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).

Tri-Color Character Concepts

Back when I opened this blog up, I was mainly using it to show off some of my artwork when I didn't have my portfolio online yet.  I just needed a space to show to potential recruiters to say, "Hey, I can draw!"  Today's pictures are ones that I'm actually surprised that I did not post here back then.

One game project I worked on during my junior year of college was a space shooter game (i.e. games like Gradius or StarForce) where the player had to shoot using the primary colors of light: red, green, and blue.  After we decided that the game would occur inside a computer, I was tasked with drawing up some ideas for our hero.

The top page shows a few potential ideas we could have used, including a masked man on a surfboard with a paint brush.  Honestly, though, I really wanted the character to be some kind of flying paint bucket, as shown on the bottom page.  The game was computer-themed, and the paint bucket was not only a common application in paint programs for the computer (like MS Paint and Photoshop), but also the one that I thought at the time would yield the widest variety of ideas.  They ranged from just flying buckets with snouts to buckets carried by hand icons.  Eventually, I came up with the character in the bottom-right corner: Paint Boy.  Not only did the paint bucket form the basis of Paint Boy's body, but I also incorporated other painting program tools into his design: a pencil / crayon to act as his blaster, and the hand tool in order to hold the other colors when he wasn't using them.  This is the design the team eventually settled on.

We actually did make some decent progress on the game, though we only managed to make one level and didn't fully incorporate a boss despite the fact that I actually drew one.  Yes, I actually drew sprites for this project, and I was happy to be given that chance.  Will that be what I show off next week?  Maybe, I haven't decided yet.

If you like what you see, then let me know below.  I look forward to hearing some feedback.

Death Note Birthday Card

Last week, I showed off one of my older pieces that I still use in my portfolio.  How about I share a newer piece this week?

When a special occasion rolls around for someone in my family (birthday, Mother's Day, what have you), I try to whip up a card for the person of the day.  I think they usually turn out alright for something I crafted in about an hour or so, but they are usually nothing really worth showing off.  This time, however, something just clicked, and I made this for my little sister's 20th birthday.

Here we have the front, inside, and back (from left to right) of this birthday card I made yesterday.  For those unfamiliar, this is based on the anime Death Note, which I have been watching with my sister for a few weeks now.  The creature on the inside is our favorite character from the show, a Death God named "Ryuk".  He mainly comments on the events of the show from behind the protagonist's shoulder, and he loves eating apples from the human world so much that his body contorts if he goes without one for several days.  On the back is the Gothic letter M (the first letter of her name).  This is meant to reference another character from Death Note who originally only communicated with the officials he worked with using the Gothic letter L as his avatar.

It took me about an hour and a half to make this card, and then another half-hour to scan and edit these images.  Even though it didn't take long to make, this is probably one of my favorite cards that I've made.  Sometimes, the idea just comes and yields results.  Hopefully, the next card I draw can come this easily.

Death Note is a comic that ran in Shonen Jump magazine.  It was originally written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata.  Any credit for Death Note or the character "Ryuk" goes to them.