Silence is Golden

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Welcome back, we missed you. A little bit of an absence here and there but at least I’ve been productive. Just not here…

My last update, from what I can recall was in November, post Drawtober. Since then I’ve played a lot of games. I’ve drawn a lot of pictures. I’ve been writing…elsewhere – and I feel guilty about that. But enough of the delays. Let’s talk about the last (gulp) 5 months.

We’ll start with the games first:

Starfield.
We first things first. I beat Starfield. Clocking in at just over 90 hours, finishing in December (started in September). 740/1000 gamerscore. I didn’t do all the completionist type stuff like visiting all the planets or Star Systems. I didn’t reach the max level or anything like that.

Spoiler warning: I didn’t even play any further than stepping through the stargate and becoming a Starborne. There is apparently an expansion coming, and I’ll step back in then, but for now I can comfortably say I’m done.

I played and beat Crysis 1 Remastered, in one sitting. 10 hours, 820/1000 GS. I still have two and three of the trilogy to play as well.

Illestrader and I beat Redfall, finally. 18 hours. 617/1000GS. I’m really annoyed that this game had some uneven GS achievements, and I’ll either need to play with other people, or go through the story again to complete those, but I’m honestly not interested. The game was decent overall as a co-op shooter. I’m glad I played through it as it had some good ideas.

Illestrader and I also went through Outriders and the Worldslayer expansion. I had previously gone through this game, initially in co-op but then finished it alone. With the replay I was able to 100% the main game and play the expansion. Finished 1260/1305 after 56 hours. The last two achievements will require more hours of grinding and I’m not interested in that.

I started playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with the wife. We played about 8-10 hours which is not a lot. She complained that I was holding her back – not making decisions in combat fast enough, so we’re not playing that anymore. I might still go through it some time. But I have a lot of other games so chances are low.

Finished Star Wars Jedi Survivor, 48 hours, 885/1000 GS. The remaining 3 achievements are collectible types and completionist stuff. Great game overall. Very good looking and fun combat.

Currently working my way through Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and nearing the end. 92 hours, 70% done the main story and already wrapped up one expansion. I want to wrap this game up before I tackle Horizon Forbidden West, which released for the PC a few weeks ago.

Alongside AC Valhalla, I am also playing through Final Fantasy VII Remake on the PC. I recently purchased this as it was on sale. It is my first FF game I’ve ever played, and for the most part it’s been a lot of fun. Even resulted in a Tifa drawing or 3, for obvious reasons ;).

I jumped into Helldivers II for a bit when it released. And I play a random game here and there and continue to follow the news about it. Fun satire game with good mechanics. Even spawned a Stranger Than Friendship comic idea that I might work on.

Now that Redfall and Outriders are out of the way, the next co-op game Illestrader and I have moved to is the Saints Row reboot. So far it is nothing great. Ugly city, feels like there hasn’t been much modernization over the last versions. Which is a shame. But it could be fun in co-op so we’ll see.

Ok, on to drawings. Over the past few months I’ve put out quite a few, which I’ll share below.

Here’s the list:

  • Wonder woman
  • Huntress
  • Black Canary
  • Fallout Vault Girl
  • Psylocke
  • X-23
  • Captain Marvel
  • Jessica Rabbit
  • Poison Ivy
  • Harley Quinn
  • Inked Red Sonja
  • AndrAIa
  • Inked Hawkgirl
  • Rose Wilson
  • Birds of Prey
  • Widowmaker (incomplete)
  • Lara Croft (incomplete)
  • Red Sonja
  • Tifa
  • Red Sonja again…
  • Spider-Gwen
  • Nightcrawler

Lastly, in January, I started writing about comics more, in a different format. I looked at my shelf and it dawned on me that I had accumulated over 200 graphic novels that I had yet to read (did a full count and I have 650 graphic novels / hardcover collections in total, and currently counting my single issue books which is 1500+). So I gave myself a homework project to read 1 every week. 52 a year, to help work down those numbers, because it’s not like I’m going to stop buying new ones. So since the first week in January, posting a new “review” every week, over on Substack. It’s been a rewarding venture thus far, and I can show proof that I am indeed reducing the amount of unread books.

https://andrewrogan.substack.com

Alright, that’s all for now.
Rogan
G403,740

Post-Drawtober

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I really should have been updating this area with weekly posts during Drawtober, but I guess I was just focused on the art that it didn’t happen.

But that’s why I’m here, posting now, mostly. During Drawtober I was able to fully complete 10 character drawings. Fully rendered in colour. I’m very happy with the final products which are shared below. I had one final piece planned to end the month right on Halloween, drawing, appropriately, Hallows Eve, but it didn’t happen. Saved for another time I guess. As I had discussed in the last post, I spread it over 9 sets of 3. Sketch, ink, and colour.

In order:

  • Dove – Dawn Granger, who took up the mantle from Don Hall
  • Zatanna Zatara
  • Fire & Ice – Double helping for thanksgiving weekend. Fire and Ice.
  • Mystique
  • Katana
  • Batgirl
  • Mr Sinister – Nathanial Essex
  • Deadpool – Bad Deadpool. Good Deadpool.
  • and Madelyne Pryor – The Goblin Queen

Also during the month, I played Starfield (of course), finished Remnant in coop, started Redfall in coop, played Cocoon, also got Spider-Man Remastered, Dead Space Remake, Alan Wake Remaster, and started Star Wars Jedi Survivor, and Jusant. So I was busy all around.

Redfall has been a perfectly adequate coop game. You are a team of vampire hunters, and the story takes place in a large town surrounded by water which has been frozen in place. Not like ice frozen, but frozen in time. We have to take down vampire nests and bosses. Upon release the game was poorly reviewed. Repetitive gameplay, easy A.I. enemies, etc. It’s received a few quality of life improvements and visual upgrades and it plays fine. I think some people were expecting a game of the year contender like Arkane’s last release, Deathloop, which this game is not. But it’s still perfectly serviceable.

Star Wars Jedi has been fun, but story has started off pretty slow, but it appears to be building to more so I reserve any further judgements till later.

Cocoon was a fun indie game, like Limbo or Inside. Cool art style and decent play time length. I do enjoy me these arty simple indie games.

And I’m currently playing through Jusant where the gameplay loop is climbing. It’s a relaxing type game. Straight forward puzzles. Collectibles. Another good looking arty indie game.

The rest of the games I mentioned I bought but haven’t played yet, except Dead Space and Spider-Man. Dead Space, just half an hour on the PC to verify if I get XBOX achievements or not, which I don’t, so I’ll be playing it on the good ol’ Xbox. After I finish Star Wars. Probably.

And Spider-Man I’ll probably leave till after Starfield. I got the Remastered version for the PC with the Miles Morales DLC. it was on sale to celebrate the release of Spider-Man 2.

In comic book news, I got to meet Dan Slott, Spider-Man writer, which was pretty cool. He had a signing at one of my local stores. So I got some books signed. NBD.

And I’ve gotten a few too many books as of late. But what else is new?

Books for week of Sept 27

Books for week of Oct 4

Books for week of Oct 11

Books for week of Oct 18

Books for week of Oct 25

Books for week of Nov 1

I think that catches me up for the month of October. I think I’ll take a drawing break through out November. Catch up on sleep, and watch TV shows. And then December I’ll start looking into the comic book again with a renewed energy.

Good night,

IROGAN
G387,766

Pre-Draw-Tober

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In my last post I discussed Drawtober as I had started some preparation. I’ve curated a list of 60+ characters that I want to draw for the first time (although some are ones I’ve drawn before). I made it through 6 of those, some of which I shared last week. Then I saw a Drawtober list for X-Men super-villains. I figured that might be fun, so I switched to prepping those instead. Made it through 4. So by my count I have 10 prepared already. I’ve also been thinking about my wrestling comic a lot… about re-attempting it. It’s been 3 years since I started it, and I’ve learned a lot in that time, and I’m a good place to pick it up again.

So Drawtober will be a last hurrah of sorts, for single character drawings. Get it out of my system so that I can attack the comic again with new energy. A new challenge.

So last week I shared work-in-progress versions of Dove, Zatanna, Fire & Ice, and Spiral. Today we have Mystique, Magneto, Mr Sinister, and Deadpool.

I don’t really know what my overall plan will be. I have 10 drawings prepped for the month, and I definitely want to practice my colour. So I might just spread these out: sketch, ink, colour, or just see what I have the capacity to do.

Unrelated to Drawtober I drew Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. This was in response to the announcement that the TR original games were getting a remaster collection next year. Maybe I’ll clean this one up a big, and ink and colour it too (or maybe just colour the pencil).

More Starfield photography? Sure. But you asked for it (I should probably create a sub-section for these):

{“Source” : “GeForce SHARE”, “B64” : “eyJEUlNBcHBOYW1lIiA6ICJiZXRoZXNkYXNvZnR3b3Jrcy5wcm9qZWN0Z29sZF8zMjc1a2Z2bjh2Y3djIiwgIkRSU1Byb2ZpbGVOYW1lIiA6ICJTdGFyZmllbGQiLCAiU2hvcnROYW1lIiA6ICJzdGFyZmllbGQiLCAiQ21zSWQiIDogMTAyMzI4MTExfQ==”}
{“Source” : “GeForce SHARE”, “B64” : “eyJEUlNBcHBOYW1lIiA6ICJiZXRoZXNkYXNvZnR3b3Jrcy5wcm9qZWN0Z29sZF8zMjc1a2Z2bjh2Y3djIiwgIkRSU1Byb2ZpbGVOYW1lIiA6ICJTdGFyZmllbGQiLCAiU2hvcnROYW1lIiA6ICJzdGFyZmllbGQiLCAiQ21zSWQiIDogMTAyMzI4MTExfQ==”}

Other game news, I bought The Crew Motorfest since I had wrapped up NFS, and per-ordered the new Assassin’s Creed Mirage game. Although I should probably put more time into Valhalla before attempting Mirage. But Starfield has been my main focus. And The Remnant on co-op nights.

More comics?:

Week of Sept 6th:

Week of Sept 13:

Week of Sept 20th:

Phew, busy update. I shall have another one probably next week as I kick off Drawtober, with some updated drawings and more Starfield photos.

See you then.

iRogan
G383,465

Starfield

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Alright, so this will be a rather large post today. My last update was end of July, and then I was on vacation, so today’s will encompass all of August and first week of September. Lots to share, including my first impressions of Starfield.

//

Wrapped up Need for Speed Unbound:

The writing was actually pretty funny in the final act. They make Fast and Furious jokes, and actually said “Need for Speed”:

Overall the game was ok. A little grindy with the constant cop chases, and I was irritated in the beginning when I was making very small amounts of money after races, and by the end, you just make stupid money. I guess because the S cars have more expensive upgrade parts and the final buy-in is higher, but still. By the last week, I was maybe only doing one or two races per day/night cycle because I was so tired of getting chased by cops, and just wanted the story done.

After NFS was done. I had a week or so to kill until Starfield released, so I got Immortals of Aveum, which is an EA FPS High Fantasy magic spell casting game. Pretty decent over-all. But I wanted a palette cleanser before I jumped into Starfield, and nothing else in my queue interested me at the time. And I wanted something that would be a relatively quick completion. Below, the female character is Zendara. She’d be fun to draw.

//

In the art studio I’ve been busy. As I mentioned in the last post, I was playing Exoprimal quite a bit, and had the Vigilant class design stuck in my head and needed to draw it:

Then the Blue Beetle movie came out, so I draw Blue Beetle – but didn’t see the movie:

Made a little bit of progress on the colour wheel challenge. Re-did female Riddler, and added Catwoman. 3 more colours left, Purple, Pink, and Red. Purple I think I will do Neo-Joker, Pink will be Two-Face, and Red will be Rose Wilson, daughter of Deathstroke:

Then I got some inspiration by Cammy’s new Street Fighter outfit. She’s chopped off her hair, but the jacket she now wears has this long belt that kind of mimics the long ponytail she used to have, which is a pretty cool design:

After Cammy, I thought, since Drawtober / Inktober is around the corner, that I should get a head start. Populate a list of characters and start sketching them out, so that in October, I can flesh them out, ink and maybe add a splash of colour. But this way it will take a lot of the stress away if the base is already done. So far I have Dove, Zatanna, Spiral, and Fire & Ice. Definitely off a good start. Hopefully I can have 31 ready for October. Having time off this month will help.

//

Comics for the week of Aug 2:

Comics for the week of Aug 19:

Comics for the week of Aug 24:

//

Alright, the point of this one-sided conversation we’ve all been waiting for: Starfield. A review, of sorts, in progress.

Starfield will be the first Bethesda Game Studios game that I’ve tried, in earnest. I’ve tried Fallout 4 before, for about an hour or so. Got killed by big bugs in the wasteland. Couldn’t wrap my head around the slow-motion gun aiming. Called it quits. Was never really interested in the Elder Scrolls games or setting as I tend to gravitate to sci-fi over fantasy (although I did play Bioware’s Dragon Age Inquisition). But guns and spaceships are more my style, and I did like Bioware’s Mass Effect series, so I have high hopes for Starfield, even though RPG is usually not my first choice.

But so far I am liking it. I appreciate that you can diverge off the main quest and focus on other activities like Faction Missions or other side-quests. I initially started down the main quest, but after arriving in New Atlantis, and meeting the Constellation group, and acquiring Sarah as a companion, she brought me to the UC Vanguard headquarters to discuss a rumour of one of the next artifacts. But mid discussion with the Commander, he had a dialogue option about enrolling into the UC Vanguard services. So I did, and was then whisked away on a side adventure involving Xenowarfare. I guess those weird artifacts will have to wait.

I’m playing on the PC which has been ok so far. I have an RTX 3080 and it handles it decently at 4k, 35-40fps. It defaulted to Ultra settings. But I think I could get more out of it after adjusting some shadow/reflection/particle settings. See if I can get those FPS up. Haven’t tried it on the Xbox Series X. Likely won’t.

Visually the game is both very good looking and also kind of meh, depending on the environment. But I guess with a game this large, it can’t be all amazing. Overall though, very pretty. And it has an in-game photo mode, so that’s a bonus.

I’m not deep into the game yet, but I have time off work for the next few weeks, so by the time my next update roles around I should have more in-game photos and new stories to tell. I’m also thinking about the whole role-playing aspect, and considering doing a short story or Captain’s Log journal, similar to what I did with The Division.

Until then, Above and Beyond.

iRogan
G377,240

Like a Boss

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That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Art Art Baby
Remnant
Exoprimal
Must Read Comics

Still no colour wheel challenge updates, but I have a lot more art to post. Will I get back to the colour wheel challenge…hopefully?

But first, Hawkgirl. This is an updated version of the work-in-progress from the last post. Still a WIP but at the stage that’s ready to ink and colour:

From there I couldn’t put the stylus down. Next up is Val from the comic Nocterra. This comic is coming to it’s conclusion. Scott Snyder has hinted that the ending is left open for future work but for now it’s wrapping up, so I drew Val.

If you’ll recall, back in May I was doing the May Sketch a Day and planned some art. One of the pieces was Red Sonja. And I got stuck and tried to make it work but kind of just quit and took a break. After Val I decided to try again, and I am now happy enough to share the work and the previous attempt (two previous WIPs and then the new one). Decided to just scrap the original piece and work anew. Much happier with the result. This actually make a good poster once its inked and coloured.

Next up is Angel Breaker, who a member of the League of Shadows. When I was inking I struggled with getting the feet to look right so I’ve just left it cropped.

//

In video game land, I’ve been playing Remnant, and Exoprimal. The former in co-op, and the latter mostly just by myself, but it is a unique multiplayer game design. You play with 4 other people in sort of a 5 vs. 5 race to complete objectives and kill the dinosaurs the fastest. You play as a human pilot inside larger exo-suits and fight dinosaurs. The character classes are very similar to Overwatch designs. The story revolves around an AI overseer and you travel back in time to gather intel about the AI so that you can hopefully turn it off in the present timeline. Its a little convoluted but the gameplay is pretty fun, and the matches are fairly short, at around 10-15 minutes.

The character Vigilant which is a support character who carries a big gun is a pretty cool design, seen below in images 1 & 2. I’ll be drawing her next, because why not.

//

Comics for the week of July 26:

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That’s all for now. August I will be on vacation with some much needed time off, and September I have some time off as well, which is good timing for Starfield.

iRogan