#Its been a while since I use my lineless style

[solifelessblog]

There's tragedy at every step of the way

Please reblog, don’t repost :)

[hdra77]

the puppet

[skenpiel]

O BTW b4 i go to bed. heres some silly stupid doodles of my redesigned trollsona since im rereading hs now anyway ^__^

[fleouriarts]

who are your biggest artistic influences my furry friend? we had art classes together for years but i still feel like i don’t know 😭

😭😭😭 honestly thats probably cus a lot of my artistic influences are specifically internet artists that ive been following for several years and not things i couldve brought up in art class. you know that lame ass mr smith wouldve hated me if i said 'yeah i draw like this cus of some bts fanart girlie on twitter'. thankfully i have the Archivist's Temperament and save like literally everything thats had an effect on my style... so below is a journey thru my artistic influences (and various insp folders on my computer) as far as i can remember

of course the most basal Dorian Influence is disney movies. you are my brother in arms in the lion king fandom so you know this. whenever i am feeling extremely artistically bankrupt i try to revitalize myself by rewatching the lion king, atlantis, and treasure planet. and also the prince of egypt but thats dreamworks LOL

in 2016 i found the first "online" artists i distinctly remember wanting to imitate, which were sara kipin and celia lowenthal because i was obsessed with how they used color to block out their illustrations. ive also been following dimetrodone(/dimetrodrawn/deinocheirus) on here since 2016 and love all the shapes and colors in her work

in 2017 i started doing more detailed shading because i saw bts fanart by the artist tyu_naxx on twitter and loved how they did it (below is like THE piece that made me change my whole shit up)

around then is also when i started trending towards using limited palettes and that was mostly inspired by various national parks promo artworks that would only have like 5 colors in them. wish i remembered who made these but heres ancient scans of some postcards i got at sequoia national park that changed me

in early 2019 i started wanting my style to be more cartoony so i would constantly peruse the backlogs of kiwi, officialspec, skunkes and mimiadraws to get whatever inspiration i could from them

in late 2019 i completely pivoted for some reason and started doing lineless rendered semirealistic stuff instead. i think that was mostly cus i hated doing lineart. one of my biggest inspirations in that era was atissi

in 2020 i remember i went crazy stupid on using glow effects and chromatic aberration on stuff and i genuinely think all of it can be traced to this ONE piece of bts fanart by lordizxy on twitter like i was fully obsessed (putting it below also in case it gets deleted somehow)

mid 2021 was when i got tired of semirealism and thought it was too amorphous and restricting so i went back to cartoony shit. i was still looking at the artists i listed for early 2019 but i also added artists like iplidl, catmunches, and chunkysoup22 to the mix

2022 was an inspirationless nightmare i have no clue what i was doing for that entire year. the artblock was BAD. i mostly just looked at art from all the artists i mentioned before while artistically wandering in circles. a lot of this was me trying and failing to figure out whether i wanted to do more dynamic yet less rendered art or... the opposite of that

thankfully in 2023 i finally FIGURED THAT SHIT OUT. i would say the current dorian art era started with this silly drawing of graydon and riley hivemind as a dogboy and a catboy ⬇️

you can kinda see the influences of all the cartoonists i listed above but a lot of the way i draw now is just. me trying to not make myself hate doing art. ive always hated redoing a line 30000000 times for clean lineart so now its sketchy. rendering my art was making my drawings feel super stiff so now thats all messy too. etc etc

i think Right Now the artists i go to for inspiration the most are still kiwi and skunkes, but i also found the artist robottoast recently who makes RIDICULOUSLY good furry art, its so full of life and personality and i definitely need to commission them someday. the most recent singular piece thats changed my whole shit up is this scott pilgrim fanart by benadieshekiel (also below) because i really liked how the clothes were fully rendered while the skin and hair are less detailed with clear lineart. so sometimes i do that too

ok i think that is as full of a chronicle of Dorian Influences that i can give you rn. i was not lying when i said i wanted to yap. hope you enjoy <3

[sushiisiu]

Hello~ 🙋🏽‍♀️ Your art is really, really cool and beautiful, tysm for sharing it with us! 💕💕💕 I saw you mention that you would like more asks so I wanted to ask you, what's your favorite phase and why?

Hi! thank you so much for liking my art T__T and as for your question it's hard to decide since i like most of the phases a lot...

I'd say style-wise my favorite would be phase 2? I love that it's way more grungy and nasty looking, esp with the new greyer palettes and soft shading. it's in that perfect sweet spot of being more realistic but still having the stylized shapes and anatomy of phase 1, which is great because i get to see jamie's lineart. also big fan of the way he drew everyone's hair kinda choppy here it's soooo cute. most of my favorite gorillaz art all come from this phase

Story-wise tho then obviously phase 3. like plastic beach might've been a hot mess while it was releasing and a lot of things just never got followed through but fuck if it doesn't feel cinematic as hell and the most fleshed out out of all the phases. like the web game ??? and obviously the emotional weight of the story, murdoc alone ruling over a literal pile of garbage and the only people he has with him is a soulless copy of his daughter that HE killed and someone he's holding captive, his only outlet being songwriting and broadcasting a radio show that he knows no one will hear all while being chased down by all those he's crossed both demonic and mortal. like i could really go on it makes me so emo I dont even care if the lost chord doesn't make that much sense. it fucks me up either ways to see it wrapped up like that.

although music wise (and just general marketing and promotions) i LOVEEE phase 1 so much. EVERY song on that album is so memorable and i love the amount of weird noises and falsettos 2d did. love the hologram concerts and the ones with their vas up, 4 whole music videos and an animatic (AND THE GBITEZ!!!!) and a whole interactable website of their studio... INSANE like the dedication to making them seem real is insane i wish we still had that instead of them being glorified mascots. . .

that's honestly not to say i don't like the others as hell tho like humanz had a great art direction too with the photobashing and lineless style and personally i love realistic proportions soooo and the mocap interviews were funny as hell even if i hate kevin bishop. the now now was soooo crazy too im a big fan of spiral imagery and just.. the pink/blue thing is great Fav album art love the emotional complexity it gives 2d (never recovered from souk eye) and honestly song machine is amazing too i adore the "episodic" formula of the music videos and like personally i don't even mind keyframe 2d that bad since i barely noticed it within the videos themselves its the endless marketing that reuses that same pic that drives me insane (billboard near my college STILL has keyframe fred perry 2d on rotation and it ambushes me every time)

ANYWAYS i kind of rambled on but!!!! basically phase 1-3 i love those the most. Thank you for enabling me

[natsunenuko]

I've been thinking recently what exact style do I have, but obvious answer turned to be - many, and each is unique in its way. Each of those is used depending how it suits best. It surely is helpful to have a chart like this to understand your own abilities. SKETCH - I have used a sketch style in few of my works, it's the fastest one, since all the lines are rather thick and messy I don't need to pay that much attention to what I'm doing while drawing this way since it will look messy in the end. "ANIME" - My mostly used style. I call it an "anime" style because I often use a slightly "bluring filter" that makes lines look smoother and blendy with the colors, especially when said lines are thin and colored. Without mentioned filter this style looks more casual. MANGA - Or rather a style that imitates manga, mostly used by me while making comics and few regular arts, since its almost like sketch style, it creates a specific aesthetic, making it easier to get a nice effect without struggle, as well as most deeper shades are created the lineart layer rather than two shading layers. LINELESS - Most recent style and it's still a lot of experimentation. This one comes with a modifier where shadows are painted instead of cell shaded. It takes more time than all the other styles - without the lineart the shades are what tell all details apart and since all the elements usually are a separate layers they also need specific order in order to work. And what are YOUR styles?

REFUSETale © NatsuneNuko Undertale © Toby Fox _________________________ Youtube Deviantart Twitter Ko-Fi Discord Art Discord

[dinkythings]

cursed with knowledge every time i see your works and remember the ask i sent you ages ago about your style looking suuuuper smooth and easy on the eyes and your reply that you use the airbrush tool with everything (its honestly very impressive), i gotta ask how meticulous is it to work like that? do your pieces take very long to do on average or is it somewhat streamlined because of your workflow/how used to and versed you are using said tool?

Lmao, every time I get an ask like this it gets a chuckle out of me. I'm sorry to haunt your waking hours with my caveman methods hahah. I have actually been trying to branch out with brushes in photoshop and such! Even getting into clip studio finally, ever since a coworker showed me the light... I would love to experiment with more texture in my work instead of everything looking a bit plastic-y, but at my core I still feel most comfortable with the good old airbrush.

To answer your question though, I actually work quite fast. I did 90% of that Blackbeard painting on a whim during an online D&D session - to give you an idea. So yeah, my workflow is very much attuned to it.

I mainly use the airbrush because it's fast and efficient for me. I ink with a small version of the brush, then just scale up and lower the opacity a tad when it's time to colour. I have my pressure sensitivity set up so that it takes a lot of force to make a stroke at its max size, giving me a lot of control. I can lay down large softer areas of shading with it when I want, while also being able to use the same brush for all the detail I need... if that makes sense?

Also, I will admit: when I do lineless pieces (like the cambion one) I do use the selection tool and sometimes a harder brush to get the edges of areas of colour nice and crisp. So it's not 100% airbrush! I'm no wizard, and I don't stick to the same brushes on purpose or anything either. I'm... just easily overwhelmed by too many brushes and features and reluctant to try new things :' )

[cmatt11]

Music Mosaic

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INWxzCzqDm8

(Artist statement under the cut)

As a long-time fan of Louie Zong, I knew I wanted to choose one of his songs for this project. I was immediately drawn to a song called “East Coast Summer” since I grew up on the east coast. I decided to make a series of eight digital paintings that would capture some scenes that felt like home to me. I didn’t want them to be any specific location that would only have significance to me, so I opted to find reference pictures through broad searches that invoked the particular feeling I was going for without creating too niche of a memory that would only be relevant to me. I wanted to depict these scenes at nighttime to reflect the song’s laidback and slow tempo. The light instrumentation–supported by the constant hum of cicadas throughout–also alluded to scenes that were calm, lacking the bustling activity that comes during the day. Additionally, through its use of both minor and major chord progressions, I felt like the song created a nostalgic feeling–not quite sad, but not quite happy. I chose to add a hazy effect to my images to make them appear as if they were merely memories that had perhaps faded a little. I added noise to also make them feel older as if they are from a time that has passed. I also chose to use a lineless style, avoiding sharp edges, and a soft brush to reflect the song's calm, legato melody. The only sharpness in the song comes from the soft drums, so I chose to interpret this in my images with light, adding small sources of light in each of the images to add a bit of that sharpness while not letting it become the main focus. 

I feel like this experience relates to the ideas of authorship we have been discussing in class due to the specific experiences that I have had that have allowed me to further connect with this piece of music. I have studied it and spent hours painting scenes to visualize my emotional response to the song. In doing so, I have directly changed the way I receive this song. It now has an entirely different meaning to me. Instead of just being nice to listen to, it makes me think of home, my childhood, my memories of North Carolina, and more. Because I explored the piece by using different mediums to analyze the music, I also created a new experience for myself as a listener. This relates to the ideas of authorship explored in the article Authorship and Participatory Culture that a great limitation of media analysis comes when we only seek to interpret media based solely upon the author’s intended purpose. This “intentional fallacy” described in the reading is very important when it comes to analyzing media because we can allow ourselves to create a meaning that is personal and potentially different from what the author intended if we accept authorship of our own unique consumer experience.

[certainempatheticturkeymuffin]

Four weeks of four might end up being four months of four for me...

Idk if y'all have noticed, but I tend to burnout on schedules. I do fine for a week, maybe even a month or two. Then I get stressed and take a break for a couple months. It's happened three times since I started posting to ao3 consistently, and even more before then. Understandably, I don't want it to happen again.

The first time was obviously in April. The stress was driving me up the wall. I announced my hiatus, only intending to be gone for a week or two, and that stretched to nearly two months. I lasted nearly four months on a schedule, but I was falling apart until Levie told me to take a break and that the readers would be fine with it.

Then I come back from hiatus, and I make a deadline for a oneshot that had gone way over its' word limit. That was my hiatus in june and why I suddenly started missing updates again. I missed the deadline and that fic, the fic that I spent over 100 hours on, the fic that's currently sitting at 17k, but was at 38k before I scrapped it, yeah, it's unpublished and I haven't worked on it in over a month. I was so disappointed in myself. I had to shut down for a while after putting so much work into something only to fail to meet an arbitrary deadline that I didn't even announce. That was why i went silent in June.

About that draft, I've had an unreleased art piece that I'm planning on releasing alongside that fic, and I think y'all will really love it, so I'm gonna start work on it again before my art improves so much that this extremely impressive (for me) piece falls below my standard. Realistically, I'm not gonna top it for a while, but I want y'all to be just as impressed as I was when I finished it. I don't want y'all to think my art style is regressing or anything. Just something to look forward to, I guess.

...the next burnout was more a suicide scare. I've got real bad mental health because...of a lot of personal things. I don't have a good home life, my physical health is only just improving, and I'm stuck in the closet around homophobic and transphobic people. Hell, I've had suicidal thoughts since I was twelve, before I even knew I was nonbinary. It...it never got that bad before, and I was terrified. I had to dox myself to my friends so if I suddenly vanished they could look and see if I'd been given an obituary. It got that bad. It's only been a few weeks since then, so trying to be consistent for FWOF was really a bad idea in the first place. The stress and, really, fear of letting everyone down is leading me down the path of burnout and another scare. I can't do that again so soon. So, forgive me if I'm late on fwof. I just thought y'all deserved an explanation. I was so excited to be productive, so this is probably a downer for y'all.

I've still got side projects, so I'll be releasing the standard oneshots every once in a while.

As for progress on FWOF itself....Blue's art is giving me issues, mainly the feet and hands because I'm not used to dynamic poses. And with it being lineless, I probably shouldn't be so picky with the fingers. The writing prompt is chugging along slowly. I'm probably doing more research than strictly necessary, but I'm giving myself breaks so I don't burnout on it, because I actually really like the story so far despite the lack of editing. I'm going to be honest, I haven't started on Red or Green. I have an idea for Red's art piece, but I'm drawing a blank for Green. It'll probably have something to do with the pyramid.

Vio's was actually really rushed, I caught a few stray details after posting and I'm kicking myself for it, but otherwise I still like how it turned out. The writing prompt...i might make changes to it, I might not.

The FWOF prompts may run into October, but just know that that's just for quality control and so I can give you guys more content in the long run.

I figured I owed y'all an explanation for my recent actions and my unsteady post schedule. Again, I'm really sorry about all this, I hope I didn't let y'all down too much 💛💛💛💛

[spiritofjustice]

Webkinz Games Ranked

Because I have nothing better to do and I’d never played all the Webkinz games before now.  Includes Tournament games and board games, but is mainly about the arcade.

Wheel of Wow/Deluxe and Wishing Well will not be ranked, but other Dailies will.

Also include Academy games.  I did not have Plumpy’s Hairdresser when I made this, but I do now upon this edit.

So in general the arcade games are sorted alphabetically, with random exceptions. I’m just going down the list as-is in the arcade.

Grand Grotto - one of the match three-esque games, though you mainly just click stuff.  A little tough, but I wasn’t trying very hard.  The graphics aren’t that thrilling but aren’t bad.  Tries to do something interesting things, but I don’t really love a lot of the Webkinz takes on match three games. 5/10.

Goody Gumdrops - an infinite running style game where you collect gumdrops to progress.  This game is not fun.  Feels like the flow of Kinzcash you get is also less compared to a lot of other games.  Not much going on after the first minute or so. 4/10.  EDIT: I was actually really mean to this game and I don’t know why.  I really like it now.  It’s fun, not too intensive.  Inoffensive and cute.  You actually do make decent KC from it.  7/10.

Polar Plunge - this was one of my favorite games when I was a kid.  You sled down a hill.  It’s simple.  I have never fucking completed a track of this game in my life.  Don’t like the new version, but the art style isn’t offensive.  I find the older art style for the games more charming, though.  It’s fun.  8/10.

Cash Cow - another game I probably played a lot, though I prefer 2.  Another take on the match three.  This game also had its art style updated, but I just don’t like the lineless look of the update.  It’s soulless, and it makes the visuals more busy and hard to follow for me.  All right game though.  7/10.

Smoothie Moves - this is basically just Zuma, which my dad loves playing.  I like this kind of game, too, though I suck at it.  Nice visuals, clean, fun gameplay.  8/10.

Wacky Zingoz - one of those games where you try to hit something as far as you can.  It’s so basic, it’s not really anything, and you can’t make much money on it-- like 10 Kinzcash is generous in terms of how much you make.  Not fun.  1/10.

Wacky Zingoz Extreme - the EXTREME version of Wacky Zingoz, except with more bats and more to do, but still not much.  An improvement.  3/10.

Ant Mania: Picnic 2 - the thrilling sequel to Picnic.  Not bad, I remember playing this one a lot.  You just try to collect food while avoiding spiders and fire ants.  It’s simple, but fun.  Not really my favorite though.  5/10.

Atlantiles - I don’t know how to describe this game.  You match tiles together, but it’s not like a match three.  Never played this game till now, but I love it.  Excellent game, really fun, a little challenging but not too hard.  10/10.

Bananza - a really basic, older game.  You collect bananas and avoid obstacles.  Not the most visually interesting or engaging game.  3/10.

Booger Gets an A - I get the impression this very basic addition game is for the youngest fans of Webkinz, but the games get difficult really fast simply because of the speed.  It caught me by surprise because I had no memory of that.  Not bad.  5/10.

Zingoz Bounce ‘N’ Burst - I remember really liking this game but it’s not very fun to play now.  You try to burst bouncing Zingoz and it’s not particularly interesting, but is challenging.  5/10.

Candy Bash - a brick breaker clone.  Not particularly fun-- it feels like your character is way too close to the bricks.  4/10.

Candy Bash 2: Viva Poncho - this one is about as equally unfun, but not the same game as the first.  You have more ability to move and control what’s going on, but you’re really slow.  You’re just sauntering back and forth to bust candy blocks falling, and it’s just kinda eh.  4/10.

Cash Cow 2 - I like this game.  I’ve played this game many times.  Another take on match three, but I enjoy it more than the original.  Solid game, good fun, I’m terrible at it.  7/10.

Color Storm - somehow wasn’t looking forward to this game but I had some fun with it.  Another kind of match three, but challenging and interesting.  A good take on the broad genre.  7/10.

Crafty Canaries - a match three.  Good fun to play, I played it to completion.  Not too much going on but it’s solid.  8/10.

Dashing Dolphin - the controls are slippery and awkward.  You’re trying to navigate through hoops and through nets, but it’s not fun to control or to play.  1/10.

Dogbeard’s Gold - expected something different from the title, but it’s fine.  The only control is clicking with good timing to shoot from one island to the next.  It’s all right.  Not much to write home about and not much Kinzcash to make up for it.  I liked the visuals.  4/10.

Eager Beaver’s Adventure Park - I don’t like spelling games.  This is a take on one, but I didn’t really enjoy it.  3/10.

Flutter Bugged - just running around and avoiding bees(?) using flowers.  Can get wild pretty fast, not bad.  5/10.

Get Eleven Solitaire - I fucking love Webkinz card games.  This is no exception.  The game is extremely simple and is pretty much the same every level, but I like it.  I like solitaire and I like the take on it to get to eleven.  It’s good, casual gameplay and nice visuals.  I bought a Deluxe membership to play this game.  10/10.

Go-Go Googles - I remember loving this one as a kid, might have even gotten the trophy for it.  Fun, but basic.  You jump to collect flowers and protect the tree from butterflies.  It’s fine, but the controls feel slightly janky, but not bad.  5/10.

Goober’s Atomic Adventure - basically an updated version of Goober’s Lab, except with pay-to-win and pay-to-play elements!  You can play without, but it’s clear they want you to pay.  I do not like this because of that.  0/10.

Goober’s Lab - the OG match three.  Fun, but it’s really slow, like painfully slow.  It is good fun, though.  7/10, would have been 8 without the slowness.

Griddling Gourmet - I wonder how many people have even unlocked this game?  After owning an account for 12 years and playing on and off, I unlocked this game this month.  You get it by completing all levels of the Cooking course, and it’s basically just an arcade version of that lesson.  It’s all right-- I feel like the academy version controls better, but I always loved the Cooking class.  9/10.

Hatch the Dragon - kinda reminds me of 2048?  You try to hatch the Dragon.  Fun, challenging, interesting, and I want to give it a go after the initial playthrough to see if I can do better.  8/10.

Skunk Sweeper: Hide ‘N’ Skunk -  a take on Minesweeper.  I don’t like Minesweeper or this.  1/10.

Home Before Dark - kinda like Meepit Juice Break on Neopets?  I actually do like games like where you’re shifting the position of pipes around to achieve something, but it’s nothing to write home about.  6/10.

Hoppy Little Rocketship - an infinite jumping kind of game.  I like those games, but this game is wildly laggy and that really ruins the experience.  2/10.

Hungry Hog - this game is ugly and not particularly fun.  A take on Pac-Man, I guess?  I liked this game a lot as a kid but it’s just kinda eh.  4/10.

Iceberg Escapades - not fun.  Controls don’t feel right.  Another bland clicking game.  1/10.

Jazz Monsters - this game confused me on account of the fact that the purple monster isn’t purple, but its color matches up perfectly with the keyboard, which is pink, but is actually like, supposed to be the Green Instrument or something.  Not fun.  1/10.

Jumbleberry Fields - it’s a daily, but you have some actual control over what’s going on so it’s included.  It’s Yahtzee except the dice are loaded, but I like it.  This game, like most of Webkinz, is buggy, and one time, I filled up my Jumbleberry Jar and tried to redeem my prize, but the game bugged out and it reset to zero with me receiving no prize.  I’m still mad.  Not really gonna rank it, but like, 7/10.

Jumbleberry Blast - a match three, but this one is really satisfying to play.  Not a whole lot to say about it, but I actually like this one!  8/10.

Leapin’ Llama - game allegedly lets you use the mouse but it doesn’t work.  A basic infinite running game.  Not fun.  Slow.  3/10.

Lily Padz - this game is fuck ugly, but controls good.  Really simple, but pretty fun.  The jumping feels good and the controls are actually tight!  Wow!  6/10.

Lily Padz 2: Tropical Downpourz - it’s like the first one except it’s not ugly and controls really bad.  Hard to gauge how far your jump goes and doesn’t feel right like the first one does.  Not good.  1/10.

Dex Dangerous(tm) and the Lunar Lugbotz!(tm) - the Webkinz challenges made me play this game 500 times and I’m sick of it.  It’s a basic Asteroids game.  It’s all right, but I don’t like it. 3/10.

Lunch Letters - a typing game.  Very Hard really means that mode is fucking hard, so I’m impressed.  I don’t love typing games, but it’s not bad.  5/10.

Ms. Cowaline’s Rollcall - a really fast-paced game where you try to keep track of whether you’ve seen the same Webkinz in a row.  Super fun, I suck at reaction games, but maybe a little too simple?  7/10.

Operation Gumball - I’m bad at this one, and don’t find the number puzzles super interesting, BUT it’s unique so I’ll give it points.  Not really for me but not bad.  6/10.

Pet Party Parade - another take on match three.  This idea of freeing a creature by clearing paths has been used a million times in these Webkinz match threes, like the Grotto one and Jumbleberry Blast. but isn’t as fun.  4/10.

Picnic - the original Picnic, just a take on the snake game.  Simple, but solid.  5/10.

Pinky’s Big Adventure - essentially a remake of Hungry Hog, but with a face lift and some slight changes to the gameplay.  Not bad.  Not my favorite, though, since I don’t really enjoy Pac-Man style games to begin with.  5/10.

Pizza Palace - delicious, finally some good fucking food.  Love this one.  In the vein of Cake Mania, a series I LOVE, you make pizzas.  It’s stressful, like working a food job in real life.  I love this game, but I’ve never completed it.  I wish they gave you more than one life for such a long and difficult game.  Can’t complain much, though.  10/10.

Plumpy’s Hairdresser - the arcade version of the Grooming class.  Fun.  Pretty much the same as always.  8/10.

Polarberry Jam - pretty much like Bananza except now it’s a polar bear?  It’s not fun.  Character is too slow and feels limiting.  1/10.

Pumpkin Patch Protector - fuck ugly, but I don’t know any other Webkinz games like it, so points for creativity?  It’s a click and shoot type of game.  Not much to write home about.  3/10.

Quizzy’s Word Challenge - I don’t like spelling games, but this is more fun than Eager Beaver’s.  Not bad.  It’s kind of like boggle, I guess?  5/10.

Skater Kat - hip and kewl.  The controls are okay but feel a little slow.  Not particularly fun or interesting.  You just skateboard and jump.  3/10.

Spree! - another daily, but you get to do stuff.  It’s a virtual board game.  I like it, and I like the idea of saving up money to spend one you get to the end.  8/10.

Stack ‘Em Up Solitaire - a basic take on Solitaire.  I wish the game looked just a little better- the green they used isn’t really nice to look at for long periods of times.  I like this one.  6/10.

Stardrops - another take on match three.  Looks pretty, kinda interesting, but not my favorite.  5/10.

Tile Towers - I love Mahjong, but the colors they use for the tiles make this game hard to play.  It’s hard to distinguish the tiles apart, so that’s not fun.  If you want to play a Mahjong clone on a pet site, just stick with Koujong on Neopets.  2/10.

Triple Strike Solitaire - Solitaire, except this time it’s in pyramids!!!  I actually prefer this to the other Solitaire, but it still is a little visually unpleasant, but not too bad.  I wish they would update this one!  8/10.

Banaza: Tropical Troubles - the thrilling sequel to the original.  Pretty much the same except you don’t progress in levels, it just keeps going till you lose.  A little more going on, but eh.  The platforming doesn’t feel good.  3/10.

Tulip Troubles 2 - where’s Tulip Troubles 1.  We want answers.  A quick reaction game.  Fun.  Not bad.  Kinda just gets stale after a while.  5/10.

Tunneling Twigsy - this is not fun.  Kind of like the Polar Bear one from Neopets but nowhere near as fun?  1/10.

Wacky’s Bullseye Batter - a batting game.  Basic, fun.  It’s okay.  5/10.

WackyER Zingoz - the THIRD version of Wacky Zingoz, and this one is actually pretty all right.  Way more going on visually, there’s levels, it’s chill.  6/10.

Waddell’s Icecap Adventure - we all hate ice physics, right?  Right.  Mixed the other Penguin game up with this.  The controls are bad and it’s not fun.  2/10.

Webkinz Rally - it’s all right?  A really basic racing game, but I wish there was more to it. 4/10.

Scrambled - love this one.  So simple, but challenging, but fun.  You make omelettes until you win.  Customers are mean to you like in real life.  10/10.

Where’s Wacky - basic memory matching game.  It’s okay. 3/10.

Whimsy Skies - idk how to describe and I don’t want to because it’s got the classic Control Slowness(tm) and isn’t fun.  One point added because I love Webkinz dragons, though.  2/10.

Zacky’s Quest - I want to actually complete this game some day but I have no patience for it.  It’s unique, interesting, kind of an actual game and isn’t a match three.  I like the adventure vibes. 6/10.

Zingoz Bounce - this game disappeared from my arcade.  It was the game of the day the other day and I know they get taken out of the arcade list for that day but when it switched over it didn’t come back and I didn’t have the chance to play it when it was game of the day.  Found it making this list though and it’s a boring clicking-to-support-the-ball game.  1/10.

Zingoz Pie - you throw pie.  You do not have fun. 2/10.

Zingoz Pop - another updated game visually and it just totally lose the charm the original version has-- which you can play in the Quick-Play Arena, at least.  It’s not much, though.  4/10.

Zingoz Zangoz - it’s not fun.  It’s a fruit bouncing game and I just don’t care for the visuals or the gameplay.  1/10.

TOURNAMENT GAMES

Webkinz Supermodelz - I’ll argue that this is the most popular tournament game.  I like it.  You pick out outfits and the judges arbitrarily judge you.  9/10.

Cash Cow Battles - the same as the original Cash Cow but you’re competing against someone else.  7/10.

Wacky Zingoz - no.  1/10.

Link’D - it’s Connect Four.  I like Connect Four.  5/10.

Checkers - I don’t like Checkers because I’m bad at it.  If I wanted to bad at that kind of game I’d play Chess JKSDBFSD.  Tried playing against the AI with Alyssa Fairy and she wiped the floor with me.  3/10.

Bogbeard’s Bathtub Battles - it’s Battleship but with cool power-ups.  Actually very fun.  9/10.

Rock Paper Scissors - what do you think.  5/10.

Chef Challenge - my favorite tourney game.  I LOVE making recipes in Webkinz so this is just a blast.  10/10.

Kinz Pinz Bowling - it’s virtual bowling, so not bad.  5/10.

Goober’s Atomicolicious - a take on Goober’s Lab but with a few more things-- trying to fill vials of color before your opponent does.  I already like Goober’s Lab, so.  This version is not slow, so that’s great.  8/10.

Duck Crossing - not a big fan?  I like that it’s a strategy game but it’s just okay.  6/10.

Zingoz Switcherooz - not a fan, really, but it’s simple and inoffensive.  I suck at strategy games.  4/10.

BOARD GAMES

Farming Frenzy - kinda fun, but really simple.  I remember liking this game a lot.  6/10.

Go Fish - wow.  it’s Go Fish.  5/10.

Jigsaw - love jigsaw games.  For some reason the ask/chat/rap functions pop up and make the game pretty much unplayable for me.  I’m so mad, because this was my favorite Webkinz board game.  WHY does this pop up when it’s a one player game.  1/10.  Would have been a 9/10 otherwise.

Pool - it’s Pool.  But it wouldn’t let me play, so idk.  I remember it being all right, though.  5/10.

Skunk Sweeper - it’s basically an original Minesweeper instead of what we get in the aracde version?  But I don’t like Minesweeper. 1/10.

Webkinz Air Hockey - it’s virtual air hockey.  It’s fun, though.  7/10.

Webkinz Coloring - it’s a virtual coloring book.  1/10.

[doodlingleluke]

a bit later I usually am with these, but here’s what I’ve been up to in 2017. While I feel like my improvement isn’t as obvious as ith as been in previous years, I still feel like this was a really good art year for me. I actually did a lot of pieces that I really liked and actually still like months later! that is a completely new sensation for me! I feel like I’m really getting to where I want to be with my art, so hopefully this will continue in 2018. 

for the first time I feel like commenting on my choices for this thing, mostly cause I just want to but also in case someone wants to know how I feel about my own art. but because theres a lot of drawings here that’ll continue under the cut 

wow I use red and pink/purple hues way more than I thought. anyways. 

january -  this year I wanted to get better at doing at least somewhat interesting backgrounds (even if it just means a simple colour) and experimenting more with different textures and styles, and I still think this tenten was a good start. I had been wanting to draw something like this with her for ages and I’m glad I finally was able to pull it off.

february - february didn’t really have any drawings that stood out to me, but this month I started drawing a lot more “casual” trek stuff, as in stuff that doesn’t need to have a punchline. I see a lot of problems with it now, but I really liked this seven when I first drew it. 

march - again, not a month where I found anything particularly good, but it was the month when I got into night in the woods (still a big fan of it) and this was honestly the best of the nitw art I did. 

 april - I am pretty sure the demon kankuro was a redraw of an older, shittier demon kankuro I can’t be bothered to find. Its a bit messy and his facial features are off, but I still think theres some nice details and colours. At this point I had also started to use a bit of after effects (the blur around the edges). the 80s ino is part of a konoha girls in vintage clothes thing that admittedly isn’t all that good looking, but it was a lot of fun and probably my favourite outfit drawing. 

may - I spent most of this month doing art memes inbetween exams and dying, but this random kankuro somehow found its way in. yeah its not spectacular or anything but it kinda happened on a whim and its not a style of colouring I use very often. I don’t remember what brush I used but I love how it looks. pardon my french but I’m pleased with how this turned out. 

june - I moved this month so I’m surprised I had time to draw at all. this sad nog represents my inner turmoil and stress at the time. probably. anyways, I feel like this was the first time I was able to cartoonify a ferengi somewhat successfully. I also finally started toning down my exessive highlighting.

july - I spent most of july stuck in the mountains with no internet, yet somehow I still managed to draw a bunch of shit I still really like. The magical girl temari was the first time I tried to do a combination of solid and blended shading. I’ve had issues with my shading for a long time and I think this was a step in the right direction. It was mainly inspired by how much I liked the solid shading of the other one, which is also the only good drawing I’ve ever done of that oc. 

august  - what the fuck how did I draw so many things I like in august. For the deanna I just suddenly got the idea to try something art nouveau, and while its not perfect I’m still happy with the result. The hair took forever but I’m still in love with it, and I’ve been incorporating some of those elements into my art ever since. The temari REALLY benefited from solid shading instead of me drowning it in exessive layers of purple like I usually do when I shade. idk what to say, I love it and I genuinely think its one of the coolest things I’ve ever drawn. for the top one I wanted to do something original and different from my usual stuff. The background is a bit messy but I still like the overall result and it has inspired me to draw more casual stuff that doesn’t necessarily need to be posted here. 

september -  no contest here, the konoha witch series took a lot of time, but I’m still happy with the result.Well for some of them at least. Ino is hands down my favourite and I think its obvious that shes the one I put the most thought and effort into (even though it started with a random sketch of tenten). Apparently I have some kind of bias towards pink and purple, which might explain why I think Ino just ended up with the nicest looking colours out of all the girls. 

october - I didn’t have time to do a big halloween piece this year, but this wirt was still pretty halloween-y. the colours turned out better than I expected, especially the shading on his face. The background doesn’t really make sense, but I think it looks nice so ya know, whatever. This was also the first time I watched over the garden wall so this also has some sentimental value I guess. 

november - Huevember month! which meant a lot to choose from! the kira I did on the last day of november is honestly my favourite out of all the huevember drawings I did. I don’t do a lot of drawings with the light source in the back, but I think it really worked here. idk I just think the colours and the style look really neat. It feels weird being so positive about my art hah but I don’t have anything I dislike about this one. I do have a few problems with the temari, but I just really like the colours, and I like that I did something interesting with the colours for once in my life. The tilly is in all honesty not a fave of mine, I actually kind of dislike it BUT it did get featured on after trek so I feel like it was a significant part of my ~art year~ 

december - I’ve had a lot on my mind this month, so sadly I’ve been really inactive here. The elf temari isn’t really all that special, but then again I don’t think its directly bad and I think the colours turned out better than what they usually do when I try shading my lineless art. The other one is a redraw of a drawing I did back in may, and while I (as always) have some problems with it I do think its a big improvement over the old one (which is so ugly that I was genuinely surprised to find that it was drawn...this year). 

thank you if you bothered to read all of this! I know this was completely pointless but at the same time I’ve found that artists often hav completely different opinions on their art than others do so there might possibly be something a little bit interesting here. just a tiny bit. 

[guitarpornography]

Versus Steam: Game of the Year Award: #1

As 2017 is already putting out some interesting games, I’m a little wistful for all those games I received in 2017. While I can look forward to everything from Resident Evil VII to Persona 5, there’s always some magic to be had in those things we’ve shared with others, all those individual moments that made gaming special for the year past. While Inside was the best game I played in terms of both narrative and mechanics and Overwatch was the most engrossing fun, I ultimately decided our number one game based on a simple fact: if I had to recommend a game to people, had to tell them how special it is and how excited I am by its existence, it would have to be this one. Our Versus Steam #1 Game of the Year is…

Developed and Published by: Night School Studio (PC, PS4, XBox One)

Oxenfree is such a potent reminder of my days long past, those last washes of youth lapping at the shores of my life. In 2016 I turned 30 years old, which is such an oddly daunting thing to have happen and it amazes me that I’ve been playing games since I 3. That is twenty seven years of my life and I’ve yet to see my love of the hobby flag even a little. And Oxenfree is both a reminder of this and how my life evolved through these lines and into the one it became. Our main characters, Alex, Ren, Jonas, Nona and Clarissa are in the throes of their own youths, a complex weave of friendships and rivalries that so perfectly encapsulates youth. Alex and Clarissa are natural enemies, the pair strained over the death of Alex’s brother who was also Clarissa’s boyfriend, making them feel more apart from their grief rather than being brought closer together. Complicating this is the arrival of Jonas, the new step brother of Alex who is still feeling her out before immediately being trust into her social circle. And of course, Ren, who feels a lot like a much younger version of myself, who wants to make all their friendships stronger while also hooking up with Nona. It only took a few minutes of playing Oxenfree for me to immediately feel as if I knew all these people, feeling the echoes of my own lost youth in the complicated lives they’ve made for themselves that have so much in the way of stakes and yet so little in the grand scheme. I remember those feelings of longing to be accepted, to understand why vitriol is directed my way and how the curiosity of love could make you completely crazy and throughout the game we get to see this play out, see how their closeness is marred or brightened by the attempts at maturity. And really, that’s one of the best selling points i can give: these people come to be your friends and you come to care for them and want what is best for them, even if its hard for them to put it rationally. The dialogue and acting makes each character feel so natural and vibrant and while they at first play to stereotype, they broaden out immensely, making their story arcs sharply defined in the face of the odd situation they’re thrust into.

And while Inside was probably the most genuinely creepy game I played this year, Oxenfree does not disappoint in this department. While I spent the whole first paragraph rambling about how I loved the characters and how natural they felt, the situation they’re in is so far from natural it's amazing the team behind the game could pull this all off. I won’t completely spoil the game’s story, but let’s say the Scooby Gang’s trip to Edwards Island soon features mysterious radio static, alternate dimensions, ghosts and even some light time travel. I have a very natural appreciation for the story of this game because of how the larger story arc does eventually mirror the character arc of Alex, both seeming to center on grief and regret. Alex’s loss of her brother has left her a lot more hollow and withdrawn than she readily admits to and it becomes apparent that the forces keeping the group on the island are malicious for their own regrets, forcing them to suffer as they do. This leads to a lot of rather… disturbing moments, when times seems to fluctuate in and out of possibility. At one point Alex is sent rushing to a nearby fort to rescue Clarissa, only to save her and have the ghosts loop time back, so Alex ends up too late and finds Clarissa hanged. This is just such a potent element of the story, the idea that every triumph can be ripped away and replaced with a grizzly reality, or that failure can be reset to disorient and leave them in emotional distress. Only Alex ever really sees these effects and though resolved, it plays to her grief so much, the inability to actually save people when it matters, making the climax of the game especially potent. I definitely can’t spoil that but lets say its both very sad and very uplifting at the same time.

And naturally if you’re going to have a neat little narrative bow, the game itself must be presented strongly as well. More or less, Oxenfree acts as a point n click adventure in a very traditional sense, tasking players to travel to different locations and use different objects to solve puzzles. While none of this is groundbreaking, Oxenfree does add an interesting twist of including a radio whose frequencies are able to do various things in the world, such as unlock doors or commune with the ghosts around you, making a need to pay attention to details in the background necessary. This also adds a very nice way of adding ephemera to the world, as the radio seems to find strange snippets of things from time to time that we get hear remnants of the island’s past. There is also dialogue choice to be had, allowing players to really get into the head of Alex and respond to her friends and her enemies. Do you really want to confront Clarissa or get closer to Jonas or do you want to be aloof? More caring? And I would also mention the visual design as one of the game’s key elements, as the aesthetic is very well done and contributed mightily to the atmosphere. I would describe the art style as being a kind of lineless comic art painted in washed out flats, but I’m not even sure if that’s correct, as the characters really stand out from the backgrounds, Edwards Island coming to feel rather massive from the amount of hiking you have to do in it. Edwards Island reminds me at times of Silent Hill (the radio stuff isn’t helping with that comparison), feeling ominous and dangerous without really being dangerous in and of itself, like the mouth of some greater entity. It all kind of pulls together to make a narrative experience we inhabit wholly and become enraptured in by the same way the characters interact with the world through our use of the mechanics. The end result is a game that left me so happy and haunted when I finished it, so wistful to see these characters go and so happy I got to spend time with them.

And that is it for this year’s list. Oxenfree is my game of the year. And yet when I look to the horizon, I’m excited to know what else can excite me like this, what else can delight and amaze me like this. Games surprise me with what ends up being special to me, as I’m never going into a game and guessing “yes, I will like this game because I will relate and like the characters and the atmosphere will be that weird creepy kind I love,” but instead word of mouth tells me that I have the possibility to enjoy it. Perhaps nothing I’ve said about Oxenfree has lit your brain on fire to play it, but you will be missing out on a game that is overwhelmingly engaging and so rich in story and character development, so tense and disorienting and so wonderful and uplifting.