FanArt_ink.Tasty

MTGinktober chomps into Day 25, "Tasty," starring Oko, Thief of Crowns!

Dude, so crazy exhausted, I had to pass out shortly after completing pencils on this one, hence the teaser image I posted to the Dailies, but fortunately upon reading the prompt initially, I knew almost instantly I wanted to draw the infamous Oko of confectionery celebrity. This included Elk of course, but for added spice, I wanted them to resemble Standard-Elked creatures.

Assembling candidates for the Elkification was a fun little exercise in surveying what's hot in Standard, and I was super close to going with Embercleave as a curveball option for an Elked artifact, but that guy's already had an MTGinktober appearance, so I had to cut him like the blade he is--I mean what is he, Chandra?

Fun Facts: I used some more negative space techniques here, as I did with our Vraska piece this year, which is also another piece we had to delay into the following day, unfortunately. I feel like this is a game where you get three lives, after which it's game over, so maybe--I'm not sure--I'll call it if I ever miss another day. I'm on the fence because we're so close to closing out 31, and we're generally keeping good pace, but we'll see how defeated I feel should that come up.

Easter Eggs: The Elked creatures are homies you definitely wanna shut off as soon as you can, namely Torbran, Thane of Red Fell and Paradise Druid. Unfortunately couldn't squeeze in a triple-headed Elk.

Not normal,

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FanArt_ink.Chop

MTGinktober cuts into Day 24, "Chop," starring Fumiko the Lowblood!

I wasn't entirely sure where to go on this deceptively difficult prompt, it couldn't be as simple as drawing a besworded character, so my initial instinct to Dakkon it up wouldn't cut it; chopping is a much more specific verb. I don't like drawing burly dudes, so in striving to avoid an ax-wielder, I went with a more subtle approach--chopping food with chopsticks!

Fun Facts: This is our second MTGinktober to feature a Kamigawan chopstick user, after last year's Graceful. Fumiko was a great pick for this iteration because I can easily see her snapping at someone or something mid-chomp and taking it out on her poor food, like someone she loathes just walked into her sight. I used my fudepen for the calligraphy and it smeared upon erasing(!)--super bummer since it chopped across a white area, so it was basically impossible to mask.

Easter Eggs: 福井 on the back banner flaps, like any of those good old noodle shops. I gave her tonkatsu with curry and rice, as that's one of my favorite JP foods when I need to really feel full (and warm up--one of the rare spicy foods I can tolerate). The only thing better is cheese curry from Sukiya, which is much easier to eat since it's far less spicy. Note the ridiculously tiny glass of water they give you.

Not normal,

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FanArt_71117

I wanted to draw something for 7-11 Day in Japan, but not have it feel too sell-outy, so I thought of a little romantic scene where the relationship is made up and the rain drops don't matter.

The idea here is a little rainy scene with two people kinda lost in it all, viewed from those tunnels you see in Japan, particularly the hideous one I had to walk through every day to the old day job.

The image is a take on that popular JP trope of a guy and girl fighting, but then the guy reluctantly giving the girl his drink or whatever to make up. I should note I've never actually seen a Big Gulp in Japan...do they even still have those in the US?

Anyway, I made this entirely with my two Helen Chen Brushes and it felt quite great...all the training with Steve Ahn's Ultimate Brush really made easing into this brush for free-paints feel a lot smoother.

Not normal,

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Fun_PizzaPlaneteer

This is really a random sketch, I believe the only motivation was to draw a black girl with wacky hair, but then I was craving some pizza, so I threw that in there, too, as well as a shirt with my favorite randoword to slap on costuming.

I also wanted to draw something other than my normal trap of just a regular old person standing straight-up for a portrait, so a weird pose was also necessary. For the background, I used a photo from a new-to-me Family Mart that opened near the place I used to play FNM at.

All this real-world garbage my home country is doing...I'm just running on fumes lately, in terms of motivation, so I was desperately trying to finish a sketch to make myself feel like I'm accomplishing something while working on a larger piece. Also awaiting for a certain deadline that I only presume will change my life in a sad way. At least it's raining today...at least there's that. I love the rain.

Not normal,

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Fun_PockyToMe

Here's a little Pocky Day design I wanted to do to trick myself into doing art again, like everything's back to normal. I'm actually writing this Friday 11/18, well, technically Saturday now (JP time). The stupid election has plunged me into such a funk, as I haven't felt in a long, long time.

Just the thought of doing art felt like...I dunno, disrespectful? Certainly useless. Meaningless, etc. Obviously, I had wanted to get this done in time for 11/11, but...I physically couldn't draw. I tried to latch onto something easy, a stupid Pocky Day piece, but even pooping out sketches to get to the piece was laborious, mocking me with how impossible drawing has become.

Fortunately, this Friday's piece snapped me back into it. I just finished that piece, and then did a quick follow up, which I'll post Wednesday, and since I was on a roll, I finally snapped off this Pocky thing. So I hope we're back in working order now.

Anyway, all I know is we cannot let this idiocy ever feel normal. Normalization is almost treason. That orange fraud hopes we all forget. But this is not normal.

So from now until the next presidential election, I will alter my signature to remind myself constantly that this is not normal, no matter how many months and years into this garbage we get. Don't forget the sorrow and anger and betrayal and disgust and dishonor this orange fraud has gifted the country.

I hope I can look back at this post and remember exactly what it was like. To that end, here are the things that I can't say I necessarily take comfort in, but are like having something with which to take comfort in:
Dave Chapelle's 11/12/16 SNL monologue
Stephen Colbert's coverage night sign-off
Seth Meyers's election day remarks
Conan's historical perspective
Stephen Colbert's conviction
Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World

Not normal,

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Fun_Pizzagyaru

Pizzagyaru. Please come and save the day.

Pizzagyaru. Just let my pizza stay.

3/4/16

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Fun_Pizzagyaru_L

It's Pizzagyaru, the hero pizza needs and deserves. But she's too busy for all that...

...nonsense.

3/4/16

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AV_SanjiliciousServing3

Here's the third and final course of what old man Sanji's been a-cooking.

These are foods I never eat, minus sushi and rice, which I kinda have to since it's Japan, ya know?

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Food_SupaStuff

These are the other two pieces of Food from my final assignment batch for the Rudd Center this past year.

The first one is about how some markets end up causing health problems that their pharmacies have to deal with later.

Easter Eggs: Hairstyles from Apu, Philip Fry, Tracey Sketchit, Princess Peach, and Ezekiel Zick. Plus Lil' Gerard Way.

This one is about how scarcer markets make finding healthy food harder to come by.

Easter Eggs: The little emo kids have the hairstyles of Jojo (Horton Hears a Who) and Violet (The Incredibles).

And that's it for Food stuffs until next year.

16 days till Japan,

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Food_SupaMarket

A food cartoon for the Rudd Center about how crucial supermarkets are to certain communities, especially now that supermarkets are disappearing.

I worked on three cartoons at once for this, my final Rudd assignment of the year, and this one's the most dramatic.

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Food_Salad

Here is another food cartoon.

I think I can legally call it a comic since it has more than one panel.

The issue is about how choosing salads and greenies over burgers and other juicy, meaty things is a simple way to help the planet.

So now I feel guilty--however satisfied--after eating cheeseburgers.

Tasty, tasty cheeseburgers.

Thanks a lot.

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Food_Bill

Here's the another Food cartoon for the Rudd Center.

It's about a bill that would ban obese people from certain restaurants in Mississippi.

And this is my first time photoshopping my own stuff. So if you can't tell where, then good for meager me.

By the time this thing self-posts, I'll be in Northern California.

Hopefully all's well, future me.

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Food_Fitness

It's been a while, but here's a food cartoon for the Rudd Center. This one's about a study that shows that fitness can be helpful towards academic achievement.

Easter Eggs: The kid's shirt has arrows, like Aang's tattoos, from Avatar. Speaking of which, there hasn't been a new episode yet this semester. Ridiculous.

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Food_McD

This is a Food sketch for a cartoon based on this news nugget.

Unfortunately, the assignment got canceled, but its replacement is pretty exciting, too.

More details on the new assignment soon.

Also: I got my 1000th page load earlier today, so that was pretty exciting.

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Food_AtkinsVegan_Preview

So I'm a pro now.

Kind of.

This is that long awaited "food" section I mentioned a while ago. It's a sketch for a cartoon about some overzealous friends trying to convince their other friend to employ their dietary choice.

I should explain: the Food entries are for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, so everything will be heavily food-oriented and very specific. They even asked me to put butter on the steak since that's Atkins-y!

So it's a fun change of pace, but I only wish they'd get back to me about inking it. And about my check...?

And with that, I have completed the Daily Post Challenge. Yes, I had to hunt around for stuff towards the end of the week, but I met it nonetheless.

So...ok,

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