Baymoon City

    And other things.  Did you know how hard it is to figure out kanji and hanzi when you've got absolutely no clue what it is you're writing?  Well now I know and I wish I didn't.

    It's been two months that haven't been as productive as they should've been.  Again.  Ah, well.  I've got a handful of sketches, including the remainder of the Twelve Wizards that I mentioned... (looks back) over a year ago.  I'm not terribly worried, though I think I have enough money I can actually buy Photoshop and a goodly-sized tablet to actually seriously try those ImagineFX tutorials and workshops I keep reading and sighing over.  And anyway, in the grand scope of things, a lack of professional tools is the least of my concerns.

    Also, I went back and compressed a lot of what I liked most about those shotgun-approach ideas I wrote for character profiles back in the series of Unluckies posts and I made one definitive, easier-to-manage stable of characters that I might be able to work with.  Though all the ideas I didn't scoop up and compile I'll always at least have for use later.  All but two of these characters I've written about elsewhere on the LJ (which I must constantly tell myself is no substitute for an actual blog or website!  But alas, laziness)  in some form or another, even in the form of minor footnotes or namechecks.   And those two are relatives of Silva Mage Association characters so, well, they're not terribly new in effect either!

    I've done a bit of trimming down on older, somewhat more melodramatic ideas I thought up a while back.  For some reason, it seems like restraint helps keep my head grounded.  It also puts the even subtler weird moments in pretty stark relief.

    (On the topic of drawing landscapes and the like, I've come to terms with the fact that I will never outgrow my reliance on photoreference.  And, nowadays, Google Maps.  No, seriously.  You can zoom in and see street-level views of cities and not only is it fascinating it also makes for a cheap and dirty substitute for actually getting real photos of these places I intend to draw!  Like London.  No seriously, try it out sometime. This is helpful because traffic in the Greater Seattle Metropolitan area makes me all kinds of frustrated.)

    Anyway, I'll put all the pictures down below the LJ-cut.  Before I get to the ensemble (or part one of it), I'll also get some words in on those members of Jupiter's Twelve Consuls that had been waiting for basic designs since, well, I forget since when.  They were around longer and therefore kind of deserve top billing here.  Though I didn't give it to them because they're high-level villains and not exactly something you toss some starting-level characters at.

.............................................................................
 
( This part's got the remaining Twelve Consuls... )
.............................................................................

( And this is the new ensemble, the Ten Young Sages of the West. )



    Now that I've gotten that out of the way and finally updated my LJ after a summer of disuse, I should also draw a picture of the Ladies of the Ten Young Sages of the West to complement the Gentlemen.  But I get the feeling I'd have to constantly fight the instinctual urge to make it a very naughty picture, and that's hardly a productive thing to do.

    Then again, I'm not a terribly productive fellow.

    Not that anyone cares to differentiate, 'specially not in Baymoon.  Took a while but I finally got around to finishing Penny.  Took even longer to remember to actually post it.  This is probably because The Last Remnant is a better game than I'd expected (at least on PC anyway), and for that I've indulged myself again.

    Reposting everything along with the new pages.  Watch out for the last joke, it's horrible.

Penny Cover
Penny 2-3
Penny 4-5
Penny 6-7
Penny 8-9
Penny 10-11
Penny 12-13
Penny 14-15
Penny 16-17
Penny 18-19
Penny 20-21
Penny 22-23
Penny 24-25  *New*
Penny 26-27  *New*
Penny 28   *END*

    I like how my art goes from amazingly lazy and terrible to only somewhat lazy and terrible.  But always, always lazy.  The ending isn't that much of a surprise if you remember that miss Lucrezia Rhodes is Höðr incarnate.

    Also, I spent some time fiddling with designs but for some reason am averse to practical character design sheets.  (I'll have to get over that one of these days.)  Swapped Runa and Cordelia's general looks.  For some reason drew Cordy in Belnesarian uniform and gave her a headband.

( And it's fairly large so it's behind the cut. )

    Now I should probably attempt to do something productive again.  Hmm.

    Well a flying pig.

    Since I've managed to pull myself away from TF2, Empire: Total War, Demigod, and my replays of FFXII and God Hand, I've actually gotten more pencil-paper synergistic activities fit into my Extremely Lazy Schedule.  

    Previous Penny pages archived here for someone's convenience.  I'm fairly certain that nobody actually reads this, but it helps if I know where I put things.  (Heh.)

Pages 22-23. 

    The joke's almost here.  It's gonna be one heck of a letdown, I tells ya.

    Also, I had the urge to revisit the old "Farwatch helmets" thumbnail page I did so very long ago and drew what I figured would suit the current Grand Celestial Republic's typical trooper (read: Mook).  And while I was there I also drew a mockup of a Dominion shock trooper--one that basically wound up looking like I stuck a Helghast helmet on top of a plain old coat.  Which works for me.


( It's a fairly sizable picture for most typical resolutions. )

(I've also referenced both Halo and Killzone in the same post without disparaging either.  I wonder if I've broken some sort of console war unspoken code of conduct.)

    Before I go off and drag myself to finish Penny, I might as well yammer on a bit more about the Dominion.  Or the Federated Dominions of Greater Jupiter as they like to call themselves.  Also interchangeable with "Federation" since that's what they call themselves.  Originally the Dominion and the Titan Federation were separate powers, but I figured I might as well put both of them together in one big Outer Planets superstate.  They're ruled by the Twelve Consuls, previously the backers of the Crimson Emperor's sixth awakening and subsequent attempt to overthrow the corrupt Celestial Republic and presumably still serving the Emperor to this day.  Since orchestrating the overthrow of the previous ruler of the Dominion, the goddess Creation Gate Prometheus (mythology works a bit differently here, mind), and annexing various smaller powers in the outer chunk of the solar system, they've grown powerful enough to seriously challenge the Celestials' hegemony over human civilization.
   
    Did I ever name them?  If I haven't, I'll do so now.  If I did, then I'll do it again.  Some refer to each other by code names, others by their real names.  In descending order of Power Level, from highest to lowest.

    The First Consul, Rigbaledos Aldathain.  Presumed killed in 2023 CE by a slightly miffed chthonic elder god.  Last seen in a bookstore in 2024 CE searching for copies of The Wonderful Chronicles Detailing The Rise And Fall of The Mighty Celestial Empire And Its First And Last Emperor: Omnibus Edition by Amelie Espere Vespardien.  May be older than civilization itself.  Constantly carded at liquor stores.
    The Second Consul, Enmarith Alzent.  Fabulous is as fabulous does.  And honey?  He's fabulous.  Also possibly older than human civilization as we know it.  And his fashion's totally, like, last century.  (Or two.)
    The Third Consul, Lawrence Godhigh.  A knowledgable and ambitious man.  Owns the Solaris Financial Group.  Doesn't care who knows it.  (Many Celestial Nobles are perfectly willing to secretly do business with him despite knowing he's out to conquer their country.)
    The Fourth Consul,  "Horus."  He could kick Ra's ass.  (Sorry, Haeyong.) 
    The Fifth Consul,  "Amaterasu."  Would you believe she owns a summer home in Colorado?
    The Sixth Consul, "Lü Bu."  Do not engage him.
    The Seventh Consul, Dr. Seria Raulwen.  Has bunny ears.
    The Eighth Consul, "Old King."  Is apparently a robotic suit of armor.  Slightly gothic in design, or so I'm told.
    The Ninth Consul, "Zhang Sanfeng."  He will never reveal the Wu-Tang* secret.
    The Tenth Consul, "The Black Prince."  I'd quote Warren Ellis' "Crecy," but dirty words are frowned upon in these parts.
    The Eleventh Consul, Anri Semmerling.  Formerly the team loli of the Twelve Wizards.  Now that she's all grown up, has to settle for being the most normal of the group.  Has an artificial Godhead called "Big Babel."
    The Twelfth Consul, "Paracelsus."  Is kind of a blowhard.  Weaker than the former team loli.

*Ought to be transliterated as Wudang, but you tell that to The RZA.

    I never did finish drawing them, either.  Oh, well.

I mean, might as well, right?  I didn't bother cleaning it or anything.  Figured I'd better draw something and put it up.

( The pic's a bit big, again. )
I'm also considering subscribing to ImagineFX.  I pick up an issue every month at the Barnes and Noble, so I might as well save some money while I'm at it.  I buy it just to gawk at other peoples' work and read about how they did the stuff they did, hopefully picking up a cue or two in the process.

Maybe I ought to practice a colored pic again.  Those usually get me fired up.

    Since it bugged me that I didn't fit in a Dragoon in there, I went and whipped one up.  Repurposed an old Fetterlock armor design and gave it to a (reasonably) nice fellow I hadn't drawn in a while.

  Still sketching doodles for my own amusement, but I might as well post something I liked out of the bunch.

  No, there's nothing perverted here, honest.  Unless you happen to count "mix-and-matching Napoleonic, Regency Britain, Gothic Armor, and post Revolutionary War US fashions willy-nilly" as a perversion, which would mean I've been very naughty.

( Very. )


   So.  The idea that the army of an Empire whose troops look like they're about to get their asses handed to them (and their women seduced) by Sean Bean could potentially conquer the whole Earth (or the next best thing, the BW), amuses me greatly.  But that's not likely to happen, because reading back on older posts on this LJ, apparently they're the good guys!

    Now the Federation, those guys are bastards.  Even more than the Republic, which isn't exactly a very benign power, either.

EDIT:  Though it's hard to take an Empire seriously as a threat when they're an Expy of the French Empire.

Very little update, just to remind meself that the LJ exists.  One paper of little thumbnails sketched out on a whim, and not particularly well.  (It's very difficult to do thumbnail sketches poorly, by their very nature the bar is set pretty low.)

( It's a Tank. )

Hence, I'll update this while no one's looking.  There's no random around-the-page comments in the new page because I honestly couldn't think of anything to say.  Or, rather, I didn't need to say anything at all.  Because it's been so long since I returned to this belated gag comic, I'll repost everything.

Penny Cover
Penny 2-3
Penny 4-5
Penny 6-7
Penny 8-9
Penny 10-11
Penny 12-13
Penny 14-15
Penny 16-17
Penny 18-19
Penny 20-21

And only one eon in the making. 

Pages 22-23 incoming.  ETA:  When pigs fly.

I'm getting ever so close to the terribly unfunny punchline.  Be forewarned.

    Well, I've returned after a long hiatus.  I think I'll have to get a proper blog soon, but 'till then I'll continue to work on my skills--both writing and picture-making.  Sixten's been telling me to finish Penny so I think I will, and I've just gotten a newfound boost of confidence by realizing that I can finish a colored picture after all.

    Armed with a cheap Martian knock-off of a Gibson Les Paul, and with the lovely "Fetterlock" as his winglady, it's the first ever picture I'd done of An Lingzhou!  (Xiufan's older brother.)  Inspired by a remark made by the one Kieron Gillen--whose second Phonogram series I'll probably pick up in trade--about how Phonomancy worked.  Since Phonomancy is magic as a metaphor for the real-life effects music and the love of music can have on people, it's not about the flashy sort of stuff you'd see in D&D or the Harry Potter.  Which got me to think, "Well, if somebody managed to find a way to make fireballs out of music, then that'd become Phonomancy, too."

    Which isn't physically possible, of course, so I settled for wrapping up Lingzhou's guitar pick inside something vaguely resembling Spiral Power.  Also, there's a sloppily-done Milky Way as a backdrop.  But hey!  It's my first proper full-colored pic.  That's gotta say something.

( So here's the pic. And a few extras. )


    So.  I guess I'd better get around to finishing Penny.  I guess it's sad that it's been unfinished for months now, but I went and got the Milky Way pic done in three days.

Since I only have one day off a week I guess I lose track of the days rather easily.

This bit of posting isn't one of substance but rather idleness.

I can't even think of anything to say, really, other than

( learning about Backlighting isn't too bad. )



    And that's that.  I had gotten into the habit of working on Penny at work but work's gotten busy to the point were I no longer had any free time.  Though this is a good thing because if a waiter's busy then that means there's a lot of business.  I should probably develop the habit of working on it at home.

    Instead of  reserving home for idle sketches, brainstorming, studying, and practice.  Setting aside the constant war with my own gaming habits.  I'm proud to say that I haven't played a videogame in weeks.  I'm sad to say that I've instead idled away my time with stupid robot ideas and sketches of female characters with the physical proportions of porn stars.  Despite probably being better served drawing sketches of Bellevue based on those photos I took.   I still have trouble visualizing the spatial relationships between objects, which is one of the most basic things you're supposed to get in perspective.  I can envision the perspective of a single object (and my mind tends to fudge locations and buildings, even interiors, as "single objects") but I trip up when I have to add another one into the mix.

    Incidentally, this is why all of my sketches that aren't simple design sheets are always light on detail aside from the central focus of the picture.  Because I'd put something there but it wound up looking silly so I erased it.

    ...

    What do you mean "What about Penny?"

I'm still here, still drawing, still waiterin'.

Sixten's website got hacked by Palestinian supporters, apparently.  I'm not sure why they even bothered--it's not as though doing this makes anyone like them.  Maybe they just don't like moe drawn by Westerners.  Which would mean that they are cads.

(And to think I considered actually getting my own real blog, too.  Though I'll still have to, eventually.  Livejournal's just silly for this sort of thing.)

I got diverted from Penny by a sudden urge to try my hand at giant robots again, as well as go back and draw certain characters since I'd forgotten what I thought they'd look like (and since I figured some of their new designs were better spent on other characters).  Also I realized that a lot of girls had a variation on Penny's hair and I had to change that.  Change it something fierce.

Owen's also recruited me for a little something on the side in preparation for March.  He's kind of slow to respond to my emails, strangely, so I'll just help out Narr in the meantime.

Oh, wait, I'd better scan the next Penny I'd been putting off.

Curses!

I'll post the less-crappy of my doodles and experiments over the weekend.  Not to say they're not crappy, just saying they could be worse.

    That jingle will crawl into your brain.  It's Nanako's fault, it is.  Her English VA isn't half bad.  (Actually, the same could be said of all of Persona 4's English VAs.  And far as I can tell, Teddie was unbearable in the original Japanese version, too.)

    And I notice it's been a few weeks but not yet a full month since my last entry.  Again.  Score one for Schneizeleffort.  (I'd link to an explanation of the concept but decided against it.)

    Here's some more Penny.  I hate drawing hands.  Which is why I gotta keep doing it.  Also, did you know that "Frisbee" is trademarked?  Well you do now.  This is also the first time I've had to draw something beyond my usual routine, which is something I'd have to do more often from now on.

Pages 16-17
Pages 18-19

    I'd better finish that up soon.  I don't think I'm going to bother transferring it to final draft form on good paper.  Or ink it.  And it should be done in the next few pages.  All leading up to one terribly stupid joke.  Terribly stupid.

    In the meantime, here's some pictures beneath the jump.  They're the usual size, is why.

( And that means kinda-big-except-on-good-resolutions. ) 

EDIT:  If Honor Harrington is "Horatio Hornblower In Space," then I wouldn't mind trying my hand at "Horatio Hornblower With Magic And Giant Robots And Kung Fu."  This would require polishing up on fleet tactics--a whole 'nother ballgame compared to my usual military interests.

Seriously.

I also should stop dilly-dallying over on other people's blogs.

But!  It's not yet been a whole month since the last post, and I got around to figuring out what the next page was gonna look like.

...

Hey, don't look at me like that.  I'm pretty lousy at this whole "composition" business, still.  It's why I'm practicing right now, with this notebook comic.

Penny and Nickel, Pages 14-15.

It's not much, but at least I remembered how to draw something.  Also, I'll have to move those two out from behind the bushes one of these days.  Yes, indeed.

Also, I draw way too much Dr. Dante Bering and Friends.   Like so.

( Click here to see it, since it's a big picture. )

Because I waste all of my free (not-drawing-or-working-for-actual-pay) time as is. 

Sorry Valve.

[EDIT:  After a bit of thinking, I'm editing this down because in retrospect it would be unwise to shake one's fist at Citysearch.  Unwise indeed.  Also, fanboying on Valve got cut down a bit.]

*sigh*


But setting my whims aside, I'd gotten a few more roughs done.  They're not much, and still on notebook paper--mostly to keep in format and to not use my good paper at this point--but they exist.

I figure there's nothing to lose in posting them here despite them not being final products.  This LJ's been neglected too long for me to be picky.

'Ere we go.

Pages 8 and 9
Pages 10 and 11
Pages 12 and 13

Things are getting a bit too detailed for first-drafts, which is what these are.  Sadly, the final drafts probably won't look too different--just cleaner.

It's also been a long time since I'd drawn something that wasn't about me forcing myself to draw it, so it's taken a while to get back into the groove.  The faces should look a bit less funky now.

There's also a number of extra footnotes lying about.  Those are for my benefit, but since anyone here's essentially peeking on what passes for my production process I figure it'd be amusing enough to lay my thoughts bare.

Yes, I have developed a habit of actually writing "lol" in places.  The internet's melted a portion of my brain to slag.

...

But before I go back to work, a song.  A cheesy song.  A cheesy song filled with power.

We still livin', living in the eighties!

As in, what I'd spent the past month reading. 

[Sorry, I wasn't about to read about sparkly vampires, not when the English language's finest living satirist had dozens of books waiting to be read.]

I had to stop myself from attempting fanart of the City Watch if only because my brain keeps substituting their cloaks for long coats.  Also, I had some other things due for doing.  A month ago, Sixten posted a piece of advice for me on his blog.  It basically amounted to "Don't sweat it,"  which is what I had been doing concerning the issue of depicting places as opposed to people.  So I decided to stop sweating it.  I figure I'll get practice as I go.

He also recommended I start out with a short story just to get my bearings, which is what I'd started doing the instant I finished Thud! (City Watch #7).  It took a lot of self-control not to pick up the Witches books or the two Moist von Lipwig books.  Especially the latter, since I'm a big fan of any book where Vetinari's in play.

And on a whim, I also drew a sketch of a dog.  A dog named Blaise Pascal.  He may one day meet a cat named Nicholas Unless-Jesus-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hast-Been-Damned Barbon.  If only because.

Here he is.  Mind the funky-looking messed up mounted police officer.( The picture's beneath the cut, so click here. )
He's Lucy's seeing eye dog.  She's so blind, she needs to use braille at the drive-thru ATM.

And here's a little something I drew at work when I thought nobody was looking.  It was in my notebook.  Horizontal-like.  It's meant to be read left-to-right.  The way your mother taught you, you rebellious rapscallion you.

The Cover (Page 1)
Pages 2 and 3
Pages 4 and 5
Pages 6 and 7

I'm working on more and will also draw finished versions.  I probably won't post them here until I'm done.  I'm thinking the whole thing's less than thirty pages, but more than enough to get me started on doing something.

(I can say this because it's unlikely I'm going to attempt a Hokuto no Ken-style Unarmed Combat Fallout 3 run anytime soon.  And even if I did that, it probably wouldn't be pure Unarmed combat, since I'd have to resort to Nuka-Grenades, Bottlecap Mines, and the Deathclaw Gauntlet to round out my damage output.  And survivability.)

Also, bear in mind that I will readily ignore any plot ideas or character ideas I've posted on this LJ in any works I get around to, er, workin' on.  Consider this a "prototype design document," while the end product is what really "counts" as it were.

So if the Greenworld looks dramatically different from the Summer Longpost from eons ago, you'll know why.

I've not been up and about lately, what with the new job and all.  Which actually has decent hours, but the commute is enough to drive a guy insane.

Much like any commute, to be honest.

I've taken a bit of time to sketch out thumbnail "vignettes" from what I see in my environment, mostly so I get more comfortable drawing "places" as opposed to "people" or "things."

Here's one of  the few passable selections from my humble spiral-note.

( There's a picture here. It's not much, but it'll do. )

As I understand it, nobody else can figure out what it was I was actually sketching, but that's fine.  Identifiable subjects of representation would probably count as "D+" material, anyway.  [Here's a hint:  These views were all from the main walking-jogging path 'round the Downtown Park in Bellevue.]

I can't rightly keep this "Impressionistic" style if I'm going to put it to ink.  I think.  Maybe I could fiddle with monochrome swathes of not-color to fill in where I would usually put pencil-shadings.  Or where some would put "tones," whatever those might be.  The thought of actually doing the work in color is right out.

The reason I'm going through all this trouble is that I mean to construct Baymoon City from disparate parts.  Photoreference, mostly, though actually going out and looking at cities helps.  A lot of the action (where action is action, as opposed to a more sedate inaction) happens at night, so I'll be taking my new camera and taking photos of places and sights pretty enough for me to consider drawing, just with Magi fighting it out in the scene--possibly piloting Hardsuits and Fullarmors.

Thing is, since I don't have assistants to shunt most of my work onto, I'll have to economize.  And nighttime in the city helps keep somewhat abstracted, impressionist-styled scenes pretty, what with strategic light emplacement... er... placement highlighting the darkness.  It should manage to survive the transition to monochrome, I hope.  I'm rather terrible with colors, as you can see by digging into this journal's sordid past.


For daytime scenes, I'll just have to work on linework.  Which I'm also iffy on, to be honest.  There's a reason I share a special envy in my heart for the likes of Sixten, one of the people considerate enough to publicly prod me from inaction.


But!  I mean to do as the Scott McCloud Book Three encourages:  To create environments, not merely backgrounds, that help to flesh out the world in which the action takes place.  And to be honest, the world of Wonderful deserves a bit more detail than my current abilities are equipped to give.  Of course, you'll just have to take my word for it at this point.  Except for those folks who played in the world back when it was merely an eclectic role-playing campaign setting.  Especially Narr.  And possibly Ming, who is usually too busy WoWing to notice except in bursts of sudden and terrible clarity.

...

Well, I'd better get back to work.

But I'm not really alive either!

Anyway, ever since I got the last longpost out, I've been working on, well, actual work. And aside from that, trying to stave off my returning TF2 Addiction. As I'm busy doing other-y things, I'm probably going to wind up neglecting this poor LJ again.

But hey, at least I can post silly things like this:

What D&D Character Are You?


I Am A: Neutral Good Human Wizard (2nd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-10

Dexterity-11

Constitution-9

Intelligence-15

Wisdom-12

Charisma-14


Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)



............

According to that, the best I can do is apparently Magic Missle.  Obviously, this is 3rd Edition, which is slightly more memorable than the current one.

    Well!  It's over a week, but not yet two.  I'm serious about getting my act together, and not because I'm afraid that more people are going to start stabbing me for my laziness.  It takes a lot of self control to not whittle away my time playing games or trolling one of the dozens of blogs I frequent.  And that's because I'm a lazy git with no self-control to begin with.

    Bought some Western comics I'm calling "research material."  Phonogram, because its author ambushed me in my own LJ.  Scott Pilgrim, because I was curious about all the hub-bub I'd read in other places I troll.  And The Middleman because Tom Francis posted some hilarious clips from the ABC Family TV Show, and I can't rightly read a TV show without subtitles, now can I?

    I also feel weird posting links that nobody will click.  You should click the links.  All three of you.  I'll drop by and bug you about it later, guys.

    Now, I'll be doing this post a bit differently, because it's faster and more fun for me this way.  It's weird that I use this as a pseudo-blog, when it's really supposed to be more of social networking page--but with, you know, tags and rich text format.  I should probably hop on over to Wordpress when I need a real blog.  That would imply that I'd need a blog, though.


    And I'm working out final designs on the Four Sages, and will do a few random doodles just to remind myself what some characters are supposed to look like.  The Knight of the Fetterlock's powered harness is a bit too detailed for me to draw quickly and efficiently, so chances are Fetterlock will only show up when things are really serious.  Which suits the plot, given his actual identity and the complications of timing Fetterlock's arrival with his alter-ego's absence.  And no, don't expect me to do something silly like give it away in a rambling longpost.  I'm not that stoopid.
    Ironically, it might actually be easier to draw Dark Zanzibar than Fetterlock, since with giant robots I can fudge anatomy, so long as it stays internally consistent design-wise.  With powered armor, I have to remember that there's a person inside, and if I forget it'll probably wind up looking wonky.

    As an aside, before I go, who knew Kieron Gillen actually had a Wikipedia article about him?  Why doesn't anybody ever tell me these things?  On the other hand, there's too many John Walkers to count--none of whom, I imagine, have ever shed A Manly Tear for an emotional scene in an adventure game.  (Which is, frankly, something more people need to do.)  Sadly, I found neither an Alec Meer page nor any Jim Rossignol page, though I stumbled upon a translation of the latter's last name in the process.  Which was amusing, and not much else.
   
    My habit of not finishing posts when I first put them up is kind of awkward, though.

    Since I got that RPS fanboying out of my system, I'll probably return to my usual griping and food rambles aside from posting and commenting on whatever I think to put up here.  But before I go, there's another link you guys should see.

    Because I'm damn sure you didn't catch it when I posted it in chat.

    http://rossignol.cream.org/?p=715
   
    Click it, you bastards!  You too, Narr!  It's only a BMW commercial, honest.

    Well!   I didn't meet the week-point I was aiming for, as I recently bought FFTA2--yes, another game--and I've been tending to relatives on stay with the family for a week.  Whoops.

    I was also busy trolling some of my favorite blogs.  The only people who read my little LJ either already know who those blogs are, or wouldn't be interested in them.  As it's E3 week, Rock Paper Shotgun had a series of articles written by a guest blogger.  To avoid commenting, especially on those games I was actually interested in, would have been out of the question.  I'm a very busy troll.

    But enough of me and my silliness.  To the post!


[EDIT:  The post-finisher was delayed by sudden CoD4 onset syndrome.  New maps = Me dying a lot.]





.....


    It's also come to my attention that some of the White Comet Knights have musical selections that are amazingly dorky, even for my usual character-assignment choices.  Will probably switch Yukari to "Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms, and Runa to "Saeglopur" by Sigur Ros when I feel like it.  And I should also compress their big ol' chunk of bitter, nasty common history to something more concise.  ...  Actually, those are all really low priorities.  More important things need doing.  Like getting things done, for starters.

    And now for the last ensemble, 23rd T.F. "Witch."  I'll have to sketch them out, and get their designs down.  They're the rival group to Yukarin's, and are a more experienced group of Young Sages, having been recruited some time ago just out of high school.  They still retain some of their odd high school clique ways, though.  Just hidden under young adult social protocols and an additional layer of world-weariness.  Though they're Young Sages in the Civil Service TF, they've never actually seen real battle.  But they're still cocky nonetheless.
    Also, their Avatar incarnations are kinda funny.  Well, I think they are.  Heh.

    It hasn't even been a week since last post, and I'm already typing out a new one!  Even I'm surprised.  Am pretty damn sure I won't be able to keep this pace up, but it'd be nice if I could.  I think this has a lot to do with Sixten and SurDes calling me out on being a slacker.  As well as the fact that the Egyptian Sun God Ra is filled with Awesome Power.

    I don't have any real random rambles to add, because I didn't spend enough time away from the LJ to really build a good ramble.  And I think I'm going through Mass Effect withdrawal.  ...  Yeah.  I'd better finish this post and work on the next entry.  Just a few more, then I can fiddle with the material I'd written out for the main ensemble and have a working script.

    Note that I never bothered to get a proper website or hosting because I don't actually have anything yet.  Expect this to remain unchanged for a while until I actually manage to figure out where I'm supposed to go from there.

    Also:  Oh snap Sora Iro Days.  I am now grinning like a big idiot.  The lights in the sky are stars.

    Anyway, back to posting.

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    Hmm!  I seem to be on a roll.  I'll get cracking on the next picture, and next post, and if all goes well, I'll be done in less than a week.  (LOL)

    At first glance that's none too impressive, but then remember that I'm infamous for taking months to do anything.