Drawtober 2016

So Drawtober is complete. I was able to complete 16 drawings, which is not as many as I had hoped or planned, but as always, life gets in the way. At least it was half a month’s worth. All the drawings were completed in one sitting, each day, and primarily in Ink.

For Ink, I normally just use PITT pens, or brush pens. A few times this year I used a proper brush and ink well. And the last drawing of the month (Mary-Jane) was Ink wash for shading, which was fun. I’ll definitely have to draw more like that.

I also used Copic markers for a few of the colour pieces, and one done entirely in pencil (Ripley). You can see below for the full month’s gallery. And I’ll upload my time lapse videos to Youtube and post them here too.

Here’s the full month breakdown:

Day 27 – Mary Jane (Spider-Man)
Day 26 – break
Day 25 – Tomb Raider Lara Croft
Day 24 – break
Day 23 – Moxxi (Borderlands)
Day 22 – Catwoman & Black Cat
Day 21 – day off
Day 20 – day off
Day 19 – day off
Day 18 – day off
Day 17 – day off
Day 16 – Harley Quinn (reference)
Day 15 – Jessica Rabbit
Day 14 – games
Day 13 – Wonder Woman
Day 12 – games
Day 11 – Widowmaker (Overwatch)
Day 10 – Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas)
Day 9 – sleep
Day 8 – sleep
Day 7 – Samara (The Ring)
Day 6 – Rey (Star Wars)
Day 5 – X-23
Day 4 – Supergirl
Day 3 – Cortana (Halo)
Day 2 – Ripley (Alien)
Day 1 – Spider-Gwen

 

Weekly Round Up – Oct 14th

As I sit here at work, watching the lights flicker due to the storm outside, I’m really just hoping that the power remains on at home all weekend. Might be cool to draw by candle light though…

So I’m 1 day shy of two weeks into the Drawtober/Inktober event. I’ve completed a drawing in 10 out of the past 13 days, so that’s the good news. Over the weekend I’ll add to the page and update the gallery. Things are going well, working in a few different mediums, and I’m generally happy with all the work. I am getting a little tired though, as I tend to draw for a few hours straight, and complete full pieces instead of quick drawings. So my days are getting full, and I’m neglecting certain aspects of my life.

Like games…

I’ve gotten a chance to put in a few hours into Forza Horizons 3 and it is awesome. Just as good as Forza Horizons 2, with the addition of water physics. The Festival set up is a little different this time, a little less redundant, and no forced road trips, and you can race in co-op which is awesome, but otherwise the games are very much the same.

Played one of the Xbox 360 backwards compatible titled, in MX vs ATV, a dirt bike, ATV and truck racing game. Its a pretty fun escape from the regular racing titles I play.

And still plugging away through Recore. Just Cause 3 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided have taken a backseat for the month while I waste my time drawing.

After Drawtober is Extra-Life, on November 5th, and I’ve started the donation social media train on Facebook and Twitter. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention it hear. Please check out the Extra Life page. The closer we get to the event, the more I’ll be talking about it. I’ll be streaming the event as well on November 5th. Colour me excited.

Be good.

-iRogan

 

Drawtober 2016 / Extra-Life 2016

Drawtober is right around the corner. The concept of Drawtober is for the whole month of October, is to try and draw something new everyday. Some people like to use different mediums, or the same medium for each day. Like ink, and they’ll call it Inktober.

Drawtober is a celebration of art for the full month, and is recognized in a lot of the artistic communities. I’ve taken part in the past couple of years, and quite a lot of the art in my gallery was actually done during the month.

I’ll obviously be participating again, and trying to go for a full 31 days (which I’ve yet to do) my theme this year will be Girls. Comics, Video Game, Movie. All types. Last year was video game characters. Last year I recorded a lot of my work and made time-lapse videos, so I’ll likely be doing that again.

My gameplay tends to suffer a bit during October as a result, so I probably won’t be spending a lot of time in anything new. I’ve been putting time into Recore, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and The Division. I’ll be picking up Forza Horizons 3 this weekend as well. Gears of War 4 comes out in October as well, so we’ll see how things go. I may find time to catch up on some of my reviews while I break from gaming, if I find a break in the gaming.


 

After the month of October, we fall into November which has the annual Extra-Life campaign.The campaign is to help raise money for the Children’s Hospitals. It technically goes all year. But the big day is November 5th, 2016 where I’ll be playing and streaming for 24hrs straight. For the kids!

I’ve already registered for this year’s event, and you can find the link on the side bar. I’ll be creating a new page under Features as well. Last year I ended up raising over $600, and my goal this year is $1000. I’ll be getting a tattoo as well to celebrate.

-iRogan

Achievement Hunt – Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur – Free Easy 1000G

Ben-Hur doesn’t succeed as a game or as an advertisement for the film. In fact, all it’s really good for is some easy achievement points.

Released before the theatrical release of the new Ben-Hur movie, the game boasts a season full of chariot racing. But this “season” comprises of only 3 races, each race one lap longer than its predecessor.

I figured it might be fun to jump into for a bit to laugh, and see how bad it is. Also see if I could unlock a few achievements along the way. And I wasn’t disappointed.

In what can be described as an achievement sprint, I captured all 10, 1000G, in an hour. I have a time-lapse video below to show the progress:

So if easy achievements are what you’re after, and you have an hour to spare, look no further than Ben-Hur. I have the achievements listed below, and how long through my 1 hr 8 minute playthrough it took me to earn them.

  • Falcon’s Swiftness – 50g (0m:57s)
    Finish a lap in under 120 seconds
  • Falcon’s Ascension – 75g (0m:57s)
    Finish a lap in under 60 seconds.
  • Spoils of the Victor – 50g (5m:37s)
    Destroy an enemy chariot.
  • Mercury’s Touch – 100g (8m:08s) 
    Finish first in a race.
  • Mercury’s Gale – 150g (16m:14s)
    Finish first in a race, without using a health potion.
  • Gauntlet of Might – 50g (20m:00s)
    Destroy an enemy chariot, with a whip attack.
  • Executioner’s Touch – 100g (34m:35s)
    Destroy all enemy chariots, in a single race.
  • Ben-Hur’s Redemption – 150g (37m:01s)
    Complete a season of racing.
  • Emperor’s Gauntlet – 75g (50m:34s)
    Destroy 5 x enemy chariots, with whip attacks.
  • Emperor’s Glory – 200g (1h:08m:42s)
    Destroy all the enemy chariots, in every race of a season.

-iRogan

WHAT i’M PLAYING – Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Halo 5, and WHAT i’M DRAWING

Over the weekend I started playing through Deus Ex Human Revolution again, to get caught up with the story before I pick up Deus Ex Mankind Divided this week.

I last played the game in 2011, and when I was going through the achievement list, I realized there were quite a few story related ones that I had missed the first time around, so I’m focusing on those this time.

Graphically the game still holds up – the faces are a bit polygonal and the facial animation is a bit off, but that could be choked up to the Xbox 360 emulation on the Xbox One.

I’m also playing through the original, and not the director’s cut. I had heard the DC adds the DLC and changes the boss fights dramatically, but I opted to not purchase the game again, since I’m just running through the story again. I’m also playing through it a bit quicker now; more of a run and gun play through, and less on the stealth side. Pistol and Tazer only though. See how this strategy holds up against the bosses.

Interesting things I’ve notices during this play through:

  • A lot of the time you’re climbing through vents to access closed off areas. These vents are kept very clean. Like, immaculate.
  • Many vehicles are parked on the side of the road, and in some of the dilapidated areas they are on fire. At no point is anyone driving these cars.
  • Nobody questions you when you move the man-hole cover and climb into the sewers, or when you are witnessed climbing scaffolding and jumping on air-conditioning vents to access the rooftops.
  • Turrets can still see you when you cross their line-of-sight, even when you’re squatting, carrying a crate to hide behind.
  • In The Hive night club in Shanghai, the bouncer won’t let you in, but you can access the building from the vent in the back. You exit the vent into the Women’s washroom. No one cares the slightest when you enter the club this way.
  • Also on this note, you can exit the club through the front door, and the bouncer doesn’t seem to notice, nor question how you got in the club in the first place.

More impressions as I progress further. I’m hoping to wrap up the game this week and pick up DE: Mankind Divided as soon as possible.


Last week I wrapped up Halo 5, which was a fun play through with ILLESTRADER. I’ll write more about that when I find the time.

I’m also trying to keep up with my drawing as much as possible, which limits my time for writing sadly. Hard to find time for 3 separate hobbies.

I recently completed a drawing of Widowmaker from the game Overwatch. She’s a sniper and I really liked her Noire skin, with the crazy techno dreadlocks. I haven’t played Overwatch. It’s an online only game with limited game modes, but lots of character types. I really like the character designs, so I’m going to make an attempt to draw a few more of the characters before moving on to new subjects.

I wasn’t entirely happy with the final product.  I initially only wanted to do black and white, but because her Noire suit is primarily black, so there wouldn’t be a lot of definition. So I decided to add some colour, but didn’t really want to spend a lot of time colouring and shading. So I stuck with the cross hatch black and white, with flat colours. Quickly dumped in a crappy background as well so the gun wasn’t floating, and voila.

I might go back and actually do a proper colouring job on this one. I know I can do better. And going forward, my goal is to try harder on backgrounds. I usually never do them, and with my comic book aspirations, they’d look pretty weird without backgrounds.

I had fun drawing her name though, with all the spider webs. 😉

You can check out more of my drawings in the arts page.

-iRogan