Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous?

Here we see a rough of Arturo Dugalle, from my second comic story Star Bard. He is a Taldarian - a rare breed of alien that is very feline in appearance. Space and rocking out? Totally not a ripoff of Jem and the Holograms. :)

Particularly proud of his lil Luke Skywalker 'do there. Just looks good, it' solid without being very committal. :) But that is the love of sketches.

Home of the Fixer

One of the many things I need to work on is backgrounds. As I was writing the storyline for my comic I realized that, unless I started now, all my backgrounds would probably start looking like crap! So I cracked this out the other night at work. This is Arty's home and workshop - the main door is there in the hillside under the willow tree, and the stable lies a few yards off the main area.

Just a fun sketch that gave me some nice perspective.

Rocket Knight to the Rescue!
So this is considerably less 'sketchy' than most of my previous stuff, but it's still technically a sketch. This image is a vector outline of Sparkster from the cover of the Rocket Knight adventures game for the Sega Genesis. 1993 represent!

I always thought Sparkster was cool. He was really different than his counterparts of the time - back in those days a lot of companies were trying to get their iconic mascot in on the action, trying to capitulate on the Sonic and Mario mascot craze - Bubsy, Awesome Possum, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel - none of these really lasted. But Sparkster was really different.

He wasn't hardcore, he wasn't a bad-ass, he was just himself. There are several moments in the game where he gets suprised or shocked and actually shows a little emotion. It was kinda interesting coming from my background as a Sonic kid - after all, the only emotion Sonic ever really projected was a kind of mute disbelief once you smacked into a guy and lost all his rings. Sparkster gets mad, scared, and frustrated - this is something that was pretty rare in the early 90's.

He also has a freakin' sword and jetpack! How awesome is that, right? I mean it's enough that he jumps around and hangs by his little opossum tail, but he has a rocket strapped to his back and a big sword! C'mon!

Anyways, I just thought he was awesome.

Sparkster(C) 1993 Konami.

We're Back!

I need to create things. I don't know if I mentioned that before.

I am a creative personality and I absolutely love it when something comes together. For example, it doesn't take much more than a properly placed line to get me excited about a sketch starting to take shape, and a well-written page gets me psyched to continue pushing more story. A few good colors and smooth application make my brush lighter - a great transition makes a long night of video processing all worth it - on and on it goes. I create, and I get that creator's high.

The actual problem is that I have a hard time staying motivated. Once the pages stop coming, or once the sketch starts to deteriorate and spin off in odd directions, I get discouraged and quit. Why do I do this? I'm not sure.

I think in this particularly digital world, distractions are everywhere; podcasts, video games and general surfing are something I find myself falling into. I mean, countless times during this post alone I've found things that have driven me from my purpose.

What's the solution? I'm not sure. Since I work in a primarily digital medium and have ample amounts of free time during my shifts at work, I can't see much else besides some discipline getting me out of this particularly annoying little rut.

I'll be trying to post more regularly. Keep it real!

--Danno

Cameron Geer - Lute Hero!

A janky little pose of Cameron rocking out on his lute.  After all, when one feels the power of Rock, one must follow the call.  The craylings are in for a good old fashioned rock show - I'm sure somewhere Alquin is shouting for them to quiet down.  Pfeh.  Wizards.

Man, I love bards.  There's always this hint of rockstar in every one of them, even the mellow lame ones that are really more like a gnome version of Willie Nelson.  To have the power of music at your fingertips is a pretty attractive offer - I hope they have a place in D&D 4th edition.

In the Sewers of the Rat King
A courageous dwarven warrior faces down the scourge of the sewers, swearing to put an end to the disappearances of his people.
Just another dwarf bein' dwarfy. I do enjoy drawing them since they have such a solid, organic frame while at the same time being so different from humans. The nice thing about them is theur lack of human style proportion makes them unique and fun to draw.
Only problem I have are the legs really, so I cheated and drew him in a sewer. Clever, if one can stand the poo-gas.
Also! Lookit the rats on the skull pile! They're all curious and squeaky.

Lady of the Mountain
Here we have a dwarven fighter, one of the options for the pre-made D&D 4.0 demo. I really enjoyed the combat system and the abilities, made for a very fun couple hours. Sketched this while were playing (Actually moved soi quick that I had to stop a lot!)