Thanksgiving 2017

Latest gaming/design tool. The now named anti-degenerative-tennis-elbow mouse pad. For "extreme" cutting and pasting sessions.

Thanksgiving. Once again, you come in a knocking at the sensible eating door, only to help me out of my safety zone and push me in front of the "gorge myself till I'm sick" train of thought.

This year though, I've made it a point to go over things that I am grateful for. Not just material things (like fancy mouse pads), but also, every day.

Yeah yeah, I know, that sounds like it should be on a t-shirt, or as an endlessly re-posted internet inspirational meme of some kind, but it's something that is really in focus for me this year.

Mainly because of this little guy. Meet Kubo (I named him that).

He was scheduled to never make it to Thanksgiving. Just for the crime of not having a family that would take care of him. He's a great little guy, a little older (like me), and I was able to make sure that not only did he have a little bit of turkey (Merrick dog food), but he even got a tiny bit of a pancake (totally not saying feeding human food is great for dogs).

Kubo wants you all to remember that a lot of other dogs, cats, ferrets, birds, and more need homes. Go ahead, cue up Sarah Mclachlan's "In the arms of an angel". He'll wait.

I've been doing some learning that's been out of my normal wheelhouse of design and reworking (see "correcting") stuff for Hallmark, and managed to somehow end up working on elements for the Hallmark personalized items site as my main source of income and time usage currently. If a paycheck and awesome coworker people aren't things to be thankful for, I don't know what is.

Although this picture looks cool and artsy, people around me thought I was trying to commune with a dried leaf in a park. On a Tuesday.

I've had time to also get some walks in parks accosting random fallen leafs like a deranged tree hugger. As well as working on commissions. I'm now starting up on the last two I have for the year. One of the ones I really enjoyed was this comic sketchbox that my buddy Johnny had done up for his son Liam.

It had elements of Lego Harry Potter, Sonic the Hedgehog, Minecraft and Ninjago on it.

Another project I have been working on is a group of concepts for an upcoming ICWXP idea that I have in the works, all revolving around slightly redesigning the look of some of the characters to fit a more animated sort of look.

Flux Namtari, random zombie, Dr. Blackwood rough concepts.

Hopefully, you've all had great thanksgiving holidays! I know that the next set of holidays aren't that far away either, and if you've got a hankering for some real from the heart gifts, be sure to look up some of the local artists in your area, the creators and crafters, the tinkerers and taskers, the painters and the... it's 2am, I can't think of another word that starts with the letter "p".

There's always a lot of talk about handmade being the new in thing, but it was never on the out, nor was it undiscovered. It's always been a more than viable, more meaningful sort of thing to give to someone else. 

I've also got a new review on another Lego Set for Tenacious Toys here. The rest of my earlier reviews are now also available and organized under the tab in the upper navigation bar that says "Tenacious.Ninja".

Until next time, support your local artists, be kind to your fellow beings, and always take the path less traveled!

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue
Illustrator, Podcaster, Writer, Toy Collector, and Animal Rights Activist

www.theartisanrogue.com

Stay on target...

First attempt at learning to build a platform video game.

I know, I know! Kansas City Comic Con is coming up in less than a month's time now, and that is definitely something I am trying to prepare myself for. I've got new artworks in progress and will get some of that up for you all to see in the update just prior to the show.

Otherwise, I've still been busy. I've been working weird hours now, and have been taking a good chunk of this weekend to slow down some, and work on starting and finishing various things I had going on.

The other day, I had a moment of inspiration strike...

"Earlier today as I was unpacking old games, I found my old cassette Walkman, I put some batteries in it, and as I pushed the play button, the cassette, Cinderella's Long Cold Winter started up. I had not touched this thing in 21 years or so, and the music sent shivers down my spine moment was when I realized the song was "Take me back". I suddenly was back in high school memory overload and remember the exact moment I pushed stop on the song. I've had that song stuck in my head all day and have been writing down some old memories I had forgotten. So freaking weird."

with the end result of it being that I wanted to learn how to build a platform game. I mean, inspiration hit, and this idea that I could do with that, came into focus so strong, I had no choice but to see how to solve this.

So I spent Friday night in a span of 5 hours quickly working on rough random graphic elements in Illustrator and bringing them into a game engine to see how fast I could learn how to set up a quick interactive game.

The result is this screen cap recording below of a few minutes of debug testing play time on a very rough platform based game.

I have a direction I am planning on taking this, but in the mean time, I will keep attempting to learn more about just the general building of games, and slowly start working on the graphic assets for the idea I have, so that when the time comes, it will all hopefully go together rather smoothly.

Commission of the Bubblegum Crisis character Nene Romanova. 9"x12" on Bristol Board in markers.

In other things, I had been doing a run of illustrations from commissions like the one above of Nene Romanova, to Lily Spitfyre's new logo just below...

Logo design created for the awesome Lily Spitfyre.

To bringing Topsybot 5000 into being. I love all the bot designs that ICWXP has, but Topsy is probably my favorite.

New artwork created of Topsybot 5000 from the world of Incognito Cinema Warriors.

And here's a time lapse video of the creation of this particular illustration as well!

One more unique commission I was requested to make was one using a very cool set of armor design from the creators at Brick Warrior, who make wonderful LEGO compatible items.

The suit painted up very nicely, and there are two of these armor suits in progress at the moment. I'll have more pictures and a full review of this custom job in progress soon over on Tenacious Ninja Toy Blog.

Brick Warrior custom job in progress, to be featured in my next update on Tenacious Ninja toy blog!

Last weekend I was down on South 13 HWY on the way to Clinton, and had realized that there were more than a few dilapidated and worn down abandoned buildings around some areas of the drive.

I had not seen this place in a good while, but man was it ever perfect for photographing for illustration reference, and possibly for using for some filming if anyone was in the need for an abandoned place.

When I have time on weekends, I am always on the lookout for odd or abandoned places for reference.

So that's about it for now. I hope to have more up soon, but adjusting to new work hours, projects, and all that, has me in a bit of a spin.

Thanks all for reading and listening and following my odd little endeavors. If you want to support me in a cool and more direct way, I am updating my Patreon acct once again this weekend, and that's a great way to help me keep at what I am doing now.

Till next time, enjoy Pokemon Go, your family, the simple things, and laughter.

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue
Illustrator, Podcaster, Writer, Toy Collector, and Animal Rights Activist

www.theartisanrogue.com