Daily Doodle 1!

Those of you who check Fak-e-Book will know that I am changing the blog into a "daily doodle" dealio, while future "projects" will be posted on Facebook. Today is my stylized version of the best villain in storytelling history: The Xenomorph! I love 'em so much.

~Samuel8R

Bounty Hunter

Welcome to Monday, everyone!

The original idea for this drawing came from a little idea where a guy walks into a (sci-fi) bar carrying the severed and beaten-up head of a Medusa and thumps it down on the bar, ordering a drink. The whole room goes quiet, old Western style. For this is a man who not only killed a Medusa, but brought back it's heavily damaged head as well! Medusas have a famous reputation for being allegedly indestructible, so you can see why this man is a source of fascination.

You see, he belongs to a secret organization called the MEG, or Medusa Elimination Group. Well, when I say secret, plenty of people know it exists, but it is still an "official" secret. The MEG has an unknown number of members, all of which have been highly trained in the 'art' of killing Medusas. However, what outsiders do not know is that the MEG works in close affiliation with the Medusas themselves, hiring them out as hitmen on 'infected' or rogue Medusas, even offering them specialized training to help them accomplish this task.

To explain: when a Medusa is 'infected' it means the wireless network that links all Medusas has been infected by a virus, or perhaps a mutation that evolved into a virus. Medusas can repel these attacks, but not after several hundred have been permanently affected. These viruses can range from inducing insanity, to death, to a hatred of their own kind. Whatever it is, the Medusas would much rather send an expendable lesser race to deal with them rather then do it themselves.

However, it sometimes happens that a MEG member will become intoxicated with the feeling of power of killing a supposedly indestructible being, and will go on a killing spree of non-infected Medusas. This greatly angers the Medusas, causing them to murder up to a thousand MEG members in retaliation, just to make the MEG remember it's place: employees, not superiors. These drops in the number of members have happened about twice in the last fifty years.

Maybe at some point I'll enlarge the project, but for now, its just a sketch (4x6 in. paper)

Enjoy!
~Samuel8R

The latest Project!

Before we begin, I have to say that this is one of my favorite projects of all time, I think. Not only did I finish off the Medusas (the illustration you see before you is exactly how I want them to look) but I got to draw an awesome suit of armor as well! Hopefully, regular readers of my blog will know what the Medusas are (if not look back to previous posts) and the anthro dragon goes by the name of Nikola Fafnir, and is the 'persona' of my Best Friend when she's on deviantart. She asked me to create, and I quote, a "badass ID," so here it is. Nik is by no means the type of character who would dress in full armor and weild a sword, but hey, it's pretty "badass" if I say so myself. These two would make a great team in a fight, I'd say...

~Samuel8R

You can check out Nik's dA page here:  Link of Awesome!

P.S. More Medusas coming up!

Welcome to Friday!

The pictures above are photos of some of Conner's art. This is all done with pen (pencil sketches tho) including greyscale pens and markers. I love his style, and I have been messing about with grey markers lately too, trying to make some more 3-D-looking pen drawings. I really need to get some stuff scanned, hopefully I'll get that chance on Thursday. Then there will be a steady flow of art! hahahaha...

My first vlog should be online, btw. I have been taking the video camera with me, but so far I have failed to record a comprehensive day. :( I'll keep trying though, once I get it all worked out that channel will have it's first video.

Samuel out!

~Samuel8R

New Vlog and Star News

Okay, so I'm going to paste in some writing which you can probably already see under here. I'm going to write posts like this occasionally, with a little bit of personal stuff at the beginning and some writing underneath. Sometimes I will post snippets of other projects, but these fake 'news reports' that fit in with my universe will be made exclusively for the blog. Before we get to that, I have to say that I have recorded my first vlog! I need to do some editing and other stuff before it goes up, but when it does I will post a link for you lot.
Anyway, here is my first 'News Report' post:

STAR NEWS QUICK-REPORT SD-2294.12422

ALIEN RELATIONS

   The second ‘ultra-virus’ to hit the Medusa network (the semi-psychic wireless network that links all the Medusa robots, or 'units' together) in the last two hundred years has just been deactivated, and the source is being traced as we speak. The Medusas themselves have stated that they are working on a way to counter it’s effects, but they will not state what those effects are. However, the Old One (leader of all Medusas) has warned the public to stay away from areas where Medusas have been sighted or are known to reside. Some areas are already being guarded by units marked by the distinctive red markings of Medusa military. There have been no disturbances or human casualties reported, but Medusa reports say that about two hundred units have been affected, about 25% of which are blue, (royal guard) 5% are red, (military) and the rest are green-ranked, making this virus the highest-ranked attack on the Medusa mind-network yet.

COMMERCE

   There were few exciting changes in the Great Interstellar Market this week, but by no means was it quiet. A Squidlah mining expedition arrived with a very large shipment of gold, but luckily it proved not to be stolen this time. Concentric Engines Inc. recently lost money over a new engine design which proved to be faulty. They are currently attempting to sue the rival company Axiom Machines on allegations of espionage, but it seems unlikely they will win. Two Moons Weaponry’s profits have evened out over the last few weeks as the brief war between the Euopi empire and a raider group known as the ‘Khazka’ ended with the pirates’ defeat.

SCIENCE

   A new material simply known as ‘Blue’ was created in the lab of celebrated biological engineer and astrophysicist Tirqu a few days ago. He claims that the liquid is capable of locomotion and complex learning patterns. Meanwhile, the labs of Axiom Machines are hard at work to create short-range personal teleporters, much like those found in the Great Market, but small enough to fit on a belt. Finally, researchers on the human colony Avis III have spotted a planet about two lightyears into Rousala-controlled space that could be capable of sustaining life. They are currently negotiating a rendezvous with a Rousalan carrier so that they can ‘catch a ride’ to this promising planet.

OTHER

   The notorious wanderer known as Hyatt Cycles has been claimed to have been sighted near a Medusa-controlled facility on Hepburn-12, but there is no solid evidence. An eyewitness reported “I only saw him for a second or two, but I saw his face, and I’m convinced it was him. When he saw me he ran down an alley, that strange little thing of his following him at a run. I followed them, but they were gone.”   

   Rumours are still circulating that Mr. Cycles has been meeting with high officials and dignitaries of several races, but if so his purpose is unclear.

Star News: Bringing you the best news since 2063.

~Samuel

New accounts everywhere...

So I've been doing a lot of online managing lately. I have a new Youtube channel, which I will post my vlogs to as soon as I get the chance to record something. I also have a new deviantart account, (closed the old one) where I will be posting my art but also impersonating one of my characters at the same time. I will also make another youtube account for a little video project I'm working on, which involves taking small snippet videos of my life and putting them together by day. I won't be recording the normal working days, obviously. Because "here's me doing a math problem" is real exciting isn't it! Anyway, I still need to make an account for that, but I will be recording some of my day at EvCC tomorrow. I'm also knocking this blog down to a post a week, just to make things easier. My vlog will be very random and probably not very often at all, at least every 2 weeks. But once things clear up I will try to regulate it. I kinda have no new art for a while... hopefully Justin will have an open night next week and I can have a scan-fest.
Until then...
~Samuel

my dA account: http://tirqu.deviantart.com/

my youtube vlog account: http://www.youtube.com/user/VloggusBritannicus?feature=mhee

Quick update!

Okay, no art for today.
I'm just letting you guys know that I will try moving my post days to Wednesday evening and Sundays, as they seem to be the times I get a bit of free time to post. I was maybe going to post some writing today, but I kinda forgot, so this Sunday should be the next post. A while ago I thought of maybe vlogging, but for now that would be a bit too much work. Maybe when my college courses are over, I'll try to start one. (a lot less regularly than this blog though.)
See ya!
~Samuel

Hurried Friday!

Here are the two main characters (at least the main characters where I am in the story right now, I might add more in later) of my novel, Chibified! Hamlet the robot, endowed with a brain of alien technology, and his creator, tinkerer and seller of machines, Maximillien Andarre. This was a short project done in Corel Painter 11, copied from a scanned pen drawing in my sketchbook. Not much to say about this one really... I need to get some more drawings scanned, I'm running out of stuff to upload! (but plenty of stuff in the sketchbook!) Oh well, next time will be a writing piece, I think you'll like what I have planned for then!

~Samuel

Thought of the day: "It's all a mystery. Let it come and it be." - Blackmill, 'Let it be'

I'm Back...

Whew, sorry I have been neglecting you guys so much. For some reason Blogger would only load the Dashboard, giving me a black whenever I tried to write a post. I fiddled around a bit though and finally got it working again. I'm going to have to try extra hard to get these posts out regularly again, I will be attending the Everett Community College on mondays and wednesdays for the next 10 weeks.

But enough of that, I have some new digital art! This here is 3-D Toast, (in case you didn't know) He was invented for a Mother's day card (I think) and this is a digital work using the scanned drawing as a transparent layer over the top while I worked on it. Not my best work, obviously, but I meant it as a quick project. (and I don't have good images of my new drawings!) I think the "...Toast" idea could be used as a series a bit like the pugs.
And on that note, I'm thinking of starting a new series of paintings based on songs! If I have the mp3 of a song, I'll add that to the post as well as the image. (or youtube link) They won't be directly based on the song, but rather on the mood and subsequent imagery it evokes for me. (I've already done one, I just need to photograph it) I'm also thinking of posting some more writing on here, more on that next time.

Early morning post today! I have to go out soon. I'll post again on Friday, and then I'll try to get back to the routine.

~Samuel

I'm Back! (but not from the dead)

Hello once again my friends! Finally, my three-week Summer Program at Cornish College of the Arts is over, and I have enough time to blog again! The next few posts will probably be a bit random, but they will soon be back to the old schedule. I'm already missing Cornish - the 30-min car trip followed by a 45-min bus ride wasn't exactly exhilarating, but it was really fun to just get breakfast with some friends every day, go to class, and then eat lunch with some more friends - everyone was really nice and I just had a great time. The classes I did were Art Foundations, Comics Studio, and Watercolor Illustration. (It sounds like the students who were staying in the dorms, mostly out-of-state ones, didn't get much sleep though.) Anyway, there should be a steady stream of posts now, I'm returning with much more than I went in with!

Here are a few photos I took while I was there:

This is an exercise we did in Foundations - we draped a string/rope/length of tape over this display and drew the line - ONLY the line, interrupting it whenever it went behind an object. We then took turns to put another line on, and then we drew it. The second time we did this exercise only the teacher put the lines on but we moved one easel to our right every time he did, so we all worked on everybody else's drawing. The room looked like a spiderweb or some diabolical trap by the time we'd done!

Here is a charcoal (The first time I ever worked with charcoal was in this class - but not this drawing) we did in Foundations. We had a male nude model and three hours (approx, with breaks) to draw him. This was my result.

...And here is me with Conner, a friend I made there. He's 17 (he had his birthday on the last day, the gallery show - so technically this is him on his birthday) and he does amazing pen drawings, I'll probably post some sometime. On the wall behind us is the Comics Studio wall of the show (he was in that class with me)

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post, I will get back to you Friday morning! (I am going out Friday afternoon for teen mini-golf, then a sleepover at a friend's house, then an art lesson at the Redmond library the next day)

~Samuel8R

Quick Post

Okay, once again I failed to get my latest digital piece done in time for today. I just don't have any time in the evenings right now with my grandparents out. Here instead is a cool image I found on teh internetz. (not owned by me obviously) I wish I'd thought of this, it's so cute! I'm definitely going to make a 'steampug' addition to the pug shirts sometime (without ripping this amazing artwork off obviously) Anyway, sorry for the delays (again.) I PROMISE I will have something good for you on Tuesday, for SURE.

Until then,

~Samuel8R

HMS Indefatigable

Sorry once again, I almost got that digital piece finished off for today, but with my grandparents out here, not as much art is getting done as usual. So today I'll just post an image I made in Pixen. It's a steampunk airship christened the HMS Indefatigable. One of the larger warships in the skies, it sports two side engines, assisted by a larger engine inside the hull. The balloon is set slightly backwards to compensate for a weightier stern. It was designed mostly as a weapons/VIP carrier/blockade runner and so has roomy accommodation (as demonstrated by the row of portholes) and is lightly armed with only two heavy cannons (many of the largest warships have 10-12) Crew: 35-45. I hope you don't mind this over some of my other 'real' art. (I'm not very good with pixel art yet)

~Samuel8R

Fleks & Svek (and an apology)

Well, here we are on this fine Saturday night... I completely forgot about yesterday's post until this morning! (facepalm) We were out a lot of Friday doing things. Anyway, here is another of my multimedia adventures. (pencil + pen + watercolor) apart from Svek (on the right) whose color scheme was pretty flat anyway. Fleks is also more detailed. These are chibi versions of the main characters from a story of mine that I started and hope to finish sometime. Not a full-length novel but maybe a novella or long story. I posted the introduction for it a while back I think, if you can find it.. I have in fact written several pages, but all on my antique typewriter to give it a wonderful distressed feel. As such, I cannot post those until I scan them. Talking about scanning - I'm going to need to continue the search for a scanner - I'm running out of drawings and I don't have many digital projects going at the moment (though I promise to post one next time!) Well I think that's all for now, I have to go to bed soon! (can hear parents coming up stairs, must type faster!)
~Until next time~
~Samuel8R

Paper Boats

Whoo, I almost forgot to post again! :D My grandparents are arriving late tonight so we got kinda busy, Anyway, I'm back with another drawing. I'm actually starting to run out of scanned drawings (haven't had access to a scanner in a while) so I need to get cracking on some more digital pieces! I nearly did one but I have been busy painting so I haven't got round to doing the finishing touches. I should get that one done by next post or post after. But today we have this drawing of a couple of paper boats I found on Teh InterWebz! I copied the water tension and reflections as best I could but it turned out looking a bit strange translating from photo to paper. Oh well, at least you should be able to tell what they are! I put less definition on the far one to put it a little out of focus. Took around 5 hours (I'm going to start putting estimations of the time taken on here for fun) Also, I was looking at some cool videos of the mysterious 'Herobrine' from Minecraft (any fans of minecraft should know what I mean, people who don't care much for the game need read no further) and it got me thinking about a backstory, of which the game itself has none. So I wrote one! I am also working on an adventure map of my own, so it will tie in with that. Maybe next time I will see if I can post a PDF link in case anyone wants to read it.

I think that's everything!
~Samuel8R

Tirqu

Hello once again! Our internet was broken all day yesterday, and we only just got it back. It's funny how you never realize how much you use something until it's gone. I kept thinking "Oh, I'll just look that up - crud." Anyway, today's drawing is of a little alien I call Tirqu. I haven't thought about him or his kind much, but I have a good feeling about him and I want to develop him more. As a character, he is a scientist, as we can see here. He always wears a single-piece cloth suit with a big zipper, making it like a comfortable jumpsuit. You never see his feet, and his arms are slightly out of proportion. No, I don't know what that thing is either, its some kind of socket that he drags around like hair. I really like this guy, but I'm less than proud of the result. The watercolors are messy, there's not much shading that you can see, and I goofed on the perspective of his lifted arm. However, this was when I was still experimenting with this new style, so I'm not about to beat myself up over it. I will make it a future project to re-do this.

~Samuel8R

P.S. I've been considering graphic novels as a path to go with my art, so I have been reading some books on the subject. My first comic is in the works now! (still planning and sketching)

Test Subject Blue 2.0

Greetings once again from this week's Tuesday's post! Here is another watercolor Nitrome character, from the game of the same title, who uses a laser gun and his wits to get through each miniature test chamber. He (a sentient, learning, goo) is injected into his suit at the start of each level by a scientist and goes about his tasks. The original suit is here:

As you can see, I have made the suit a lot more complex, and my idea is that it is a more advanced second edition of the suit. However, it still retains the glass dome to hold the goo, and a similar color scheme. I'm thinking I might send this to Nitrome as fan art.

Nitrome Games: http://www.nitrome.com/

Test Subject Blue: http://www.nitrome.com/games/testsubjectblue/index.html

Enjoy!

~Samuel8R

Balana Thranta

Hooray for Star Wars! (whatever is said about the prequels, they were great. GET OVER IT NERDS) Here we have a (now extinct) creature from the planet of Alderaan. Used to carry people like a bus. The Thrantas came in many sizes, these are some of the smaller breeds. This image was copied from a book entitled 'The Wildlife of Star Wars' as a practice with my teacher. I used pencil and pens, as always. Anyway, got my sister's horse show tomorrow, followed by a visit from a friend on Sunday (we're going to play Minecraft! yeahhhh) See you next week!
~Samuel8R

Happy Diamond Jubilee!

Well, It's been 60 years since Queen Elizabeth the Second became queen, so I decided to make my own  patriotic tribute. In Minecraft. Well, actually my dad was criticizing us (half-joking of course) that we weren't being patriotic by not standing up for the national anthem. So I decided to show him how patriotic I really was by building this. (The 60 in the middle is made out of diamond blocks and the E ii R is the Queen's royal crest) I would have done it in time for the jubilee, except for that fact that I came up with the idea only last Friday, and had the weekend to make it. Still, I am very happy with how it came out. (doing all the white spaces was an absolute BORE, I can tell you)

Well, I think that's about it for This Tuesday's post! More art on Friday.

~Samuel8R

ROTMG Final Class

Here we have the final class for my ROTMG sketches. I had to do it on it's own because the number of classes is not divisible by three. The trickster has a 'prism' (Here denoted by the necklace) that can teleport the player to the mouse, sending a dummy in the opposite direction that all enemies will attack instead of you. Pretty handy, mostly for running away though. She also carries a dagger. I really need to get the final moving. (I haven't got very far with it, I've been so busy!) I have nearly finished another digital piece that you guys will like though! I just have a few touch-ups and tweaks left to go. And some news: I went to the folk-life and got a nice hat! Slightly steampunk, it's made of real leather! (it smells so good!) So now my room smells of hat! I've also got a lot of Warhammer 400,00 miniatures sitting on my desk that need to get basecoated, though I'm not sure when I'll paint them.. (includes 1 Pyrovore, 5 (new) Tau stealth suits, and 5 Necron Deathmarks. I already have a full army of Tyranids and nearly a full army of Tau. Just started the Necrons though.)

See you next week!
~Samuel8R

Thoxen

Hello chaps/chappettes! (almost forgot to post again! herp derp) This one is done like the necromancer (which has nearly 40 views, by the way, from people just google image searching for realm of the mad god!) With pen outline, shaded with pencil, and then colored with watercolors. The Thoxen is an old creation of mine, from a story I started writing (and never finished) It wasn't very good but it was one of my first ventures into writing really. Anyway, the Thoxen is an alien race from the planet Geig. Geig is one of two planets, the other called Chék. Geig orbits Chék in a solar system, and Chék is occupied by a human settlement. Thoxen are known for stealth and ninja-like abilities, as well as their bony, serrated 'heel-spikes.' Their preferred weapons are knives and high-powered 'proton pistols' that are somewhat similar to welding torches that can shoot things (description FAIL!) I actually like how his head-tentacles came out. They aren't actually prehensile, like proper tentacles, but are still fleshy protrusions unlike hair. I think that's it for this picture! (I really do LOVE this technique though. It always looks so good!)

~Samuel8R

Dirk Valentine

So Dirk Valentine is a game character from a brilliant flash game by the amazing Nitrome. Nitrome is a small, independent British game studio who make retro art-style games with pixelly graphics and intuitive, innovative gameplay. Dirk Valentine is a steampunk-style guy who shoots a chain cannon that can stick to walls to create bridges. I kinda made him 'realistic' but not all the way, because the original was VERY tiny with a HUGE hat and big gun. I'm thinking I might send this in to Nitrome as fanart.

Link to Nitrome: http://www.nitrome.com/

Dirk Valentine: http://www.nitrome.com/games/dirkvalentine/index.html

Some other good ones are Steamlands, Swindler, Knuckleheads, Nitrome Must Die, Fault Line, Fat Cat, and Off The Rails. Be seeing you next week,

~Samuel8R

ROTMG Classes pg 4

So here is the penultimate page of the Realm of the Mad God classes. What's quite amusing is that ever since I posted these (and especially with the color necromancer) my pageviews have gone up. Not dramatically, still about 3 or 4, but they are more consistent, coming nearly every day instead of at intervals of close to weeks. It seems my posts come up a lot in google image searches. Anyway, on the far left is the paladin. I wasn't quite sure what to do for his special, which is just called a 'magical seal' with not much description, so I put it on his breastplate. But then I thought that there wasn't much to distinguish him from the warrior apart from the helmet, so I put it on a shield as well. I know the shield is kinda the knight's thing so I made it small and round. The Mystic (middle) Is pretty useless. It freezes mobs, but nobody can hurt them while frozen. It's really only useful for escaping quickly. The sorcerer wields a wand like the priest, but also uses a 'sceptre' that hits multiple enemies in a lightning pattern, hence the lightning in the sketch. He will be fun to color because of the red cloak and the glowing yellow eyes inside the pitch-black hood. Well, I think that just about wraps it up for this one. It's the last week of my holiday from schoolwork (sniff) then back to work for a few weeks before my Summer classes at Cornish down in Seattle (looking forward to them) The rest of the week's pretty busy. I have a friend coming over tomorrow, an open night at Justin's on Thursday, and an art lesson on Friday (followed by book club in the afternoon) Well, be seeing you Friday night!
~Samuel8R

Lightning Mech

Hello once again!

This is one I did a few weeks ago with my digital art teacher in Corel painter. I had a lot of fun doing the lightning, and the little power bars on the arms. I have had the idea in my sketchbook for a while, just a pen lineart, but I overlaid the scanned image to get the basic shapes. I am also quite proud of how the clouds turned out! The feet are a little bit small, but I think that the wings indicate that it flies a lot, and so feet aren't as important for balance. The bobble on the head is the cockpit, but I don't know what the others are. I put the burnt tree in for perspective. (he's quite big!)

Almost forgot to post again! whew!

~Samuel8R

P.S. That's my new signature in the corner.

Beezlepug

Look out! The cute will SWALLOW YOUR SOOOOUL..... Actually I had some people suggest his eyes were a bit *too* scary, but I thinks he looks thoroughly evil. Really cartoony style here again, still using my better fur effect (actually I looked at Expendapug from a while back, and that actually looked pretty bad!) I love little touches, and the text and flames were good examples. I just had this on white with red text, and I thought 'it looks a bit bland.' So I shaded the upper part of the text and added some flames. THEN it looked done to me. I will be putting this on Zazzle soon as a t-shirt so people can buy it! I will definitely keep making these pugs. Not sure what's coming next, I need to come up with some ideas. It would be cool if I could animate these, but I have no knowledge of that area.

See you on Friday,

~Samuel

Medusa Commander

Okay, another quick post (need to get better at remembering to do this!) This is a picture of a Medusa leader. Technically the lines should be white but it's hard to do that without making everything else dark, and this was kinda meant as a quickie. Still, I think the green is my favorite color for the Medusae. I did this with watercolor on pencil & pen. (quickly becoming my favorite technique) For those of you who did not read earlier post on the White rank Medusa, a quick review: They can plug into large terminals (which this one is) that increase their computational power tenfold, as well as link them (in thought) to nearly all the other Medusae, acting as a long-range communication device. That's why only the highest-rank Medusae can use them. I made the hands and feet a bit bigger on this one, not sure why. (I LOVE how the 'glow' came out with the watercolor.) 

~Samuel8R

ROTMG classes page 3

Okay, here is page 3 of my Realm Of The Mad God classes sketches! (almost forgot to post tonight! Herp Derp) The Assassin is a pretty good class, the daggers get pretty powerful, and the special (pot of poison) gets REALLY powerful but it's hard to use. (yes, I gave him knife-boots. He doesn't really have them but the class isn't very assassin-y in my view) The Knight has a magical shield that fires a wave of magic, and the Huntress throws 'traps' that don't do anything until a mob gets near it. It is basically the assassin special but it's mob-triggered. I really enjoyed drawing the knight in particular. I hope you people are sufficiently excited about the final after seeing these sketches!
~Samuel8R

Mars Mission

Okay, sorry for the late post, I was meant to post on Friday but we got kinda busy preparing for Mother's day. Anyway, happy Mother's day everyone! (or your mothers, rather) The pic of the day is a sketch of a Mars mission (Lego) minifig! This was drawn from a real one, sitting on my desk. Mars Mission, after they brought it back from the dead, was without a doubt one of my favorite series! Yes, there are a few mistakes here but I enjoyed drawing it!

See you on teusday!
~Samuel8R

ROTMG Page 2

Okay, just a quick post. Here is the second page of the Realm Of The Mad God sketches. The rogue and warrior are tier-3 unlock classes, both melee fighters. I have already told you about (and you have seen an image of) The necromancer (best class ever!) The warrior was especially fun to do. I'm not sure about the rogue's bandanna though. I'm going to have fun with him, a little swooshy cloak action in the final, I think. Okay! Well, now that exam's over I should be able to make a bit more headway on the final (I have the sketch done already, need to start doing the proper 'painting.' Actually, I have a COMPASS test on monday, so I will be preparing for that, but next week should pick up (i hope!)

~Samuel8R

AP Psychology

Whew! glad that's over! FINALLY went in and did the test. I think it went pretty well (actually the MC was fine, but the essays were a bit odd, I think I may have messed those up a bit) However, I'm not allowed to talk about it (all very hush hush, what!) but I will say I am SO glad to have finally done it. Hopefully I should have some more time for art, especially for writing. Also, I am going to try to post more regularly, I think every Tuesday and Friday would be good.
Anyway, see you on tuesday! (not IRL, just virtually!)
~Samuel8R

Realm of the Mad God Necromancer

Okay, this is my 'realistic' version of the Necromancer (best class in ROTMG really, the destruction of the Wizard combined with the healing of the Priest makes for a truly winning character) With his staff and skull (which does area damage and heals you and nearby players) Used sprites for the cloak and weapons as well as the character sprite himself. This was done with pencil, outlined in pen, and colored with watercolor. (i think the skull is the bast part) This is VERY cartoony and the big project will not be done this way, since it will be digital, I am going for a more realistic feel. Still, really happy with this! I was going to post the next page of class sketches but I know I have some readers who will LOVE to see this.

~Samuel8R

(Necro FTW!)

Miniscthulhu

Well, I said ROTMG classes pg 2 would be next. I lied, sorry about that, I wanted to show you this. I did this in about 5 days in Corel Painter 11 by myself as a shirt design for my dad's birthday (finished product in the lower image) I ordered it through Zazzle. Aaron Rutten (digtal art teacher) said it my be the best digital one I have done so far! (insert chuffed face here) I love how it came out! (my shirt is on a grey-green color that works a bit better than straight grey. Zazzle prints designs IN the shirt, which means that they dont get damaged so easily (yay!) but they lose some definition (aww) Anyway, you can see (and buy! hahahah!!! $$$$$$$) the shirt here: http://www.zazzle.com/xenobiology I love Zazzle's shirts, but if you like more definition, or you want a more complex design, I would advise getting a bag (nice and big) or something smooth like a mousepad.

~Samuel8R

ROTMG classes pg 1

Okay, well here is page 1 of my Realm Of The Mad God (ROTMG) classes, the wizard (starting class) and the priest and archer (two early classes) ROTMG is a fun online game, with very pixellated sprite-like characters. My plan, as some of you know, is to do (digitally) all the classes, realistically, in a group shot (in action poses, don't worry) with maybe a realistic Oryx (final boss) looming up behind them. It is going to take a LONG time (and an unthinkable amount of layers) to do but it will be very satisfying. Maybe I can put it on a t-shirt! Furthermore, other projects I have planned is 'Beezlepug,' A devilish pug with red eyes, horns, and a tail (another shirt design) to join the ranks of Expendapug and Jabba the Pug. I also have a painting of a chibi version of Hamlet going with Justin (my painting teacher) as well as some 'fruit-hatted' creatures in the works (inspired by the Thursday night ramblings of Mike Capp, another local artist) Well, I think that's all (whew, long post!) Coming up: next page of the ROTMG classes sketches. I have them all done I am just going to post them one at a time.

~Samuel8R

Jabba The Pug

Hello once again readers! Here we have a Pug Star Wars parody. This is meant to go with Expendapug a while back. I'm planning to put this up for sale as a t-shirt on Zazzle soon. I'll let you know when it's up there. (and send you a link) I'm going to edit this a bit, maybe put a few more rolls of skin on his body. I was going to put Expendapug up as a shirt as well, but viacom is VERY strict about copyright stuff so I was NOT allowed to put it up for sale. Or anywhere else probably. (unless i can find somewhere not monitored by Viacom's cronies.) Until next time..... (i'm off to Justin's open night in a couple of hours)

~Samuel8R

STEAMLANDS

Happy Easter everyone! (or passover, I'm not sure how this holiday works) Well, this drawing is a reference to a free browser-based flash game called Steamlands. This robot (with some variation) is from the loading screen. Give the game a try! Its a pixellated steampunk side-scrolling battle game with tanks that you build and change as you go. Not very complex but very cute. I'm hoping to color this one in sometime in a retro, 1940s poster style, so I'll need to look some images up.

~Samuel8R

Keflan-Street SKETCH

Hello, once again readers! Here is the sketch for Keflan Street, just thought you might want to see it. Yeah it's quite a bit different. We cut off a lot of the closer stuff, mostly just good old 7836 over there (not sure what that building actually is) and the guys here are out of scale, not quite fitting with the perspective. Oh, and by the way, I'm probably going to be a little unresponsive on this blog the next few weeks, I have an AP Psychology exam coming up so a LOT of my time will be spent revising. When that's over I should pick up the pace a little, as well as producing more new images for you guys!

~Samuel8R

Keflan Street

This is actually a piece I did a while back. Its a project I did with my teacher, done digitally in Corel Painter (11) Its a scene from the book (what I'm writing) as is the Hamlet v Bomb scene I posted a while ago. Sometime I will post the intro to the novel so you can read the description that goes with it. The Machine shop in the foreground is where the main character, Maximillien Andarre, lives. I'm really proud of this one actually. Now I'd better hurry up and post this before I fall asleep at the keyboard - its been a long day.

~Samuel8R

Mahi Mahi Practice

Okay, here is the Mahi Mahi practice i did. Like the goose, it is a copy of one of my teacher's. It isn't quite as good as we wanted it, because we couldn't get a tool for making speckles to work properly, so we had to settle for a kind of mottling effect.

Sorry this is late as well. I have been kinda sick recently so i kept forgetting to post it (trying to keep my vow of making a post every few days or so but this one slipped)

Anyway, I hope you like!
~Samuel8R

Bug-monster

A kinda-random drawing. Well, I have drawn this monster a few times, just I put him in a scene. Basic, scruffy shading on the background and on the monster itself somewhat. I also outlined it in pen, which is why the tiny little man down there doesn't have a strong outline. It's meant to be crawling out of a deep, dark pool of water, but I am considering changing it to lava in a future re-hash, then we can get some fancy under-lighting in. A friend told me it looks a LOT like a Zelda boss, but I forget which one. Any ideas? Also, does anyone have any ideas as to an official name for the monster? If I am changing it to be a lava-dweller, I am thinking something like The Great Ember-Dweller. (maybe he's some kind of Ancient God, I think) 

~Samuel

Crashing Airship

This is another of the drawings I scanned in. I tried to make it look like it was crashing (there's not a lot of advanced shading on here but enough to make it look more realistic than it would have) I tried to make the engine look like it was on fire, or at least smoking, and I'm not sure how it came out, as I had no idea how to do that with pencil. Any tips?

~Samuel

Endermen - Before and After

I did this a few days ago. A picture of my *favorite* Minecraft monster: Endermen! It is popular to draw 'realistic' minecraft monsters, and I always felt that the endermen are meant to be MUCH scarier than they are portrayed. On the left is my original scanned sketch done with pen, on the right is the Painter version. I did the moon by opening an image in Gimp, then copying it out and pasting it. After a few trims, I just added the glow on a seperate layer behind it. Vignette always helps in an image, I find, and I wanted this image to be really dark, with the backs of the E-men fading into the night, so there is HEAVY vignette there. I really like the way it interacted with the floor texture as well.
~Samuel8R

Snow Goose

This is a practice I did with Aaron, my teacher. The goose is from one of his works, he gave me a copy where all the parts were mapped out, like the medusa a while back (before it was done) and we did it together, using his style where we use digital tools to simulate more traditional styles.
I hope you like!
~Samuel

Scissor-Bot

Here it is, the first of my scanned drawings!
I did this one at one of the thursday nights at Justin's. Not entirely sure what it is, or even whether it is military or something else. The snout is probably a gun though. I like drawing robots! (especially steampunk ones) I tried to go a bit more detailed with the joints and so on than I usually do, but my favorite features are definitely the scissor hands. Not so happy with the angle of the right foot. I'm not sure whether I'll color this one, but I don't think I will.
~Samuel

New drawings

Well, I scanned in a bunch of stuff yesterday to upload. (I am not going to upload it yet. I want to be able to post a steady stream of stuff) They look really good! I am really happy Justin let me use his scanner! Also, all these digital copies mean that I can start to make digital paintings, using them as sketches! Well, C-ya-layt-R,

~Samuel-ayt-R

Olson Imolgen

This is Olson Imolgen, a lone mercenary sniper with wings and an advanced cloaking system and rifle he developed himself. He has never been asked for his money back so far. (no, he has never killed his employers. He's just really good) A few years ago he lost his legs from the middle of the shins down when they got trapped under falling debris, which is why his feet are robotic. Yes, I know, it looks similar to Medusa. Well, I had the idea in my head and I wanted to do it, and I am glad how it came out. The red lines are meant to be his cloak activating (or maybe deactivating) The blobs are meant to be worn patches (a technique I am working on) I still want to maybe do some cracks radiating from the crater, once I work out how, so it isn't completely done. Anyway, I hope you like it! (yes, that's my watermark in the middle.)

~Samuel

Chibi

I am intending to do a series of chibis, all of my favorite singers/groups, so I thought first i'd have a stab at drawing a generic chibi in the style I intend to do the rest. I used Painter, I really should have used a vector program, but it actually came out rather well! I have also invented a watermark to use on my stuff. (not that any of my current readers will steal anything but it's a useful thing to have.)
~Samuel

Another Writing Practice

This was also intended as a writing practice!
~Samuel

Fleks ran as hard as he could, but he could feel the shadows gaining on him. He considered turning to fight but the sane side of his brain quickly reminded him of the overwhelming numbers on his heels. He looked up again, his breath coming in desperate gasps. He could see the door ahead of him, but it was slowly closing, a huge metal slab grinding down steadily. It was several moments before he realized that tears were escaping down his cheeks. He wouldn’t be stopped this time. He couldn’t. Every time Vandham escaped him, his anger grew. Every time the tyrant who had destroyed society, wiped out his friends and family, and forced all into submission under his extraordinary power escaped, his anger rose. Vandham believed that he only had to keep running, that Fleks’ anger would be his undoing, but as his emotions intensified, he learned to control and focus it. Fleks would not be consumed by anger. It was his strength. 

But as Fleks ran onwards, the door inexorably drew lower. The shadows behind him screeched as they realized he was escaping. One desperate monster leapt for him, grabbing for his shoulder, but Fleks threw a wild punch behind him. He must have hit it because it fell back among the others with a screech. The door was only meters away now, but only feet from the floor. At the last second, Fleks threw himself forward, sliding right under the door with feet to spare. He was about to get up when something jerked on his leg. glancing behind him, he saw one of the hideous shadow monsters clutching onto his foot. Fleks shook his foot wildly and tried to pull it out of the monster’s grip but he only succeeded in pulling the thing closer to him. He thought about attacking it with his sword but he couldn’t get it out while he was sitting on it. His mind raced. The monster growled. The door was only centimeters away from his foot. Just before the door touched Fleks’ foot, he drew on all his strength and pulled the arm of the beast under the door. It still refused to let go, so the door closed on it’s arm with a sickening crunch. Shaking the limp hand off his foot, Fleks got to his feet. And groaned in frustration. Through the door he had seen an elevator which would take him all the way to the ground floor of the building where Vandham was hiding. It should be here. Instead, He was back where he started. A solid wall behind him, three corridors in front of him, one maintenance duct above.

“This place is a maze, isn’t it?” Came a disembodied voice from the shadows.

“Where are you?” replied Fleks. “Who are you?”

“It is a labyrinth, in the truest sense of the word. The corridors literally re-arrange themselves. It would be safer to face Vandham’s guards than traverse this deathtrap.”

Fleks narrowed his eyes. “How do you know I’m after Vandham? And there is no way I could beat all his guards.” 

“Nonsense. I have seen you fight. Your skill surpasses any I have seen. And It always helps to have an ally.”

“Who are you?” said Fleks in exasperation, his anger rising. In response, the voice stepped out of the shadows, becoming a skinny man wearing layers of tattered cloaks under an old metal breastplate. A mask with a thin slit for eyes and a single thin ridge running all the way down the front obscured his face.

“Let’s just say I am a concerned individual. You can call me Svek. You still have your sword?” 

Fleks nodded. “And an old pistol.”

“Excellent. Then let’s go get Vandham. I’m sure we’ll make a great team.”

What do you guys think?

Snohomish Teens

This was just a quick 15-minute project. My mom was setting up a Snohomish Teens homeschool group, and she wanted me to make a picture with the Snohomish bridge and the mountains in the background. (my first commission!) The water looked pretty cruddy when I had it scaled up, but it looks a lot better when it's small. I'm also quite proud of my clouds. And I really like pictures with BIG LETTERS on them, I think because of the focus they bring to the picture. (i'm not entirely sure though)

Some news: Justin Hillgrove (I have been going to some of his open nights at his house, look him up!) has offered to let me scan some of my drawings on his big scanner so I can post them on my blog! So you should see a lot more traditional stuff in a few weeks. Furthermore, when I get a good scanner of my own, I'll be able to sketch things out on paper and use Painter on top of them to color them. (I find color on Painter easy, but not the sketching!)

Over and out!
~Samuel 

Smooth As Silk

This is a piece of writing I did recently just for practice.

I am really happy with it! Usually when I read my own writing it feels forced or cheesy, which is understandable since I am the one who wrote it. This is interesting because when I read back over it it felt like someone else had written it. In a good way, mind. I am thinking that some time in the future I might expand this into a short story, maybe even a novel! This bit may become the opening, or at least near the opening. (the title will probably be 'Smooth As Silk.' Read and you will find out why! Please leave comments for suggestions or criticisms! 
~Samuel

“Hey,” said Aron, “I didn’t mean anything like that. I Just think we should give him a bit of support, you know? It must be hard for him.” 

“I guess you’re right,” muttered Finn. His pupils, shaped like sideways eights in his huge green eyes, rested on Aron. Aron’s hair twisted in frustration. “Well what are we waiting for!” he exclaimed. Finn nodded and reached for his heavily tinted glasses. Pulling on his hoodie, Aron called out to Finn’s mom, “We’re just going round to Silk’s house! Be back in a while! Can you tell my mom where I’ve gone?”

Finn’s mom returned something that sounded like a yes from upstairs as Aron headed out the door. 

Finn stared out the window. Well, he couldn’t really tell where he was looking with those sunglasses on. Aron himself was having trouble keeping his hair under control, even with the hood to hide it. It really did have a mind of it’s own. Thankfully, nobody on the bus seemed to have noticed, and the only look he’d got so far was the ‘Why-are-you-wearing-a-coat-that-thick-in-the-middle-of-summer’ look. 

“I hope he’s all right,” said Aron. “It really was bad, how he died like that.”

“Mmm,” agreed the ever-taciturn Finn. 

“At least he has understanding parents, right Finn? I mean I don’t know how my mom would react if I just died suddenly.” Finn just looked out the window. Aron combed his hair back into submission and continued. “I wonder what it’s like being dead... must be more interesting than having hair that tries to eat hats....”

Finally the bus stopped and the two boys made their way off. Silk’s house wasn’t exactly big. It just stood out a bit from the houses around it. Okay, it stood out quite a lot. Silk’s family lived comfortably. Aron had never thought to ask what his parents did, but whatever it was it must have been important. 

The door opened at Aron’s knock to reveal Silk’s dad. He smiled at the boys. “Hey guys,” he said genially. “Come in!” Aron and Finn stepped into the big house and took off their disguises. Finn blinked in the light, looking more than a bit like an owl, and Aron ran his hand through his hair, making it ripple and stand on end like it was underwater.

“Thanks for coming by,” Silk’s dad said. “SIlk’s going through another diffusive stage again and I think he needed someone to talk to.” Aron hopped up the stairs to the next floor, followed by the calmer Finn. At the end of the hallway was Silk’s room, the door closed. Aron knocked and entered. The room was completely empty except for the figure sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, his hands on his knees. It wasn’t that Silk couldn’t have anything. In his family, money was no object. He just didn’t feel a need for material possessions anymore. It was probably the whole death thing, Aron reasoned. 

Nearly a month ago, Silk had died. He was cycling home when a summer storm hit. A tree came down on top of him, killing him instantly. Except a blue-white figure, a softly glowing copy of himself, got up, walked through the tree, got on his bike, and rode home. Regenerative ability always ran in his family, but never this much. His parents were astonished, but understanding. His death hadn’t changed him much. He was still funny, outgoing, and friendly. Except for the glowing and transparency. And sometimes he went through ‘diffusive stages’ where he couldn’t touch or hold anything, and his mood became sullen and slow.

At the sound of Aron and Finn’s approach Silk looked up and smiled. His friends could always cheer him up at times like this. 

Commander Video

A portrait of my favorite video game character.

I just intended it as a 10-minute picture, and it came out rather well!

Commander Video is from the Bit. Trip games, a series of video games

(wiiWare) that I count as the second-best game!

~Samuel

Medusa Version 2

Here is Green Medusa Version 2!! (finally)

I tried a stylized background to make it more interesting.

I am really happy with the way it came out...

I also put the MEDUSA lettering in a similar graffiti-style but with a pattern.

This will become the 'logo,' if you will, of the Medusa race.

Tell me what you think! (comments/suggestions)

~Samuel

Snow Slime

Here is my attempt at a snow Minecraft Slime!

(not sure what size it is, somewhere between tiny and medium.)

We have over 14 inches of snow here! XD