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”.

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”.

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.