#I'm so much happier with these character designs then the old art i posted of them

[jacereaall]

The Song Sisters

From @jflashandclash 's spectacular Series: The Traitors of Olympus

[nothusnotes]

(cross posted from https://mastodon.social/@seanmorton/110804363247420167) I've started re-reading the old Nintendo Power comics, prompted by this Retronauts episode https://audioboom.com/posts/8326904-nintendo-power-comics, starting with Super Metroid by Benimaru Itoh (issues 57-61, Feb-Jun 1994). It's not the best adaptation story-wise, but my goodness is this art amazing. This is what Samus has looked like in my head ever since it came out.

It's dynamic and colorful. There are some interesting compositions. The design of the new characters and ships fits well with the stuff from the game. The art feels tight for the mechanical elements and looser and more fluid for all the weird creatures. This is exactly what Metroid should look like!

As for the story, it's more of a companions piece to the game than an adaptation. It's fifty-eight pages across five installments, and most of that is taken up by characters and scenes that aren't in the game. About the only parts that are reproduced are the intro and the final battle. Instead it focuses on providing context for the action in a way that the game doesn't.

You see characters other than Samus, unlike the game, and some settings outside of Zebes. And one issue is mostly devoted to giving Samus a backstory and a definitive link to the Chozo. The games at that point told you nothing about her as a person. I think that approach actually gives these comics a stronger identity of their own.

The downside is that those new characters get a lot of the focus. Even when Samus is being shown it's often with other characters observing or commented on her. She's the story's protagonist but not the reader's point of view. That still gives her more character development than the games, but not a lot more. They, both Nintendo Power and Itoh himself, did more for characters in some of the other series. It's disappointing that the one with a female lead gets less of a lead focus.

Also, Samus needs to be rescued by one of the new male characters. That's also disappointing, and probably even more so today after the storyline of Metroid: Other M (I assume. I've never played that one. But I've heard enough complaints about whoever Adam is to get an idea or the story).

This is also the shortest of the original game adaptations Nintendo Power did, and the final one (I think. It's definitely the last one of this scope). At the time I was disappointed it ended so fast, and I think a little with the story overall. But I loved the look and feel of it! And, honestly, I'm probably happier with it than I would have been with a more detailed adaptation.

I feel like the Metroid setting, as much as it has one, normally hits the perfect balance for what is needed to make the games as engaging as possible. Meaning there's not really anything outside of what you're doing in the game. You can imagine that there's something outside of it, but you don't really need to know any details. And you hopefully don't need to switch from action bits to talky bits.

Filing it out with a companion piece like this feels like the right approach. If it works for you then you keep it with you while you play the game. And if it doesn't you ignore it because it's not like it's really "official" if it's not in the game itself. It's story development as-you-like-it. And because of it I've always thought this guy is game Huston (screenshot byRoyboyX on the Metroid wiki https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Deceased_Soldier?file=Deceased_Soldier.gif).

Benimaru Itoh also created the much-longer Star Fox comic that preceded Super Metroid. I don't know if I'll read that next but I will get to it. I remember being really happy with that as a kid! He also has a personal website that I cannot read at http://benimaru.com/index.php

[spotlightstudios]

I love looking back at old art of mine. I tried do hard to make it just right and took an obnoxiously long time for every drawing. However, I'm much happier with my art now, with a simpler style and more opportunity for me to actually enjoy it rather than staring at it for so long that I hate it by the time I'm done. (aka art rant time, since I can do that here!!)

These four drawings are from within a span of at least two years. To explain, the top two are drawings of Catacombtale!Grillby (or Chance). The one on the left was my first version (an entry to a contest to draw Grillbys), the one on the right I redrew later on. The bottom left is something I drew for a crossover contest last year sometime, involving Dream and Nightmare (Jokublog). Lastly, bottom right is another contest drawing for the concept of an X-Tale oc (I used Ec-4o.Nightmare).

The first drawing of Chance is easily a good example of an attempt to make the drawing look fun and inviting. I've got a decently fund pose, the colors are warm, and there's a simple background. However, I did this Lineless. Why? I don't know, but I don't like it. Plain and simple, this is my least favorite of the drawings pictured because I took so long to meticulously shade and color and it still wasn't worth it. Served it's purpose for the time, but that's it.

The second one of Chance is overall better. I used cooler colors, and by now I kinda understood how to put deoth into backgrounds. The style I used for him is fine too. Here, I hate the posing. His composition in comparison to everything else makes him look like he's about to fall off his stool. His second set of arms look stupid too, since I recall I either forgot them or didn't want to draw more hands, so I just folded them unnaturally. Better, but not my favorite.

The Fnaf/UTAU crossover drawing is my favorite in concept. It's not the best drawing style, not the worst. I'd redo the designs slightly if given the chance. However, the composition and background I'd keep almost identical. I really liked how the background came out for this one (minus the doorway) because I started to paint my backgrounds around this time. The character poses, I like Night's more, but Dream's is good enough for it's purpose. The execution of using two characters with brand new designs works well enough here, but as I said, I took too much time with minimal effort for this to be too good. (Also completely skipped shading in favor of darker colored gaussian blur.)

The bottom right, X-Night, is my favorite of these specific four. The body proportions are clearly more rounded and small, the style of lineart and colors are very simple and bold, and most of the real charm cones from the lighting and after affects rather than meticulous shading or complex backgrounds. There were still things I'd change if given the chance, but this is a perfect example of my mindset at the time too. The other three drawings here were fun, but I drew them with other people's expectations in mind. For this piece? I drew what I wanted to, since it was my (relatively speaking) design and my art. I'm not as active or social on the app I drew these for anymore. So, I'm much less inclined to please the overlords that might've gotten it more popular had I drawn it in a more realistic or engaging style.

Don't get me wrong, I loved being on that site and drawing so much. I like all of the pieces I posted on too. However, this is a good chance to reflect on what exactly I've been doing all this time in the UT Fandom and how it helped me improve my art over the course of just barely 3 or 4 years.

More looks back on this, a continuation, will be coming soon. This is gonna be a long rant I'll probably revisit often just to catalog ideas for redraws, as well as notes for myself. (Not all of it is degrading, because I plan my next one to be about what things I have enjoyed drawing and why, followed by a completely redraw-cebtric post!

[parab0mb]

I've returned, and I'm here to post some cringe!

So, I might've noticed the recent FNaF resurgence, and I may have also watched The Walten Files recently, and those two maaaay have inspired me to dig up an old horror story concept of mine about a custodian working at a haunted FAO Schwarz-style toy store, so here's a small ref sheet/collage of the story's protagonist, Carmen.

Her design isn't too much different from how it was originally, but the art-style for Walten Files as well as Psychonauts (which I'm also not entirely over) inspired me to make her into even more of a gangly, asymmetrical-faced little scrunkly than she already was and I couldn't be happier about that. A lot of the story elements are still up in the air, but Carmen's character is a bit more fleshed out as well.

Speaking of which, character description stuff under the cut.

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This is Carmen, the newest overnight custodian for Queen Sugar Plum's Toy Haven, her town’s gaudy tourist trap and “shopping experience” for children and guardians alike. Actually, she's currently the ONLY nighttime custodian, as rumors about the store being haunted by cursed toys and vengeful spirits after dark tend to scare most applicants away.

Now for Carmen, who not only struggles to balance college courses and an internship but is also notoriously jumpy and easily spooked by just about everything, working in a supposedly haunted toy shop, alone, at night, is a bizarre choice to say the least. Even more-so when she discovers that the “curse” is in fact real, with several of the toys and attractions becoming animate and even hostile overnight.

Yet despite her perpetual state of panic and the potential to find a marginally less dangerous line of work she insists on pushing through and working the haunted halls of the Toy Haven. Is she just that desperate to make some extra cash? Does she want to prove herself brave, or that the curse exists? Or is there something this innocuous college student knows (or wants to know) that's worth risking life and limb to her...

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Personality/Trivia:

- As mentioned, Carmen is easily frightened, to the point where she has a reputation for it and is regularly poked fun at about it.

- She's also pretty awkward and clumsy, especially when scared or stressed.

- Carmen was positively impacted by and highly values the kindness and support of her childhood friends and her girlfriend Jolene, to the point where they inspired her to pursue a career in social work.

- Carmen’s family didn’t exactly take well to the news of her relationship with Jolene; while Carmen and Jo happily share an apartment under the guise of just being housemates (did I mention this is the 80s), Carmen does still struggle with moving past her family’s rejection.

- But this isn’t the only case of Carmen getting hung-up on the past.

- Carmen isn’t the greatest at planning things out; she tends to forget she has to squeeze sleep into her schedule, and as such she’s prone to frequently dozing off.

- Barring the whole "being alone in a haunted store" thing, Carmen's a surprisingly lousy custodian (you'd think she'd at least mop up after her own bloodstains).