Lucifer
Monday 19 July 2010
I don't care for sunrises.
I often find myself out in the early morning when the sky begins to change, and if I can find a quiet spot away from people and cars I do like to watch the sky slowly shift and the morningstar fade into the brightening sky.
As for the actual sun, I rarely stick around for that bit.
(This picture was thrown together in about 45 minutes.)
Edit: 1920x1080 if you want
Haunt v. Mitzy
Sunday 11 July 2010
So, where to begin?
Haunt (the orange one) is being retired for the time being. She's had a long and prosperous career as a Dungeons and Dragons warlock, progressing all the way from a warlock in training, bludgeoning goblins with flaming mattresses all the way to a world-famous violinist, model and (oh yeah) destroyer of starspawn and savior of the realm.
She's been my favorite character for years and it's sort of sad to put her away, but her story is finished and it's time to move on.
BUT NOT BEFORE ONE FINAL FIGHT
Mitzy (the not orange one) is not my character, she actually belongs to my broham from TX, Tish. She's a strong character in her own right, a near-future sort of deal who I've always thought of as a kindred spirit for Haunt. If they ever met they'd probably either kill eachother, or kill everyone else. Or maybe kill everyone else and then eachother? It's possible that I based Haunt's attitude on Mitzy, it's likely that Mitzy at least inspired me to roll a hot-blooded king shit type of lady.
Why are they fighting? Because they both just love violence. Why are they topless? Why the hell not?
Time: About two hours.
Media: Photoshop.
Comic Hunter Website
Friday 09 July 2010
SO THERE IT IS
The much-needed update to the Comic Hunter's website, featuring the new logo (which I also designed, with assistance from some third parties).
What can I say? It's got some RSS feed thingers on the side there. I was going to add Twitter feeds but it turns out that they can't be used quite like a regular RSS feed - they require server-side caching which LH7 isn't built to do because quite honestly it defeats the whole purpose of RSS so I never thought I'd have any reason to do it.
That said, Twitter is the future of internet communication - I heard that from someone in Texas once - so I'll probably add a Twitter-compliant RSS thinger at my earliest convenience.
The new wantlist area should be pretty nice if the owners of the site actually keep it up-to-date... the idea there is that whenever either store has a request they can post it on there and it'll be automatically timestamped, hopefully this will keep the wantlists relevant.
Tools used: As with any website I build, the graphics were put together in Photoshop and the actual html is created by hand in HTMLKIT, which is basically Notepad with FTP. I like to get into the gears of things so no WYSIWYG type editors for me.
Total time: I stopped counting at 12 hours. I seriously lost track of time while putting this thing together, and of course a website is a live thing so it's never really "done".
Things I learned: Twitter's API looks like RSS but it really, really isn't.
Bonus Double-header!
Here's another picture and some words to go with it. This is the Comic Hunter in Moncton, featuring the giantassed sign I designed for them.
I finally got to see it in person for the first time just a couple of weeks ago.
This sign is so large that the original artwork could not be created in one piece, because the total width of the sign was slightly larger than the biggest number Adobe Illustrator even knows about.
I'm saying it's pretty big. It's definitely the biggest thing I've ever done.
I can't estimate the time taken because this was a collaboration between Jeff and I and built on some of the ideas of another designer who didn't work out in the end.
Nagiphax, Actress?
Thursday 24 June 2010
Nagiphax (lv2 Rogue, lv1 Barbarian), in costume as Ilsandra the Erinyes, from the play "The Six Trials of Larazod".
But, what does any of that mean?
Nagiphax is a barkeep from downtown who has recently gotten on board with a group of guerrillas called The Returners who've set their sights on purging corruption from the government and smashing the state.
The Returners have recently discovered that the Mayor himself is putting on a depraved death play for the amusement of his rich buddies. They decide to star in said play, as a way into the Mayor's mansion, hoping to use the cover of the after-party ruckus to search his place for anything that can be used to weaken his political position.
And that is why Nagiphax is dressed as a sexy devil-bird.
Time: about 2.5 hours
Media: pencils, pens, papers and photoshops
The Returners?!
Phooey! Emperor Gesthal's stupid orders! Edgar, you pinhead! Why do you have to live in the middle of a stinking desert?!? These recon jobs are the pits! ...AHEM! There's SAND on my boots![ Kefka ]
Mill Avenue Vexations
Sunday 11 July 2010
Here's something I've just finished up for Kyt Dotson at Mill Avenue Vexations. Kyt's been a friend of mine basically forever and this is not the first time he's asked me to do an illustration for one of his books.
Media: Digital
Once again I decided to try drawing entirely in photoshop, and I'm starting to feel pretty good about it.
Here's a quick little thing to give you an idea what the process looked like:
Sketch / Draw / Color and then the next stage is what you see up there.
Time: About five hours.
As is often the case, I spent more time thinking about this one than actually putting it together. Once I'd decided how I was going to approach it, it all came together pretty easily.
The Sun
It's hot and annoying, but this picture is nice quite unlike the sun.[ Josh ]