May 23, 2008

12 Years Young

Might eventually cell this one up.
I'll keep mum on the details, although I couldn't really spoil too much of Felicity with them.



A quick glimpse at a twelve year old 99 and the rest of the Fox Family. I've done a few similar family portraits over the past year or so- had been a while since I did an up-to-date one.

A thing to note- the Zepher plushie(Zepher, the main protagonist of Broken Falcon) who in the world of Felicity is the mascot of a popular kids TV show.
Chasity is a dog lover, a love that started with her own dog- seen here. The dog is named 'Zowie' after a friends own dog of the same breed.

Lastly- although not known by many- you can see another favorite of 99s- Strawberry milkshake. You'll notice she drinks alot of the stuff as Felicity goes on.

-T

May 20, 2008

The Noose

Man, am I bad at this.
I'm sorry. I can't seem to commit to uploading something daily. I guess it's just as I've spent time reshuffling my priorities of late. I have Felicity Issue one just begging to be finished and I've finally been able to open my eyes to that.

It's all I'm going to concentrate on for the next month, I cannot see it taking anylonger than that. I've really missed Felicity and I know that my absence from it wasn't entirely forced on me- to say that; I chose it in a way. I could have finished it when I didn't. I let life get in the way, I struggled to manage my priorities. I mean- I was trying to get a portfoilio together of artwork, I still am- and it's so difficult to then say 'Right. Do I just leave Felicity behind 'till I do this? or do both? Or just do Felicity?' And the amount that I want the comic finished made that decision really hard to make.

But now I've decided that work for my portfoilio, my partime job and eating and sleeping are the only things allowed to take time from the comic until it's done. I never make promises, because I'm always afraid sometime down the line I'll break them but I'm going to make one here. I promise I'll do my best to get Felicity Issue one done, fully completed.

: D

On that note!


I wanted to upload this one to my Deviantart but the friends that I showed it to didn't really get what was happening. So I'll stick it up here and explain what's happening.

Inspired firstly by alot of music band promotional shots- that sort of random pose in an instant thing that the majority of photoshoots seem to involve. I've seen shots of people putting a bucket on their head, or tying their jacket to another members jacket and then- a couple of times- imitating hanging themselves with a tie or neck scarf.

Why they do it, is probably just out of boredom/randomness/wanting to stand out. I know that within my own band- I want photos that say we're fun. I don't like serious photos. So that's the second inspiration. I love character in poses- I love charmisa and quirkyness. Stiffness or lack of expression leads us to all look the same. So I wanted a 'photo' that'd break that mould alittle.

Lastly, and the main inspiration- was simply a shot that showed character. These guys aren't just designs anymore- they've got personalities and habits. I want to show that alittle more where I can. So I'd think that this shot shows a sort of familyness- a bond. It shows Mountys alittle uncomfortable and maybe not terribly happy to be there, which is exactly his character. He doesn't enjoy attention.

99 on the other hand is gasping for attention, so much so that she's pulled her neck scarf tight and is breaking her body sideways just to get it. She loves the camera- but she's a fun loving spirit aswell, she just loves having a laugh.

T-gate. Well, I think he always comes across with a sense of no-clue-what's-happening.

-T

May 12, 2008

Banjo Threeie screens ATLAST

If you're like me, when you saw the leaked screens over at The British Gaming Blog you would have nearly died with fear. Why? Why is he in some crappy vehicle in both those screens? Why isn't Kazooie there? Don't ruin my childhood Rare! Noooo! etc etc.

Well, Have no fear. Better screens are here.



Holy shit. Rare are on their way back to the top ladies and gents.

-T

May 11, 2008

I Need A Hero

Wow, long time no post.
That's down to not-being-used to keeping a blog to be perfectly honest. Once I get into the swing I'm sure I'll finally be able to commit to it daily. I'm finding it hard to just make the time to pop on and upload something.

Been sketching away at the usual stuff, character concept is still taking up alot of my time. It's difficult to design characters for just the sake of designing them. I'm finding it tricky to concentrate my efforts without a 'brief' so as a result I'm having to make up my own briefs for the scenairo, story and situation said character fits into.

On my deviantArt I debuted my superhero character, The Magpie with a parody of a terribly famous Spiderman cover. I've just thrown up the lineart here so you can get a different angle on it than you did at DevArt.


I did the lineart for this on my Cintiq and I have to say- it really proved its worth. Before this point I'd only used my Cintiq for the odd 'Paint' practice or similarly messy things. When I came to ink a scanned sketch I found it beautifully easy to use.
I'm no inker, so I'm not about to say the finished piece is at all good- but it's as good as I could do in reality on actual paper and that's something a tablet has never achieved for me before.

Incidently.
Man oh man, do I need a photoshop that's actually up to date. I had to use Corel Painters pencil tool to ink this, as my photoshop version is so old it doesn't have custom brushes or tapered edges.


The Character herself is based pretty solidly on my City Of Heroes character.

At the time I'd ran alot of concepts along the 'bird' theme, especially regarding the hood design and I simply went to CoH to try and recreate it. What resulted was the theme of a Magpie(a local bird) and the final design I seemed to settle on.

Another aspect I took into consideration were the 'Bug Eyes' similar to Batgirls in The Batman. I used one of the games new costume items to achieve that look, 'goggles'. At the time it was to make it seem like she had those massive eyes but since then- the goggles have become a part of the design.

Lastly, Hayley Williams for the win 8D

-T

May 02, 2008

Cha-Ching!

Just abit of a doodle-dump, for lack of a better expression. I've been busy with my parttime job, the character artwork I mentioned earlier and alot of Felicity stuff inbetween. Not to mention GTA IV coming out on tuesday there- multiplayer with friends is alooot of fun and I'm not even a big GTA fan.

Anyways!




Earthworm Jim is making a comeback, which is only a good thing. This doodle above was sitting randomly on a page so I figured I'd shove it up here. I don't recall alot of EWJ other than it was hard and the graphics at the time were mind-bending.

Having checked up on that since has proven I was correct. But man- the character itself is just such an awesome concept, the artwork in the game is so beautiful and the animation is way better than any game I've since since to be honest. No wonder I loved it so much as a kid, though I feel I can appreciate it more now. Here's hoping his comeback is as good as it ought-to be.


Lastly then I found the same pages to be sporting the odd Pokemon doodle. Anyone who knows me will know I love the world of Pokemon, always have since that magical first encounter with Pokemon Red as a 9 year old boy. Bulbasaur is one of my favorite pokes, despite me never having actually had one in my team(I have a tradition of Fire-Starters). I think I always just loved the idea of the Pokemon- plus he kicked so much ass in the cartoon.

Here's to you, Number 1!

-T