Fun_PressOn

 Well, this is my first post-MTGinktober post, though of course I did draw our traditional Vicky-themed materials test before this year's unprecedented single-illustration run.  In any case, I'm just kinda still thinking about Inktober, like, was there a way to make it work?  It just feels irresponsible at this point.  There's so many more pressing things I should be focusing on.  Sadly, all this effort kinda went for nothing.  There'd always be like one new "super fan" every year, but then they'd invariably head out once we stop doing Magic fan art.  Understandable.

But I can't help but think whenever I see someone posting--I can't wait to give this a crack...It's bittersweet, though, cuz it's so physically grueling for me to do each year, yet I still love testing myself--my physical endurance and preparedness (stretching, pain/time management, process honing, etc.), plus the actual production aspects: figuring out what to draw and then actually doing it.  Scaling back would be unsatisfying, as 2021 disappointingly proved, when I tried to force scaling down by drawing in a smaller sketchbook. 

My favorite part was the research phase--sometimes that'd take three hours alone.  Over the years I'd tailored my main Scryfall search to fit nigh perfectly what we're looking for, namely no Universes Beyond, but also tossing hits I can't stand.  I managed to hit every single page at least once of my some 70-page search--there's no page I haven't drawn something from, many twice.  I loved assembling my references and then "casting"--who's going to play the characters in this One Piece spoof?  What props are we using?  It takes so much effort to put each illustration together.

And despite the intensity, I'd always forget how to do it every year, but this was the first time my muscle memory came flowing back almost immediately.  Some years ago, I literally wrote a document meticulously walking myself through every aspect of the process, and it's been invaluable in maintaining institutional knowledge, particularly on best practices so I can focus on drawing, not other minutia.  This practice piece took a lot of checking of my guide, but our actual illustration flowed pretty smoothly.  It was uncanny.  

Anyway, sad that this ten-year experiment has come to a close.  Just wanted to put some thoughts down on it while it's still freshly on my mind. 

Not normal,

Reuxben

Fun_InktestV25

 Preparing for Inktober with a quick inktest, featuring V, of course. 

 I'm just trying to get used to the old workflow, which I always have to relearn every year, as well as do a materials test, to see if I need to swap out to a new nib, mainly, but also checking that all my aged equipment still works. 

 I literally have a document full of meticulous advice to myself of how I've honed the process over these past ten years, but I still have to work it out every time cuz for some reason it just fades from memory--muscle and otherwise--despite my best efforts. 

 So this is just me trying to go though every step of the process not only to get used to it again, but also to see if anything has changed on the platforms, and indeed they have--I notice Blogspot posts a little differently.  Gonna try the other platforms, too, but hopefully those are minimally different, if at all.  Getting the hang of it, though.  Kinda.  
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Reuxben

FanArt_MaxPillow

Trying to get back into practice of posting in preparation for Inktober, which is coming up any minute now.  This was a character I originally designed for a project I worked on with my classmate, for his short film, about a girl who realizes her pillow, which in this world is an actual guy with a pillow for his head, is no longer cutting it and she needs to get a new one.  The character was so cool, I felt inspired to make fan art of it.  Which is like fan art of my own design?  I don't know how the math works out there. Not normal, 

Reuxben

Fun_Snowgrim

A snowy picture for snowy dreams.

I miss the snow and have certainly been a bit delinquent in my snow-themed drawings this winter.

Anyway, I wanted to paint a sorta snowy juncture point, and this mountainpass kinda emerged.

Beyond that, there's no deeper meaning here, just love the snow (though I gotta go with rain as my #1) and love using cool colors, especially purple.

And this was the initial version we posted on Twitter.

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Fun_ZenYearsColor

I thought I'd do a quick and simple coloring over my old Zero Like Me 10-year anniversary sketch. I never assigned them regular costumes, per se--I always loved researching different outfits for them to wear comic to comic--but I do like putting Z in Yale gear, and of course Nyao always wears stripes. There's not much else to these dopes as far as style guides go, though if I ever do color them, these are my go-to colors.

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Reuxben

Fun_Oinky

Just a quick little remix of a New Years' sketch to kick off the proper Year of the Piggly Wigglies.

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Fun_RugbyRugWest

It looks like I've never posted this sketch, which I recently colored up here.

I'm almost positive I posted this uncolored version at some point, but in any case, here it is again.

I love the look of Yale-style rugby shirts, though mine has long since worn away into shreds, unfortunately.

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Reuxben

Fun_Oink

Just a quick little New Years' sketch to kick off the Year of the Boar.

Will this be my year?

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Reuxben

Fun_TheGameWintermute

I drew a little illustration of Z at The Game on the occasion of its 135th playing this past Saturday. Oddly, it was played at the Red Sox's stadium for no reason. The Game is all about tradition, so you can keep your goofy Green Mahnstah, kid.

To be quite honest, I almost completely forgot about it, but it's always the Saturday before Thanksgiving, so it's just as easy to remember (though I also almost forgot about Thanksgiving, too).

I'm not really into sports, but I did make sure to go to each one while an undergrad, though we only won once and I was the last generation to see a victory for almost a solid decade!

I always say, leave it to Yale to mess it up, cuz pretty much without fail, Yale always simply gives up The Game to some nonsensical error or lapse in judgment that ends up giving those dirty rats the win. I mean, it could be a one-in-a-million outer, but dagnabbit, we will find the one astronomically rare route to completely blow it.

This year was similar...we were behind by one touchdown, but we were on pace to win since we were just feet from scoring to tie, but for absolutely no good reason Yale decided to play not to lose rather than to win. Instead of going for the arm's-reach touchdown for the crucial tie, they just kicked it, which scored but took us off pace to get ahead and win in the dwindling second half.

What's the point in losing tempo for a slight bump in score if you lose the whole thing? Lose tempo to maintain your lead, sure, but if you're behind and need to keep up to get in position to win, just go for the slightly less sure thing. If you blow the risky play, you don't win, if you blow the safe play you don't win. But if you succeed in the risky play you can win, and if you succeed in the safe play you still lose and have to start the rally over. The successful kick barely made a dent in the deficit, and those arrogant pieces of garbooj ultimately ran away with it.

Anyway, a bit of a bummer, but I did get to see the real Brian Dowling give a brief interview, so that was cool as a Doonesbury fan. Next year should be home game since we rotate every year, and our nightmare years seem to be behind us, so hopefully we get a nice outcome on warmer turf, goodness knows it's bitter and cold in Massachusetts this time of always.

Not normal,

Reuxben

Fun_ZenYears

A special non-Inktober weekend post to celebrate Zero Like Me turning ten years old.

I was worried I wouldn't make any friends at Yale, but fortunately I made these idiots.

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Fun_Spacelond

A futuristic, fantastical rock formation for today.

I wanted to paint something using purple and yellow plus yellow and green, two two-color color combos I love.

These imaginary landscapes usually come together from just slashing down colors and rotating the random shapes until something chaotically emerges.

I also used this opportunity to test out some new Dave Greco Brushes I got recently, and these are a serious joy to use.

The yellow sky with a moon was also an exciting experiment that seems to lend that sci-fi-y vibe with ease, meanwhile the purple rocks could just as easily suggest a more fantasy feel as well.

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Fun_StrangersParadise

I love the rain.

And I love the solitude of rain.

Especially rainy nights.

So I thought I'd make a salute to those lovely, lonely rainy days.

With a little ghostly dooder for good measure.

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Fun_BlueWave

I wanted to draw something to commemorate the primarie elections yesterday, so the theme I chose was a "Californian blue wave."

This isn't strictly a "political" piece per se, but that was the source of it anyway.

I love the combination of green and yellow, stemming from my roots as an Oakland A's fan. The deep green and chipper yellow always have such a pleasing contrast--they challenge, yet support each other.

Anyway, I wanted to draw a girl flexing for this, and the negative space made me see a wave shape in the background, so that's where this piece kinda inspired itself.

I will say, I was intending to color the skin darker, but she came out pretty light-skinned. I wanted to avoid getting lost in the weeds painting everything, so I just stuck to my Steve Ahn's Ultimate Brush for the most part, preventing me from fine-tuning for the most part.

Anyway, I like how optimistic this piece came out, and our candidate made it through to the real-deal election in November, so everything's appearing to come up Milhouse. I haven't checked on the fine details of the election yet--holding off for a little powwow, but from what I've gathered, it's looking pretty good...

I was also pleased to have a good reason to paint ocean again...though I gotta lay off all the blues...way too many blue-oriented pieces.

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Reuxben

Fun_OneMillionDollars

Sometimes you just have to walk right into the mouth of it all.

This is the first piece I've done that's made me happy in a long, long, long time.

I've been pretty depressed lately. For a while, actually, but after finishing this piece, I just felt such a relief. Quieted everything, all the worry and doubt, if only for a day or so.

She's just heading into this cave (actually a dinosaur mouth, probably lightly inspired by Ixalan's dino theme). Just bring it on, let's go.

I was really pumped to try this new coloring technique: just a soft brush for two tone layers, then I colored those locked layers, and applied various gradients and adjustments above them.

This piece came together pretty quickly too, not enough time to start second-guessing myself and hating everything. Happy this one worked out. Minimal, but with plenty of punch.

I kept listening to Michael Jackson by Das Racist to get the attitude right, but it kinda started as a flash of an idea about negative space in this quick sketch. I also wanted to practice drawing an Asian character for an upcoming piece. The Ellegarden connection is probably because I was also listening to their adventurous The End of the World, which made me think of dinosaur worlds like Ixalan.

Not normal,

Reuxben