The Studio

Lighting Designer

2010-09-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

That's my new title for 413, yup. We made our official presentation to ACBU council last week, and they loved it.

The logo at the beginning was something that I designed. I'm really excite for this.

Oh hey, a blog.

2010-09-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well, lookie here. I had almost given up on trying to regularly update this but with a conversation that we had last week in my IM 413 class I've changed my mind. We talked for a short amount of time about keeping progress blogs/artist blogs that talk a bit about whatever big task or project we're working on at the moment. I won't go into details at the moment (I spent half of last week in and out of the ER) about our big epic project of the semester, but I figured I'd try to touch on as much of what's going on right now.

So Senior year got here REALLY freaking fast. There are two big project-oriented classes this semester, and a third one that, while it's huge, isn't going to kill me as much as the other two are (it's working with sound, something I enjoy immensely). Projects include working with FMod in 3D soundscapes, designing a game for multiple touchscreen platforms, and a big fucking epic project that will probably end up with me in the ER a hell of a lot more this semester. I'm a little worried and excited at the same time; we're working on a touchscreen interface that will allow the user to experience a completely new way of enjoying music and dancing than usually done. And to trim that last statement down to the motto that Jim had at the beginning of our class: "IM 413: We do cool shit!" I'm hoping that in both of the group project-heavy courses I can work more and improve my niche as a designer/artist type. I would (ideally) like to work coding and other aspects into the mess, but considering that I'm taking a lot of what most students consider "heavy" courses all at once, I would be more than overjoyed if I got told to sit in a corner and draw X all day for the rest of the semester.

Speaking of drawing, I do have a tumblr blog that I have (grandoise) plans for. It is going to be (hopefully) used as a sister blog to this one. Where this one will go into the nitty-gritty of the processes that we're working on, the other one will be image-based at most. I've found that my ability to draw bodies in poses has slacked off immensely in the last year or so. In an attempt to improve myself (and to on those super typing/etc days that I just need time to draw) work on artwork in short bursts so that I'm continually keeping up my digital tablet proficiency as well as improving on my own artwork. Thanks to the BF buying me TF2 for my birthday this year, as well as the Polypack contest, I've done a ton of research into the ways that VALVe has gone about designing their game series, especially how each TF2 character has its own distinct personality and outline. My current sketches are based around an online forum that uses TF2 classes kinda like D&D. I know, uber geeky, but I'm also working on my writing abilities in the forum and some of the stories I've collaborated on just beg to be drawn out. I've started out doing face/body shots of some of the characters as a test. If it helps me improve, fuck, I'm all for it. I will link to it when I'm awake a little more, but for the moment, just take my word that it's there. (It's empty anyway....)

I lost track of the train of thought that was occupying this post, so it's probably best for me to call it a night. Just plan on hearing more from me soon. OH YEAH. I also finally got a Droid2. Officially completely hopeless and wired.

Apologies once again.

2010-06-30T13:45:00.001-07:00

I've once again been super busy. Moved into the new place and I've been keeping myself occupied with several things.

Organizing! Holy crap!

2010-04-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

So I decided (with some encouragement from outside forces) that I'd be attempting to condense my multitudes of emails and other general claptrap in a way that can keep my shit organized without a half hour worth of just checking separate accounts. Apparently Yahoo won't let you load/forward your mail to other accounts unless you pay $20 for it (sonofabitch) And other crap. Debating on killing off both my yahoo accounts (the one I use for personal crap, and the one I use for band/radio show stuff) and just keeping the new network of gmail accounts that I made for the art portfolio and personal mail (both of them sync with one another) since I can work with them and my school email for the remainder of the time I have that thing.

Two more weeks before classes get out for the semester. Goodbye sleep, it's been nice knowing you. If I get my shit together I'll post some of that stuff up on dA or here...or fix my portfolio website so that it doesn't suck so badly. Need to start working with droopal again.

Anyway, yes. New stuff. A group of Bradley University IM students/graduates are getting together over the summer to start work on a game design company. If we can get it off the ground before half of us graduate, I'd be very happy. We've got a few ideas for names of the company, but the one I like the best so far is named after the level that's always used by programmers to fix bugs before the public part of game testing is involved. If I don't pass out before moving out next weekend, finishing as much of these games as I can, and getting everything else in line, I'll be happy.

That's all for now, I guess. I can't formulate much more than that in my head.

Holy Crap. What a Day.

2010-03-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

So, I wake up this morning and get told my one class is not going to be held for the second time this week. I am rather happy about it, but a little nervous because I have a project due monday in that class and I have no idea what I'm doing (primarily because I've been working on other stuff this week...). So I take my time getting up and working on some artwork today. Around 4pm, a light goes off above my head before it bursts into full blown sirens. There's a fire alarm in my apartment, so I dive out to the street with my shoes, my wallet, my keys and my phone. It takes a few minutes, but one of the guys living on the thirdfloor peeks his head out of his window, the window billowing smoke, and he yells, "Sorry guys!"

"What the hell did you burn?" I shouted back.

"Easy Mac!"

........while I stood and tried to ponder the complexities of how the fuck someone could burn easymac, three firetrucks showed up, checked out the upstairs apartment, and left. I file it under the same category as the phonecall I got last year from a friend after he got hit by a car, and went to try the new Sushi place in CampusTown right next to the University.

Guess what? It's affordable and it doesn't suck! I had some cali rolls and one of their house special rolls before shuffling back to artwork. And then I got my third nugget of "What a freakin day" happening to me. I sent off some of the artwork I drew in the past few years to Sixx Sense (Nikki Sixx's new radio show) and they posted up on the site. I'm very happy of this! A LOT of hours went into both of those pictures, so feel free to check them out over there on the site.

And I still have a few hours left before I ususally go to bed. What next?

Catch you guys later....

Rediscovering the Magic....

2010-03-01T15:40:00.000-08:00

So after several weeks of hypothetically talking continually about the next video game project in school being Fantasy/Medieval in nature, I caved in last Sunday and watched Fellowship of the Ring for the first time since Return of the King came out on extended DVD. So what, five years or so? That period of time was like an overdose to my imagination: seeing Fellowship right on opening day, looking up at the screen in awe screaming "I want to do this for the rest of my life!", then Pirates of the Caribbean started to come out as well, combining swashbuckling adventures with epic war-scale fantasy movies. I think Fellowship of the Ring was actually the start of one of my artistic hobbies of creating costumes - probably even what led me to wanting to do conceptual artwork in general. I practically adored Aragorn's "Strider" outfit, and immediately started making hundreds of sketches of trying to make a female ranger outfit. (that's right, boys and girls: screw being one of the female characters, I wanted Aragorn's frickin sword and duster jacket. The amount of thought and detail that went into damn near each stitch......) After finding out what the details were with the special features included in the Extended Editions, I begged my parents for each movie for christmas, happily spending the first week after that holiday pouring over all of the special features and behind-the-scenes before ever even touching the first two DVDs in the series. As an anniversary gift in high school, my bf got me a copy of "Weapons and Warfare" of Middle-Earth, detailing every pauldron and vambrace and niche in each race's armor. The fact that a lot of the dress and such were based on blends of different cultures in real history....that just made it more awesome.

I wanted to describe the initial attraction to the Middle-Earth series first so you'd get where I'm coming from. Back in high school my parents got me Aragorn's sword Aundril, and the sword itself came up in my head while thinking about getting a new photoshoot done. I haven't had a good series of photos taken in a few years, and personally, I think a portfolio is made more personable if you have a current photo of yourself on the "About the Artist" page. If you can pull off looking like a creative, intelligent person who's fun to work with/be around (but knows how to keep to a schedule/etc), then I think you look like a creative (and hireable!) artist. I decided on a "geek chick of awesomeness" motif. We'll see if it works out at all...and damnit, I wish that Aundril's scabbard was cheaper than $125......

Anyway, when I put the DVD in on Sunday, I was just going to have it as background sound while I worked, occasionally glancing up and smiling at the badass action scenes or anything else. Nope. I had to watch the whole thing and immediately start scribbling down ideas for new garb for April. I figure that if no one else that I've seen in the SCA so far is being a huge stickler for historical accuracy, I can start playing designer as long as I find people to help me sew it together. I'm slowly improving on building clothing, it just takes for freakin ever. Will probably post pictures when I get some color schemes up. In similar news: who the hell thought the bright gaudy-ass clothing for LOTR online was a good idea? Seriously....way to kill me ever wanting to play the game.

that's my ramble for this week. If you see me out running around with a big frickin sword.....well......I warned ya.

Hey wait, I wasn't done with the last one yet!

2010-02-21T19:31:00.000-08:00

Another week's gone by. It barely feels like it. Another freakin week....And I'm watching the snow pile up outside and the first Pirates of the Caribbean on the TV. I can't find my copy, and now I want to swagger around so badly. Or get into a sword fight with a skeleton.

Anyway, yeah. More work is being done on Ortus, though I look at everything I've done so far and try not to vomit. A lot of this stuff is NOT my best work. That being said, I guess I'm learning a lot since I've been trying to sketch without using the lineart as a part of the final piece. I've got working names for my hero and villain (Art and Vladamir, I think.), and we're going to start working on the 3D renders before we start project 2 for the class, which is working on the game with my other class, 491. This last week was rather rough on me with home life, and this weekend hopefully settled that out a little bit. Instead, next few weekends are going to be replaced with a friend's birthday party and getting ready for Rites of Spring. And getting my garb put together for said event. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't wear myself into a pulp by the end of this.

Toldja so!

2010-02-13T23:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I had to force myself to sit down and do a post tonight. It's been another long and amazing week full of work. I'm excited for a lot of stuff, frustrated about another section of stuff, but hey, that's life. I'm thinking about redoing my environment sketch for a third time because I still can't get quite the feeling I want out of it. I'm much better as a character artist, and I want to be able to reflect my style drawing people in these buildings.

I started working on the sketches for the characters and objects for the game today. Did a warm-up sketch because I need to get into the habit of doing them. It turned out so awesome that I'm trying to come up with a name for the Hero in this project.

It's very emotive for a little 20 minute sketch, 10 minutes of messing around and coloring. Still don't know what his haircolor actually will be, but I'm going to have to figure it out pretty soon.

Now to try to suffer through tomorrow/the rest of the day without dealing with VD day. Yeech.

Headache.

2010-02-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

Yup, 's me trying to put together another blog that'll be a little more about artwork than computer issues.

Both of my current game design projects have been going pretty steadily, although I find myself wishing a lot that there were more hours in the day. I'm thinking about looking into the market for a protective wrist strap because I had to stop tonight after my wrist wouldn't stop hurting. I've come to learn a few things that I need to work on a lot during this semester (and beyond):

I need to take less time drawing something. Takes me about an hour to do a simple sketch - I need to get it down to a half hour if possible. Just a personal goal anyway.
I need to draw more environment sketches. I think that even after we're done with the current game project in IM 471 and go on to other things, I still need to work more on this stuff. I never did a lot with backgrounds when I was younger, so I haven't gotten comfortable with drawing in perspective. It's something I need to work on too.

Speaking of 471, I might as well post what we've been working on this week. Or rather, what I've been working on.

The worldscape for my game is one of insanely high skyscrapers that are continually having floors added every few centuries. As the technology at the bottom of the skyscraper becomes outdated, they simply build on top of it, leaving various labyrinths underneath a "sparkling utopia." I tried to draw references from a lot of post-apocalyptic gameworlds I've seen, plus the way that some buildings are stacked on top of one another like legos in China/Japan and those areas. The world is supposed to be an even balance of magic and technology, a Cyber Punk kind of place where sleek design exists side by side with grunge and sharp angles. I worked on this thing for several hours, but it's still barely done. It's the image on the left.
That's all I've got for now. I need to rest my arms and sleep so I can finish creating my paper game for my other class. When I get a chance, THOSE drawings I'm also going to improve.

Hello Perfectionist-self, when the hell did you get back?

2010-01-19T22:16:00.000-08:00

I enjoy a challenge, but I've redrawn my most recent commission about five separate times, and most of that was done today. I'm not sure when she showed up over break, but the perfectionist part of me is becoming a pain in my ass. It's been a slowly productive day. Well, it's been a hell of a lot better than the past week. Here, for you who are curious as to why I kinda vanished, is the shortened version:

Monday: try to install the video card in my computer. I epically fail'd getting the drivers to work. Had to get a local tech friend (and fellow STO-beta member) to help me install. I get it up and running, and play CoH on it for a few hours.

Tuesday: Beta Launch. I turn on my computer and it doesn't recognize the Ethernet port on the motherboard anymore. Much chaos ensues, more help from local tech friend and an NIC card later, and I'm skimming across the universe in a light cruiser-class ship.

Wednesday: Spent about an hour or two on the game before it shuts down for an epically LONG repair period. So far a hectic week, but an enjoyable week. I go to school to find out why I'm getting a refund on tuition (it turns out their website paying option for tuition is a bit buggy this semester, so they took that and the check I had written for them before realizing the mess up.)

Thursday: Turn on the computer, monitor stays in hibernate. By 8pm that night, find out it's my motherboard that decided to stop recognizing the PCI-E slot that the new video card was in. Freaking out for most of the rest of the night because I specifically preordered STO to get into the beta.

Friday: Preoccupied myself with everything but the whole computer thing. By the end of the night, I have a computer in mind to purchase. Okay it with the folks, who are helping me pay for it, and make an online transaction to have enough money in checking to buy it.

Saturday: I try to buy the computer, debit card is denied. I go and look at my statement and I'm $2000 in the hole. The bank has no idea why, and the Financial Aid office isn't open.

Monday: Get the runabout from Financial Aid saying that it's not their fault, and says that banks sometimes try to cash checks twice. I'm curious as to why, because this would mean someone would owe double if they ended up overdrawing twice. Get told politely that it's not their fault, and that I need to talk to my bank if the money doesn't show up in my account tomorrow. I tell them VERY firmly that they need to fix their online payment option, otherwise this wouldn't have happened in the first place.

Today: The money's in my account. I want to smack all of the people who were patient but condescending to me while I interacted with them. I'm a college student who gets epically huge projects that take up most of my free time, I can only do commissions and the odd sound tech gig to try to have money for things like food and occasional new pair of jeans. At the same time as all of this is happening, I'm trying to price out the next six months so I can make the security deposit on the house I'm moving into in June. Unlike the college students they might be used to dealing with, I'm REALLY concerned about my cash. I still have to call the bank to see if they took out any money because of the whole overdraft thing.

Okay, yeah. This week's been rough. Not trying to be whiny/needy/emo about it, it just has really been hard on my psyche.

*ahem* on to better things! I've got a lot of stuff to look forward to in the future. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I'm going to actually go to a convention this year. And no, it's not Anime Central, regardless of how fun it might be. No, I'm saving up for the Valhalla of geekdom - GENcon Indy. Two years ago I got to play a demo of Champions Online (despite how much the visuals made my eyes bleed, it was still a decent play. Still not gonna pay for it though.) and meet the guys at Cryptic. Now that I'm following a few of them on Twitter (and actually have names of some of them, too) I'm going to go see if I can chat art stuff with Matt Highison, aka the Lead Character Artist for Star Trek Online. I want to pick his brain about how he got to be where he's at - cuz from the interview on the site, this was his first job outside of college. Guys like him give me huge hope for my future. Plus the con's going to be filled with different gaming groups that will need artists down the road. I might still be in college for another year, but if they like my stuff now, they'll keep me in mind if I strike up a chord with 'em. The only thing that's not really decided on (well, the one thing that's kinda important in my head right now) is how the hell I'm going to dress. This is one of those places where if you come in a business suit, you're either cosplaying someone in a suit (MIB, Blues Brothers, Agent Smith.....list is endless) or you're hopelessly lost and trying to find your way to the bathroom. So yeah, that's a tough one to decide on. If you're going to GENcon, lemme know if you want to hook up.

Once the spring semester gets settled in, I'll start taking commissions (Well, actively whoring((*coughAdvertisingcough*)) for them). I'm serious! I've got a button that leads to paypal and everything. Ha.

Now, back to drawing that @#%#$%# %ing juggler.......

Redbull and Mermaids

2010-01-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here, in the current CasketStudios (ie, my Apartment), with a red bull by my laptop. I'm watching Star Trek on my poor and crappy little TV, chuckling at the interactions between the "new" versions of Bones and Kirk. I can't watch the old series because I keep laughing at the special effects. We've honestly come a long way as far as special effects are concerned (surprise surprise), and it's amazing to see.

Where the fuck did Winter Break go? I've got two weeks and then I'm back in college for the spring semester. I'm not complaining entirely, just thought I'd have a longer chance to go and do stuff. ((random moment: watching the first red matter scene and going "Oooh! Shiny!!" and also giggling with glee at Spock's eyebrow raise)) I realize life is going to get 3x as busy. (still waiting for a paycheck to be involved with a lot of the stuff I do) I'm actually happy about that. The more active I am, the more creative I am, and the more chances I get to do some fun stuff.

((Random ST Moment: I want Sulu's Katana. Nuff said.))

Sorry, I should be more focused on my stuff, but the combination of the awesomeness of the movie and the fact that I'm going to be trying STO in a few weeks is making me giddy. I have been playing City of Heroes for nearly three years now, and while it's been fun, there's a substantial lack of any decent new content. The fact that the main brain behind "Going Rogue" is also the same brain behind the Cimerora zone does not give me any hope for the future of CoH. It doesn't help that much that I have been a part of a large and very structured Super Group (hero side) that does NOT want to participate in Villain activities at all - "Going Rogue" will obliterate any type of coherent single-side SG system that is in place when it drops. I've gotten a little used to intelligent, semi-militant - based group that has a bit of a crazy streak in them. We're all fun, really. It's going to be interesting in Star Trek Online.

Anyway, enough non-art stuff. Thanks to a few different discussions I've had over the break, I've been in the mood (though probably will be unable) to do some redesigns on a few well-known series. One as a possible commission, the other as stock for my portfolio. I've found out that Highlander is getting a reboot. How it's going to be scripted, I'm not entirely sure, except that the original producer/director team is going to be doing it, plus several of the writers from Iron Man have signed on to do the scriptwriting.

((Nother Random ST Moment: Kirk really sucks at hand to hand combat in the beginning. Either that or Vulcans become Vikings when angered. Hehe. Vulcan Vikings.))

I have been bouncing around ideas as to casting for the reboot of the Highlander series. So far, one of the forerunners is Karl Urban as Connor MacLeod. He's proven to be versatile (both as Eomer from LoTR and Bones from ST), has combat training, and for the love of the Celtic gods, he's Scottish! It'd probably be more accurate than Christopher Lambert, bless his heart for trying though. I've been putting together updated versions of all of the characters (Connor, Rameriez, the Kurgan) in my head to try to make them a little more appropriate for 2010. The original version kicked ass, but let's be honest, it'd be a little hard for Connor to blend in with his current look. He needs a little bit of work.

If I can, I'd love to be able to get character designs set up for that project. One of the things I've always loved about drawing was designing outfits. I've made a homecoming and prom dress that way, and I love to continually do these things. It's part of the fascination I also have with being a character conceptual artist. I would, in a very bizarre sense, years down the road, love to be attending a convention (either as a patron or a guest) and see someone in a cosplay of a character that I've created. Admittedly, I'd love to see it on a person of appropriate body type (ie, not several hundred pounds more than the actual character would weigh)

Wow. It's already the end of the movie. I thought it would last longer....Anyway. I guess that's enough rambling from me for now. I'll try to use this blog more as time goes on. I'm feeling talkative this semester anyway.

Artist's Block. Fun stuff.

2009-12-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I still don't post in here as often as I do in other places. Also thinking about moving to wordpress, but that's another can of worms because I want to still be able to update here, and my current web host provider apparently isn't up to date with the ability to interface the two (something about php files that I'm going to have to figure out) plus I'm beginning to hate my current layout of my site so I have to redesign that (not getting enough inspiration atm...Grr...) Working on some concept art and running out of steam on the shading bit. That's usually the time where I punk out on stuff. I get a good chunk of it done, but if I'm not happy with how some of it turned out (the hands on this one, for example) I start trying to do 50 other things at once to take me away from what sucks about it.

Back at the folks' place for Christmas. I'm thinking about trying to work on Christmas gifts - ie gift art - a hell of a lot earlier this year, cuz with taking a few days sabbatical to some friends' house, I'm behind on what I wanted to do. I didn't promise some specific people art (per se), but I want to get it done for a few of them, cuz they're awesome people.

Ah, maybe I'll go back to redesigning my website again. If I can put together a two column page that doesn't make me grimace, I'll be happy.

Rant time...

2009-11-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't done a rant in ages. I try not to just because most folks don't like listening to/reading em, but this is both a review and a rant. Well, psuedo-review, because I heard one of the tracks on the radio.

Let me start the whole thing out by saying I am a HARDCORE Motley Crue fan. I own most, if not all of their studio albums. I started reading The Dirt at age 12, and it's probably part of the reason I'm so twisted. I was one of the 70 people featured in the Chronological Crue compilation of "What Motley Means to Me." I think I was one of the youngest people featured as well. (I lost my book, and I'm very heartbroken about this.) With all of these things in mind, I feel a great sense of disillusionment as I found out about the recent release of yet ANOTHER Motley Crue "Greatest Hits" album. Not only is this riding on the coattails of the last one (Remember Red, White & Crue? The anthology that effectively reunited the band? Yeah. That was in 2005. ) but there is an overwhelming lack of any real thought into this project altogether. Even with Nikki in charge of the company's label (Eleven Seven records, if I'm not mistaken) this doesn't look like something the guys had any thought/hand in.

Let's take a look: We'll start with the cover art.

This is the album art for Motley Crue: Greatest Hits 1998. New art, still kind of messily done, but not much thought into it. Had two remixes on there: A remix of Glitter (not seen on the original Generation Swine album) and a remix of Shout at the Devil (the same one they recorded around the Generation Swine album).

Aaannd here is our new beauty. Same logo for the Greatest Hits part, reusing a promo photo from a Paul Brown shoot for Saints of Los Angles (If you're going to have someone do a photoshoot, might as well use ALL the photos, right?). It's a great photo, but the logo for Greatest Hits just seems completely off with the overly Gothic Script of the MC logo. Maybe it's just the graphic design student in me, but reusing of past elements in this manner just makes it seem more slapped together than the 1998 Greatest Hits album (which was apparently slapped together in the first place.)

This album features three new-ish songs: If I Die Tomorrow (off of Red, White & Crue - honestly, does that count?), Saints of Los Angles, and a remix of Animal In Me. I use the term "remix" lightly. I managed to catch Animal in Me on the radio and nearly cried. They added effects and called it a remix. Sure, there were some extra strings in multiple parts, but no new verses, and it was the same length as the previous version. Was it a great song? YES. But to call it a remix? Please. The guys would have been better off releasing THIS version of it on Saints of Los Angles and calling it a day.

In the end, this really has to make me wonder what the hell is going on. Cruefest has been a success both on its inaugural year and this one. Sixx has more projects going than he can shake a stick at, and I'm pretty sure some of the others do as well. Does the release of an album such as this disappoint me? You bet your ass. Not only is it poorly timed, but the "pitch" of the album (ie, the reason you'd want to go and even BUY the damn thing) isn't even worth it. Do I have less of a high regard for the boys? kinda. and you bet your ass I'm not going to buy it.

This thing had been bugging me for the past couple of months, so I just had to get it off of my chest. Let me know what you think.

Will have more on actual ART stuff later. Thanks for being patient.

- NG

Holy Crap.

2009-10-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

It's been two months since I posted something in here. Goes to show you how much school can drive you nuts and keep you busy. Here's what I've been up to on the internet.

A very disoriented and poorly made version of my website is up right now - CasketStudios.com is where I'm hosting one of my online portfolios along with my schoolwork for two of my classes: IM 285 (Intro to Video Production) and IM 365 (Designing for the WWW). I'm retooling the CSS on a semi-regular basis in my nonexistant spare time.

That's right boys and girls, I finally broke down and got a twitter account. It's actually been somewhat useful to have, considering over half the instructors in my major (and the head of the major, and the college itself) all have accounts.

I still have the deviantART account (about the only thing I update regularly), and the dA funded Portfolio, of course. I've also applied to be a Gallery Moderator on deviantART. I think it'd be a cool attempt at being a Psuedo-Intern. And something else to add to my overflooded schedule.

But that's not why I posted. I wanted to plug some really wicked animation and stuff that's going on in the world lately. I wasn't a big fan of the series, but damn the Astro Boy movie looks like it's going to be a cool one. I think I've been watching too many movies with the same actors, because I caught Nicolas Cage's voice within three seconds of voice track. I know it's also about a year or so late, but I've just started playing Xbox360 (a loan from my folks because I need to be more familiar with the video game industry since that's my intended job area) and my first game that I opened was Devil May Cry 4. I know the series has both good and bad mojo going for it, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly so far, even despite the fact that the voice actor for the main character (Nero) is the same voice actor for at least half of the popular anime series on TV in the US right now (and a few that aren't - remember Keneda from Akira? That's the one.). I just need an Ethernet cable to set up Xbox live and I'm all set.

Well, that's it for now...better get back to work....

Headdesk

2009-08-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

While working the other day, I came to the realization that I haven't made a colored version of Nightblade since this one about two and half years ago. I've scribbled him in various different places (a few in chibi form), but of late I've been trying to hammer down designs for each of the characters for an attempt at a comic. Possibly. It wouldn't be put together till ACen 2011, but I've got ideas for how I'd put it together. The first book would be purely an "origin" book, showing the beginnings of Nightblade, Raven, and possibly Bloodspire if I decide to revamp her character to that extent. The stories won't change too terribly much from what's up in my gallery, but different things will be added in (including the actual origin story for Nightblade that sets off the whole friggin thing...) I've been using the whole thing as an excuse to do character concept sheets. Because I know I'm going to be doing a TON of those once I get a job "in the biz."

I was working on colors for Nightblade's cursed form as a warm-up today and ended up spending the whole day on it after one of the peeps that had commissioned me for stuff decided against the whole deal. I am REALLY liking how one of the faces turned out: I drew two shots, one of his "normal" state and one of him in "full demon" mode. Basically, the full demon mode is for when he uses magic, gets really pissed off, and....well, you'll have to wait for the comic for the rest of it. He has about three other forms throughout the storyline aside from that version. I'm kinda looking forward to drawing the full demon form. I haven't done much with the humanoid-monstrous forms yet. I also realize after working on this that I REALLY need to work on my hands and feet. At least I've got head/hair shading down pretty well. Just need to get it down to something quicker. Without further ado, here's one of the heads from my Nightblade Cursed Character Sheet: I like the idea of the hair flaring up as he gets pissed. Kinda like those lizards that have the ability to make themselves look bigger when they're scared.

and on another completely random note: Photobucket's image hosting is bugged. It forgets to add a < /img > tag in its "HTML Code" ability. Never noticed that.

Blast from the Past

2009-08-08T19:06:00.001-07:00

I've been sick all day, so I haven't been able to do jack but read manga on the internet. I forgot that not all anime sucks because of the editing that they do in order to get it on TV. I'd go into a rant about how horrible censorship gets at times, but now's not really the time for that.

I dug around in my photobucket account and found a picture from around the time I did this pic. It was based on an old photo of a friend of mine, Amanda, when she did a photoshoot for a small-time clothing designer in Canada:

I was attempting to put together a female character design for my story Requiem that I started putting together in high school. At the point that I put this drawing together, her name was Toki, and I believe she was supposed to be some sort aof angel. I was trying to go with the classics in the story: demons, angels, vampires, werewolves, and the like. However, I was also trying to come up with a way to incorporate multiple religions and try to organize them into a group that coexisted and cooperated with one another harmoniously. However, the traditional (or stereotypical) angel-type found in the judeo-christian background wouldn't tolerate working in hand with my two main characters (a demon and a vampire) however good their intentions may be to the angel. So, she got put on hold while I looked up different versions of angels. I had a really nice character design for her too. She was very punk. You can *kinda* see it from the drawing.

About two weeks or so ago I went and hung out with a friend who has to move back to her folks' place. She allowed me to take a couple of shots of her beautiful asian ball-jointed dolls, Soo Lae and Fuuyuki. I apologize for the large sizeness of the pictures.

There's one more shot that worked out on my deviantART account as well.

More stuff in the works when I'm feeling better. Stay tuned faithful reader(s)!

Commission Information

2009-07-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

All prices are for the types of art listed. If you would like to commission me for something else entirely, please send me an email at kaidentogosa@yahoo.com and we will work something out.

Payment Method:
I take subscriptions or PayPal - kaidentogosa@yahoo.com

What's For Sale:
Illustration (Digital or Traditional)
Portraits
Fan Art
Original Characters
Character Design ie "The Reference Sheet Style" (Digital)
Tattoo Design (Digital)

Prices:

Illustration (digital)
Portrait (Note: Portraits are stand alone images, no discerning background - can do single color backgrounds on request)
B&W Half Body - $5
B&W Full Body - $7
Color Half Body - $7-$14
Color Full Body - $14-$21
Fan Art
B&W Half Body - $5-$10
B&W Full Body - $7-$12
Color Half Body - $7-$14
Color Full Body - $14-$21
Original Characters (For these, please provide at least a short description of the character itself, or a link to a bio/previous image)
B&W Half Body - $5-$10
B&W Full Body - $7-$14
Color Half Body - $7-$14
Color Full Body - $14-$21

Illustration (Traditional)
Portrait
Line Art - $3
Ink/Shaded - $7
Colored - $14
Fan Art
Line Art - $5
Ink/Shaded - $7
Colored - $14
Original Characters
Line Art - $5
Ink/Shaded - $7
Colored - $14

Extras
Detailed Background (traditional): + $3
Detailed Background (digital): + $5

Character Design
Reference Sheets (These can be done on a solid color background.)
Basic Full Body, Face (without Character Stats): $15
Basic Full Body, Face (with Character Stats): $20
Advanced Profile: $25

Tattoo Design
Tattoos are as extensive and as vibrant as the people who get them. As such, the creation of the art can be a time-consuming process. For a flat rate, I charge $20, then add onto it depending on the amount of complexity of the tattoo. I can do the design in greyscale, or in color (which will cost more.)

How This Works:
You contact me (either thru dA or email) with your email, address (if it's traditional art), what you want, and any reference photos or notes if necessary.
Unless otherwise agreed upon, Art is for PERSONAL USE ONLY.
If you are interested in larger than single-page projects, or different designs (tarot cards, books, etc.), send me an email and we'll work something out.
If necessary, I'll send you a low-res sketch of what you want, then we will proceed with the real thing once we agree on it.
payment will be needed after we've agreed on the rough sketch.

Communication:
Note me on dA: raithe.deviantart.com
Email: kaidentogosa@yahoo.com

Sushi and Bristol Ren Faire

2009-07-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

Slightly preoccupied while writing this - I found an old stand-up routine of Dennis Leary while I was working, and it's funnier than hell. I love the insane screaming rant comedians.

Updating and working solidly on artwork, but I did have a couple opportunities lately to put together some photos. One was a sort of "staged" photo shoot, the other one was me taking my Canon Rebel SLR to the annual Bristol Ren Faire on the border of Wisconsin and Illinois and managing to snap off some sweet shots. I also walked away from that one with some insane amount of ideas for costuming. I seriously need to buy a sewing machine and put this stuff together. Between the initial design for an outfit for a couple of friends' getting married and that event......I could be busy with sewing for months from now. I seriously could.

Anyway. There's some new stuff in the general gallery, including some new portfolio drawings. I redid a drawing I did back in 2006. I was sick and tired of it, so I decided to update it. Also some fun stuff from the old abandoned SF comic that I was going to do. Le Sigh. Someday.

Commissions are open as well! Check here for the price list.

Here's the Sushi Gallery.

And Here's the Bristol Ren Faire Shots.

Catch you guys on the flip side.

Commissions are Open!

2009-07-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

Head on over to my dA page to check out what's for sale in the single-page art realm.

Tinkering with CSS

2009-07-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

So today I sat down and decided to try my hand at messing around with cascading style sheets @ dA. I had a journal that I absolutely liked the style of from another member, but didn't quite like the colors that were put together. I messed around a bit in Adobe Dreamweaver and came up with a very quick style change for the journal. It's installable, and about the only thing I did today aside from finally getting the electric bill in my name here at the Apt/Studio.

Here is the link to the installable journal CSS (deviantARTists only)

Here's a link to a sample blog with 2 of the 3 extra styles added.

Going to look around about starting up commissions and the like. I have poor health on a semi-regular basis, so I'm going to try to find the easiest way to start making money off designing logos, websites and the like. I will post FAQ in one of my many sites, I swear.

That's all for now!

Update ~ Among Other Things

2009-06-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

There's been a lack of updates recently, real life has gotten really freaking hectic. If you want the full story, check my dA account. I'm still working on the website, and thanks to a few classes, I'm going to be able to do some decent formatting on it. Eventually, I'll be able to post it up once my issues with the apartment is done.

Click here for my dA journal entry explaining what's up.....

Casket Studios closer to launch...

2009-04-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

Made my bid for the url today. Within the next week I'll know wether or not I can make the site casketstudios a reality. It'll host all of my artwork (a PROFESSIONAL resume-ish thing...) and that sort of joyus muck.

I got some of the cool stuff from a lot of the free-to-use Stock over @ DeviantART. I'll post a list when I actually launch the site and send notes to those who's stock I used. I might tweak a TON of crap, but that usually happens. After all, it is me. I'm never satisfied with my stuff.

Hop on over to my DeviantART page anyway and critique one of my WIPs, a Mac-sized Desktop of some old characters from the defunct-Champion Server-based SuperGroup, Stryke-Force. Ahhh, I miss the SG. Not the drama, but the people. But that's another matter entirely.

For those of you who give a crap, I've reopened one of my blogs as a general rambling blog. I tend to do it too much, and want to keep things on this blog art and design-related. More will be there as the days unfold.

New Art @ DevART...

2009-04-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

While I've been overloaded with work, I managed to shoot a couple of photos of my traditional stuff that are posted up on DeviantArt. Once the school year winds down, you'll see a bit more of me. Big kudos to waiting out for so long.

Here's the link because I'm going to eventually work on sprucing up this place a bit...

Productive Suck.

2009-04-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

What started out as a promising year has hit the doldrums since March.

Ugh. So much has happened that I'm being productive in many other areas....just not drawing. Forcing myself to pick up the tablet and pencil when I have a few breaks, but those breaks end up being REALLY late at night. It sucks.

So far this week, I've had to deal with my ceiling still leaking (thanks to a ruptured pipe, apparently) and a messed up ankle. STILL don't know what's wrong with it, and my room's a bloody mess because I haven't been walking about and fixing it up.

Welcome Back.

2009-03-25T00:47:00.000-07:00

"You now have Six weeks left in the semester. Have a good time!"

Shiiiit. As if I wasn't trying to pull my shit together long enough to launch the portfolio site, I need to catch up in uber-quantities after being sick. I'm still kinda sick, but not sick enough to get out of classes.

I promised photos, right? Here are some photos. They're not the exact ones I promised, but it shows you I'm alive, ya?

The photo above is basically my portable art station:

(1): Mac Book Pro (15 inch)

(1): Champions Online Backpack full of tech gear (portable harddrives, USB memory sticks)

(1): Wacom Graphire4 Tablet (beaten to shit but still usable)

(1): Soon-To

-Be-Replaced Adobe CS3. As soon as I get the money for it...

It's funny, I used to carry a sketchbook all the time about a year ago, now lookit me....I'm almost 100% Digital and it's kinda scary.

Movin on...a few quick shots of my cat. He's a wonderful little thing, but getting on in yea

rs like you wouldn't believe. Yes, that is an eyetooth sticking out of his mouth.

He wouldn't stand still...the rest of the shots came out blurry.

More later, I promise.

-N Graves

Still Having Health Issues

2009-03-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

At home for Spring Break, recuperating to say the very least. I can't shake the feeling that, while I have gotten rid of the cyst, something else is just around the corner...But that might just be me being paranoid. I've been accused of that once (or twice) a week.

Website is in the process of being built. I'm laying out the skeleton over break.

Medical Issues

2009-03-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, not a lot going on here. I've been sick lately. At first it started with a small pain in my right side. After that pain grew to intense blinding pain over the weekend, I went into the emergency room at St. Francis. Apparently, I have a cyst on my right ovary that has made it swell to four times its original size. It's kinda interesting how distorted my body is on the lower right side now. I can clearly tell which side is messed up. Because I'm such a young pup, they don't want to operate on me (they could only discern that it was a cyst, not what it was caused by), so they shoved off a bottle of pills on me and smiled as I limped away. Unfortunately, the disease known as Endometriosis runs in my family, and cysts can be caused by that too. If that's the case....I think it's probably likely I could have the entire ovary removed. From what they told me (and I remember very little), the cyst has enveloped the ovary. I'll keep you all updated as it goes along.

The Heroin Diaries

2009-02-20T23:38:00.000-08:00

Before I post some pics of the place I work in (well, create in, anyway..), I wanted to show these pictures. They're not much more than scribbles done while i was listening to the CD, but at the same time, I drew each with an intent of what I would want to do later on as a painting/whatnot (if I ever get that mythological and far-off "free time" where I don't have to work on something "important.") I only made thru the first three and a half songs before I started to pass out. Working reeeeeally late at night can be fun.

In reverse listing, because I'm still figuring out the blogger photo thingy...

Pray For Me

Yes, I have a sick twisted sense of humor. I want to do a surrealist type painting of this scene of the main character sprawled out and bloody on a stretcher where his body and the surrounding materials make it look like a cross. It works for me.

Life Is Beautiful

(if you can believe it, anyway.)

I was getting an image of Nikki in the alleyway in Asia, saying "Like fuck I'm gonna die." Then kinda fastforwarding to the line from "Dancing on Glass"

Valentine's in London, found me in the Trash....

Van Nuys

I think it's kinda self-explainatory here. If I could go back and redo my painting now, I would.

X-Mas In Hell

Oddly enough, this is what I decided on if I ever pick up the paintings again. I want to do a more fish-eye lens of it, though. I think it'll look super-fucked-up then.

Photos to come soon. At some point. I think.

Slight Change...

2009-02-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

In order to try to get my mind out of the dark pit it usually drags itself into, Devil's Grave has been changed to Ramblings & Rants. I know it's a lame title, but it's also open to the public, albeit having an adult tag on it. I like to say "fuck" twice as much when I'm pissed.

Photos will be done once I get my hidey-hole cleaned.

Wait, another blog?

2009-02-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

If you look at my account, there are quite a few blogs sitting on there. Two of them are parts of research projects, and one of them is a private journal for rants, ramblings and general screams to the world. It doesn't have anything in it as of yet, but I'll probably throw something together when I feel so inclined.

Here's a short list of the blogs:

Axel Kimagawa's Ramblings

(a blog about MM333: Introduction to Research in Virtual Environments. Most of this blog uses notes taken from observations in the virtual-reality program called SecondLife. It's complete, but my professor has asked us to keep it up for at least another year. It doesn't cost me anything, so I'm cool with it.)

Rock'n'Roll Geisha

(This is for the follow-up course to the last one - MM444: Field Research in Virtual Environments. We're studying a specific place in SL, but I don't have much to post in the way of findings yet (I'm a bit behind on the work, honestly.) Stuff will be updated in there as it goes - as long as our group allows it.)

Devil's Grave

(Angsty Screams and Idyllic Musings. In short, what I think about the world that really doesn't belong on "professional" sites (such as the DeviantArt site I have, or my personal portfolio that has yet to be re-launched). At this point, I'm not screaming at things all that much, so it's pretty empty.)

Why the new blog?

As a musician and an artist, I do a lot of creativity at home (wherever home may be at this point in time.) To that extent, my belief is that in order to create, one must have an environment that is beneficial to that end. If you want to call it feng shui, then go on ahead. I also find it kind of amusing to see where some of your favorite (or just rather interesting) works are created.

In very short summary without the flowery crap: I'm posting pictures of my working space as it changes throughout college and afterwords. Deal with it.