I’m not sure if I have to explain this one or not; but sure, why not. I’m not sure if it reads well enough, so I might as well spell it out. =)

In Pokémon, obviously the point is to catch as many pokémon as possible. You do this by going out, walking around in long grass for a while, until a wild pokémon attacks you. At this point, your job is to get its HP to as low as you can possibly get it without allowing it to faint. If it faints, the fight is over, you win, you go home. You have to get its HP as low as possible, chuck a pokéball at it, and hope that it’s now weak enough to not be able to break out.

The thing I’m wondering is; why can’t you catch a pokémon that has fainted? Is there some ethical, chivalrous rule saying that a fainted pokémon is now off limits, or something? You’d think that a fainted pokémon would be really damn easy to catch. All you really need is a sack or something.

Anyway, so that’s what I’m trying to make fun of here. And even though I make fun, I must say, I am one of those oldschool Pokétards. I was ten years old when Pokémon was released in North America; I was the target demographic, and hooooo boy, did they hook me good. I knew everything there was to know about pokémon and the games from Pokémon Red through to Crystal; when Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald came out I was in highschool, and trying desperately to pretend that I wasn’t that much of a geek anymore, and I couldn’t afford a GB Advance anyway, so I never played them. I did, however, replay Pokémon Red and Crystal dozens of times on my old GB Colour…

But now they’ve re-released my favourite games of the series; Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver for the DS (it’s so hard to believe those were released ten years ago!!). So now I’m reliving my childhood again, going on epic adventures with my Quilava and having a gay old time.

Anyway, yeah, that’s what inspired the comic. I needed to get my pokémon excitement out somehow, since none of my current friends are even remotely interested in it. So yeah! Hope this is still amusing for those who don’t give a damn about Pokémon stuff.

I do have a few other sketches, but it’s really hard to pluck up the energy to scan them at the moment. Maybe I’ll share them a bit later. Until then… I’m going to see if adding colour to this comic makes it any easier to read.

Yay, Shaintar! This was a (couple) scene(s) from our game session two nights ago. It was interesting to see how each of our different characters reacted to the news that four aggro’d Camonere soldiers were closing on our position thanks to an anonymous tip that some Pro-Light misfits were lurking around. But still, I think Nigel’s character sitting down the two remaining soldiers and managing to convert them to the Light while the other two of us were being chased up and down the city… so rad. He totally wins.

Who said being a Priest/Monk/Paladin/Holy Man was uncool?

And the bread/pastries thing… well, this whole mess started because we decided we wanted pastries. We went into a local Bakery (well, Lii didn’t… she has some issues with bakeries and baked goods in general) and Norwick thought he’d take that opportunity to ask the locals about the person we were trying to find. They’re the ones that tipped the local fuzz off. And after we paid them for their pastries, too! Bastards.

Right, this was a lot of fun to draw. I think I might have screwed up everyone’s likenesses a bit, but I’m still trying to get used to that. It would help if I had a simple comic style, but I think I’m stuck with this for now. Anyway, let me know what you think! Do you like my gaming comics? I know they’re rather obscure systems/characters/settings and things, but I still like them a lot. Let me know if you have any suggestions for how I can get better!

Drawn first with blue mechanical pencil, inked, scanned, and removed the blue lines in Photoshop CS. It took about 2 hours to finish; just under one hour to plan it and draw it, a bit of a break, then the rest of the time to ink.

Polly the clone, working on an information console. Hacking is what she does best. =)

A page showing some sketches of d7’s character, Mercy Junius. And a small sketch of Polly too. =)

Tali’Zorah nar Rayyah (damn, forgot the “h” in the picture) from Mass Effect. I’m currently addicted to that game. Drawn using references from Creative Uncut (specifically this one). I haven’t done a detailed ink picture in ages, so this was tonnes of fun to do.

I hadn’t drawn a dragon in a while. I love dragons. I also love muscles. Some day I’ll learn how to draw both properly. Inked with a brush pen.

Was going to be a picture of a Brinchie character from our Shaintar game, ended up turning into a referenceless body study. I really need to do more figure drawing, oi.

A page of Bambi deer (drawn from references on the official model sheets, with the bottom one being from my own head so-to-speak) and a southern belle. We were watching “Little Women” on Christmas, and the dresses were itching at me to be drawn.

And Dennis suggested “A person lying in snow” as a drawing prompt, and it turned into this. I’m planning on playing around with it in Photoshop to see what I can make of it. Rushed and crappy inking job ftw!

Right, that’s all I’ve got so far. Hope you all had a lovely holiday, and I wish you all the best for the coming New Year! Thanks for reading. =)

Anyway, when we started playing, I hyped up Turdrick’s racism to an absolutely ridiculous level. Not only did he refuse to drink ale (it made you stink like a dwarf), and figured that all elves were homosexuals and had “relationships” with trees (“It’s unnatural!”), but he also exclaimed loudly, and was absolutely adamant, that all halflings were crackheads; that their tendency to be employed in the theif and rogue classes were so they could make quick cash to feed their drug habits, and that their short stature was due to stunted growth on account of malnutrition associated with their addictions. Oh yes, Turdrick Wankersmith was living up to his name.

So while we were playing and trying to figure out the mechanics of the game I sat down and sketched out our characters. Here’s what I came up with.

Here Turdrick is undoubtably whispering something else bigoted and outrageously inappropriate to Alan, possibly about the parental heritage of the barkeeper or something. It was a lot of fun to draw, I enjoyed making them look silly, and drawing the expressions on their faces. =)

Drawn with 0.7 blue lead (clicker pencil-wise) and both a .5 and a .01 micron pen to ink.

I can’t wait to play more HackMaster, it seemed to be just the right mix of silly and beating things up to make it almost the perfect “just for fun” game for me. I’d like to draw more funny and ridiculous characters like this, they’re so relaxing, because you don’t have to be perfect by all means. =) Roleplaying has always been such a big inspiration for my art; I first got into art on the internet looking up fantasy/roleplaying stuff with my sister when she used to play a lot of D&D. Maybe I’ll turn to this kind of thing more often when I’m finding it difficult to find inspiration.

Right, enough of the roleplaying gush. Now I’m going to go… do some laundry. Yes. Then… um… watch Star Trek? Oh, no, I’m not a nerd, honestly! I just pretend to be one very well.

All right, let’s get started. #1 on our list: Crazy Star Trek fanart and other randomness!

All right! Shake it, Riker! *cough* I think some explanations are in order… my friends and I have been watching a lot of Star Trek: TNG lately. And I mean a lot. And obviously one of my friends found the links to the Jandrew Edits… and now I have a couple more life-long scars. Anyway! That’s where the disapproving Klingon comes from. And the scary “dancing” Riker. Yup. I swear. The rest? I have no clue. Hey, let’s have a close-up of the Klingon dude!

There, that’s better. This guy was drawn from memory; Here’s a picture of the actual disapproving Klingon.*shiver*

Okay, moving on! #2, more Star Trek crap:

That there is a portrait of Captain Heather of the U.S.S. Enterprise. She’s probably staring critically at young Ensign Crusher right now and thinking: “I’m gonna kill that kid. I’m gonna kill him.” Ah, adolescent fan-fiction… We also have a pygmy jerboa, and a beet being chased by a potato peeler, suggested by Dennis. I love Dennis.

#3! A couple girls.

I’ve been inspired by some awesome cartoony artists such as Kt Shy and feeling woefully incompetent at the whole fashionable cartoony women thing.  Not getting too far, but hey, practice.

# 4! Cartoony Portraits!

Dennis is such a unique looking person. So here I am attempting to make him look less unique through cartoons. A few different attempts, still not there; man, I wish I had awesome rad cartoon skillz. Like Aido. *sigh* There are also attempts at cartooning myself, but again, need practice.

Right! Next, #5 and #6, are Matrix-y!

Right! So, a looooong time ago I drew myself as a Matrix character. After showing this to Dennis recently we began talking about what he might look like if he existed in the Matrix; and then I visited friends and it’s spread to them too. Here we have Dennis and d7; both of which are unfinished. I’m more satisfied with Dennis’ than d7’s; I’ll probably redo his at some point. Either way, you other guys need to send me ideas for your Matrix versions; I’m looking at you, Darthmaus and Dabrota! Oh, and can you brainstorm Ben’s too? I’ll have to ask some other friends as well…

Right. Now, here’s where it gets good! #7: Six-headed Giraffe Hydra!!

This is another Dennis-ism. While hanging out with friends (and after drawing the Matrix!d7) I asked for some silly suggestions for a drawing and Dennis suggested a “six-headed hydra giraffe.” Here we go. I love silly suggestions.

Talking about silly; are you ready for this? Here we go! The pièce de résistance! #8: Hitler. On rollerskates. Being chased by a rhinoceros.

I freaking love you, Dennis. You guys have no idea how much fun I had drawing this. I think the proudest moment of my life was finishing this sketch.

Right. That was so liberating. Now I’m going to bugger off and go play some Sims 3; or watch some Star Trek: TNG. Or draw som’more. Hot damn, I love my life.

It got me excited about the characters again. When I started my first attempt at the game I was really drawn towards Penelo’s character. I don’t know, there’s just something about her sincerity that really appeals to me. Her design is pretty neat too. Anyway, I was surprised to see myself pulling out my sketchbook and drawing her, since I really haven’t been drawing lately.

So I spent the rest of the evening drawing her, pulling up reference images on Erl (my laptop, what a godsend!), with sweetie occasionally glancing over and commenting on its progress.

Anyway, before I ramble anymore here’s the picture.

Okay, here’s the rest of the rambling.

It brought back a lot of wonderful memories and feelings of what it used to feel like to draw. A mixture of elation, frustration and productive focus, as well as being able to share it’s inception with someone else. My best friend used to come over when we were in highschool and play Final Fantasy games and I would sit behind her, watch, and draw. I was at my most prolific in those years, and I really enjoyed it, and doing so on Saturday really made me feel in that zone again. That’s something I haven’t felt for a long time.

I took a lot of notice of how I did things this time, because I’ve been having so much trouble with drawing that when it becomes easy I really want to remember why so I might be able to do it again, or more often. I started with a really rough and scribbly sketch of a pose, then I fleshed out the anatomy a teensy bit, then I started sketching in the shapes of the costume. It was when that was worked out that I went in and started cleaning it up, erasing the scribbles and fine tuning the lines and adding details to make it look cleaner. But of course some things, like her face and her hands, I had to erase and re-draw at least a dozen times before I could come up with something I liked. Ah well! Practice practice practice…

But I think what really made it so easy this time was simply that this wasn’t coming from my own head. Whenever I sit down to draw I freeze up, because nothing’s there. Then when I force myself to draw, even random things, it turns out looking like crap because I don’t know what I’m doing. There’s no planning, no forethought, because I simply don’t have any ideas.

But with this picture, all the ideas were taken care of for me. I just had to redraw it. Granted, redraw it in my own pose and from some really annoying references, but the main thing is that I didn’t have to sit there and make up anything. And it made it so much easier, having all that pressure taken off of me. I knew what I was going to draw, and someone had already done all the hard work for me. I was just doing the fun stuff, the drawing.

This amuses me, since a lot of what people find is the most satisfying and fun part of drawing is the creating, the throwing random thoughts and ideas onto the paper and creating something new and exciting that was nowhere else but your own brain up until then. I used to have that too, but it’s gone now, and forcing it doesn’t make it any better. For now, I’m glad that I can at least draw, even if I can’t create.

I’m sure the creativity will return with practice. Everyone says that it’s a muscle that just needs to be flexed. For now, maybe I’ll work more from reference, or do more character drawings from movies or games and see what comes of it. Well, it’s an idea anyway… maybe I should just have my sweetie over for more gaming. I bet that’s the secret!

—

EDIT: Right, forgot about this:

I threw some quick colours on there to make the costume stand out a little more. I got the majority of my references from the website Creative Uncut and their Video Game Art Galleries which is an awesome resource for anyone who’s studying game or concept design, or who simply likes games and the art that makes them. There’s a lot of great stuff there.