Dry Bones - SotD 149

This one was definitely highly requested. It seems like Dry Bones has a much higher fan following than I would have ever imagined. Although he was definitely one of my personal favorites as well, even though he was sometimes irritating to deal with. He may hold the spot of the only skeleton based enemy I actually like in video games.

While I was painting this out my buddy chimed in that maybe I should paint him reforming after he's been struck down by the mighty Mario, but I was far too into it to restart. Sort of regret that, but no one would probably be able to tell who it was if I had. I've been sort of putting this one off for the same reasons that I haven't done more of the koopa variants. Jumping around gives me a better variety and with these ones I feel like I have to keep it more consistent. Although while doing this, for the first time, I had the urge to tackle someone like Bowser even though it would go against the spirit of the series.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday. Happy New Years!

Reznor - SotD 149

Reznor was another one that was requested quite a bit, and he's mostly known for being a boss in Super Mario World. Imagine this guy on a platform, attached to some monstrosity of a wooden ferris wheel, and 3 more of the exact type all spitting fire balls at you. Hopefully that strikes up the memory. 

I never really realized just how many dinosaurs there were in Mario. I mean it's rather obvious in retrospect, pretty sure  I even remember a "Dinosaur Land" or something being thrown around as a stage or world. Maybe it wasn't a meteor that wiped out all the dinosaurs. Maybe it was Mario. That crazy jerk ran around cracking necks under his boot like it was his calling in life and he was sworn to adhere to it. 

"But what about Yoshi? They were best buds..."

Were they best buds when he kicked Yoshi away into oblivion to make that extra long jump? I'm pretty sure putting Yoshi to work as a steed immediately after he hatched violates some sort of child labor law. I'm doing Mario enemies here... but I think Mario is the biggest enemy of all...

Nintendo Power

After I was plugged on Kotaku, Nintendo Power contacted me about putting some of the Mario Enemies into a feature. The thing about this project was that it really tapped into my nostaglia about running through Mario World 3 or struggling through Mario World 2. So getting contacted by one of Nintendo's journalists for a small feature in the backspace just made me absolutely giddy. I used to get the magazine back in the SNES days, mostly for walkthroughs and cheats as I used to beg Mom and Dad to take me to Blockbuster so I could peruse the SNES isle and grab whatever I thought had the coolest cover... Nintendo Power got me through quite a few of these games. I had a really bad habit of not writing down level codes and Nintendo Power would come to the rescue. And I feel I've come full circle here somehow. Not sure what that circle is, since my metaphor circle logic is incredibly weak, but I have that feeling anyway. Feels good. There's not a whole lot of ways I ever saw myself getting into that magazine, if ever.

Thanks for the article Nintendo Power.

So go check it out, it's a pretty good issue covering their biggest franchises and most importantly Skyward Sword, and the small article on me and my art is right in the back. I would have plugged it earlier, but I didn't know what exactly they had written about me until today and I was a bit nervous about it. Actually turned out to be a 2 page spread instead of the one I was told it would be. The article was written by Andrew Hayward, so you should check him out too.

Belome - SotD 148

Again I have found myself feeling a bit guilty about using the "Sketch-of-the-Day" moniker in the title, since some of you may have noticed... Not so daily. Hopefully, I shall be back on the wagon here and goin' since I got way side-tracked and while I've been makin' stuff, I just haven't been posting it. 

But finally, here is a new Mario enemy for the series. Personally I wasn't familiar with this one at first, and I think anyone who isn't a die-hard mario fan won't get it... but MAN was he requested by a lot of people and I promised this one right in the beginning. Belome is a big four eyed fat cat out of Super Mario RPG for the SNES. He seems to be a predominant memory for players since the second time you meet him in the game he's a pretty tough dude that can eat a teammate, clone him, and then turn the clone against them in battle. It all sounds rather... not Mario. But I looked it up, saw a video, and it turns out that it is EXACTLY Mario. Plus it's a cat with 4 eyes and a huge tongue. There really wasn't any question whether or not I'd try to tackle it. 

Anyone who knows me knows I don't do turn-based anything in games so I passed this one up during my childhood. I rented it... I tried it... and I thought it was crap that I just had to stand there while the enemy did damage to me. So I hated it. That thought process is still mostly intact for all things turn-based today. Probably gonna catch some flak for throwing that out there... but after seeing some videos of Belome in action... I may just try it.

Zombocalypse

I was asked to make some menu and intro art by Ironzilla Media for this very awesome flash game. It went up on Armor Games this morning and I can't imagine it disappointing anyone who plays it. I was given pretty free reign by the creator to put my spin on the characters. Really was awesome, and it's nice that it's free and I can share it you all.

So you should play it... go on... play...

http://armorgames.com/play/12294/zombocalypse

Ghast - SotD 147

Here is something Minecraft related I never posted. One of those, "I'll be sure to post it tommorrow" sort of deals. I have a creeper and a skeleton somewhere on this blog as well.

I'm only sort of looking forward to the 1.8 update of Minecraft. Minecraft has been my sort of go to stress reliever. If I was worried, or needed to settle down, Minecraft would soothe me pretty quickly. And I'm not sure how fond I am of it becoming more of a real game... or other people inhabiting the world besides my solitary character. I will admit now that I've experienced the multiplayer side of things, I feel like I really have to give myself tasks to stay interested. Whereas in the single it somehow oozes a certain mood to me that I could much easier get lost in.

Minecraft to me has never been explicitly fun, but it's always been relaxing in a weird way. Why does it feel like 1.8 threatens that?

Another Hellboy - SotD 146

Had a sleepless night, so I decided to doodle a bit and get away from some projects. The result was this quick Hellboy portrait.

Feels good to post again. Bit too tired to write out anything more coherent and lengthy at the moment.