Day 1 : My Personal Buddha

I've accepted that to complete a perfect daily streak of +365.25 ART is going to take me OVER a year and I'm going to try to reboot if I miss long chunks. I was foolish to try and force myself to stay within a pixel art medium, so I'm expanding my horizons and starting over again.

This past weekend, my bossman friend Bear graciously offered his Galena cabin to our group for a weekend away and the weather and company were beautiful. In the spontaneity, a few friends couldn't make it, so I wanted a reminder that Ping was still with us in spirit. Upon beginning my temporary forearm tattoo, I was interrupted by a butt-punching assault. In the flurry, my hair was pulled into a tiny blue topknot and soon the rest of the men fell as well. When I went back to the drawing I figured, why not also the Ping arm Buddha?
Additionally, as I continue the prospect of this daily project, I'm trying to put myself on a schedule with these. With a few quick outlets at the ready for days when my muse needs a forced medium and a kickstart, and alarms on my phone for timing and posting, I think I can do this. Cleaning has been incredible motivation as well, as my catalog of inspiration and references keeps growing. For too long I had been packing things away, literally boxing up school mementos, old yearbooks, etc.. I aim instead now to treat my possessions like a library, a place for everything and everything in its place. Once my bedroom is finally to my likings, I'll be 1up-ing it with more visual videogame art and creative nonsense, but until then, I'm off to clean more. Cheers friends!

Day 16 : The PILE

Today I'm posting without retrograding the date. I've missed over a week of content, and though I've been making art in some small form or another, doodles, mindless sketches, singing songs to myself, I've not been creating anything worthy of posting because of the THE PILE.

Since highschool, I'm not sure I've ever finished a single project or cleaned up my life; gotten my act together at all. My bedroom, basement workroom, half the garage have all become cluttered piles of chaos. Priority dictated day-to-day operations, but behind me the PILE grew into a mountain of old clothes, paperwork to be sorted, trinkets and cosplay items and tools and scraps and gifts and clutter large rooms of mess I created just sitting to stagnate; and it was finally time to dig out. It may be a few more days until I begin posting regularly again; once I finish cleaning out my life. The PILE is being reduced; less of a swirling red mess and definitely more under control after a week of solid cleaning as if my full-time job.

The clarity of a clean space is providing me some much needed inspiration and mental focus; the calm of the storm behind me slowly dissipating as I work on it bit by bit.

I'm excited about eliminating the anxiety of this task; this cleaning project was so daunting I kept putting it off FOR YEARS, and I can't explain how nice it feels to be in control.

Slowly but surely, I'm turning clutter into collections, sorting shit into something, messes into magic. I'm surprised and sickened by the number of sharpie markers and colored pencils I have, but it's great to get them all into one place.

I'm coming for you PILE, and I'm gonna turn you into something beautiful.

Cheers! 

DAY 15 : LEFTOVER GOTHIC

Today I remembered that I could graffiti almost any non porous surface I owned or safely borrowed with my chalk markers and simply rinse or wipe away when i was finished, so naturally I had to play with my food. Or the crumbs of my lunch plate, to be more specific :-P

*3/17/2014:12:45:18//
OBJECTIVE COMPLETE : DAY 15
 -SUB DIRECTIVE : TIMELY FASHION [FAILED]

Day 14 : BW 8BIT BOSS ALIEN

I can't decide if these are the same character, leveled up or armored, or two specialized variants of the same species. If the latter, then perhaps a supply runner or scout on the left and a warrior on the right?

Either way, fun to work in just black and white for a bit :)

*3/17/2014:12:35:18//
OBJECTIVE COMPLETE : DAY 14
 -SUB DIRECTIVE : TIMELY FASHION [FAILED]

Day 13 : A More 8 Bit Phone

Though I have an android phone, I love the windows "metro" tile layout and have been using Launcher 8 as my default for some time now. Today it struck me; given my aim to "gamify", why not start with the device I'm tied to all the time?

I've started work pixelizing my current layout one icon tile at a time. Making decent progress so far, though the further I complete down the line, the more I wonder if I'm on the right path for this idea. Hrm... if I were to design the phone layout for a video game, what would I do...?

(Back to the drawing board!)

Day 12 : Under the Sea

Too often with these pixel works I find myself going bit by bit instead of treating it like a real canvas. So for this guy I tried "underpainting" large swathes of color, then went in and refined with shadows and extra tones. I like this little guy, he might make his way into a few more ideas :)

Day 11 : New Take on a Stale Favorite

I don't think I can count the number of times I have edited the title screen to Megaman 2 in some fashion or another, be it old sprite competitions on bad forums or my brief NES rom hack days, ACen Guy panel slides or bullshitting at work. So this time around I decided to attempt the painstaking lettering instead.

Emo man, he looks off of buildings!

Day 10 : The Wanderer

Started this character sprite and I like the direction he's going. A future nomad type; cyberpunk Shaman. The headpiece is a form fitting  bubble helmet with glowing antlers, and the poncho seemed a natural fit.

Day 9 : Little Monsters

Wanted to try making a little guy with more mouth than body. Can't decide if I like the top idea of bloody gross mouth or the bottom idea of a car-jack jaw that pulls his body up to dangle off the ground. I'll post the animation once I decide and finish.

Cheers!

Day 8 : Do robot sprites dream of breathing cycles?

I wanted to design an upright defense robot of some sort; with a bulky but stubby gun for one arm. I was thinking of his default standing "breathing" animation but robots don't breathe. I'm sure I'll come back to this guy but for now he's just one in a mad scientist assembly line...