So I've been messing around with color palettes a lot lately, trying to get a good mix of balance and mood in my work.

I call this piece James Hetfield.  I doubt I'll be submitting this to the portal anytime soon.  It just doesn't feel finished to me, and the look of the radiator heater in the back is really bugging me (if I do finish it, I'll probably just remove the heater altogether), but I am really happy with how the colors have turned out, so I'm sharing it here for feedback.  I used a small palette (here) and blended layer upon layer using opacity levels mostly set to either 10, 20 or 40.

I do plan to do more environment type pieces, but they're going to be strictly related to a comic that I've been working on.

As you can probably guess, I was watching a lot of old Looney Tunes when I started this.

Hey all,

I'm becoming a bit obsessed with limited color palettes these days, loving the way they can balance out a piece while also emphasizing aspects like atmosphere, emotional tone, subject intent, etc.  Anyway, I've been working on a short comic using a 16 color palette designed by pixel artist DawnBringer.  Admittedly, it was intended for 16bit game development, but I think it's a very versatile palette for any medium.

I've got another piece I'm ready to get started on once I finish the comic, and figured I'd try and develope a color palette to suit the tone I want.  It's heavily based off an exterior scene (by Tom O'Loughlin) from an old Warner Bros Merry Melodies short called "The Last Hungry Cat".  At the moment, I'm hoping to use only the first 8 colors in this palette, but there were enough left over to make up 16 that I think could still balance out the piece nicely.

I'll admit, it's not as well thought out as DawnBringer's, (no hi-med-lo saturations, dark mixes or brightness perceptuals), but once I get started on my next piece I might try to present it a little better.

There were plenty of other scenes in The Last Hungry Cat with more color variation, but that scene in particular stuck out to me as a great example of how O'Loughlin's style (obviously inspired by Maurice Noble, but personally, I think O'Loughlin utilized perspective to a greater effect) mixed with limited colors can establish tone.

If you like this palette, by all means, feel free to use it. :-)

Hey Errbody,

Just an update for anyone passing by that I am still working on more art and comics (mainly comics at the moment) to upload to NG.  It's been a busy couple of months and working in time to focus on my art between my 9-5 has been tricky, but I think I'm getting into a steady routine now.  So I should have some new work to show off hopefully in early October.  I've been working on 2 comics at the moment.  One is a collection of cartoony type characters, telling simple gags in a couple of pages (which will all debut here), and the other is a complete story that is probably going to take me a couple of years to complete (which I'll try to show snippets of here without giving away too much story).

Anyways, in the meantime, I'll try to post some sketches to my WIP forum here, and as always, feel free to comment.

Laters ^_^

Click the pics to check em out for yourself.  Have fun! :-)

Never designed robots before so I'm flying blind here, but I wanna have something ready for Robot Day 2016, and since I'm gay for coffee this is my idea...I guess.  Anyway, criticisms, pointers, what-have-you, all welcome :-)

Been busy getting back to working on my comic, so I haven't been uploading as much as I would have liked to lately (got some pieces I want to get started on to share with NG hopefully very soon though), but in the meantime, here's my selection for the Best of May.

 No. 1.  Cathode Raybits 2.  By SinclairStrange

A fun little run 'n gun that faithfully recreates the NES atmosphere from games like Mega Man, Power Blade, and Contra.  Very well put together, so it gets my number one vote.

 No. 2.  TD-Kids and Money.  By Raziberry

While technically (no pun intedended) not the best animated short, the commentary in this is funny, witty and unfortunately very true.  Reminded me a lot of the years I spent at university, for better or worse.

 No. 3.  Final Commando.  By ShooterMG

Another run 'n gun, but with fewer mechanics to amp up the difficulty, and a nice upgrade system to entice replays.  I had a lot of fun with this one.

 No. 4.  Little Doorman.  By Wolfenheim

A well made short with a very sweet message about sacrificing happiness to help others.  I thought the lack of mourning from the little denizens over those the Doorman couldn't save was a bit of a missed oppurtunity to insert a message about loss, but I get there's only so much you can work into two and a half minutes of animation.  It's still a really good short.

 No. 5.  Apocashop.  By kylechu

Apocashop is a great idea that puts a twist on the role gamers play in RPG worlds.  This time you're not the hero, but the merchant who decides whether or not to equip heros and villains with the weapons they need while keeping your business from going bust.  Simple, but good fun.

 No. 6.  NWAR: Cold Open.  By danmarkowitz

NWAR has become my favourite series on NG over the last year.  The puns and wordplay here are priceless, and the episodes just keep getting better.  If you haven't seen NWAR before, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

 No. 7.  Vortex Point 7.  By DeathTiger0

I've only become familiar with DeathTiger0's games very recently thanks to "Anita's Camp" but I'm fast becoming a big fan of their work.  I've yet to finish one of their games without reaching for the walkthrough, but everything here is very well made.  And the background art in this is especially beautiful.

 No. 8.   Daydreams.  By Verna-C

There's some nice surreal imagery going on here that I really grew to like the more I watched.  Probably because there's no hint of pretentiousness that usually accompanies what's passed off as surreal art.  This, to me, is what surrealism is supposed to be.  A representation of the unconscious.

 No. 9.  Taco Trump Down.  By esayitch

Political persuasions aside, this is a lot of laughs and a lot of fun.  I've been telling everyone I know who isn't on NG about this gem.  Esayitch has a real knack for making simple games with an interesting theme that keeps me coming back for more.

 No. 10.  Magic Cat.  By AlecArts & EthanBurnsides 

Magic Cat is a very short animation (only 50 seconds long), but the character designs and animation by AlecArts, combined with the lovely backgrounds by EthanBurnsides made this a joy to watch.  I'm looking forward to seeing what these guys come up with in the future, whether its collaborative or solo works.

And there you have it.  My top ten selections for the Best of May.  Enjoy the rest of the week and have a cruisy weekend y'all.

Time for a little shameless self-promoting.

My first ever T-shirt design is now available at Redbubble.  I'm really looking forward to coming up with more designs as I'm finding this is a great way for me to stay active with other designs inbetween working on my comic book (which has turned out to be more work than I ever could have imagined).  I'm happy to admit that my first design is pretty damn corny, but I can promise that future designs won't be so...heavy on the puns.

So, here's the link:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/collectivesin/works/21488136-vitamin-si?p=t-shirt&style=mens&body_color=gold&print_location=front

And here's a preview from the website:

Anyways, enjoy the weekend everybody :-)

Here it be.  My top 10 selection for the best of February 2016 (with links included in case they leave the front page before anyone actually reading this gets a chance to play or view these gems).

1.  2 Pac Man (by Munguia)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/670707

2.  Lonely Girl: Flight (by airman4)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/669998

3.  The Night Henry Allen Died (by Ludipe)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/671078

4.  Creative Types (by AnimatedJames)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/670250

5.  Ray Bibbia (by Morbidware)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/670806

6.  NWAR: Bottle Episode (by danmarkowitz)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/670355

7.  Forgotten Hill: Fall (by FM-Studio)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/670095

8.  The Nine Lives of Claw Pilot (by Claw9Lives & ItsmeJake)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/671037

9.  Evil Dead: The Evil Cartridge (by juako04 with music by Waterflame)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/670612

10.  Seagull Boy (by Bassetfilms)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/670127

Observe, play & be merry!

I've been taking a few steps away from the comic I've been working on since last year to try and hone my skills in the digital art realm a little better.  Been having a great time doing it, and have also been coming up with new ideas and characters that I hope to implement in other comics.

A while ago a submitted a picture to NG for a halloween competition.  It was my first submission using Manga Studio, and I've really grown attached to the character since then.  So I'm working on a new piece featuring her in a more fleshed out environment in the hopes that it kickstarts some ideas for these other comics.

Here's a snippet of the new piece (no background just yet)

I'll post more as the progress continues.  I've been using a lot of reference material for this piece and will be crediting those other artists (from hairdressers to urban photographers) as more updates follow.  Now that I have some more free time coming my way, the updates should be pretty frequent.

Laters.

Here's a quick initial sketch for a piece I'm hoping to have done before Valentine's Day.  I'd love to render it similar to Cedric Peyravernay's style (the artist who painted all the potraits scattered throughout Dishonored), but I'm afraid I'd never get it done on time.  Plus I'd like to get another more cartoony Valentine's themed piece uploaded before Feb 16th.

Time to get bizay!