Myr WIP

Hi folks, I've been having a week that feels like a rollercoaster taking an acid trip, one minute things are great then the next minute we've crashed into Hades itself. So I did what I always do whenever I need a distractions. I drew Myr. And since it's been a weird week, I drew a lot of them. I thought since people liked my last Myr, that I'd share this one here too.

This is my axe wielding Myr. In my head he's made of iron, even though I don't believe there are any iron Myr in the Mirrodin lore. Which is also, I guess, why he doesn't look completely like his other Myr brethren, who all look different to each other anyway, and possibly a reason why it is nearly impossible to find a picture of a Myr's hands and feet. His weapon is an two handed axe and I've used an axe (for chopping down a tree), so when I was picturing possible battle scenarios it was a weapon that frequently came to mind. Also I've been watching a lot of Chivalry gameplay videos lately and the idea of that kind of combat was appealing to me for this project. You should check it out if you're into medieval battle type games.

Unlike my last Myr drawing this fella didn't have any reference pictures to work from but I think I did an okay job at making him look right. Also I went to town on his shading, but I like how it looks. If you've got any comments, please feel free to leave them below, all feedback is greatly appreciated, and I'm looking forward to getting this picture done! Thanks for reading.

(Also, I feel I should point out that my week has had some very lovely points to it as well, but the up and down-y ness of it all is quite tiring.)

Exquisite Beast project

Hi folks. I wanted to bring your attention to an art project that I started following last year that wrapped up earlier this month. The Exquisite Beast is a project started by two Brooklyn based artists, Evan Dahm of RiceBoy and Yuko Ota of Johnny Wander, where they started with a 'beast' and mapped out a theoretical evolutionary path for that creature, taking turns at seeing where they could take the evolution. The reasons for any changes to the beast are given in the description of each picture. They decided to wrap up the blog at 100 beasts and it's fantastic to look at in its completed state, where you can follow the evolutionary story of these creatures.

I love these two artists and seeing them work on a project together was exciting, especially since they both seem to have a talent for creating weird creatures. And I really liked the idea that the creatures had to be an evolved state of the previous one. Even early on in the project there was an intriguing progression between each beast, the moments where there was quite a jump in a beasts appearance and the reasoning's why. It was something that I found really enjoyable to watch unfold. I remember seeing other artists from tumblr take beasts that they liked and progressed them in their own way, I even tried it once myself but I wasn't terribly pleased with the result. Now that the project's finished I've cycled through the blog a couple of times and watched as these things grow, and twist, and get crazier over a series of pictures.

The first beast is here. I thought it'd be a good idea to link to the very start of the blog, even though just jumping in doesn't really spoil anything, the beast changes quite a lot. Please go and check it out, if you like the art or just get curious about the artists I'd suggest checking out their comics as well. If you did like it, let me know either in the comments section below or through my twitter, and if you didn't like it and you think I should be looking at other things, feel free to tell me that too. I hope you guys like the blog and, as always, thanks for reading!

A quick look at The Cave

I'll admit Double Fines latest adventure game, The Cave, looks like a platformer. A beautiful platformer, with interesting environments- there was an underground amusement park- and equally interesting characters, but it doesn't really look like an adventure game. I've been deceived apparently, because everything I've read about this game says that it's an adventure game that's packed with individual stories for each character, puzzles and an optional co-op mode too. And with it not requiring reflex or dexterity skills, like you need to play Braid for example, skills that I do not have, I was very glad to hear this.

      So, you start off by picking a team of three characters to play out of a choice of seven possible characters who all have special abilities or talents that can be used in various puzzles throughout the game. Then you start your adventure. The players you pick shape your game, so switching up your teams will let you play different areas and makes the game more interesting to replay. Especially since the story really drives the game in The Cave. Not just the stories of the three characters that you choose to play, but the story of the Cave too.

      Co-op in the game is local, which isn't something you see too much these days, and it seems to add a whole other level of enjoyment to the games experience. Being able to sit beside someone in front of you pc or PS3 and trying to figure out the puzzles together is something most of us haven't done since our childhoods. And the games developers have assured us that the single player experience doesn't suffer to favour a multi player role. In single player you control all 3 members of your team, switching between them to move around the level and solve puzzles, in multiplayer you control a single member of your team while someone else controls another. A bit like co-op Portal, but you're in the same room, and it's without a psychotic sentient computer trying to kill you, possibly.

     I'm looking forward to this game, which is up for pre order now on steam, and coming out at somepoint this month (there's no exact date). It's currently about £10 through steam for folk in the UK like myself and it certainly looks worth the investment. I'm keeping an eye on Double Fines twitter for any news but they're keeping pretty tight lipped for now. If you want to see the trailer it's on the games website here.

     If you've known about the game for a while, or not known about it until now, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I should warn you that the games trailer shows it in a very platformer like light, but that's not really a bad thing, and you do get to see all the pretty level designs. If you have anything to say about The Cave, I'd love to hear it! You can leave a comment below or message me over twitter, despite disappearing for most of last week I do check for comments as much as I can. Thanks for reading!

One of my Gishwhes entries.

With it being the new year I figured it would be okay to show you guys one of the entries that my team submitted for GISHWHES, "the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen", that I made up. I can't remember what item number this was on the list, but we were to show what we thought was in the most top secret room of Area 51.

The picture itself is a reference to the C. M. Coolidge paintings of dogs playing poker commissioned for the company Brown and Bigelow in the 1900's. The original paintings are pretty iconic and I liked the idea that there was an odd sort of truth to it. As my nod to the originals I thought it would be fitting to add a dog in to the game.

The hardest thing to draw was the Predator from behind, the head masks they wear sit oddly on the head due to the high forehead and it was hard to convey that from behind, however I didn't want to show him from the front because he's got a really bad poker face. One of the things I enjoy most about this picture is the shelves behind the dog and the janitor. It holds secret files with information on people like Nathan Fillion, a Practical guide to Laser Guns, a original copy of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, a jar of pickled eggs, and the Known Locations of All Umbrellas in the Northern Hemisphere. Because that's all stuff Area 51 would be interested in, right?
The pickled eggs are an experiment. I think.

It's a rather silly drawing but I hope you all like it, I did rather enjoy drawing it. I've recently been either really busy lately or catching up on sleep. which is no excuse not to update. I'm hoping to get a good post out for tomorrow. If you want to leave a comment you can do so below, or you can tweet me, and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can. Thanks for reading!

A quick look at Anodyne

Anodyne is a game that I'm really looking forward to. I noticed it when Steam first introduced its Greenlight service and it stuck with me. I don't know if it was the Zelda like graphics or gameplay that originally got me interested, but I do know that I kept checking that Steam page for information as often as I thought it would update. I looked for their website and bandcamp for a demo of the in game music (which I love, I'll link it here).

Then IndieStatik did a piece on it earlier this month that just reaffirmed how much I want this game. In fact it probably made things a bit worse as it announced that Anodyne was now up for pre order. Thankfully the release price looks like it's only going to be $10, and right now the pre order is $7, so I'll just have to be patient to get some funds for it. Also, have a wee read at the Statik piece (here) as it goes into some details about the game and its weapon mechanics. I also just really like how the guy has written about the game, he seems as interested in the game as I am.

A demo's been released for download from the games website, you can get it here, and it's well worth a playthrough. It's the first 15- 20 minutes of the game, and if you don't like it after that, well at least you've tried it. If you do try it, let me know what you think. If you don't, let me know why. I'm always interested in hearing other peoples opinions on gaming, it's probably why I spend so much time on youtube watching gaming play throughs. If you want to get in touch or suggest a game for me to check out you can leave a comment below or contact me through twitter. Thanks for reading!

More complimentary dinosaurs

Hi folks, been kinda quiet over the past week just dealing with Christmas, New Years and being a wee bit sick- the cold weather sucks. I have a theory that we're actually meant to hibernate through this time of year. However, Happy New Year to you all! I hope 2012 was full of good times and that 2013 will bring you all many more. I'll post a complimentary picture of a dinosaur here...

It's drinking an iced drink of some kind, probably a slushie, and it's actually kinda chubby now that I'm looking at it again. I might pen this one, I might erase it. I think I just wanted to use the hashtag complimentary dinosaur on twitter again.

If you had a good new year, or if you think there's anything I should do in particular on the blog over the next year feel free to leave a comment below! I noticed when I was taking a break from posting that the comments section wasn't open to everybody, so I've fixed that, sorry for asking for months for comments when it wasn't an option for everyone. You can also tweet me though if you do want to get in touch. I'll be posting more art, finishing my Mortal Kombat film review, posting more music reviews and possibly a couple of other projects, if folk are interested. Hope you all have a great 2013 and thanks for reading!