Tag Archives: fanart

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Sword Art Online II, Ep. 2: Sniper chaps

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Sinon1Really, all there is to say about this episode is “Wow, Sinon is a badass, huh?” That’s not such a bad thing; considering she’s clearly going to be very important in the GGO arc, spending an episode introducing her is reasonable. But beyond wondering what a seemingly honorable girl like Sinon is doing with a bunch of thugs who steal other players’ virtual lunch money, I didn’t have many thoughts on this episode.

I just took it as an excuse to draw Chibi-Sinon above, which I have mixed feelings about: On the one hand, Sinon is fun to draw, but on the other, if I ever want to do a “serious” drawing of her, I’ll have to learn how to draw all her damn guns. And rifles with long barrels require actual rulers and everything. Dammit.

Oh, and I hear the “criticism” of this episode was that “no one would really take video games that seriously.” I’m just…what? Really? You really can’t imagine people taking a game super-seriously? People already treat the console war metagame as though it were a matter of life and death, but thinking that virtual-reality assassins would be really absorbed into their VR game is just crossing a line?

Wow.

Hopefully next time I’ll have something to say about SAO II, since I’m assuming Kirito enters a new world and tries to bring a sword to a gunfight, or something. I hear you’re really, really not supposed to do that.

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Sword Art Online II, Ep. 1: Dating for nerds

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KiritoAsunaSo, Sword Art Online kicked off another season. Not much happens in this first episode, but the mystery of “How are people being killed in a videogame THIS TIME?” is compelling enough to keep me interested.

I only have a few thoughts on this episode so far, so I figured I’d just dash them off in devil-may-care note format. A rebel is me! Continue reading Sword Art Online II, Ep. 1: Dating for nerds →

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Final Fantasy, Part 1

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FinalFantasy

I figured that it was time to make good on my ongoing threat to start blogging the Final Fantasy series from the beginning. I’ve played many of the games, some of them multiple times, but there are several entries I’ve either left unfinished or never even tried. This seems like a good opportunity to raise my FF fandom level from “considerable” to “nuclear,” and that kind of upgrade is always appealing.

However, trying to think of any kind of structure for this beyond “I am playing the games and writing stuff down,” felt pretentious, so I’m just going to do this in the form of sharing my notes as I play. This may change as I get to later FFs that I could probably write entire books about; I will try to restrain myself (but not very hard.)

Continue reading Final Fantasy, Part 1 →

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Sketchblog: Daughters of The Eyrewood

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DOTE2Seeing all the great Daughters of The Eyrewood fanart linked on Twitter made me want to do my own version, plus I just got Manga Studio 5 and it seemed like a good way to practice using the program. Everyone seems to be drawing their DOTE lasses with long hair, and for some reason I kept thinking of a girl with short, honey-colored hair.

The problem: I wanted to do a quick color sketch, but “quick” and “learning to use new software” do not go together AT ALL. As simple as this is, it took forever because I couldn’t get used to the pressure sensitivity settings in Manga Studio 5. Maybe I need to adjust my Cintiq’s settings, but the line thickness was all over the place and it wasn’t looking good. Eventually I just used a tool with no pressure sensitivity, which is kind of a shame.

On the whole I’m loving Manga Studio and what it can do, but right now I’m really bad at using it. I’d like to do another piece of this character, only this time a full-body pose and (*crosses fingers*) with pressure sensitivity for better lineart.

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Sketch Blood: True Blood Summary

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TrueBloodsummaryIn anticipation of True Blood Season 6 starting this month, here is my handy-dandy summary of the first five seasons of the show in one convenient .jpeg file. After seeing this image, you will be prepared to jump into Season 6 with both feet. Don’t thank me; enabling your HBO viewing pleasure is all the thanks I will ever need.

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Sketchblog: Muromi-San

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Muromi3 001

Here’s another Sketchblog with multiple sketches, all featuring Muromi-san from this season’s anime feel-good mermaid comedy sensation.

The first is the first image I’ve ever colored in GIMP, so it was a learning experience. Lately I’ve been using Paint.net for my image needs, but Paint.net lacks pressure sensitivity, so it was clear I needed something else for drawing and painting. GIMP supports pressure sensitivity, but I’m finding it a little confusing to use– coloring this lil’ Muromi seemed way harder than it should have been. Plus, while the pressure sensitivity does work, it doesn’t seem to work the way I was hoping it would; this is probably more due to my need to fiddle with the settings than any problems with the software, though. I’m learning as I go.

Hit the jump for two more Muromi drawings, which, while they may technically be better drawings, I deem inferior because they don’t really look like her. Only the super-cartoony one above came out really looking like the character, to me anyway. Continue reading Sketchblog: Muromi-San →

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Sketchblog: Gambit (X-Men)

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Gambit

Look guys, I drew a guy! An actual guy!

Hot on the heels of my relative success with cute little Jean Grey, I tried to draw a cute little Gambit; he did not come out anywhere near as cute. That said, at least this sketch has some personality. I’ve always thought the idea behind Gambit’s card-throwing gimmick is really clever, because it gives you lots of stuff to draw–with all the cards flying everywhere with their trails of glowing energy and whatnot. He’s a character who’s just really suited to the medium he was created in, which may be a reason why he’s been mostly ignored by the movies.

This definitely looks a little off-kilter though…I think I just need more practice drawing guys. And cartoony things. And everything. I really like drawing X-Men fanart though, so I’ll probably do more of it– who knows, give me enough time and I may have a downright X-Men doujin going on here.

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Sketchblog: Jean Grey (X-Men)

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JeanGrey 001On Twitter, Peter Simetti, president of Alterna Comics, has been posting a bunch of sketches lately, including many of the X-Men. That made me think, “Hey, I like the X-Men and I draw pictures, lemme get in on some of that!”

So I drew Jean Grey, she of the ridiculous aerobics costume and terrible codename. Her ’90s outfit was pretty much the worst example of costume design from that era, but I love it because I grew up with it, so THERE! I’m just happy I drew something cartoony that seems to have worked; lately whenever I try to go cartoony instead of detailed, it just looks bad.

However, if you are not that into the cartoony-ness and would rather see some over-rendered nonsense, click through for a sketch I don’t like as much! There are also boobs. Continue reading Sketchblog: Jean Grey (X-Men) →

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Sketchblog: Dragon’s Crown Sorceress

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Her eyes are up THERE

For the record, my opinion on the whole Dragon’s Crown PR blow-up is pretty much the same as Jim’s.

I didn’t plan to draw the Sorc from DC, it was more like I was having a frustrating session of drawing where nothing was coming out right, then I thought “Well, why don’t I draw that sorceress character everyone is making a fuss over– at least I can probably draw boobs okay.” Needless to say, my expectations were not high.

However, something weird happened when I started drawing this: I stopped fussing about proportions, “realism” and everything else that had been taking the fun out of drawing for me. I just focused on drawing this one, highly exaggerated character, and I actually loosened up– after that, I felt like I was able to draw just for the joy of drawing, without having to listen to that incessantly critical voice in my head. It was downright refreshing.

So thank you, Dragon’s Crown Sorceress: you helped me out. You may be a weird looking mutant sex doll, but you’re A-OK in my book.

EDIT: And notice that I mispelled the word as “Sorcoress” in my sketch book, because it’s not like I’m a writer who should know how words are spelled or anything ^^;;…..

Games

Annotated Playthrough: Tomb Raider II

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TR2 Lara with shiny new braid
I drew some new fanart to celebrate a new playthrough. Here, Lara is showing off her shiny new braid, since she’s obviously very proud of it; hey, I would be.

Me and Tomb Raider II

Though I completed TR1 first, Tomb Raider II was the first game I ever really wanted; it was the reason I saved up my babysitting money and bought a Playstation. After barely touching videogames other than short Mario sessions at friends’ houses when I was little, sometime in early high school, I was flipping through an issue of Newsweek after school one day to see a one-page article on the upcoming sequel. From the first screenshot, Lara in her leather jacket on a pristine snowfield in Tibet, I was intrigued. The idea that videogames would allow me to explore gorgeous, imaginary worlds hit me all at once.

I used to read my parent’s copies of Newsweek in those days to pretend I understood the articles, and if it weren’t for that, I don’t know if I ever would have gotten involved in gaming at all. Maybe one day I’ll write an alternate history for myself where my parents subscribed to Time instead, I never learned about Tomb Raider, and instead I became a nuclear physicist and solved the forthcoming energy crisis (why not?) Continue reading Annotated Playthrough: Tomb Raider II →