Welcome to My Blog page, glad you came by. Please feel free to take a look around and while you are at it, also visit My Image Gallery and check out my art at My DeviantArt Page, leave a comment and/or a critique. I want to keep improving so if you have a tip or know a cool art site, let me know, and thanks in advance!

• 28Oct 09

  Samus Aran - Facets of a Hero

  Were does the true nature of the hero lies? Is it on the high tech armor and weaponry that envelops the wearer? or does the essence of heroism lies deeper inside.
  
  
  Click for larger view
  
  Samus Aran was a revelation to gamers around the world once her true gender was uncovered at the end of her first adventure. Now this common knowledge has been accentuated to such a point that she has become a character with two distinctive and defined facets to her: There is the iconic Varia Suit Samus Aran; the relentless and deadly powerhouse capable of taking down the most dangerous alien creatures in the galaxy and hunt the most elusive of bounties ever to have been set price upon. And then there is Zero Suit Samus Aran; the agile, nimble woman under the armor. While she was revealed to us as a beautiful woman, first and foremost she is the heart and soul that made possible what the Metroid games are. And for once showed a female character in a strong lead role that, going against the grain, wore the logical kind of armor for the task at hand. While admittedly the newer facet of the Zero Suit has permeated Samus with a charge of eroticism that was mostly absent in her previous outings (give or take the SNES "under 3 hours game completion reward") I don't believe this has cheapened her appeal as a strong lead character, for being attractive is not contrary or detracts from being a competent, strong and intelligent female character. Samus has demonstrated through her actions why with armor or not, she is a great hero.
  
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  I just could not decide if I wanted to draw Varia Suit or Zero suit so I said: "Ahh screw it, I'll do both" This is my biggest piece to date: 7112 x 4000 pixels, it took me about 25 hours give or take, although I was not able to work on it as frequently as I wished. Way too many interruptions during the process :/ But finally I was able to set some time aside to finish it.
  
  NOTE: Please hit "Download" at left side of the deviantArt page to get a 1920 x 1080 version of this pic. and do enjoy!
  • Posted Oct 28, 2009 7:25 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 12Oct 09

  Stuff I Hate, Vol. 1

  Just a few weeks ago, while participating at a benefit fair, I had on display several prints of a selected group of pieces I had made over this last year, while I got praise from people for the work on display (and did sold a couple of them) it has proven to me more practical to fulfill commission online. The sales are coming in slow but it is to be expected since most people are in "crisis time" mentality right now and it shows, particularly at the end of each month. Nevertheless one of the assistants at the art fair saw my work and pleased him so that he asked me for a commission right there and then. So I whipped out my sketch pad and asked him what he had in mind. Imagine my surprise when he told me that he would like a tattoo design. For a moment I was surprised by the request, let me explain: one thing is to created a piece of art that will hang on someone's wall or decorate a monitor or personal belonging, but to know that a design of mine was going to be committed to living skin is another matter altogether. To me that entails a whole other lever of commitment and responsibility to what was going to be created. This person had trusted in me to have something engraved on his skin that would be there probably for a long time, if not for life....so I said to him and myself: "Let's do this"
  
  The design he was looking for was that of an owl done in the popular tribal style that is seen most commonly in tattoos nowadays, I told him to come back in at least an hour, I sat on the chair that had on my stand and got to sketch furiously into the drawing pad, this was particularly interesting since I had not made tattoo designs before, so I pondered for a while how should the design "flow" and how should it be structured and this is the design I made for him:
  
  
  Look into my EEEEEEYESSS!!!
  
  I'm glad to say that he was really happy with the design, but the first thing I told him before he left with it was to please take especial attention as to which tattoo parlor was he going to take the design to. And this is the part to which my blog title makes reference to: There are some people that have absolutely no business near a tattooer's needle injecting ink into a person's skin. You see, I don't mind when people are learning to draw, I myself subjected hundreds of pages of paper years ago to the attrocities I called drawings when I was just an aspiring art student, it is just part of the learning process. It hasn't been until very recently when I have felt that my skill has reached a level of proficiency that could be considered acceptable in professional, work oriented goals. So for me to see people that have absolutely no scruples to literally do their experimenting by scarring people as if these were sketch pads, well, that really takes a very special kind of arrogant lowlife scum to do stuff like the following tattoos to some people. But then again, it also takes a very rare kind idiot to allow him/herself to let these abominations to be grafted on their bodies without complain. This is not something you can simply correct with an eraser! Injecting Tipp-Ex is not an option either!!!
  
  The following images represent some reasons why tattoos must be done by professional artist and the person getting a tattoo should have IQs above 90.
  
  10.
  Sometimes Spell Check just doesn't cut it.
  Let's start with one that really doesn't mess up because of an incompetence in artistry, but because of a incompetence in literacy. This really hits me as rather ironic. English is a second language to me, yet because of that reason, I try to ensure that my use of said language is proper, just for accuracy sake, and because I love the English language. So to see this (which was probably written by a native English speaker) really saddens me.
  
  9.

  This would be cute if it had been done by a 5th grader and were attached to a fridge with a magnet, but here it is only proves what happens when grown ups have a 5th grader brains.

  
  
  Bonus to 9: Can somebody show me a competent looking tattoo of Wolverine?:
  
  Just like putting a cherry on top of an ice cream. And by cherry I really mean razor blade. Please do notice the hairy man shoulders which makes it so much worse.
  
  8. Not even Piccolo deserved this beating.
  This kinda proves that even to do a simple trace you need some artistic level, something that the lowlife tattooer who did this even lacked.
  
  7.
  Double Tragedy
  I don't know which is sadder: The passing away of a young person or the person that commissioned this didn't check that the tattoer knows how a smiling human face looks like.
  
  6.
  Guess which twin got ran over by a Train carrying Semi trucks?
  People reach a whole new level of sad when they decide that they want a tattoo that is a copy of another tattoo, there so much wrong with the poor imitation that I don't know where to begin. The tattooer, aparently, was also colors blind.
  
  5.
  Now I know why Bald Eagles are an endangered species.
  A tattoo that has a tattoo, now that is Meta! I don't know if it was the failed attempt at putting the whole frigging 50 stars on that tiny piece of real state or the fact that the flag is flying backwards, either way that is one pissed off eagle. What could be worse than plastering an animal with a flag? ...
  
  4.
  ... nevermind.
  
  3.
  We live on a planet where this image was given to a tattooer...
  
  
  ...and this is what the client got. Further evidence that WYSIWYG protocols only work with computer interfaces.
  
  2.
  Just like a "Why so sad?" joke, just far scarier since this predates it.
  When did exactly in the mind of the tattoer the concept of a roaring puma became "Joker's pet experiment only sadder and more messed up" Every time I see this thing something inside of me dies.
  
  FOREWARNING: This following tattoo is hereby declared by me as the worst tattoo ever conceived and executed by man. It is a perfect storm compriced of idiocy, douchebaggery, bad taste and absolute lack of human decency. I hope the persons involved in its creation got pounded into a pulp the moment they showed their faces in public. You have been warned.
  
  1.
  Some things just defy my fate in humanity.
  • Posted Oct 12, 2009 10:15 am GMT
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• 3Sep 09

  Persona3 Fan Art: Moonlight Aigis

  

  Click for larger view

  
  
  Just give it to the Japanese to turn a anti-shadow death dealing bipedal robotic weapon into a cute, pretty girl. Yes, there is a whole collection of femme-bots of which Aigis or Kosmos are just the tip of the iceberg.
  
  I wasn't too sure what kind of background I would add to this piece, it was either a plain single color (boring) background or a Tartarus inspired setting (the game's dungeon area). I decided for the latter since I need to push myself into doing better backgrounds, plus I wanted something that also reminded me of the title screen.
  
  If it weren't for the compelling characters, intriguing story and original premise, I would have stopped playing this game due to the incredibly punishing, arbitrary battle system. But all in all I'm learning to deal with it. Can't wait to finish it ... if I find the time to do so
  
  PERSONA!!!
  
  PS: Hit "Download" at the deviantArt page for 1280 x 800 pic.
  • Posted Sep 3, 2009 8:31 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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