Category Archives: Blurb

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.

//

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.

//

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

//

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.

//

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:

//

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

//

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

//

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.

//

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.

//

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+.

//

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

Spoilt for choice part 2

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As a quick follow up to my previous post, specifically comics, I archived my weekly collection piles.

Not a weekly process, by maybe bi-weekly or monthly if I’m lazy. The books just stack into piles on my shelf until I’m ready to haul out the short boxes. Then I spend the evening organizing and archiving into their designated boxes.

Then once a series ends, it’s moved into the long box collection.

Tonight, I archived the following series that have ended:

  • DC Universe – Lazarus Planet event. One-Shots and Mini Series
  • Batman Vs Robin
  • Batman Beyond the White Knight
  • Batman White Knight presents Red Hood
  • BRZRKR
  • The Human Target
  • WYND: Book 3 – The Throne in the Sky
  • SGT Rock vs The Army of the Dead
  • The Nice House on the Lake
  • Inferno Girl Red (Massive Universe)
  • Batman: One Bad Day. One Shots
  • The Dead Lucky (Massive Universe)
  • Gotham City: Year One
  • Stillwater
  • Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man

That’s all – phew. Thanks, and have a good night.

iRogan

Spoilt for Choice

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Hello.

Not so drawing
What I’m playing
Reading is fundamental
On the screen

//

It’s been a little quiet on the Rogan front as of late, mostly dealing with my dad’s estate, finalizing those related matters, which has kept me occupied and distracted. Condo cleaning and staging and selling. Etc.

So I haven’t put stylus to screen since finishing the Aloy poster, last month. But now that that is mostly dealt with I have been feeling the urge. Maybe I’ll start some doodling tonight to see what happens. Next weekend is the last of the move, and then I should be feeling a little more motivated.

My Stranger Than Friendship comic has now been dormant for a year. I discontinued the Pro plan of that website as I felt I was paying to much for something I wasn’t upkeeping. So we’ll see what happens in a few weeks when that expires, and it reverts to the free model, without plugins. I do still plan to work on that comic, along with all the other ideas I have swimming around. But it’s hard to find the time and energy.

//

I’ve been steadily progressing in Gotham Knights every co-op Wednesday, starting to get better at the combat, gear crafting and city navigation. I play as Batgirl, and I’ve unlocked the cape finally, through the Knighthood progression, for traversal, and quick-travel locations are becoming more plentiful as we unlock the map. The way the story progression is structured is pleasing, where the main story and side missions are broken up into case files, and you can focus on whatever you want, in whichever order you wish. Or you can spend the evening fighting street crims or finding collectibles. And then at the end of each play session, you can just turn into the Watchtower and wrap-up your night.

Been a few weeks since I stepped foot into the Witcher III lands, but I’ve been making progress in Hi-Fi Rush, which 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.

In the odd evenings, I’ve also been playing NHL 23, and on the odd nights that friends are online, we’re playing Turbo Golf Racing. Season 3 just unlocked and it has some new interesting maps.

//

I picked up Zoe Thorogood’s previous book, The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott, and I have that in my queue. But along with my regular weekly comics, I read through Bitch Planet (Image) Vol 1 and 2 which is where it appears to end, unfinished. There was a side-stories collection that came out afterwards, but not a continuation of the story. I’ve now started on Middlewest (Imaged), by Skottie Young and Jorge Corona. I’ve been slowing going through my TP backlog, and I really enjoy Corona’s art, and Skottie’s writing. I’ve been on a bit of Skottie kick lately, having read TWIG and the duo’s most recent collaboration The Me You Love In The Dark (Image), so, figured I’d read their earlier work.

Guess it’s been a while since I recorded what I’m actually picking up on a weekly basis. Its always fun going through this list, to see what’s new, what’s ended, so here goes:

  • The Amazing Spider-Man (2022 – present)
  • The Ambassadors (2023 – present)
  • Batgirls (2021 – present)
  • Batman & the Joker: The Deadly Due (2022-2023)
  • Batman (2023 – present) Zdarsky run
  • Black Cloak (2023 – present)
  • Clear (2023)
  • Danger Street (2022 – present)
  • Dark Knights of Steel (2021 – present)
  • The Dead Lucky (2022 – present)
  • Deadpool (2022 – present)
  • The Forged (2023 – present)
  • Gunslinger Spawn (2021 – present)
  • Hulk (2021 – 2023) Cates/Ottley run
  • Junkyard Joe (2022 – 2023)
  • King Spawn (2021 – present)
  • Local Man (2023 – present)
  • Love Everlasting (2022 – present)
  • Nemesis Reloaded (2023 – Present)
  • Nocterra (2021 – present)
  • Once Upon a Time at the End of the World (2022 – present)
  • Ordinary Gods (2021 – present)
  • Phantom Road (2023 – present)
  • Public Domain (2022 – present)
  • Radiant Black (2021 – present)
  • Radiant Pink (2022 – present)
  • The Department of Truth (2020 – present)
  • The Riddler: Year One (2022 – present)
  • Rogue Sun (2022 – present)
  • The Scorched (2021 – present)
  • Spawn (1992 – present)
  • Stillwater (2020 – 2023)
  • Undiscovered Country (2019 – present)
  • Vanish (2022 – present)
  • The Walking Dead Deluxe (2020 – present)
  • Wynd (2020 – present)

So there’s a few Spawn Universe titles in there, a few titles tied to the Massive-verse. I also tend to follow artists, or writers. So I have some Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Chip Zdarksy, Donny Cates, Jeff Lemire. And then some of the stapes, like Spider-Man.

//

  • The Witcher S2
  • Ted Lasso S3
  • Ghosted
  • 65
  • Dungeons & Dragons

//

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That’s all for this month. Speak soon.
iRogan