Most Wanted

Posted on December 20, 2022 by iRogan

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy has me hooked. I’m trying to complete at least one chapter a night as I steadily make my way through the game. Hoping to wrap it up by the end of the year.

The game is a fun play through, with solid writing. And besides that actual story writing that drives the narrative, there’s just a lot of dialogue that is mostly background noise between crew mates. You really get the impression that this crew has been together for a long time and their banter just sounds natural. I stepped away from the computer at one point while the characters were just sitting on the ship awaiting me to progress the story to the next mission, and when I left they were talking, and when I came back they were still talking. It’s mostly Rocket and Drax that talk the most. With the occasional “I Am Groot”. But to be fair, its mostly Rocket.

And the game includes a surprising amount of “swearing”. It’s not true swearing because its mostly “flark” and “flarking” but I guess they can get a way with it because its not English. Sounds pretty close. I guess it’s similar to Firefly, where they were able to get away with swearing in Chinese without upsetting the sensors.

Speaking of the end of the year, it has been a pretty solid year of games. I have my curated list of games I played this year, ready to go for my year-end Games Reviewed Quickly post:

The Gunk (2021)
Watch Dogs Legion (2020)
The Pedestrian (2022)
Borderlands 3 (2020)
Far Cry New Dawn (2019)
Golf Club Wasteland (2021)
Grounded (2020 early access)
Shredders (2022)
Mortal Kombat 11 (2020)
FAR Changing Tides (2022)
Dead Cells (2018)
Sniper Elite 5 (2022)
Grand Theft Auto III Remastered (2021)
Hitman 2 (2018)
A Plague Tale – Innocence (2021)
GRID Legends (2022)
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Riders Republic
Death Stranding
Forza Horizons 5
Fall Guys
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Far Cry 6
Halo Infinite
Guardians of the Galaxy

What I’m Playing

As I mentioned above, I’m playing GotG (hoping to wrap it up by the end of the year), Halo on co-op nights, Fall Guys, Lego Star Wars with my 4 year old, Far Cry 6 on co-op nights, Need For Speed Unbound, and even tried Gungrave GORE.

What I’m Drawing

I haven’t been drawing at all, sadly. I put like an hour into one of my comic pages, just flatting one of the panels. I also tried re-drawing the first panel in my book, as black and white, kinda like a manga to see if I like the style. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with the idea of continuing where I left off or starting over in the format below, in the interest of saving time. Drawing, inking and colouring is a huge undertaking, and I don’t know if I’m cutout to actually progress. I might have to make some sacrifices to my original vision just to actually move ahead and make progress. Whether that means changing the art style , or changing the colour method.

What I’m Reading

I recently picked up Ducks which is a illustrated memoir about Kate Beaton’s 2 years in the Albertan Oil Sands. Paints a very real picture of what life is/was like there, how lonely it can be, how being a woman in a male dominated industry is like. A very good, honest, bleak, book all around. On the top 10 lists for non-fiction books for 2022.

Also picked up the Classic Collection of Spawn Batman, the combo DC and Image published books, as well as the latest edition that Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo did, that released this month. Among my many other comics that I pick up every week.

Below is the most recent (3 weeks ago) episode of our Halo playthrough. Unfortunately after finishing this episode, the next two nights that we played, the capture get messed up as it didn’t encode properly. So I got 2 hours of audio, and no gameplay :(. They were some good sessions too. So the series will have a little gap, but hopefully our next session I’ll be able to pick up the recording again and jump into more editing.

That wraps up the last few weeks for sure. Next update should have me completed GoTG, a new Halo Episode (fingers crossed) and my 2022 Reviews Done Quickly.

iRogan
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Everyday Delivery

Posted on September 9, 2022 by iRogan

Everyday I’m deliverin’ …

What I’m Playing

I’m playing a lot of Death Stranding. The past few days not as much as I’ve had other things on my plate (I’ll pick it up again tonight), but the game released into Xbox PC Game Pass Aug 23, I started playing Aug 28th, and between Aug 28 and Sept 6 I’ve put in over 20 hours. And I am loving it. I am a little concerned that I’m still only on Chapter 3 of 14 after 20 hours, but we’ll see where it goes.

I love the mechanics and gameplay, and the story is just the weird style that only Hideo Kojima can deliver. Looks and plays really well on my new PC too. And it has a photo mode!!

A few below, but here’s the link to the gallery I’ve created. 57 photos and counting:

Photo Mode: Death Stranding

What I’m Drawing

Not really a lot lately as I’ve been busy with Death Stranding. But I did need to try out the software and monitor to make sure everything worked after switching over to the new PC, so I worked a bit on my Batwomen:

Sketch/Ink done, with flat colours.

But other than that, with my lack of time I’ve also felt a creative drought. Possibly just burnt out from life in general. I do have some new ideas cooking though.

Also recently was the #faceyourart2022 annual challenge that popped up, so I put together the faces of all my drawings this year. A few are missing from the May Sketch A Day as I wanted the clean 3×3 squares. Overall I am happy with my production so far this year. Its only September now so I still have a few months, and as the weather cools down I find I produce more.

Picture 1:
Psylocke, X-23, Storm
Kate Bishop, Rogue, Domino
DareDevil, Harley, Electra
Picture 2:
The Riddler, Ghost Rider Spider-Gwen, Hana Solo
Raven, Mystique, Baby Doll
Lady Deadpool, Spider-Man, Punchline

What I’m Reading

I’ve been thinking lately about this section and I wanted to have a more focused view on what I’m consuming, instead of the weekly comic book day pull box, as after a month, that list just repeats itself. Maybe I’ll highlight new titles I’m getting or one-off graphic novels or something. This week I will highlight a few things:

Ping Pong Vol 1 and 2. A very popular sports manga about Ping Pong. I still am a regular listener of the Mangasplaining podcast, but don’t pick up nearly as many books as I did when it first started. But the occasional ones that pique my interest I will grab.

I purchased a few Frank Cho art books. Amazing stuff. 20+ career.

And late last year I backed a kickstarter project for Top Cow’s Cyber Force complete collection which hasn’t been in print in any form since 1994. Finally arrived 🙂

That’s all for now I think. I will get back to more Death Stranding, and I have some ideas brewing for some more art.

Take care.

iRogan

Showing Off & Moving On

Posted on July 18, 2022 by iRogan

The summer isn’t a very productive time for me. I work all day on the computer, so at the end of the day it’s hard to find the motivation to sit back down in front of the computer again into the late hours of the evening. Plus during the summer, with the heat, I’d rather do anything else than sit in an already warm room.

So I don’t really do a lot. I’ll play games, catch up on TV/movies, or read comics instead.

I did force myself to sit down and draw though, as it had been a month.

What I’m Drawing

Yeah yeah, another Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen, I know. This started out as just a sketching exercise for a warm up – no expectations, and then turned into a painting exercise. Overall I’m happy with it. Her head is a little too round, and I’m not satisfied with the hood shading, but it is what it is. Moving on.

I can always find something I don’t like about a finished drawing, and that’s motivation to start the next one, and do better. And I certainly like starting projects, just not necessarily finishing them. Always have at least 18 work-in-progress pieces I say, so I never get bored. 😉

What I’m Playing

Fall Guys, and quite a bit. The game recently went free to play and cross-platform, so it’s been my casual go-to when i have some free time. I’m usually good for a few rounds before I move on to something else, but that’s allowed me to rank up to level 40 so far this season, and win a few solo games.

Played and finished a smaller indie game as well, Sea of Solitude. Interesting platforming/exploration/puzzle game like Rime, but simpler. Its about depression and loneliness. Kinda dark, but artistic.

Played through Mortal Kombat 11 main campaign, still got the DLC expansion. Played through Sniper Elite 5 in coop.

Played through Dead Cells after they added the accessibly settings so I can play on easy mode to experience the game through, without struggling. I’m not really a fan of rogue-like games. I prefer to experience the game/story/whatever once through, and move on. So the whole gameplay loop of dying only to start over is tedious.

Also started playing through Hitman 2 – which is frustrating from an achievement competitionist perspective. Hitman 2 includes all of Hitman’s previous campaign levels AND all the achievements all over again. And I really don’t want to play through the game again just to unlock all the achievements. It would be nice if that save just transferred over, which apparently DOES work for Hitman 2 -> 3. But not Hitman 1. Oh well, gamer problems.

I really need to get back in to the routine of these, but might leave that till after summer vacation. So lets say… September we’ll be back on track. I’ll try my best to update as frequently as I’m able until then.

Until then. Be good. 🙂

iROGAN
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Self-Improvement

Posted on June 15, 2022 by iRogan

So one of the big changes that happened over the last two months was the purchase of a Wacom 24″ Cintiq.

I previously had a Huion 22″, which I’ve gotten great use out of for the past 5-6 years, but I finally decided to invest in the upgrade. And I love it so far, but haven’t really gotten the chance to explore. There definitely is an adjustment period. For starters, its much higher resolution, and much bigger and far more sturdy. I also purchased the ergo stand with it, so I can adjust/tilt/rotate as I feel. Which also works because it has double duty as my main work-from-home monitor.

It also comes with this handy little remote control for quick keys. Now I just have to figure out the most efficient way to program them to speed up my work. But the nicest feature is the stylus that I no longer have to charge the battery. So nice.

What I’m Drawing Cont’d

Another addition to the X-Ladies group, with Mystique. I think this will be the last addition too. 6 is a good round number for the group. Balances well. Now I just need to work on the background and overall character placement to fit a background. And then colour. I got quite the backlog of things to colour now. I should probably stop drawing new stuff for a bit and actually finish stuff. Like Harley Quinn, Angela, and this group. Better get started.

Plus I have another Stranger Than Friendship comic queued up. Plus reading comics, plus playing video games. There’s just a lot of hobbies, not enough time.

Be good,
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iRogan

A Familiar Sound?

Posted on June 13, 2022 by iRogan

Has it nearly been 2 months already? Time is a fine sand, that slips through my fingers. It’s not even contained in a box, it’s just on the wind. Invisible.

What I’m saying is I don’t know where the time goes. Yesterday is a blur. But I do have two small kids and they keep me very busy, which might explain some of it. I crash at the end of the day. BSOD, and start fresh the next morning.

That’s not to say that I haven’t accomplished anything. I have lots of stuff to share. So much that I will spread it out throughout the week as a multi-day update, instead of overloading one single post.

So I’m thinking:

Monday – What I’m Drawing (May Sketch a Day)
Tuesday – What I’m Drawing Con’t
Wednesday – What I’m Reading
Thursday – What I’m Playing
Friday – What I’m Playing Con’t & Thoughts on the Xbox Showcase

What I’m Drawing

In May, I started a challenge called May Sketch a Day. Trying to draw something every day. I set a rule for myself to try and limit these to 1 hour. Some I went a little bit over. The 1 hour rule was to prevent burnout. As I mentioned above I have two small kids and work a full time day job, which leaves me some time in the evening after bedtimes, but not a lot, and I’m bad with sitting down to draw at 9PM, and then going till 2AM without standing up, and then realize it’s the middle of the week and have to wake up soon. Hence the rule.

I actually made it half way through the month uninterrupted, but then life got in the way. I managed a few more, then more life, and by then the streak was broken and my interest in the challenge faded.

Overall I’m proud of myself. With my art I can get hyper-focused and need everything to be perfect. So part of the goal was to let the drawings go, maybe incomplete, or a bit rough, after the 1hr, and not grind my teeth over it.

I’ll create a gallery for the drawings below when I find the time. Tomorrow I’ll show some of the other work I working on, plus show off my new drawing tool :D.