DB Tabris

A magical thing happened in recent computer gaming. I got into a closed beta for a game I've been eagerly awaiting. The closed beta for Shin Megami Tensei : Imagine.

Having played for a few hours, I really am loving it already. The game is surprisingly intricate and well put together for being an entire free (save cost of optional items) MMO. In addition, the entire game has the style and feel of a true MegaTen game. (Art and music styles especially) It seems like a success, and I look forward to playing more in the near future.

Anyway, this picture is of Tabris : my first and main character. I'm trying to primarily level him down the curative / destructive magic trees, relying on a good ol' hunting rifle when MP gets low. So far it's worked, and provided a fun experience. Also, i'll probably end up drawing pictures later of him in newer armor, with a companion demon or two in the pic as well. Huzzah for future drawing opportunities!

Fade to Black

There are many games I love dearly, some of them old, some of them new. One of such games is Virtual On, an arcade classic I've played since the third grade.

While I've learned to pilot many of the different mechs, one of my favorites has remained VR Raiden. Low on speed, but dangerously high on armor and firepower. As long as you can hit your opponents, you're rather set.

This picture was also partially caused by the lovely miss CrossMirage (on DeviantArt). When complaining I had nothing to draw, she suggested an exercise. Pick something not-human, and draw it from memory the best you can. While I failed rather hard the first time trying to draw Raiden, the second time proved rather fruitful as one can see here.

That said, this picture was done with absolute minimal reference. (The only reference I used was for the bazooka, since it looked too devoid of details.) All things considered, I'm rather happy with how it turned out. (Also, the things in the left hand are supposed to be the Left Trigger landmines.)

Not Forgotten

No, I haven't forgotten this sketch blog. Still one of my more favorite pet projects.

Just logged in to let the 1 or 2 viewers know that I will probably be updating this within a month or so from now. Turns out school simply had the opposite effect. (Even less creative juices rather than more) At least i'll be home soon, to rectify this problem.

Also, I truly can't express my hatred of Guilty Gear 2's Mission #8. At least, I can't express it in any mortal language.

Joshua

Art of an original character who I named Joshua. More to come, when I'm not gettign ready to go eat. D:

Momentary Break

While tempted to put in Momentary Life for the title, that might give some false hope of a new Baiken fanart, and i do not intend to deceive.

The whole one or two watchers out there may have noticed no updates the past few weekdays. While my original goal and intent was to get some art up every weekday, i for one am smarter than to try and force a lack of art.

Partially one could blame nearby events. I'm going back to K Falls soon, and that's left me with a fair bit of packing to do. In addition Ken came by to visit, going apartment hunting. Not being one to leave a guest bored, I was hanging out and whatnot with him, using up my time that way.

I can't really attribute it to that alone though. The past week has seen me on a depressingly low amount of creativity and artisticness for pictures. Attempts to put something out have utterly failed, and that's when i do muster up the motivation to do something. While hardly as severe as past cases of artist's block, it's still bugging me. That said, in the mean time I'm trying to pinpoint this problem and kick it in the arse.

All in all, moving day is this Thursday. We'll see if a (familiar) change of scenery is enough to stir and get me creative again. School days are notorious for a bit of free time, and with luck that will give me what i need for some good artseses.

Last, may or may not write some general stuff from life and moods if i can get the LJ-cut type functionality working. Let's hope so.

Post Apocalypse

Yay. Got my ability to draw back! Huzzah!

This one was sort of inspired by my most recent purchase on 360 : The Force Unleashed. The second level features Starkiller in a very post apocalyptic desert sort of wraps, which makes sense considering the mission's planet. I truly love this general mood / style of clothing (Mega Man Zero 2's opening level anyone?) so i figured i'd go with it a little.

While not named or given story yet, this pic is pretty much just a generic post apocalyptic dude. Picture the post-world-war 3 scenario (as opposed to zombie outbreak) with much of Earth covered by windy dunes. (ala Mad Max)

As stated above, I like the look a lot and think it turned out well. Only complaint would be that I didn't give the arm bandages + cape enough justice. (Enough detail, them blowing in the wind, etc) Also, hurray goggles!

Blech

After trying for the better part of the day, I just can't come up with anything to draw. That said, sorry kids. Nothing today. =( 

(Will edit this is if i do somehow think up something before the day's end)

One Month Wolves

While I often find myself with trouble thinking of what to draw, there's nothing like a good event to really give me motivation and ideas. =)

For the unaware, today marks the official 1 month anniversary of myself (Edge's real life counterpart) and Feral's real life counterpart. =) I know many wouldn't count amounts of time as small as a month, but for us it's really a truly wonderful and happy thing, so we're counting every single day with glee. ^^

Now from the sheer art standpoint (all mushy lovey stuff aside. =P ) it's yes, another Edge and Feral pic, but those are what I feel i specialize in. ^^ I really like how the lineart, proportions, details, and shading turned out on this one. Also, decided to go ahead and implement Feral's haircut at her real life counterpart's request.

So yeah. Babe, if you're reading this, let's have this be the first of very many. Happy Anniversary.

Wild Hair

This pic is a few things different than usual. Rather than have a very focused idea of what I wanted, I knew i had a couple things. One, femme in sleeveless hoodie vest. Because for some reason I find those adorable on femmes. Second, fur lined clothing, because I have quite the (unhealthy?) love for such clothing.

I also decided to try developing some character backstory a little here. I don't really expect anyone to know what this is applying towards, but it's a way for me to get some character ideas out without having to turn to writing crappy fiction. For once though I'm trying to give my characters a bit more depth to them, as opposed to only going so far as naming them.

We'll see how this trend continues. I may continue more pics from the same general plot if I feel inspired enough.

Mass Destruction's now our slogan

Ooh yeah! Baby baby!

had nothing else I could think of drawing, so I did as I oft do in this case and resorted to a little bit of fanart. Just to be sure and mix it up, I figured I'd do a little bit of homeage to Persona 3, one of my favorite RPGs to date.

Here we have Hero (the main character, as they're often 'named' in MegaTen games) getting ready to summon his Persona. My original idea had been to put Orpheus behind him as he does so, but now thinking on it that'd get dangerously close to copying a pic i've seen on dA. . . so maybe another time, another pic, a different pose.

Zero and Elf

The idea for this one came up a little bit while chatting with Ryan and trying to be a general pain in the ass. He was talking about E-Crystal farming, and I tried to bring up the classic "what about the elves' feelings?" argument.

All things considered though, even joking, one has to wonder the moral ramifications of using (ie killing) Cyber Elves for one's gain in the Mega Man Zero series. (Especially after discovering the true nature of Cyber Elves in ZX) That's probably one reason among many I love Zero 3 the most, in that you can keep the elves with you (ie "use" them) without killing em.

Yay more fun lighting effects!

Matrix

If you would ask where I even got this idea from, I couldn't tell you. That aside, I don't know if i'll ever come up with a drawing idea as awesome as this one. . . 

Also, I really don't expect many at all to truly get / appreciate this pic. For those who do though, give yourself a pat on the back. Reward yourself somehow. You deserve it.

Pally Chick

Spend more than 30 minutes and get a much better looking picture? Could it be? Probably just coincidence, but in either case I think today's contribution turned out quite well. =)

While trying to think of what to draw, I (for one reason or another that's beyond me) pictured a knight kneeling down before their sword. What way to make it better than a femme Knight with form fitting armor?

The sword was a lot of fun to do not just because of the ice-blue glow, but also the effect I tried to cast on the shading. (The light source being the energy of said sword) Last, while not so dynamic I still feel this is a step in the right direction. Yay! :3

Foxy Battlemage

Today I had an epic (not really) battle with one of my most fearsome (possibly) nemeses. (What's the plural form of nemesis anyway?) Artist's block. . . D: While stealing a fair bit of time away from first break, I was fortunately able to think of something.

The pose was a real pain in the ass as one might imagine, especially in my usual span of 2x 15 minute breaks. All things considered though it turned out pretty well. I just need to add a bit more pencil coloring and probably re-upload for the ideal result.

Also, while hardly flying through the air or rolling, this is the first (sorta?) of many attempts at doing more dynamic posing. Let's see if this actually goes anywhere. . . 

Feral

Decided to go ahead and draw a standard Feral pic, to help balance out the amount of Edge in this blog. =P I like this one for the most part, but feel the crossed arms need work. The chest hanging out over them is causing her right arm to look weird when layered underneath the other.

Aside from that though, much heart for Feral and her real life counterpart. ^^

Orx Borx Edge

I apologize in advance for the kinda lame content matter here. This one was a case of "shit. Need to take my break before I lose it. . ." and then realizing i hadn't thought at all yet on what to draw. D: I decided to go ahead and fall back to the ever awesome Edge, but what would he be doing in this pose?

Well, this case is pretty true to life. The plan today is to ride down to a Best Buy after work, and pick up a sexy new XBox 360 Elite. Afterwards, as we'll be eating at a restaurant in celebration of Dad's birthday, I call my folks for a ride. It's amazing how real life can occasionally even supply great picture ideas.

Great picture overall (even if rather simple), my only complaint would be Edge's right arm there holding the 360. With the width between the box edge and his body, the arm should be looking different. May address this when I'm feeling unlazy enough, but for now just fulfilling my '1 drawing a work day' quota. ;P

Thoughtful Foxy

In an effort to draw more of my 'original characters' and less fanart, I've decided to give a Foxy one some more love. Foxy ones are a fun idea i started drawing a while back involving Fox-girl sorceresses / witches with tigerlike stripes on their bodies. Yes I realize foxes don't have stripes. Pretty sure I did it for sexiness reasons. Yay artistic license!

Anyway, the 'Foxy Ones' (as Ryan and I always call them) are always really fun to draw, and giving OCs (original characters) attention is always preferable over fanart. This pic is a great example, as I find myself absolutely loving the contrast of whites, greys, and blacks. 

The only thing I may end up changing is the black paintbrush used for the bits of her clothing. While it helps the contrast even more, I can't help but feel that it blurs some of the detail. (At that dark of a shade anyway) That said, I'll probably end up lightening the clothing a little bit so that you can still tell difference from her skin, but can still also make out details. (Like chestage (heart) )

Last, so much (heart) for big floofy tails. =D They make already sexy femmes all the more cuddly methinks~

Armsmaster

Yay for more long overdue Disgaea art!

Little to no description necessary here, just a femme warrior from Disgaea. ( One of my favorite classes design wise ) I went ahead and drew her in my own typical style instead of the game's own chibi-ish style. While the proportions still seem a little off, I really like how it turned out.

Also noticing that my pics are starting to get dangerously similar, I tried something a little bit different for the lighting. (A neutral front light source rather than off to the right ) also turned out rather well I think. I also hope to start implementing different poses + whatnot, as to avoid everything looking the same. =\

I really like this one though. It's a very nice and clean sketch for once, and was an exercise in doing something a little more unorthodox without some form of reference.

Gamer Couple

I'm not entirely sure which I love more: Gamer couples, or Wolf guy+gal couples. Very fortunately for me, I don't have to choose in this case. =)

This one is a happy, special little pic: a scene that'd be right out of the two of us spending time together. I figure that's either a PS2 wireless or a 360 controller in Edge's hands, with me being too lazy to provide enough detail towards either. (Though it does look more like the PS2 controller)

I love the feeling and emotion here, and the pic for the most part. My only (and big) complaint would be how little time I put into it. (Simply for the sake of getting it done and a pic up here on the blog for today) It's extremely rough + sketchy, and it shows. Looking past that though, I like this one. Very nice and gentle, packed full of good emotions.

Model X

Damn my lack of self control when game music gets involved. . .

I was listening to the Rockman ZX Soundtrack ( "-ZX Tunes-") when I felt my self really wanting to play Mega Man ZX. Sadly, my DS was at home and I myself was at work. (Plus 15 minute breaks really aren't enough for much progress in a game, anyway)

Long story short, I figured a good outlet would be doing some Megaman ZX artwork, and I hadn't really given Model X any attention in quite some time.

Overall, I like the lineart for this one, I just mostly don't care for the (obvious) lazy shading on my part. Partially it was me toying more with shading layers, but also due to running out of time on break.

Eep

Sorry folks, but nothing to post today. I partially blame this on Disgaea for PSP (That horribly wonderful, portable, little game) but also on a very special drawing for a very special someone. (As opposed to working on postable sketches) It may or may not appear on this space, we'll see later on.

-Ed Kun Out-

My Comrade

This one was pretty much a quick sketch of Kurtis, my favorite character in the game "Disgaea" for PS2 and PSP. While you really don't see him (let alone see him shine) till the end-game, trust in my words that he is many shades of badass.

Probably the single hardest part of drawing Kurtis is the amazing lack of reference material available. Google Image Search reveals a fat lot of nothing, and pretty much any + all art only shows the left half of his head. That said, this pic was sort of an exercise in improvising, in addition to the usual drawing stuffs.

A little bit of Advent

Was having an awful lot of artist's block this morning at work. Try as I might, I couldn't think up a single thing to draw. (Made more than a few failed attempts, as well) In the end, I tried falling back on one of my newest common "models".

For the unaware, this is (supposed to be) Ashe from Mega Man ZX Advent. I figured that since this blog is still rather new, I could get away with posting her.

The pose is supposed to be her down on one knee. I personally am not too crazy about how it turned out, but I couldn't think of much else to do with the legs.

Last, my apologies for the high amount of raw sketchiness. While I've been working on making my pics on Dizzy a bit more refined, I was working with a bit less time than usual.

An Edge Kun

A Monday. The beginning of the week, and a fresh picture to start it out with.This one's my wolf-guy avatar, Edge.

Long time friends of mine will know that Edge gets more attention some times than others, so I'll leave it to you to guess what's going on in life. =)

All in all, I was curious if my style had evolved enough to show a difference in Edge. While he looks the same fundamentally, I think there's a bit of stylistic change to him from older pics.

/moo

Decided it'd be cute and fun to draw pics of mine and a lady-friend's Tauren characters in WoW. This one's just the line art + shading. I'm working on coloring it in as I get the chance.

Figured putting this up would definitely be better than nothing though. =) Pictured here is Daelys (the bigger, male Tauren) and Reisaal. (The smaller, femme Tauren) both are Druids. ^^

Sword Chick

With a complete and total lull in work, I feel myself able to put in a quick commentary now. =)

Another non-fanart picture for this blog, which I'm glad for. (While fanart is fun, it should hardly be the foundation of one's artistic skill) This one is a random chick with a cool fashion sense and a nice midriff, holding a pendanty thing (can't really see that well in the final product) and a double sided sword. (Sadly not quite anime scaled)

This picture's main point quickly became to practice a new style of shading on tabletness. Rather than the usual quick and easy layer insta-shading I wanted to try my hand at a more traditional shading, ie how I would shade with a real pencil and paper. I really like the result, and would love to see any reader comments on how they think it turned out. =)

Overture Sol

Second picture ending up posted on this blog shouldn't be terribly much of a surprise. One of my favorite parts of the Guilty Gear series is it's unique character designs, and Guilty Gear 2 : Overture (xbox360) is no exception. The character designs still live out beyond those of other games, but looking badass nonetheless in the field of battle.

Sol's one of my favorite GG characters to draw, mostly because he's a fun character anyway, and really carries a rugged and rebel personality to him. I personally feel his GG2 outfit really carries this along really well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this pic. The lineart came across as I had hoped it to, and the coloring is a job i'm actually quite happy with. Most of all though,t he shading seems realistic, and almost natural in reference to a nearby light source. =)

Doggy

One would think that with my love for Werewolves, I'd be a lot better at drawing them. One would also think that considering my avatarish original character is a werewolf, i'd be even better still drawing them. That said, I personally feel they need a lot of work. This sketch was as such kind of some effort towards that.

Overall this one's not bad in my eyes. Could be much better, but hey. It's a sketch blog, nothing here is really complete by any means. Stuff that could use work I think are mostly the pose / snout. The pose seems a bit blah, and the entire head in general just needs more practice. (Which I feel will come in time as I draw this stuff more)

Also, much love for his poofy chest mane thingy there. That's one thing I feel must always be present in any form of werewolf avatar i have. =) Makes him all the more cuddly for femmes. =P

In the Beginning there was. . .

Why start a new blog page thingy? What purpose could it possibly serve?

Well, for those reading this just now, it's not currently August 2nd. Oh no. It's actually August 25th, at noon o' clock. I however am taking the liberty of posting it earlier due to that being the date when I first picked up little Dizzy.

Dizzy, is the name of my new hp tx2510 laptop. (Combination Tablet + Laptop) While I have been pondering this move for a large number of months, I went ahead and did it today (err, the 2nd) with little to no regrets. As far ahead as the 25th I have relatively few if any complaints, so I think she was money well spent. =)

The point of this blog however, is not so much to write about Dizzy. Rather, it's a visual recording of my random day to day sketches. Not just normal sketches for that matter, but sketches done using Dizzy. (ie my overdue transition to the digital medium) While I have my DeviantArt account, I find myself not so eager to post on that site anymore. In addition, dA's focus is (in theory) higher quality completed works, rather than the rough random sketches I love oh so much. Also, while the "scraps" option does exist on DeviantArt, it's one rarely made use of, as most users skip by them on the way to the deviations.

Thus I came to this conclusion. Both Trap and Lampert have started similar blogs on LiveJournal, but there's always that slight negative vibe from LJ and it's reputation over the years. (Plus I feel BlogSpot provides more of a means to make this unique, and stand out as opposed to the somewhat limited options LJ provides)

All in all, I figure making a quick and easy page here is the best way to share sketches with those interested. A very nice + streamlined interface for quickly adding blogs + images, nice layouts, and even an RSS feed for long term viewers. Hopefully I can keep this going, as a sketch a day (at least) really helps for getting practice in.

-Ed Kun Out-