dubiouslog

Ultimate Mission got its layout upgraded! Look at the brand new navigation with those little flashing screens. I always forget how much I love to make sprites :> The fonts got changed too.

I also solved the problem with Soaring Dread’s navigation by removing it completely and making that fanlisting into a single-page website. The logo was also remade and is now classier. I think.

This should do it for step four. 8)

Have some random crap

I LOVE HOW THIS TURNED OUT
the pose was taken from a screenshot, but everything else is original

tiny sprites are tiny

man I’d so like to make some animated sprites
I think I’ll start out with something easy like Volkner and Flint talking and then I’ll move to Daevion casting spells or Samus walking. I’d also like to do something with Pokémon but I really don’t know, I thought of Sneasel slashing but I don’t really know how to make it loop decently. Suggestions?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what direction I’m taking in my personal development. When I think about it, my mind jumps to when I was nine and I made a drawing about how I saw myself in the future: taller, with boobs, and working as a comic artist. When I was a kid, it was more like a distant thought: “and one day, I’ll be publishing my own comics”. Now this goal is fully in my reach, and all I have to do is keeping those stories running and my technique sharp and sharper. However, when I was nine I had no idea I would have developed a plethora of other interests. I could have never seen myself entering the website-making scene, running Angeltower Page and later Blind Dreaming and studying the web and how it works. I’ve always loved videogames, but I would have never thought of gaming as becoming such an important part of my life. And I just didn’t care about finding someone to share my life with.
I expected my life to be a lot more linear. I could even say that my dream life was a lot less interesting or fulfilling than my current life. I’d like to work as a comic artist, sure, but also as an illustrator, a character designer, a web designer, a writer…Mostly freelancing and flying solo, of course. I might accept some very special group projects, but only if I feel like it.

Now, it comes by itself that if I want to work as a freelancer I’m going to need more exposure, and I think I know what to do in order to obtain it. First of all, I’m needing a proper portfolio and for all my personal websites to look their best. This leads me to the next point: currently, not all of my websites are up to my standards, both in terms of presentation and content. If I am to get in the spotlight I cannot allow my work to be just OK, it must be as close to perfect as possible.

This is the very foundation of a big project of renovation concerning all of my online work; it will span across several years so that I can focus on university work while I keep on with this project. Let’s break it down in steps.

Phase one

All of the phase one steps are not incredibly complex or time-consuming. They don’t need my full attention, so I can multitask between them and school work. This should be a rough guideline of my personal work from now to a year from now.

1. Clear Bell renovation. It didn’t really made much sense to have a fanlisting with two pages of content, so I’m turning this website into a full Pokémon Crystal tribute which also hosts a fanlisting.
   I thought that would make a good starting point for my project for a few reasons. First, there’s no way the new content is ever turning stale and needing to be rewritten, since we’re talking about information for a game from 2001 and thus pretty static at this point. If I will ever have to touch the content again, it’s going to be for only minor revisions. Second, I still like the layout concept, so I’m not needing a complete redesign; all I will be doing is upgrading some minor details. Actually, most of the layout changes are already online, so if you check Clear Bell right now you’ll see what I mean. Third, my tribute will be targeted to retrogamers and nostalgics, but will also serve as a museum for the years to come.
   I’m currently writing the new content. It won’t be long before I put everything online, three weeks in the worst case.
2. Remake the weasels fanlisting from scratch. There’s not a single thing that’s right about that website, from the name to the layout to the overall feel. Even with such a tormented development, there’s no excuse for that mess. Now, I happen to have a drypoint drawing of a weasel for school which should be on print on Monday; if the result is as good as I intended it to be, I will be using it for the layout. The new layout is going to be either white or in neutral tones. Also, I’d like to change the name of the website. I tried to find another one myself but the results were rather unsatisfactory. So I’d like to get some input from you readers. The winner gets a free artwork :B everyone can participate, it doesn’t matter if we don’t really talk that much.
3. Minor layout changes in the Angeltower Dex. Like remaking the Poké Ball and the Great Ball in the respective styles with a proper 3D software or refining the content styling. I should also make a Master Ball style soon or later. Also, I’m going to upgrade everything to HGSS and rewrite parts of the core code.
4. Minor layout changes in the Super Metroid and Fearow fanlistings. I’m not satisfied with some of the content styling in the Super Metroid fanlisting and I don’t quite like the navigation in the Fearow fanlisting, so I’m going to tweak them a bit. Nothing major, though.
5. New layout for Dark Claws. That website has grown a lot over time, and the current layout is way too small and the content way too understyled to convey how big that website actually is. Plus the layout is also quite old (from late 2007 I think), so it was about time anyway. I’m going to keep the current red and grey color scheme, but with another artwork. Content is going to be fully revised and the URL structure changed. For example, sneasel/shrine.php?page=general-information will become sneasel/shrine/?page=general-information, because directories are cooler. Here we’re already talking about plans for stuff I will be working on about a year from now, so I don’t feel like I can already give more details than this.

The phase two steps are still a secret! I will be talking about them in due time. All I can say for now is that they are going to be the beefier part of the renovation project, each taking from several months to a whole year of effort. They will be about Advanced Blanket, Angeltower Page and the portfolio I was talking about before. :D

There’s also a great deal of work for other people I’m currently working on. I’ve been spending the last few months on the redesign of a website which should be ready in November or December, I will be making a whole CMS-based website which should take a good three months of work, and I’ll be probably working on another website too. There’s so much stuff to do, and I’m still without Internet D:

Now, for something different:

Quote from Volkner in Pokémon Platinum:
“My relationship to Flint? There’s no love lost, that’s for sure.”

…
…
…

THUS MAKING THEIR PAIRING CANON. END OF THE STORY
I am as amazed as you, believe me

hey I’ve not been giving those two enough attention as of lately
I gotta fix that

A4 size, chalk and pencils. The paper’s not really that wavy, but stretching the paper caused the pencil to look “shiny” when scanned. The actual work looks a lot better than the scan, but I am nevertheless pleased.

Notice anything new? :D It was time to upgrade that logo. This one spawned from a talk I had with VG in which I asked him whether I was needing a catchphrase, and he came out with this streak of genius. Then I accidentally doodled a cute fennec. There.

Even though the logo change is actually related to those projects I was talking about earlier, I’m still not ready to write about them in detail. So, the rest of this entry is RANDOM

Current obsession: fennec foxes are too cute for words. When I finish with the university I want to move with VG and live with a fennec. I’m dead serious. I’ve never had the chance to live with an animal, but if I think about which one I’d choose, I wouldn’t take a dog because I’m just not a dog person, but I wouldn’t take a cat either because even though I like cats I don’t think a cat could ever tolerate being with me. If you think about it it makes a lot of sense. I’d never take any animal that must be kept in a cage because in my opinion that’s just sad, it’s about keeping a living thing like a possession, it’s not like actually sharing your time with another creature. Then I’ve read that fennecs are domesticable :O they say they are bright, playful and affectionate with people. They are the kind of animal that will cheer you up if they see you’re feeling down :3 and they’re quite intelligent too. I’ve read that a downside may be that they are nocturnal but haha, so am I. They’re perfect for me. I just have to wait a few years.

Silly professional deformation: you know you’ve spent too much time working with newfangled technologies when you are surprised by the lack of a text box in your suitcase to find your underpants without having to look for them manually. Even though it would be awesome.

Sudden Internet pet peeve: why is everyone using birds for logos? Birds are the image of freedom in its purest meaning. It breaks my heart to see them bastardized into a symbol of social network slavery.

I’M NOT DEAD
just been busy with those exams. man. couldn’t get any sleep for days. but now they’re gone! so I can get back to my usual work. I’ve got stuff that’s on hold since a few months now - both for me and for other people. lots of stuff. you’ll see soon.

ANYWAY, SCANS?

This and the following two were made for that techniques exam. They are actually renditions of photos found on the web, so if you search hard enough you should be able to find the references. In any case, fennecs are the most adorable animals ever. Who could hate a fennec?

mantissss
her shadow was fun to draw

A random mask. Mostly for the shadows.

I think they turned out well. At least, the teacher seemed very pleased. He was all omg these are so great yet you’re so young, and you’re even mostly self-taught, you’ve got a bright future ahead…quite an ego boost. See, there are some times in which I don’t know if I can really make a living out of my artwork or I’m just a waste of time and money. Harsh, I know, but sometimes looking at the works of other people I get the impression my work is…not bad, but not good enough either, or at least not as good as theirs. Then sometimes I have to deal with the occasional flamer/hater/whatever, and even though I don’t care about what they say I cannot help but think that there’s people out there who hate me with passion.
What I wanted to say is that I’m happy to receive unexpected appraise, ok? This got a bit off track.

I have no idea, the second before I was working on the exam, the second after I was painting this. You and your magical tricks.
As a side note, this is also incredibly tiny. Smaller than a finger. What’s with me and small-sized drawings?

I don’t feel like writing about those projects now, though. I still have to leave the ideas bubble a bit before writing them down. But you’re all used to it, isn’t it? I mean, to me never being coherent. :B