gaming was a little more affordable.

Their Even more affordable now though. A lot of these old games are available on the Web as Freeware. And the ones that aren't freewares are available for free too, but that's where the Ethics begin to blur :)

Here's my celebration of Defeating Athena:

And here's a concept for the custom character Icon I was trying to make for Castle of the Winds, before I realized how broken that system was (that's windows 3 for you):

Brians looking as tough as ever, which brings us to our next bit of info, Bridgette Brian and the Bunny is back in motion, Here's what I have so far

Legacy of Squares

2008-09-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

So I started Drawing the Soul Reaver Bosses in a megaman esc grid... then I ran out of bosses

Then I ran out of Bosses... I could have put Kain in there, but that would be like putting Wile in there.

These guy's portraits are also modeled slightly after the Megaman Two villains they take the box of. The most obvious one is Melchiah as Airman.

Another late update.

2008-09-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

I keep forgetting these updates. It's your fault you know. That's right you, Gregory feltrick!

Here's a something

2008-08-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

I drew this a while ago, but every week I try to write the post for it, it drags on and we just skip it. so here it is.

I can't help but feel I've forgotten something...

2008-08-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

Oh... woops. Magic 8 Ball Girls 1 year anniversary was 9 days ago

CHAKAN!!!!

2008-08-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

I faced facts. Chakan the forever man is just not coming out on the virtual console. So got it through the web already.

Chakan in some ways represents a lot of what the sega genesis was for me. Overly Dark hardcore yet campy settings with the most unnatural sound effects you ever heard and frustrating but barely manageable platforming... exactly what I needed back then.

Dart

2008-07-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

I did this drawing soley to write a review for a budding little comic called franken fran. The picture here was drawn as is, and I made plenty of sloppy mistakes aligning the face and such at that angle, but it added to the sort of flavor the comic has so I left it that way.

Oh, but I was going to talk about dart:

I'll be bringing Dart back into the comic Wednesday (correction: friday) and obviously the guy who was made up of two squares and four sticks needed a big revamp. Now that above picture is terrible, and I won't be using anything below the neck there he shouldn't even have a sword, what the hell did I draw that for?

I like the hair though.

Alice 6 Months Later

2008-07-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

So Here a look at how Alice has changed over the past 6 months since she was introduced into Magic 8 Ball Girl. I gave her a big remodeling this week since she's providing some important recaps for this story.

Book 2

The Hair and bangs have been changed for Book 2. She now resembles a middleset Brian Green

The actual idea though is to make her hair resemble Tiny Fortune teller's hood.

Crazy Stuff last week.

2008-07-14T23:52:00.001-07:00

So first up, here a info on what's going on behind the scenes of Magic 8 Ball Girl:
Some art for the Pending new website:

These will of course be buttons to other parts of the site. Ralk.net is my sisters Website, so she's helping me get my start. check it out.
I'm also going to get a guide set up for new readers. Good places to start reading, Explanations about the characters, excuses for why the art sucks :).
I was going to have things like this on the blogger site for M8BG, but I could never work it into the templates.

I also finally updated the Banner I made back in 2006. It is nice to see my roster of Original Characters growing... I really need to do more with Space Boy someday.

Now for some info on the comic itself.
A new Character was introduced to Magic 8 Ball Girl's story Yesterday. I wanted to make sure she left an impression, so I gave her an entrance so dynamic it took me all afternoon and it still wasn't quite what I wanted, but...

Of course one of the main reasons this took so long, was the redesigning

Yes, it's the girl I created way back in February. I'm actually committing to what I said back in february about making her the main antagonist of this next plot. Funny thing is, her character's going to be a lot rounder than Ada this story... Round as in her character growth over the story.

Stoof!

2008-07-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

This was a fun thing to draw. It's magic 8 ball girl in a statue of David Pose that I sketched during my art history class.

Here's the framework I used for it. I usually have trouble with the spine curves when I try framing the the more active poses. So I consider this one a victory.

because the statue I based this one was a masculine one, it also gave me a more acute idea of the physical differences.

Guess what technique I just learned!

2008-06-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'm taking an art history class on Renaissance to Present day and I learned about a drawing technique developed early on in that era.
Can You guess which one it is?

Well as you can see I've been using Mantegna foreshortening, which is another word for (as the teacher put it) pretending your audience is full of morons (emphasis on pretending). You over exagerate the contour lines between a persons skin to force the reader to see the depth of their limbs or body. and like that mentally challenged guy from flowers for Algernon, I'm using it at every opportunity no matter how inappropriate.

But, just look at the hands! I think this is the first time I've improved on my hand work since... years before I even started this blog. I mean look at this. Hell, the main reason I kept Magic 8 Ball Girl a Stick figure for so long was because of the hand issue.

So Yeah, Good learning experience had by all.

Severe Updates to M8BG

2008-06-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

A new Website is under constuction to be the new home of Magic 8 Ball Girl. With more elbo room, a fully functioning archive system and a shiny new banner.

notice something about Magic 8 Ball Girl

Stick limbs are a thing of the past now. I am confident enough now to draw Magic 8 Ball Girl and all her friends with slightly greater anatomical correctness.

Not bad for a guy who learned to draw from a kanji book.

Creepy sketches

2008-06-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

This weeks Sketches may be a bit offputting.

Sasuke and Itachi reenact the infamous scene from South Park's "Scott Tenorman Must Die"

A scrapped comic involving a catholic priest and a high school teacher. You can guess why I didn't finish it.

"Kill him"
With these words the boy's life changed. No longer was he his mother's son, he was the product of his father's thievery and betrayal, and as such his mother would make him become his father's end.
With that accomplished she faded, passing down no compassion, no love, no comfort to her son; only that one burden.

dIRT PARK

2008-06-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

A park for dirt

Sundays comic

2008-06-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

So for this weeks sketch blog, Here's a timeline of how freaken long yesterday's magic 8 ball girl comic took.

8:00 pm: Mentally tried to picture the panel layout, and accepted the fact I needed to plan it out first for this week:
I wrote it out and divided it by panels
Then I drew a rough sketch for each panel by grid

Now I just figure out the best way to orginize the panels. And I figured the best way was to stick with switching between 1 and 2 panels per row.
They I slanted them were appropriate, and shifted them this way:9:00 pm: Drew up the first panel, started working on how the candles were in there.

Suddenly got an idea for a Naruto comic, sketched it up and uploaded it to Deviant art

10:00 pm: Finished the first panel, Started panel 2. Decided it would be better to make the background for it first. Pulled up a reference for panel 3.

11:00 pm - 1:00 am: got panel 4 and 5 out of the way. Ran into a bit of trouble on panel 6 and dug up some references from page 28 for panel 7 and adapted it accordingly.

1:00 to... 2:30 am: Panels 8 9 and 10 made. Somewhere in that, I respond to a comment on the Naruto Comic. It gets my mind wandering, and I look through some old writings and got some thoughts hammered down.

2:30 to 4:00 am: Wrote out the dialogue for the panels, and then proceded to fill in all the outlines of drawings so that the backgrounds didn't stick out. Added word balloons, and respaced the panels.

4:00 - 5:00 am: adjusted the export window for Flash mx and saved the imageTook the image into photoshop and cropped it into segments that were shorter than 800 pixels so PhotoBucket would not compress them.

Uploaded each image to Photobucket, Saw an error in the third panel, fixed it and re-exported and uploaded that to photobucket.

Posted the Comic to Magic 8 Ball Girl. Collapsed to bed, and saw the light of the sun breaking out the window.

Other notes:
Coloring was down periodically over sunday, so I'm not going to bother timelining that.
Periodically during the process, I would get large 2 cup glasses of Water or Dr. Pepper (only caffinated drink I had at hand), as well as a little of the leftovers from dinner that evening.

Back from Fanime

2008-05-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

Man that was an awesome trip. There's a slight irony to the fact that my regular job has me sitting around all day and my first vacation was to a convention where I'm on my feet walking around all day. But I have to say, I feel a lot better after the whole thing. I guess a change of pace is just refreshing weather it's slowing down or speeding up.
Me my sister and my brother were at the convention mainly to scout it out. Next year we will be putting up a booth in the artist alley in hopes to make a sustaining profit off our work.
We learned a lot from the trip and have plenty of ideas for the booth we'll have set up next year, but I have to keep those plans under my hat for now. (Of course, Magic 8 Ball Girl will be a star attraction to the show.

It wasn't all just work of Course, Here's some of the pictures from the Con'. My sister has most of them right now, so I'll get those up later.

This is the "Costume" I had for the convention. I'm not one for Cosplaying, so I got the Elmo Puppet (from the same Youtube Video) and Dressed it up as Tayuya from Naruto. I turned more than a few heads for this one, but MAN ALIVE it was a strain just too keep it's head up sometimes. My arms nearly fell off there.

Sadly, the only Cave Story Costume I came across.

I swear, when they designed the Girl Trainer's costume for Pokemon D/P, They must have thought, "What would be the most Cosplay friendly design for her."

L plays Chess with another L. THIS is what I call getting into character.

This statue was a block away from the convention... I don't think I need to explain what's so funny about this.

Here are some of the Souvenirs I purchased at the con.
In addition to getting the Shiraishi Figure, I also picked up a special box of the first Lucky star DVD.
That sketch in the Middle I purchased from the Artist Alley. on my last day there.
And there was a girl in the artist ally was making custom figurines, so I commisioned for a magic 8 ball girl one. Her Deviant art Profile is here, if you want to check it out.

Including the price of Food, I only spent a grand total of less than 200 dollars at this convention, which appearently isn't much at all. In fact on my first day I spent hours wandering around the "Dealers den" and this Tron Bonne Toy was the only purchase I made. (at half price too). I've always been needlessly finicky, though.

There was also a booth where a girl would draw you in your costume as an anime character. So I commissioned a caricature of my Tayuya Puppet

Lost winds art

2008-05-19T00:10:00.000-07:00

This week's art based from the new game lost winds. a game that plays like a japanese platform adventure, but with character designs from out of american newspaper comics.
And... that's all I have... Um...

Here's some Magic 8 Ball Girl Stuff

2008-05-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

Because You don't get enough Magic 8 Ball Girl as it is... oh wait, yes you do... Hell You're probably wondering where the hell BBB went. Even I don't know that.
This is why I didn't start this comic until after BBB2 was done. I knew it would do this to me.
Things will get better as soon as this chapter is over, though.

And here's something Killer 7 and No More Heroes related

I'm busy tonight.

2008-05-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

I have other sketches, but I have a lot to do today, so just take this.
I'll get the rest on monday.

Upgrading soon...

2008-04-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

That Tax break is coming and APPARENTLY I'm supposed to spend it instead of hording it way with all my other piles of money.
MONEY!
MONEY!!
...
Anyway, I figured the best way to spend this stuff is to blow it on upgrading my art equipment. After all, I have absolutely no time for any new video games, and I can't upgrade my TV or speakers without Breaking the 500 dollar mark. Besides if I ever get the motivation to turning a profit on this stuff (not with overwherehoused T-shirts, but products people would actually want,) Then it might be a good investment.

Question is, Where do I upgrade. We have a few Options.

One: New Computer. The Computer I use now is approaching it's 3rd birthday. It's seems like only yesterday I was Downloading "The Bards song" off limewire, realizing how it wasn't a good idea for a cartoon, and worked on Legend of Luik instead.
It is starting to get a bit slower and louder, and I'll probably need a laptop in the Future. However MacBooks are over 1000 bucks, and I've actually gotten used to carrying a amall notebook and pencil around for the portable work.

Two: Upgrading Flash. I've been working off Flash MX (7) for god knows how long, and software upgrading would be in my price-range. Granted though, I'm not sure I really need it, and if I want to upgrade, it may require a faster computer, which brings me back to option one. I'm probably going to wait until I get a new computer. I could probably find one that has flash 8 or whatever, included in the system.

Three: New Tablet. Oh, this is the real tempting one here. My Current Tablet is about 4 by 6 and I've had it for about 2 years. But I have been having a pushing on M8BG's Art lately and a larger sensitive tablet could help me some.
Something Like this, is tempting.
And this one might be worth the extra cash.
But this one would definitely be a step up for me. I'd have to save up some money on my own to get it, but it's definitely a possiblity.

So the current gameplan is probably splurging on the Wacom Moniter Tablet and then, when I do need to replace my computer, getting a mac mini or something else portable that doesn't come with a it's own monitor. Still, to make that work, I'll have to really tighten my current budget and focus My education and My Current Hobbies into something that I can live off of so that getting this tablet will seem like a sound enough investment for me. We'll see how things look when I actually get the tax break though. I just felt like sharing.

Star wars and Star fish

2008-04-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

"Star Porn" Porn star! These Starfish are all hands

I'm unusually proud of this one.This is another sketch using full skeletal framing to draw this stick figure of Magic 8 Ball Girl. More and more recently, I've been drawing the Magic 8 Ball Girl comic with a little framing here and there. So I suppose this is what Magic 8 Ball Girl would look if I did the comic full time and with a better tablet.
This picture of Bridgette and Brian I drew in a coffee shop did not turn out that well. But I seem to be doing a little better drawing Bridgette now.
Here's Brian Green Wearing a hat that she's going to have on further on in the story. I should definitely get back to that.

Sonic Capcom and Harvest moon

2008-04-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Mario and Sonic at the Beijing Olympics... Tibet is the least of their concerns
Resident Evil 5 dealing with some controversy lately

Harvest moon laws. Look how well done that artwork is.

This weeks Sketches

2008-04-06T22:58:00.000-07:00

First up, a new sketch for Model White. Added a little of the Stereotypical Long white Haired Fangirl Bishi to this character. Which is a little off fitting because she's a girl, and yet it's appropriate because all of those features are technically considered girly. I could make this a theme to all the Brian Robots. (Except Red, who's already a boy).
I drew this one about a year ago (had it saved on my phone since then)

The Pit and the Pendulum. THis could make a funny story if I fleshed it out.

Making up for lost time

2008-04-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, Magic 8 Ball Girl Comics did not get in the way of this blog, as I promised it wouldn't...

Smash Brothers is another story. I have not been keeping up with this blog at all lately.

So, I'm going to update it on sunday nights from now on. This does not mean there will only be one sketch a week, though.

Anyway, to make up for lost time:
MUDKIP BABIES!

Oh Boy... a new sonic team game

2008-03-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of things I want sonic team to do before I'll be convinced to have hope for this new sonic game.
It can also be taken as a list of things I blame for sonics decline in quality.

113

2008-03-24T02:12:00.001-07:00

Magic 8 Ball Girl
That last panel is me being lazy... and sleepy.

Now I'm just being silly

2008-03-20T22:57:00.001-07:00

It sounds better as a loop. Very catchy.

finally got smash bros back

2008-03-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the friend code

New Comic

2008-03-16T00:28:00.000-07:00

I've got to stop doing these slightly longer projects on the saturdays when I'm SUPPOSED to be making the Magic 8 Ball Girl Sunday Comic.

CRAB BATTLE!

2008-03-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

OLI OLI OLI OH!!

Outlined

2008-03-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

Models Red and Green

2008-03-10T23:02:00.001-07:00

Brain Red and Brian Green Training at a young age.

Ok, I'm back

2008-03-09T21:49:00.001-07:00

I'm still I'll, but I'm functioning again at least. Made this comic on an impulse when I suddenly got this idea.
I tell you, finding other ways of describing something besides using "Is am Was ect" is effective, but it can also be as hard as hell sometimes.

FLUED!

2008-03-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

I came down hard with a flu today (in the middle of work too) Luckily I have a Psuedo 3 Day weekend ahead of me, but I do have to attend a few events this weekend, and of course there's the Sunday Comic for 8 Ball Girl.

8 Ball won't be as much of a problem this week though, as I had already planned for something a lazy this week (and now I have the excuse to say it's because I was sick).

Also, Today, No sketch. Just me whining. I'm going to draw M8BG tonight and go to sleep.

Marth still rocks

2008-03-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

Got some time with Brawl yesterday. Marth's a tad slower, but I still managed to kick major ass with him... Lucario and pit... not so much.

Also, very sick of LANDMASTER! Very very sick of it. I'm tempted to turn off the smash ball when I get the game this sunday.

really old joke time

2008-03-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

When Outlaw Star first came to CN and the Ctarl Ctarl race showed up in the series, I came to the Obvious Joke Relating them to the Keyboard command: CTRL.

Couldn't really go anywhere with that joke though, but then Cartoon network started airing Blood+ and I found out about a group of characters in that anime called the Schiff.
It's stil a terrivle joke, but it's terrible in one of those ways where you have to figure it out, and when you do you immediately regret it and have only yourself to blame.

Suess

2008-03-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, Saturday is as hectic as ever thanks to M8BG, so Here's something quick.
I'm looking at Dr. Suess' art differently since I started developing my own style over this blog... actually this has really been the first time I've looked at his art I started the blog last year.

Animal Soccer world

2008-02-29T22:39:00.000-08:00

I had a post today, but I don't want to distract it from this thing I really have to show you guys

Cartoons don't get more intense than this.

Today A question

2008-02-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

So, within the last 6 months we've had "the comebacks", "Walk Hard", "Meet The Spartans" and now "Super Hero Movie"...

Not saying any of them were bad (except for Spartans which had more stolen internet jokes than Ebaums world) but as a few reviewers have already pointed out, the Parody genera is dangerously oversaturated in hollywood.

Within Two Years we're going to come across "Parody Movie"

oh wait. None of that was a question

Comic soon

2008-02-27T23:32:00.000-08:00

This was all I could get done today of it

Brian Blue Version 2.1

2008-02-25T23:22:00.000-08:00

I'm struggling to rework Brian Blue's look. She still has the same character to her. But she should do better with "Bookish Tomboy" look to her.

I'll come back to this with some better art.

smash bros comic

2008-02-23T22:57:00.000-08:00

This was a didn't have any framing used (except for the wireframe characters)
probably should have. anyway, Dark-ter mario turned out the best.

I'm Ready for Brawl

2008-02-22T23:17:00.000-08:00

are you?