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.

Just checkin' in...

I'm still around. Still continuing the Mario characters, but with all the internet attention it's made me quite a bit busier. I felt weird not updating in so long again, so this is that update. I'm trying to make some time to sit down and broadcast one but it doesn't seem to be happening. Soon though. Soon.

And I'm trying REAL hard to mean that.

Birdo - SotD 145

It's been an interesting few days. Some really cool stuff is happening. I'll have some more news later. But I've been really trying to get a storefront up to sell the prints on. The prints are ready, but my original plan for selling them fell through, and I'll found an alternative, but I imagine it may be a few days longer as I now put up a legit personal store that isn't so much as going through a third party. Cannot wait to be done with it. I don't want to read anymore Terms of Service and Copyright contracts. You never, ever read one and be like, didn't mind that... I don't know how lawyers do it.

So I put the store  aside and pumped out another Mario Enemy for you guys that have been checking in. Hope you dig it. I think this one came out rather well. I didn't stray so far from the original that I don't think people won't get it. If anything I imagine Birdo and timing the jump on top of those eggs haunted most of us as kids. Until I started doing these I didn't actually realize how brilliant mario 2 was. It was sort fo a strange leap to make from Mario as far as game mechanics went. It always had that different feel.