Spyro is probably the most requested character for these fights which is really surprising to me. I didn’t think he had the following and, though I’ve never played a Spyro game, I decided to give it a shot and please the fans.

I always try to make these seem like even fights but, in this case, once I settled on the “biting off the arm” bit, I couldn’t find an action that Mario could be performing that could make the fight seem like it could go either way. Also, because I never played any of those games (and despite me watching a replay of the first level of some Spyro game on YouTube) I had no idea what to put for a background. I went with “generic mountains” and gave it an orange-purplish palette to make it look more like a fantasy setting.

I have no clue who I’m doing next. Maybe I’ll run another poll.

Progress animation below.

Capcom is doing, well, something for the 25th Anniversary of Street Fighter and there’s a submission page to send art in so I got crackin’ and came up with the above.

I love the SNK illustrations of characters just hanging around so I tried to go for that vibe. To make it comprise the 25 years of SF history I went with characters from SF1 (can you name them from memory?) and SF4 exclusively. I was gonna try to airbrush this but, apparently, I’ve completely forgotten how to do that and, after failing a few times, I went the same style I used when I redesigned Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk.

How does Mario counter Zero? With the Beam Saber from Smash Bros, of course. I went for the tried and true Yin-Yang composition on the characters and my originally idea was to have a completely square canvas. Well, turned out that was an awful idea so I resized and repositioned and what you see is the end result.

If there was ever a time where I overdid it with the effects, I think this might be it. I like how the light from the sabers is being reflected on both of them but I think I may have gone too far with the rest of the stuff. I kept going back and forth with many of effects layers but, the majority of the times, I decided it looked better with them than without them.

Judge for yourself in the progress animation (after the break) and let me know if you think the penultimate step looks better than the last. I honestly don’t think I’ll change it at this point but I’d love to know if it’s all in my head.

I often get stuck without knowing what to draw next. When that happens, I turn to my sketchbook or I just dive into my latest Mario Versus piece. So when Project: Rooftop asked for drawings of Carol Danvers in her new Captain Marvel persona, I was relieved because I needn’t think about my subject matter any longer.

I wanted to get as ridiculous as I could with as many different layers of shading as I could cram in this piece. I tried to channel Frank Cho’s tough looking Carol (the definite Carol in my book) so I decided against the generic flying pose and went instead for a more “power gloating” kind of stance. I realized early on that, composition-wise, this piece if very similar to my Power Girl piece and it’s driving me crazy because I hate to repeat myself. Also, to be fair, I totally ripped the background off the awesome Ed McGuiness cover.

As a sidenote, I really like the costume but, as with most people, the hair will take some time to get used to.

I haven’t written a review (or much of anything else really) in quite a while but having finally beaten the lovely Machinarium, I wanted to give the game its dues while it was still fresh in my mind.

Machinarium, by Czech studio Amanita Design, is a point-and-click adventure game that was released back in 2009. I purchased it shortly afterwards (mainly because of the demo) but I quickly became stuck and I decided to shelve for a later time. Fast forward almost three years later and Amanita’s newest game, Botanicula, is ready to be released. I saw a few videos of it and was sold instantly. This would be another game I’d purchase upon release but it just wouldn’t feel right to do that without first completing Amanita’s previous effort.

This was the perfect time to get back into Machinarium.

I picked up right where I had left off over two years ago and still was I dumbfounded. After rekindling my frustration with that part of the level, I did what any modern gamer would do in that situation and I, shamefully I admit, looked it up online. Turns out I wasn’t so crazy because the position of the item I needed (damn you, plunger!) was in a rather unorthodox and, quite frankly, preposterous place.

Thankfully, that was only one of two times where I could potentially place my failure to solve a puzzle on the game and not on myself (the second being one situation where I was doing exactly what was needed to solve the puzzle but not the way the game wanted me to). Aside from those two moments, the game moves at a brisk pace and the puzzles never have completely inconceivable solutions and are varied and elegant in their simplicity, never becoming more convoluted than they need to be. There is a non-intrusive  hint system and it explains only what your end goal is in any given room. That is usually enough but, should you truly become stuck, there are step by step solutions to every puzzle given after the completion of a (admittedly dull) shmup-like minigame.

You’ll be operating machinery (appropriately enough) to complete your tasks the majority of the time and studying and figuring out how all these various contraptions work is half the fun in the game. The second half of your progression involves interacting with all the unique denizens and creatures that populate the world of Machinarium. Sometimes you’ll be causing mischief but, more often than not, you’ll be providing solutions to your fellow robots’ dilemmas.

Machinarium does not have a single word of text or dialogue. The game uses symbols, context and beautiful animation to direct and tell its story and, whenever it needs something less vague and more substantial, the storytelling is handled via thought bubbles that contain simple drawings and simple animations that serve as exposition or to explain character motivations. It’s always great to see how effective restraint can be and this is never truer than it is with Machinarium. You’ll hate the bad guys, you’ll root for our robot lead Josef and you’ll feel true empathy and sorrow for one of the later characters in the game. This seems to come up more and more often these days but the way this little game can make you emote far more than so many high-budget, AAA titles out there is nothing short of praiseworthy.

That’s all well and good but arguably the best thing about Machinarium, the very same reason why I was spellbound after I first laid eyes on it, is the beautiful, beautiful art direction. You’ve seen the screenshots by now and yes, it looks even better in motion. It’s a sublime looking game that comprises a hand drawn aesthetic married to just the right amount of texture giving the world a distinct and engrossing flavor. The character designs, the palette, the animation, every visual aspect of this game is brilliant from top to bottom. There was not a single new room I entered that did not amaze me. There was not a single character that didn’t bring a smile to my face (except the baddies, those guys are dicks) and there’s so much character in the environments themselves that it’s not surprising to find yourself simply staring and contemplating them. But it was the cleaning bots sealed the deal for me really. So adorable.

It’s not a perfect game though. The difficulty curve is technically inverted with the first few puzzles being almost devilish compared to some of the later ones. It’s also a rather short game depending on how robust your point-and-click vocabulary is and the ending isn’t much of an ending at all. But if games are to be about the journey and not the destination, then few games will captivate and thrill you as Machinarium does.

My own experience in point-and-click adventure games is limited I’ll admit but, for my money, Machinarium is the best one I’ve ever played.

Bring on Botanicula.

This batch has pretty much your average stuff but I have been trying recently to draw “characters” and not just “people” if that makes sense. Going for characters with slightly more complicated outfits and potential agendas instead of just blank slates.

For a full set of scans for this sketchbook click here.

God, my titles are so awful…

I did this with no direct reference though I did use some random pictures to help me figure out the lighting. I originally wanted her to be covered in tattoos but it made more sense for them to be on her leg only which is what she is showing. Also, I’m lazy.

I also shaded the entirety of her figure even though I knew that most of it would be covered anyway but that’s the kind of thing that, I think, ultimately adds in the end. Her right arm does get lost in there though.

I almost didn’t finish this.

I liked the idea of a young, de-sexified Supergirl (potentially inspired by those awesome DC Nation shorts) but, once I started drawing it, I realized it just wasn’t the kind of thing I like to draw. So, with the lineart almost completed, I put it to the side, was even tempted to delete a couple of times but ultimately decided to take it to completion because, hey, the thinking part (pose, composition, studying a different style, etc) was already done and all that was left was the more mechanical stuff.

She’s basically a younger version of Supergirl so, despite a couple of changes here and there, this isn’t a “redesign” in the strictest sense. Please understand that I’m not very creative with my titles and, after actually considering the name “Girl Supergirl,” I went with redesign because it seemed more fitting.

I once again used FrostBo’s asteroid brushes but, other than that, it was all pretty straightforward stuff.

I gotta draw some Marvel stuff soon…

I still haven’t been able to get my hands on the first film in the series, The Egg of the Supreme Ruler, but it seems like the Berserk Saga Project is going full steam ahead regardless with the second part, The Battle for Doldrey, slated for release by the end of June. It’s a little hard to properly convey just how excited I am to see this. Let’s just say that I’ve seen the above trailer at least a few dozen times since yesterday.

But, aside from fueling that fervor, the trailer has also painted a clearer picture as to how the animation is being handled. It seems to be a blend of (mostly) CG and traditional animation with the latter being relegated to close-ups and non-battle sequences. This seems a like a smart, cost-effective way to handle all the intricate armors as well as the hundreds of background characters needed to treat a war with fitting gravitas while still maintaining somewhat of a traditional animation feel. I mean, who wants to animate a fucking horse by hand? An armored horse at that? No, the more I see of this the more I realize that it’s being done right because, simply put, it looks great.

And I just have to mention Hirasawa Susumu’s amazing title theme, Aria. From the animated series to the video games and back to animation, Susumu just makes the most perfect, fitting and epic Berserk music that my little brain can imagine. From what I understand, the mp3 for Susumu’s Aria is freely available online so I’ve posted it below for your enjoyment.

Download Berserk-Aria.zip

Right of the bat, I knew I wanted three things from this piece: cover, grit and brown.

I thought about having Mario in cover first, but then the image of Marcus charging at him with a Lancer didn’t seem to me like it would to lend itself to a fair-looking fight. So I once again took a page from my Mario vs. Master Chief piece and thought, well, what do the Locust have that Mario could wield? I went to the wikis again and the answer was bright as day: a Bloodmount. This image formed rather easily in my head after that.

The “palette” and “grit” parts were just a matter of trial and error thankfully. I used a lot of layers, adjustment layers, grain and a few new brushes (many thanks to FrostBo for this set of brushes) and achieved some pretty solid results on both ends.

I do wish I’d paid more attention to the lineart. I knew the orientation of the wall and Marcus’ position relative to it but his right hand isn’t touching it in any realistic manner.

And sorry but no progress animation this time. Just way too many layers to wade through.