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...

Day 7: RCBD Sprite Evolution

Idea for brawler character; with the pixel art showing the sprite progress over about an hour. The sketch was done a few nights ago and digitally quick colored for concept.

I have  a few more, less generic costume ideas I want to work out, and am thinking of picking up a tablet to do more straight thru-digital sketch and paint work. Having lots of fun with this!

Day 6 : Bert and Bones

Today I present my first pixel pet; an homage to a one Mr. Shaggy Bert Bones Tregler.

Cheers!

Day 5: Rotating Skulls

For today's piece, I wanted to make sure I still had the know-how to do basic animations. There's a project concept for a brawler game I've been kicking around with a friend, and when thinking of logo ideas, this 1up style "pickup" sprite was one of the results. The others will surely be posted soon.

While cleaning my PC up, I came across this link again, a perfectly poignant read for the theme I've been working from. "Life is a Game. This is your strategy guide."
The article is straight forward and witty, and the accompanying pixel art is great.

 

Day 4 : Cleaning for Tiny

Beep Beep.

The tiny house idea keeps changing, right now being able to drive instead of towing my future house seems a much better fit for a mobile lifestyle.

This idea struck me midday, and I wanted to take an opportunity to use dithering and just two tone color for the whole bus. I rather dig this little doodle :)

All the while working on it I was whistling the tune from this NSFW flash game from 2001...
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/365586

Day 3: Representing the Party

Today I finished the detailing I had originally envisioned for the MegaMan X styled self portrait. The text was hand drawn with a character resolution of 3x3 pixels, offering a fun challenge for legibility in spite of all uppercase characters. The end result is coherent to me, but I'm not sure about overall.

I also drafted a character profile sprite for my friend Shane, based one of his personal favorites, Chrono Trigger. The game's art was done by Akira Toriyama, and I'm not sure if I channeled the DBZ Napa-esque influence into Shane's portrait, but I like the overall feel.

In regards to the blog, this time around I'm aiming to include more writing. I will be sharing links I've found that fit the narrative of aiming to gamify one's life, as well as anything that catches my mind regarding the self rewarding pursuit of indulging in the creative process. If I happen to scribble or write or type or twist something into being, I'll upload it.

Til the next idea catches me, I'm off. Cheers!

Day 2: Decades of Testing

Today's inspiration is the opening to Megaman X. Built using a new, untested consciousness program, X was hidden away in a capsule for testing for 30 years to ensure he was stable and reliable, no longer a risk to humans. 

In the year 201X, at just shy of 27 years of testing, Emo's creativity is released from its chambers. Unlike the robotics of X, Emo is driven by his biological presence, fueled by the rhythm of his beating heart, bloody bionics, rusty bones and tender meat.