Author Archives: iRogan

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.

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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.

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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.

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Comics for the week of Aug 2:

Comics for the week of Aug 19:

Comics for the week of Aug 24:

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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
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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.

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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.

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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

One Small Step

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Oh how I feel like a stranger here,
Let’s go back before it disappears.

Colour Wheel Challenge: update?
Where in Lakeshore City am I?

Has there been any updates to my Colour Wheel Challenge? Short Answer: No. But that’s only because I like whatever is new and shiny and never see anything through to completion. The casting announcement of Hawkgirl for James Gunn’s Superman movie irrevocably stole any small attention span I did have, so obviously I had to draw Hawkgirl… right?

I’m liking the 2nd one, so that’s what I’ll be moving forward with. I even had this crazy idea to print it out, lightbox it onto a 11×17 watercolour page and finish it using traditional tools. We’ll see.

Last week I mentioned the Marvel Hellverine announcement, where Wolverine will be taking up the Ghost Rider mantle for a stint, and had me pondering a possible Ghost Rider universe ala my Gweniverse. Could there be cool design ideas somewhere in there? Should I just start with the Hellverine and see what that goes? So I started doodling Wolverine and his motorcycle, homage to Akira. I’ll probably re-do it as a more action style pose. Possibly the Akira sliding/brake which has been done many time. Lots of possibilities here.

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Slowly prodding along in Valhalla, but NFS Unbound has been my main stay-cation. The story is a bit of a grind so far. Once the prolapsed opening is out of the way and story starts in earnest, your goal is to enter into a series of qualifier races to race “the big”. There is one qualifier every week, and you have to race in day and night calendar days to raise money to the qualifier buy-in, and hopefully update your car or buy a new one. So that’s like 4 day and 4 night cycles / per week. Money progression is slow so far as there’s a finite amount of races during each day and night segment. Day time, the race payout is like $2500-$5000 for first place, but the buy-in can be between $0-$3000, so you’re only making a couple thousand per race. Night time pays more but the heat level is higher. So there’s more risk, as you have to return back to the garage to bank any earnings. Or lose it to the cops. You know how it goes, right?

It’s enjoyable so far, and looks nice.

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Just a quick one today.
Boom.
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iRogan

Why are you like this?

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Hello. Why do I lose track of time?

Colour Wheel Challenge
Where in Valhalla am I?
Readings
Screens For Days

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So my last update was back in May. I shared Cortana and a Star Wars character, Darth Talon, and a WIP of Red Sonja. I was hoping I’d have more, but I sort of got hung up on the Red Sonja drawing. It wasn’t looking right, something was off. So I took a break. A few weeks went by without motivation so instead of trying to pick it up again or starting it a-new, I moved onto something completely new. DC’s Flatline:

A fun, fairly quick drawing from June to hopefully spark something. I still intend to go back to the Red Sonja either to pick up where I left off to see if I can force it, or just start over fresh.

Following Flatline, I saw a new Twitter challenge focused on a colour wheel. 8 colours, and to draw a character for each colour that represents their overall colour scheme.

I’m halfway through the initial stages of getting the characters in, not coloured or inked yet. My theme is female or gender-bent DC Batman villains, and so far I have Scarecrow, Firefly, The Riddler, and Killer Frost. It is an interesting challenge to try and get the characters fitting into each pie piece. Hopefully next update should have all 8 characters, and hopefully started on ink and colour.

I think for the remaining 4, I have Catwoman, Talia al Ghul, Two-Face, and Deadshot.

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In the game zone, ILLESTRADER and I finally wrapped Gotham Knights, and we’ve started Wolfenstein Youngblood to mix it up a bit, and playing NFS Underworld online.

I actually started playing a bit more NFS and starting to get a hang of the NFS arcade style again, and I like the art style they’ve added. Cell shaded animated characters and special car effects, but hyper realistic cars. Kind of a neat merger of styles.

Tried out Biomutant but I don’t think I’ll see it through, and I think that goes with The Witcher III… It’s just not really grabbing me. And so instead, I’ve started on Assassins Creed Valhalla. The Assassin series are really what I like in an RPG and they’ve never really disappointed, so I am much happier spending my precious gaming hours in this Viking world. After that though, I may return to one of the prior games. But there’s new ones too. Like Star Wars Survivor on my shortlist.

I also wrapped up a smaller title in Planet of Lana, from Gamepass. I find these artsy side-scroller puzzle/platform games to be really enjoyable as they are shorter, pretty, and just focus on platforming puzzles, so not a lot of deep mechanics or details to worry about.

In other gaming updates, I finished another episode of our Halo Infinite Co-Op Misadventures:

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Just finished reading SITHRA Vol 1-6, by Jason Brubaker, which I feel like I’ve been sitting on for ages. He’s a great illustrator/cartoonist and I will always follow his work.

Also picked up the manga Wolverine: SNIKT! by Tsutomu Nihei. Speaking of Wolverine, they (Marvel) recently announced they he’ll be taking on the Ghost Rider mantle for a stint, going by Hellverine, which is awesome in my opinion, and gives me some drawing inspiration. Kind of like the Gweniverse idea, but Ghost Rider universe. And another recent pickup: Deluxe Edition of CODA. By Simon Spurrier/Matias Bergara after seeing it recently advertised.

Comics Recently Wrapped:
Junkyard Joe
Ordinary Gods
Batgirls
Vanish

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On the big TV and small, still watching The Witcher as season 3 debuts. Also watching Severance on Apple TV+. Watched Extraction 1 (again) and Extract 2.

Biggest screen over the last month I’ve watched Fast X, Across the Spiderverse, The Flash, Transformer, and Indian Jones.

I think that catches us up from mid-May to early July. I intend to continue with my colour wheel, so I should have another update on that soon. Also a Hellverine, as that sounds good.

Boom.
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iRogan

Make It Go Round

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Happy Mother’s Day, space lord, mother mother.

May Sketch Some Days
What I’m Playing
Reading is fundamental
On the screen

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Finally got the ol’ computer turned on to do some drawing. It started with the latest Flash movie trailer showcasing Supergirl, and I should never turn down an opportunity. So that’s how the ball started rolling:

Then May hit. Last year I tried my best to take part in the “May Sketch a Day” challenge and made it nearly 20 days through uninterrupted. This year I wasn’t going to honestly try but I knew I wanted to participate in some form, so I called it “May Sketch Some Days”. But honestly they’re not even sketches. Just proper drawings:

So we have Cortana to start, which I was really happy with. Darth Talon, missing some colour. And then I have a Red Sonja work-in-progress. Last year I had set out to complete the full month as I was limiting myself to 1hr drawings to prevent burnout. Since I only completed 20, this year I basically picked up from where my last year’s list ended, and just kept going. Plus added a few Star Wars characters for May 4th. We’ll see how many I get through this month. Also eager to do more colour work as I promised myself I would a few months ago.

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So far this month I’ve completed Hi-Fi Rush and Ravenlok.

Ravenlok was a quick playthrough, wrapping up in 5 hours. It’s basically a twisted Alice In Wonderland. Straightforward puzzles, combat and some RPG quests. Neat pixel-texture art-style. Easy 1000G completion too.

Hi-Fi Rush as I mentioned last month is an attack-on-the-beat style action game with platforming elements. It has funny dialogue and an enjoyable story that’s PG enough for my son to watch me play. It’s also very colourful. There are some collectible achievements that I wont be going back for, and the difficulties achievements don’t stack, which is lame.

The game is like Devil May Cry, in that every level is graded based on your completion time, score, continues, and timing. I’m not great at beat timing so I’m always performing poorly in that category, but the game luckily allows you to brute-force your way through, mostly un-impeded. But it seems unfair that I’m getting A’s on every stage, but then the final score is C! The math doesn’t check out. I understand its because my timing score and deaths hurt the final score, but still! I made a meme because I was so mad!

Still love the art style.

Still slowly progressing through Gotham Knights as well in co-op, but now that I’ve wrapped a few games, I might need to invest more in The Witcher III. But I also have Biomutant, Atomic Heart, and the new Star Wars Jedi game in my immediate queue.

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So a few books have completed their run over these past few weeks:

  • Clear
  • Batman and the Joker: The Deadly Duo
  • Hulk (Ottley/Cates run)

My plan is to slowly widdle down my weekly book titles, as my last count was around 36. Granted some are mini and maxi series, but I should try to get a little bit more choosey with new titles, and know when to stop with the on-going series.

I’ve also started reading Bleach through the VIZ app, and watching the manga concurrently as I found that they had added all 26 seasons to Disney+.

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And on the screen, big and small:

  • The Witcher S2
  • Ted Lasso S3
  • Bleach
  • AIR
  • You People
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

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See you again before the end of the month with more drawings (fingers crossed)
iRogan