I was struggling to write a new comic after Shirley’s Day. So I decided to adapt an existing story to save writing time. I got the idea to create a collection of the dumb greentext stories from 4chan, Reddit, and Imgur. Many of these dumb internet posts are outlandish, so they’re a great source of visual ideas for me.
This is the original greentext story. Since it’s anonymous, I have no idea who originally wrote it. So, if someone messaged me claiming they’re the original poster, I’d have to take their word for it.
I made several proofs, and I was just about to go forward on buying prints, but I realized that instead of sitting on many floppy comics that don’t sell that much, I’d make a big trade paperback containing not just my comics work so far, but behind the scenes stuff like my original pencil art and inks! I can even include other illustrations and sketches in the book to show off more of my artwork!
I want to share my process making illustration art for the Indie Real Time Strategy game, Furs of Fury. Working on this illustration pushed my skills to it’s furthest because this game needed this treatment! I initially completed the art in December, but I finally got the time to make a process post and video of this illustration.
The programs I use to create most of my art these days is Clip Studio Paint. Most of the sketching and painting is done in it. I worked on this illustration on and off for roughly 5 months in 20202 over several sessions of Art Streams, weekdays, weeknights and weekends. With this time-lapse, I managed to edit it down to over 20 minutes.
Here’s a new check-in blog post today! Things are mostly the same: drawing things for clients and dabbling in my video game, Blackmask with my pixel art streams.
I’m struggling with my direction to take the game assets without a straightforward gameplay loop that’s not full of wish fulfillment and feature creep. So, I’m stepping back from working on pixel art until I have a face to face meetup with my programmer and learn some more Unity.
I’m pushing hard on getting The Pizza Man, the comic I completed for Journey June last year, ready to print! At the time of this printing and posting, I’ve sent out an order for a print proof! Once I smooth out any more printing and color kinks, the physical book will be ready to sell on my Etsy store by Mid-Fall!
Life’s been unpredictable for the past few weeks with doing extra hours at my day job, getting work done on Flawless Extraordinary Super Heroes, and Adam’s doing his own freelance stuff. I even took a short break away from art and the internet to reground myself and organize.
At the moment, I’m stuck on some things with Blackmask. I’m learning more workflows and thinking of a direction for making the background tile assets.
Right now, I’m learning new tips from pixel artists like MortMort, CupOhJoe and LumpyTouch when I can. I’ve also been trying out converting my art into pixels from 2D Will Never Die, It’s promising, but I’m not as happy with the current results.
My Twitch streaming schedule has also started to slip. Sometimes, I have a hard time getting into a headspace to entertain and draw for streams after work. I did one game stream to shake up my rut, but my machine isn’t good enough to play often. It might be a productive way to relax, but I don’t want to make my Twitch about gaming considering people followed me for my art.
Besides this, I’m staying a float, sporadically posting on my Twitter and Instagram. Most of my sketches I post there are environment concept sketches for Blackmask.
Sketching has taken a bit of a back seat more toward thumbnailing and writing game ideas down during my bus driving.
Despite having not much going on, I keep feeling a pressure on myself to do better than I currently am. I never feel confident that these sketches are interesting enough to post on my socials because they aren’t characters. I have a bad enough time thinking about social media as it is!
With the fruits of Adam’s labor reveals a new progress video for Blackmask!
This progress video done between the last video and now, includes new additions of Slopes, Dashing, NPCs, and Enemies. There’s some jank of course, but development still persists!
I’m doing alright for the past few weeks as there isn’t much to report. I’m still plugging away at my ongoing freelance commissions and Blackmask.
Artwise, I wasn’t very productive. My day job is beginning to pick up again and I spent most of my week making a promotional video for my Youtube Channel.
I’m keeping my head above water with my commissions and other art, but I feel slightly more accomplished in the past few weeks as I’ve been learning to make edit videos like my chat with Bryant Bell. We talk about art, conventions, and life stuff so if you have an hour or time, please give it a listen.
I’m okay but getting a burned out of my stuff. I’ve been slowly attempting to move away from my Twitter and Instagram, trying to keep my sanity with actual galleries sites like here. I’m doing my best to stream as frequently as I can on my Twitch Channel so follow me to catch me working on art stuff commissions!
