Warden of the Dark Woods: Topsfield Fair Entry 2022

Welcome back to a retrospective of my entries to the Topsfield Fair, except this week is not much of a look back, since we’ve caught up to this year’s entry. I started making this picture in August, and I won’t lie: my August sucked, mainly due to the circumstances around my car. But I still wanted to submit a picture to the fair, and I wanted to get a bit more ambitious with my digital art. Thus, here we have “Warden of the Dark Woods”.

Since the Topsfield Fair mostly occurs in early October, I had wanted to make a spookier picture for the fair for a couple of years. And at the time, I recently whipped up a potential new character to play for Dungeons and Dragons (a game I only started playing last year) who visually resembles a witch.

Kiri Padparadscha (first name is decided, last name could be changed) is a Cleric of a small sisterhood devoted to the spirit of the Samhain season. Her sisterhood is suspected by some of being witches due to their garb, though others don’t mind their presence since they seem to avoid harming the people. Kiri mostly chuckles off the witch accusations, though she doesn’t deny them. Kiri is the second-youngest of four in this sisterhood, and the others took up domains one in our world could easily associate with Halloween: Twilight (oldest), Grave (second-oldest), and Trickery (youngest). Kiri’s sisters question her decision to represent the Light domain. Kiri, however, knows that Samhain ushers in a time of great darkness and cold. Thus, Kiri chose her domain (approved by the spirits of the season) to become a source of light and warmth to drive away whatever cold, dark forces threaten the people.

After watching Breadsword's video discussing the Disney movie The Black Cauldron which called it a “Halloween masterpiece”, I wanted to try making a D&D character who could represent Halloween (or Samhain) in an off-beat way. One of my big ideas was being able to cast fire magic out of a Jack-O-Lantern, but I didn’t strictly want the character to be a Wizard. (For those who don’t know, D&D has several different magic classes, and they each cast in different ways.) Hearing about the idea of children using carved-out vegetables (like gourds and turnips) to hold candles which light their way through the night, I thought about that fire and light being a protective force. Clerics are typically thought to be a support class in D&D, and the Light Domain subclass adds some fire spells Clerics wouldn’t normally learn (such as Burning Hands and Fireball) to a list which already includes several light-themed spells (like Sacred Flame and Guiding Bolt). I suppose this kind of concept could work for a Wildfire Druid, too, though for now, I understand Clerics a bit better and think it fits the concept better.

Kiri’s outfit was largely inspired by an outfit VTuber Korone Inugami occasionally wears. In addition to being an adorable outfit, I thought the colors work well for a character themed after autumn, as well as for fire due to the generally "warm" colors. Her holy symbol is a pumpkin with a Bowen knot carved into it. I tried to look up Samhain symbols, and the Bowen knot appeared often in my search, though I did try to design other leaf-themed symbols before settling on this. (Would making a Jack-O-Lantern require tinkerer’s tools or woodworker’s tools? Or something else?) I also figure she could use a hook to hold the lantern a distance away if she needs to, which could double as her mace.

Moonphase: Topsfield Fair Entry 2021

Welcome to my fourth week of posting about my old Topsfield Fair entries. This time, I’m showing off my entry from 2021. If you have been keeping up, you may have noticed I skipped a year. I would’ve liked to submit a new image to the 2020 Topsfield Fair, but we… didn’t have the fair that year. I think we all understand WHY there was no fair in 2020, don’t we? (gives White House the stink eye)

(sigh) …Anyway, instead of making a piece of digital art in 2021, I decided to try my hand at a hand-drawn piece. My folks often comment my hand-drawn work comes out better (maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, I’m my own worst critic), so I figured I would see how far a hand-drawn picture would go. And, of course, I would once again rely on my muse – Sakura Miyazaki – to help me through this.

Specifically, I wanted to illustrate Sakura’s self-made superpower: Moonphase. I’ve done a couple of pieces long ago about this ability, but to sum it up, she can project either an attractive force she calls “Fullmoon” or a repulsive force called “Newmoon”. Fullmoon manifests as a cyan-white disc which pulls objects toward her, while Newmoon conjures a reddish-black disc to push objects away. These discs are the centers of their respective forces and have the strongest effects right near them, though their influence could extend as far as Sakura can see. She could use this ability to pick up objects or redirect enemy attacks and later launch them back at opponents (as long as she doesn’t hurt herself with those captured attacks).

Lucids Pop Comic Cover: Topsfield Fair Entry 2019

Remember: You can also check out my website to check out full walls of my artwork.

And occasionally, I may post on Twitter when I am doing something, @RyuKageChroma.

Feel free to stop by my Twitch when I stream, too. Haven't done so in a while, but I'd like to start that again, occasionally.

For my third entry into the Topsfield Fair Fine Arts display, I decided to go for a different style of digital art. I wanted to show off several of my original Lucids characters, and I was at the time fascinated by a Playstation 4 game I had never played: Persona 5.

For those unfamiliar with Persona 5, while the game does use typical anime-style art, there’s a recurring motif throughout the game of 2D imagery in black-and-white, often shown on a single-color background (usually red). It’s a striking style, and I thought combining such dark shadows with bright simple colors would make a striking image.

At the front (and furthest left), we have my mascot: Sakura Miyazaki, also known as “Crescendo” when acting as a Lucid. And we can see her matching her skirt color to her dress because, in my quest to make her look good but not too busy in terms of color, I decided giving her either a red skirt or a teal skirt would be best for the design, and I wanted red (a rebel’s color) to be the dominant color in her design. I also had her readying her Newmoon power as the black disc in her left hand.

Meanwhile, behind Sakura (but further ahead), we have several of her Lucid friends and allies popping out. Next to her is Ken Thunder, leading the charge with a sword in one hand and lightning in the other. While Ken considers himself a hero, he does enjoy being able to fight Dream Pirates. The other three characters are ones I mentioned on this blog in past posts years ago, but I’ve updated their designs in some ways. From closest to the front to furthest in the back, we have “The Nocturne”, Mike Anacle (maybe change that to “Anakell”?), and Wendy Krane. In whatever stories I run through my head, Sakura and Ken are the stars, while these three are more supporting characters.

One thing to note: the colors I show here may not be the colors I use for their designs now. I just wanted to emphasize a color scheme of simple, distant colors in this image.

Below them all, we have an audience cheering on these “Stars”. While “Lucid” is the catch-all term I use for these psychic superheroes, I have been debating for years on what to call the good guys. “Dream Guardians” is a bit of a mouthful, “Dream Police” sounds unintentionally sinister (especially in the past few years), and “Knights” could be a little confusing when some of these characters don’t fit the image of knights, even if it was supposed to be a play on “night”. For now, I’m settling on the term “Stars” for Lucids who protect the Dream Dimension and those who enter it. “Stars” also kind of helps for the crowd at the bottom of the image cheering these Lucids on – an audience, if you will.

Wedding Portrait of the Unburnt: Topsfield Fair Entry 2018

Welcome back to my marathon of writing up about my entries to the Topsfield Fair. This week’s picture, made in 2018, was also intended to be a wedding gift for one of my cousins, who married earlier that summer. I received a suggestion on how to interpret my cousin and her fiancé, but I was not sure how well I could execute the idea.

2018 was a time when people still had high hopes for Game of Thrones, but I will admit to this day, I have not seen a single episode of the show. Thus, I had to do some research about the characters.

My cousin (left) is garbed as Daenerys Targaryen, I think as she appeared by the end of Season 7. I chose to garb her husband (right) as Illyrio Mopatis, a character who was a merchant (fits with his IRL job) and one of Daenerys’s early benefactors. Apparently, Illyrio gifted Daenerys with the dragon eggs which he (and the rest of the world) thought were petrified until Daenerys hatched them, kicking off her career as the “Mother of Dragons”.

Avatar VS Darkside: Topsfield Fair Entry 2017

I have been submitting my artwork to the Topsfield Fair for the last five years it has run, hoping I could get more eyes on my artwork. Since I haven’t regularly made money off my artwork yet, I enter as an Amateur in the fair’s contest, rather than as a Professional. I wanted to show off and discuss my entries sooner, but I kept delaying it until now. So, as I mentioned last week, for the next few weeks, I will be providing quick write-ups about these pictures.

The first year I entered the Topsfield Fair’s Art Contest was 2017, where I entered this image of my OC Sakura Miyazaki and… herself two more times. Material World Sakura (center) is feeling horribly low, but her inner positivity and inspiration manifest as her Lucid Avatar (left). While she is looking toward the bright side, however, Sakura is still being buried under a manifestation of her inner negativity, her personal Darkside with ice powers (right).

Whenever a Lucid awakens to their abilities in the Dream Dimension, they unwittingly create a Darkside, a personal Nightmare created primarily from their denial, secrets, guilt, and other fun negative qualities. A Lucid’s Darkside may arise within their mind to destroy them during especially low points of their lives, and they often threaten to destroy their host through “self” sabotage, which may manifest in the Material World.

My Pokemon TCG Illustration Contest 2022 Entries

When The Pokemon Company announced in October last year they would be holding an art contest where the winners may have their art turned into a trading card, as both an artist and a long-time fan of Pokemon, I was in. I ultimately submitted two entries, and although I didn't make it past the first round of judgment, I was glad I entered.

THE CONTEST

The prompt for this contest was to draw a Pokemon going about its day. Vague description, but those give you plenty of room to play. They had certain Pokemon you had to choose: Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charizard, Arcanine, Scizor, Greninja, Cramorant, or Galarian Rapidash. You could submit up to three entries total, which could be all different Pokemon for each or all the same one. But the Pokemon you chose for each entry had to be the main subject of the image.

If I remember correctly, the contest was announced in September 2021 and then opened in October and would remain open until the end of January 2022. Unfortunately, I half-forgot about the contest until sometime in December and then got to work. In the end, I submitted two entries.

GRENINJA

I chose Greninja as a subject because it's one of my favorite starter Pokemon and because I thought Greninja would give me a lot of fun movement options. As an anthropomorphic frog, I imagine it could run, jump, and swim well, but while I think jumping could've been cool, I thought climbing or wall clinging would be a unique take. Thus, I set this image in a forest by a river. Greninja would be clinging to a tree and swinging himself out to peek around for a better view.

I tried to add bits of water to give the impression he had recently emerged from the water. I also lowered the opacity on the webbing of Greninja's hands and feet.

Maybe I put a little more work into the background than I intended, with the river reflecting the land above it. If you look closely, I tried to add a few more Water Pokemon swimming in the river: the lilypad tops of two Lotad and the buoyant tail of a Marill. That stone tower was a landmark I thought of to give the background some extra depth. It's sort of based on a stone tower in the woods near my home, but I wish I had gone with something with a little extra flair.

GALARIAN RAPIDASH

Back when Pokemon Sword and Shield were new, I was inspired enough to draw a picture of Ponyta's then-recently-revealed Galarian form, trotting through a dark forest (its apparent natural habitat in Pokemon Sword and Shield). I chose to draw Galarian Rapidash as an evolution of that older image, literally.

I really wanted to emphasize color with this image. This form of Rapidash is a rather colorful Pokemon, with white fur for its body and soft pinks and mints for its mane. Using certain powers or certain attacks may also cause its horn to glow a soft yellow, with its mane flowing with the color during use. I figured the glowing horn could also be a source of light for Rapidash in their dark forest environment (I don't know how good Galarian Rapidash's eyes would be in the dark).

Speaking of the forest, I also wanted to make sure the forest got a chance to shine. The area where you find Rapidash's unevolved form Ponyta in the Galar region is the Glimwood Tangle, a forest illuminated mainly by the glow of mushrooms. Thus, I wanted the shine of these mushrooms to play a part in the lighting of this image, which would also add additional color. I probably could've done better with this aspect of the image, but I'll get to that below.

If I gave myself time to draw a third one, btw, I was torn between drawing Arcanine or Scizor, because I figured those two could've been interesting to draw but maybe less popular choices. However, an Arcanine drawing ultimately won the contest, so what do I know there? Still, an Arcanine drawing is now on my to-do list (Kantonian, anyway. MAYBE also Hisuian form another time.)

It's Time to Raise the Curtain...

How's it going, folks? I'm Ryu-Kage, and if you haven't seen this before, this is my art blog. Here, I upload artwork which I complete and feel confident enough to share, as well as discussing details about the pictures and my thought process when making them. ...At least, that was the intention about eleven years ago when I started this blog. You may have noticed I have not uploaded in about six years, though.

Why haven't I uploaded in such a long time? To be honest, I don't know if I can explain myself well. Probably a combination of losing confidence in my skills, not drawing as frequently as I once did, and losing sight of even uploading things. I can't say I am in a very good position right now, but I thought pushing myself to upload my pictures somewhere and talking about them would help me regain some confidence and control of my life. I have always to draw, and I should be proud of what I can do.

What's the plan going forward? First of all, I intentionally was writing here using as few apostrophes as I could, but if you haven't noticed yet, I will be dropping that affectation. It's a relatively minor change, but a change nonetheless. Click below for further plans going forward.

Pokemon: Clefable

Back in April, I tried to sell some prints of my Pokemon artwork at PAX East, some of which I had uploaded to the blog, others I had not.  One print I had involved two Pokemon from the original games which enjoy competitive popularity today: Clefable and Dragonite.  To be honest, I drew the Clefable as part of a different image and had planned Dragonite as an additional element for that image.  For now, I want to talk a bit about the Clefable I drew.

Copic Coloring & Sakura Miyazaki Recolor Project

At some point last year, I took an interest in Copic markers, a set of markers meant to be used to shade drawings. Usually, if you color a picture, while markers produce vibrant colors, the same bold color makes it difficult to shade or blend the markers if you have so few. Luckily, Copic sells 358 different colors of markers, which may be an overwhelming selection until you learn about the codes they grant each color. Every Copic marker has an alphanumeric code which tells you the appropriate way to use it if you shade, usually in the form of “R24” or “BG13” or something like that. The letters correspond to the color family of the marker (for example: “R” for red, “B” for blue, “BG” for blue-green / cyan / teal, “E” for earth colors), the first number identifies a brightness / shade / “purity” within that color family, and the last digit tells how light or dark the color is (0 is the lightest, 9 is the darkest). It reminds me of the hue, saturation, and luminosity values when you pick colors on a computer, except it can now be applied to ink. Apparently, you can shade with these markers by layering several colors of the same “hue” and “saturation” but different “luminosities”. It was an intriguing concept (which I only discovered last year), and I was curious about these markers.

Unfortunately, Copic markers are quite expensive. If a concrete arts & crafts store sells them, individual Sketch markers are about $8 each. Packs of three, six, or twelve sorted for their shading purposes are obviously more and not much of a discount (if any), and they are sometimes gated off from the rest of the merchandise. Since I arguably spend more time making art through the computer rather than physical prints (which I should do), I was unsure how often I would use these markers and which ones. Copic drawing in real life may not work so well, so I took a different approach to testing these markers.

I searched online for a complete color palette of Copic colors I could load into Photoshop. Copic provides the palette themselves, and the colors from that look just like the colors displayed on the website. However, after testing them out their palette, I thought the colors I got from it were too light and faded. Though I have not gathered many Copic markers, I did receive a few for Christmas, and compared to what I was seeing on the screen, the real deal seems much darker and more vibrant. Thus, I kept searching online for substitute palettes, preferably one made by the real markers.

Eventually, I found this chart from a DeviantArt account called Jad-Ardat, where the uploader organized every single marker into a graph and colored each square with the appropriate color. They put a lot of work into this, and I am grateful they did, because these shades looked much closer to what I was seeing from the markers I had used. I decided (once I blended the inside of each square because it was still noisy in most of them) to use this palette and test it on my drawings going forward this year.

Final Design Possibilites: near-white-blue (porcelain) vs pale blue (frost)

For one of my first drawings with these Copic colors, I decided to test them on my little moon mage, Sakura Miyazaki, but I also tested these colors because I have been considering a redesign for Sakura’s palette before I start working on my “Lucids” stories. Eventually, I ended with the images below as my finalists, and I would love some feedback on which version you prefer. Before that, though, an explanation for why I would recolor one of my classic characters.

Twitter Page and Logo

Before I go into the new image I want to show, I want to let you know right now, I have a Twitter account now: @RyuKageChroma.  For a long time, I did not sign up for Twitter because I was not fond of the tight limits on what you can type per post.  However, I decided it would be a quick way to share some of my thoughts on games or events happening, as well as one more outlet to share my artwork with a wider audience, both originals and fan art.  I will be posting there and here, as well as my personal Facebook page whenever I can motivate myself to do so, and I plan to use them more frequently than I have been.  Hopefully, I can keep that promise this time.  Ha ha.

Click here to see my Twitter account: @RyuKageChroma

In the meantime, let me share a revamp of my old logo, the Mark of the Red Dragon.

Team Chroma Logo

PAX East is fast approaching, and I will be attending Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23.  Therefore, I should get cracking on whatever new projects I want to tackle within the next week.  I have also decided to upload multiple posts within the next week.  I would like to show at least two posts, but if I can do three, that would be fantastic.  I do have other drawings I want to make, though, so we will see what happens from here.

Today, I am showing a logo I made a month or so before Pokemon X and Y were released (I guess September 2013).  I drew this with the intention of forming some kind of guild to discuss and explore the game, an aspiration which did not pan out.  Still, at least I made a cool logo for the group: "Team Chroma".

In every Pokemon game, there is a group which acts as the antagonists of the game known as "Team [Insert Word Here]" - "Rocket" in Kanto and Johto, "Galactic" in Sinnoh, "Plasma" in Unova, "Flare" in Kalos, and both "Magma" and "Aqua" in Hoenn.  They show up throughout the game nudging the plot forward through underhanded actions.  "Team Chroma" started as an idea for one of those, but with a bit of a twist.  Team Chroma would antagonize the player, but their true goal would be to stop a more evil group known as Team Gris (the French word for "gray") from freezing their country.

Sakura Miyazaki: Door Sign

Today, I have some images I drew in March last year of Sakura Miyazaki.  Who is Sakura Miyazaki?  Well, click here for a full refresher (two different links are here, leading to the same character), but in short, Sakura is one of my main heroes for a personal project I call Lucids.

In this concept, an alternate reality exists parallel to the material worlds, a dimension constructed from the subconscious thoughts and ideas of the sentient.  This bizarre reality is known as the "Dream Dimension", and it rejuvenates the minds of those who fall asleep.  Many people's minds and hearts drift to the Dream Dimension while asleep, but those who realize it happens are known as "Lucids".  Thanks to their awareness of the Dream Dimension, they can tap into the Dream Dimension (which have an atmosphere basically made of hammerspace) and essentially gain superpowers.  A Lucid chooses what to do with these powers, and unfortunately, many will use such power to attack the minds of others.  Luckily, should these "Dream Pirates" strike, other Lucids will rise to defend the unaware.  These virtuous Lucids have formed a patrol force known as the "Nites".

Sakura Miyazaki is one such Nite.  She is kind of a mage who specializes mostly in force magic, taking on the occasional alias "Space Girl".  She can conjure white or black "moons", round discs which generate intense force.  Fullmoon, the white discs, pull objects toward them, while the black Newmoons repel objects.  Sakura mainly uses these moons to redirect her opponent's attacks, but since the moons generate their own forces, she can also use them to augment her usually feeble physical attacks.  She can even cast the moons for propulsion: using Newmoons to jump high into the air or over long distances, or casting Fullmoons to pull herself toward a much heavier object she wants to reach.

With this theme of pushing and pulling in mind, I decided to make something creative and odd: an open-and-closed sign.

Pokemon: Greninja Gaiden

Back in December 2014, I came close to a position working on art assets for an educational online project.  However, while they liked the sketches I drew for them, the job required assets made as vector graphics, and at the time, I had no experience working with vector graphics.  They had to turn me down, and in retaliation (kind of), I did the only thing which made sense: I started to learn Adobe Illustrator.

To be honest, I am still not too well-versed in Illustrator and have not used it much since then.  Aside from the 30-day trial provided (which apparently renews each year, luckily), it would cost about $20/month to use Illustrator.  I am not completely sure if I would use Illustrator enough to warrant that (although lately, I am drifting toward “yes”), so for vector-based needs, I have instead turned to a program called Inkscape.  It is free vector graphic software, and though it is not quite as intuitive as Illustrator nor has as many line style options, it gets the job done.

This time, I wanted to show one of the images I created during my trial of Illustrator, from December 2014 to January 2015.  Although this version is saved as a PNG file, I created everything in this image in Adobe Illustrator.  Behold the froggy glory of Greninja!

Pokemon: Mewtwo in the Unknown Dungeon

ANNOUNCEMENT!
Before I discuss this picture, I would like to announce here I will be filming a live stream on my Twitch channel: RyuKageChroma!  This Sunday, February 21st, I will be recording the Unknown Dungeon in Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition, an optional dungeon you can only access after clearing the game's main story.  Other than possible future streams (not likely) where I attempt to obtain every Pokemon I can with a single copy of the game (and a minigame which is nigh-impossible to see), the Unknown Dungeon is the last thing I have to show in Pokemon Yellow.  I will attempt to capture the subject of today's drawing without utilizing the Master Ball, which will probably take a while and many attempts.  This is happening this coming Sunday at 7pm (Eastern Time).  I hope to see you there.

Click here to see my Twitch channel: RyuKageChroma, which also features various highlights from some of my past streams.

Over the past year, I started streaming gameplay footage on Twitch occasionally, most often for Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition.  Originally, I was doing this to have a stockpile of footage from this version of the game in case I ever recorded footage for a video playthrough of the original Red and Blue games.  Over time, though, it became something I could anticipate doing during the week.  I was involved with the Drama Club in both high school and college, but this is the closest outlet I have to that kind of performance.  After I finish Pokemon Yellow, I have a few other ideas for streaming, some other games I want to play, and maybe some guest commentators.  If you decide to watch, then I hope you like what you hear.

As for Pokemon Yellow, by now, I have played through all of the main story of the game and caught 70 different species of Pokemon along the way.  I have even visited two of the game’s optional dungeons and captured the ice and thunder birds residing in them (as well as their less-impressive fiery cousin who roosts slightly off the beaten path in the final required dungeon).  However, there is one optional dungeon I have yet to explore, because I could not enter this one until after I beat the main story: the Unknown Dungeon (a.k.a. “Cerulean Cave”).  This cave is filled with narrow passages and the highest-level wild Pokemon you can find in the game, including some which are usually difficult to find otherwise.  Most importantly, on a small island residing in the deepest pit of the Unknown Dungeon, an unspeakably-powerful Pokemon waits to challenge any fool who dares to venture so deep into its lair.

They call this creature “Mewtwo”.

Ryu-Kage: A Return from the Shadows

 

"How's it going, folks?  This is Ryu-Kage!"

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted anything here.  What happened?  Well, how can I put this?

I "fell asleep" for a year. Not literally, of course, but that is basically how it felt.
 
Without going into too much detail, at some point since I last posted on the blog, I became rather depressed overall about my life as it is and where it would go.  However, I did have occasional glimmers of hope by briefly reconnecting with a few old friends from college, which started to change one of the reasons I was feeling so bummed.  I would like to reconnect with them some more, and since I made many of my friends through my favorite video game series - Pokemon, this year (the 20th anniversary of Pokemon) would be an excellent opportunity to reconnect.

I did still draw during the past year, but I was not sure if many of the pictures I made were good enough to show (oh hi, confidence problems), and even if I did make something worthwhile, I just could not bring myself to upload it here for some reason. Thus, many of my pictures have basically been in limbo.

Well, I cannot say I am completely past the negativity, but I am sick of moping so much, and I want to shine through the darkness again.  After the jump, I have a few things I would like to do in the near future.

Larry Lowe

I know, it has been a long time since I have uploaded anything here.  I have still been drawing and working on artwork during this three-month gap, but I have not produced much which I would or could upload here.  In many cases, what I have worked on either 1.) is not something I can probably release yet, 2.) Photoshop drawings I have not exactly finished, or 3.) simply pencil sketches, which take a short amount of time but are probably nothing compared to my colored work.  I may take a post soon to show off some of my sketches, since they are at least some content, but I would like to return to drawing more and talking about them here.

Today, I present probably the best work I have made in the past three months: a tribute to a man close to me, Larry Lowe.

Larry Lowe was my drama teacher in high school, as well as the director of the school's Drama Club.  I did not join the Drama Club until midway through my freshmen year, so I missed on the first play he performed that year.  Once I did join, though, it was possibly my favorite club in high school.  Under his direction, I portrayed several characters: a Supreme Court judge in Of Thee I Sing, a pastry chef who longed to be a poet and looked up to Cyrano de Bergerac, and a chief petty officer who loves to drink (unlike me in real life; the "champagne" on stage was ginger ale) and shatters the high-and-mighty delusions of those at The Wedding Reception.

Pokemon: Mega Charizard X

I know I am a couple weeks late to say this, but I had fun at PAX this year.  On the show floor, I ran into some indie games which looked cool, including a game published by Midnight City where you race a car with a folded glider.  Of course, I am probably most eager for Shovel Knight, a platformer which uses an 8-bit art style and plays like an NES game.  I rocked the demo level Yacht Club Games showed last year and went through both of their new demo levels this year without dying.

I did not spend quite as much time in the Classic Arcade or Classic Console rooms as I usually do.  I realized those rooms, even though I like them, are probably best suited for late at night, when you are done attending panels (even though I ended up only seeing one panel).  I did, however, go to the Handheld Lounge a lot to battle the PAX Pokemon League.  I only acquired six badges, but I always enjoy a good Pokemon battle, especially since Pokemon X and Y make it so easy to raise Pokemon.

Speaking of Pokemon, here is a drawing of Mega Charizard X.

Lucids: Group Shot

A while back, I drew a group shot of some of the main characters from my idea Lucids, but I never uploaded it here because I did not like how it came out.  I drew some of the characters oddly, I took some shortcuts making it (like copying one character from another drawing I made), and I even made a rather ugly logo and background for that drawing.

Originally, this drawing started as a way to relax, but it grew into something far more ambitious: a second attempt at that group shot picture, though not in the same way and not with the same lineup.

Here we see four Lucids.  From left to right: Mike Anacle, Wendy Krane, Sakura Miyazaki, and Ken "Thunder".  Not exactly the most exciting poses, but they just the job done.  You may also notice some changes among each one, too.

Pokemon: Sylveon used Hyper Voice!

My Pokemon itch had not been fully scratched back in December; I still want to draw a few more.  However, I have bigger projects I would like to begin soon, so I must restrain the urge for now.  Still, I suppose I could let one Pokemon drawing out for now.  Besides, this is one Pokemon I have been wanting to sketch for a long time.

Meet Sylveon, the Fairy-type evolved form of Eevee.

Wonka Factory Gate

This picture was supposed to be a minor celebration for the fiftieth post on this blog, but I ended up taking far longer on it than I care to admit.  Frankly, what do I even have to celebrate with this?  This picture took much longer than I care to admit due to not having the opportunity to work on it when I want to draw and later not wanting to draw when I have the opportunity.  In fact, I have not felt much like doing anything lately, despite having ideas for bigger projects because "What if I fail?".  I wanted this drawing to be a triumph of keeping at something consistent for a year, and yet the celebratory piece ended up being nearly a month late.  I doubt this piece is even good, but then I have been doubting myself a lot lately, and perhaps I am my own harshest critic.
 
I have had enough negativity for one post, so here is an intro.  When I started posting here beyond just having a placeholder portfolio after college, the first picture I drew was my rendition of Willy Wonka, from Roald Dahl's classic book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  That drawing was originally intended as one of a series of my takes on the characters from that story (inspired more by the movies, since I am more familiar with them).  I have not done much with that idea since then, but I thought I could draw quick glimpses into what I was thinking for the others with the scene where they are about to enter the Wonka Chocolate Factory.