Joey & Charmander Version 2

Last week, I was talking about a series of pictures I drew for a Pokemon Blue playthrough that I want to do soon.  In case you missed it, here's an image of me (as the Riolu in the red coat) alongside my Charmander in all three stages of its evolution: Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard (front to back).

I made these images back in June last year, but I was not satisfied with how some of these drawings came out.  So a couple of months ago, I decided to redraw some of these pictures and rework the image overall.  How did that work out?

Joey & Charmander

From looking at this blog and talking to me in real life, it should come as no surprise to you that I really like Pokemon.  I have been playing the games since I was young and actually think they keep improving.  I realize that the primary mechanics of the game haven't changed much since the original games, but the additional monsters added each generation, the improvements made to old favors, and tweaks in the mechanics do make each new one at least worth a try, in my opinion.  I still find them fun to play, to the point where one of the biggest things I did at PAX East this past weekend was battle the PAX Pokemon League for badges.

In fact, one idea I have been planning to do for a while is to play through the original Blue game using only my starter Pokemon in battle.  I wanted to go with Charmander for this because people think that he has the hardest time going through the original games.  Admittedly, Fire is actually one of the worst types in the original games*, and vulnerabilities to the first two bosses does not help Charmander's situation.  However, I have heard that Charmander actually fairs surprisingly well in-game, with his other qualities being able to far outshine his type.  I will have to see that for myself when I actually motivate myself to record game footage.


Why do I bring this idea up?  Well...

PAX East + Lucids: Ken "Thunder"

Before I talk about this week's picture, I just want to say that I will be attending PAX East this weekend.  PAX East is a game convention hosted by the crew behind the popular web comic Penny Arcade, featuring a showroom of upcoming and recently-released video games, various presentations from people related to games (developers, players, archivers, even Internet personalities like the Runaway Guys), and various rooms where people can play video games and talk about them.  I am pretty stoked about this.  (If only I could use my Keldeo against the PAX Pokemon League...)  Meet me up there Friday or Sunday if you want to hang out.

Now with that out of the way, by now I have posted and talked a bit about Sakura Miyazaki, one of the main characters of this "Lucids" series.  I have yet to show off some of the other characters I have in mind, though, so this week, I want to give you a proper introduction to the male lead of the series: Ken "Thunder".

Sakura Redrawn

Remember my "Lucids" concept?  I've been thinking about it, and I want to nail the look of those characters down.  So, lately, I have been trying to draw them a little more frequently.  Perhaps some day soon I can utilize them in comic form or animated form or something.  But before that can happen, I want to be sure that these guys will look the way I want them to look.

To that end, allow me to reintroduce Sakura Miyazaki, the female lead of this "series", in a drawing I made a few months ago.  How did this one turn out?

Paint Boy Process & "Helper Clip"

I've been talking over the last two weeks about this game project I made some artwork for involving a character that travels through computer programs to fight intrusive enemies.  His name was Paint Boy, and he could swap out the kinds of shots he fired Ikaruga-style, only instead of black-and-red vs white-and-cyan, Paint Boy worked on a red vs green vs blue system.  I not only drew the original concept for Paint Boy, but I also drew some sprites for the project, some of which I showed last week.  How did I make those sprites, though?

Apologies may be in order for this first image, but I needed a rather large canvas for these sprites.  You may have noticed that the sprites from last week were rather rough-looking.  We wanted to make the sprites look like something drawn with crayon or chalk, so I ended up making the sprites huge first and then shrinking them.  You can see the results of the shrunken sprites here.  In addition to the Calculator enemies, I also had some designs for enemies in the Word Processor level.  They included various letters, as well as a semi-colon that I think was supposed to be some kind of bomb.  This sheet also includes a number of other elements from the game, including various bullets and a triangle meant to try and demonstrate the relationship between colors.

But what fun would a space-shooter be without a boss to fight at the end of a level?
 

Here we have the idea for the boss of the Word Processor level: Helper Clip.  Obviously, this is meant to be a parody of Clippit, the somewhat obnoxious assistant character in Microsoft Word.  He is possessed by the force trying to conquer the computer and offers to "help" eliminate Paint Boy.  The idea was to make this go through three phases.  First, he simply winked or blinked to shoot bullets at you.  You shot at both of his eyes until they darkened, at which point, he would start crying semi-colons.  Once both eyes started crying, Helper Clip would block shots with his tail, making the player overcome a secondary-color shield.  With the tail shot off, Helper Clip would become mad, and the final phase would begin.  His weak spot was his mouth, but in addition to the explosive teardrops, the stump of his tail would also spray out bullets.  Once you shot his mouth away, then Helper Clip falls in defeat.

And so ends the saga of Paint Boy.  We had big plans for the project and some ideas for later stages (I think Longcat was supposed to be the final boss), but my group only worked on this for a couple of months before we just stopped.  I would love to be able to work on a project like this in the future, and maybe I will return to it at some point.

If you'd like to work with me on a project like this, or if you need a sprite artist for a project, please let me know.  For now, though, that is pretty much it for Paint Boy.  Next week, something else.

Paint Boy Sprites

Last week, I showed off some character concepts for a project I worked on during the autumn of my junior year in college.  The idea was to create a protagonist for a game where the player switches between three different kinds of attacks, which we later decided would be the colors red, green, and blue.  We actually did have some progress on that game, enough to make some sprites for it, like these.

 This top image shows off Paint Boy himself, rocketing through the level in typical space-shooter style.  Admittedly, it was all recolors of the same green set, but I wanted to color Paint Boy myself.  He was meant to switch between the green, red, and blue power-ups, but we also had an idea for a power-up that would essentially let you shoot two colors at once.  This double color idea led to planning magenta, cyan, and yellow palettes, too.

 Here we have some enemy sprites for what was planned to be the first level: the calculator program.  Enemies could be eight different colors, where using a different color than the enemy would make it easier or harder to beat.  Secondary-color enemies (like the 9s here) were meant to fight with multiple colors, too, and the key there was to beat them with the opposite color (use blue to beat yellow, for example).  Black enemies could be beaten by anything and didn't shoot, while white ones were indestructible.

I made these in Microsoft Paint back before I started using Photoshop regularly, and I still find Paint to be handy for sprite work even now.  This was supposed to take place in a computer, so despite the paint bucket appearance of our hero, our system was based on additive color (colors of light) rather than subtractive color (pigment colors).  We also decided to stylize the art, and I tried to create an impression that the sprites were originally crayon or chalk drawings.  That is why the colors start bright but end up more pale, as well as why the edges are not straight.

I still have a bit more to show off that details more about where this was and where it was meant to go, but this could give you a taste of what the game was like.  Next week, a look at the process of making these sprites, as well as one of the biggest things from this project.

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.

Pokemon Trainer Joey, Wind Waker Style

I love the art style used in the video game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.  That game, as well as its sequels Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks had a unique style to them that made the game seem more cartoony and colorful.  When images of Wind Waker were first shown, many fans of the Legend of Zelda series were outraged after seeing the somewhat haunting art direction of Majora's Mask before it.  Over time, however, I have seen more people lauding this game, if not for the gameplay, then for its art direction.  I did not even play Legend of Zelda much until 2007, and I kind of liked this game's colorful, chibi-populated art direction back then.  Then again, I'm usually drawn toward cartoony art styles.

So, here's an image I drew back in the summer of 2011 of myself as a Pokemon trainer, done in Wind Waker-style.  The Pokemon at my side here are Larvitar (the green dinosaur), Infernape (the fiery monkey), and Staraptor (the hawk), all Pokemon I envisioned myself training.  Back in college, I was part of a Pokemon League that gave badges to challengers, and I chose to specialize in Fighting-type Pokemon like Infernape.  I was inspired to choose that type partly because I was excited for the new Fighting-type Pokemon that I heard would appear in Pokemon Black and Pokemon White, which seemed to have a history of being heroic creatures.

Thus, I wanted to tie my Pokemon persona to this group of Fighting Pokemon, resulting in the avatar on the far right, a hero in a red hat and coat wielding a cane like a sword.  These Fighting Pokemon also had a hand in the creation of the background, since each of them also carried a second element.  One represents Wood, another Earth, a third Metal, and their protege stands for Water.

I would like to do more Wind Waker-style art at some point.

Both The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon are games owned by Nintendo.

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.

Ryu's Return to Dreamland + My Take on Willy Wonka

I should be updating this blog more often than I have been.  From now on, I'll try to update this blog about once every week or two with one of my drawings or other art projects that I have created.  Maybe it will be fan art, or maybe it will be an original piece.  Maybe it will be something I made recently, or maybe it will be a drawing I have been saving.  Whatever the case, this should give me an opportunity to show what I can do or have been doing.

So let's get this started.  SHOWTIME!

Here is my take on the character of Willy Wonka from the story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I originally drew this back in February of 2011 with just Photoshop, and it remains one of my favorites to this day.  This holds a firm spot in the portfolio I carry in real life.  My main goal when designing Mr. Wonka was to draw a man with an old body but a young spirit, hence the bright cyan shoes with the otherwise somewhat-formal attire.

Feel free to use the comments section to discuss this piece, as well as any that have shown up before.  Do you like it or not?  What works?  What doesn't work?  Discuss.