Also this.
No posts ‘coz I got a job after school in game design (miraculously!) and I’ve been beez with that. But I’m settled in now, and about to start drawing again. My first jump to get back on the horse is the 30-day drawing challenge above. I’m gonna start June 1st and I’m super excited for it.
On top of that, I was thumbing through some old folders and found the second image. Last summer I cracked open an old, barely-used sketchbook from 2006 and found a series of sketches and doodles. I decided to see how much I’d improved, and tried to re-do each picture as I currently draw. The top is Kai Sol, my standard swordsman, the middle is Leset, a very dour demon general, and the bottom is Erik Trucido and Christian, a vampire hunting duo. (Christian is a vampire that hates vampires. He punched shit.)
This picture is a stern reminder that I have improved, even when I panic that I haven’t; it’s just another good reason to push forward. And I love looking at it and mocking my 18 year old self. What a punk he was.
Sorry I haven’t been around much, Tumbles. We’re finaling our game and prepping for industry night, so it’s the last panicked rush right now.
So here, have some pixel art of my team!
Trailer for There and Back, the student project I did with three others at VFS, made in the Unity Engine. It’s been a long road here, but we made it! We’ll have a web build up in the next week or two as we make a few final tweaks!
Musical Themes
A big part of the world that Bravo, Fone and their third partymember will exist in is music. I like to think of the story being a hiphop/rap fantasy adventure, so those genres of music are big inspirations for character attitude and design.
For Bravo:
Power - Kanye West
Bravo is a confident guy who has been inadvertently given an immense amount of power, both physically and otherwise. Though he is aware of his responsibilities, he still revels and focuses on all of his strengths, constantly caught in the push and pull of understanding and abusing his gifts.
Though my real story details are pretty hazy, this is one of the first songs I listened to when drawing him, and it really helped me build the kind of person I imagine him being in my head. Aware, perhaps, of what he does and can do to the world around him, but unwilling to always act in a manner respectful of that knowledge.
For Fone:
Capcom - Jay-Kin
Fone (who’s name I feel no longer suits him, so I’m probably gonna be changing it) is an old friend of Bravo’s, with a newly excited outlook on life. Fone was slave labour for several years, only recently managing to break free after he uncovered an ancient secret weapon (which he named the Chakrhyme) at the prison camp he was stationed at.
Jay-Kin’s “Capcom” I found, after trying to decide on a song for him for a while, was a good fit. It’s energetic, celebratory, and all about a comeback. Fone bears the scars of his history, but has a positive outlook on what lies ahead; the future is a fearless thing.
Plus, I just dig that 16-bit beat, and the awesome fade-in/out.
As I work on the last character, I’ll be trying to pick a song for her… Bravo’s was so natural, but Fone’s took a while for me to decide, largely because who and what I wanted Fone to be only gradually took shape as I drew him.
