Category Archives: News

Tools of the Trade

Posted on by
Reply

Another 5 months have passed. Let’s see if I can even recall what’s happened this year. It’s all a blur.

//

In Art, after Drawtober, I told myself I would take a break. Drawing 31 days straight was a test of endurance, and I did finish the month. But needed a break, and told myself I would, for the remainder of the year. That lasted till December 29th. With Jinx.

I also added two more X-Men blocks for my wall to wrap up 2024 Rogue and Gambit. I have one more completed, with Jean Grey, and I think I’ll need to do one for Cyclops to offset. And then maybe the next two will be Majok and Colossus?

I drew Erica Slaughter from James Tynion’s: Something is Killing the Children book, from BOOM. This book was just announced that it would be expected to go to (at least) 100 issues. Which is quite the achievement.

In January I started noticing some of the Marvel Rivals skins, Sue Storm specifically, and thought it would be fun to draw. I had no idea she had an evil side. With spikes and all. This has inspired more Marvel Rival drawings. Currently I’m working on Luna Snow, and might do Emma Frost and Squirrel Girl.

Spider-Gwen was my grand finale for Drawtober 2024. Although I knew it wasn’t complete at the time, I needed a break. After a few months off and some warm-up pieces to kick off the year, I felt ready to revisit and finish this piece.

Feeling in the colouring mood, I decided to tackle another drawing from a few years back that I had left in the Ink phase. This happens from time to time, where I like the drawing enough to ink it, but colouring is a completely different beast, and I can go months without touching that toolset. But after Gwen and Malice, I felt the time was now. One day I’ll get around to finish colouring my Hawkgirl.

Absolute Wonder Woman is one of the best comics I’m reading right now. And drawing Wonder Woman is fun.

A quick Lady Thor. I forget why I was inspired.

More Magik because the Darkchild is always fun to draw.

Another favourite to draw, Psylocke.

Heading into May now with a collection. Angela from Spawn. Red Sonja. Blood and Thunder character Akeldama (a new and fun comic), and Hellgirl (gender swapped Hellboy).

Wrapping up the Summer with Rasputin IV, and the current piece I’ve been working on: Savage Land Rogue. Rogue might be a 2 piece as I want to add another section to the right, showing more of the savage land, with dinosaurs and some more X-Men. I think it would create a veery cool 2-poster visual on my wall.

//

In game news, I guess this has been where most of my time has been dedicated, as I’ve been working my way through sequels-a-plenty.

  • The year of sequels:
  • The Last of Us II
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
  • Horizon: Forbidden West
  • Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2
  • Jurassic World Evolution 2
  • God of War: Ragnarok
  • Spider-Man 2 (in progress)
  • Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
  • Mafia II: DE
  • A Plague Tale: Requiem
  • Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
  • Doom Eternal (in progress)

In March I finished Horizon: Forbidden West. 40/80 achievements and 151 in-game photos. I needed to wrap it up as Last of Us II was releasing on PC and I needed to jump on that before the show’s season 2. I will create a separate folder for some of the amazing captures, but here are some of my favourites. The game is truly gorgeous.

In May I finished The Last of Us II Remastered. I wanted to play it and finish it before the second season of the show started on HBO. 14/45 achievements, 23 hours and 138 screenshots. I will create a separate folder for some of the amazing captures, but here are some of my favourites. The game definitely takes an emotional toll – but is a masterpiece.

Non-sequel (but does have a 2 in the title) I also finished Cyberpunk 2077 and the Phantom Liberty expansion. 70 Hrs and 240 screenshots. I could easily spend another 20 hours driving the streets of Night City and Dogtown, totally immersed in their stories. But the sequels won’t play themselves, so alas I must move on.

Also in co-op, Illestrader and I played through Warhammer 40K Space Marines 2 after we finished Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand. Warhammer was a bloody good time, and I’ve been playing the recently remastered release of the first Space Marines game.

Now we have transitioned into Skull and Bones for some pirate fun.

Making slow progress in Doom Eternal, and I have now started up Spider-Man 2 before I head on vacation. After vacation I’ll have to make some decisions, as obviously the sequels are there, but there’s some newer games that have released that I would also like to try, like the much talked about Clair Obscur Expedition 33, and Stellar Blade is also on my wishlist, and is on PC now. Two games with styles are not typically in my wheelhouse, but I’m willing to try new things. Especially considering that Clair Obscur is looking like a very real Game of the Year contender. And in August, Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta will also be released.

I think that catches everyone up with the latest. I hope to return to the normal monthly wrap ups, as 5 months is just too much. Next month, as I wont have much new art to share, I’ll share more about my recent comic books I’ve been buying and reading, and a recap of my annual collection stats. We’ll also have the #faceyourart annual collage to see all the faces I’ve drawn over the past 12 months. Should be a fun visual.

’till then.

Rogan

Holding On

Posted on by
Reply

Yeesh its been 5 months? I’m not going to dwell on the pointlessness of calling out how delayed this update is, and because I don’t want to make it a long winded post that goes on and on, I won’t state how I’ve been meaning to make a post and keep forgetting. Futile. This post will catch us up to the end of 2024. And then I’ll make a follow up post for January and February.

Last update was in September where I was talking about my Substack, and Drawtober. And Drawings and Games, and Comics, etc, etc.

Well in October I drew a lot. 31 days. Successfully completed the full tilt for Drawtober.

Here’s the link to the gallery, which can be found under Arts: Drawtober 2024, and I even followed the official Inktober prompts. After October, I didn’t draw for the rest of the year. Here are a few of my favourites:

I did one more drawing for my Substack, before Drawtober kicked off. I read DC’s Far Sector. A Green Lantern story featuring newly chosen Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein:

Speaking of Substack, I finished the year with 36 weeks completed. Wrapping up with Far Sector, Bear Pirate Viking Queen, Watchmen, Fables Vol 1, Snowfall, Birthright Vol 1, and Night Club Vol 1.

I haven’t really decided if I want to continue this year. I mean I’d like to after a little break, but maybe not try and tackle one graphic novel a week, and then write about it. Maybe make it a bit more select. I felt that my random selection was a good idea, but then after reading the book, I found that I wasn’t that enthused to talk about it, if the book wasn’t amazing. So then it wasn’t fun. It was homework. So I might think of something else this year. And we’re already into Feb, so I better start thinking about whatever “that” is, quick.

//

In gaming news, I finally beat Final Fantasy VII Remake. 30 hours and 36/63 achievements on Steam. I haven’t played the Intergrade DLC yet, but I will before I start Rebirth.

I haven’t played The First Descendant in a while. I should probably go back to that at some point to wrap up the story. 23 hours, and G760/1000, 21/24 achievements. I’m in the last zone. I randomly got excited about Metal Gear Solid again, so I bought the Master Collection versions of 2 and 3. Replayed 2 last week, 15 hours, and 25/51 achievements. But now with MGS 3 Delta Snake Eater coming out in August, I’m torn between replaying the Master Collection version, or just waiting and playing the remake.

I played The Callisto Protocol, which is an excellent Dead Space-like game. G750/1540. 12 hours.

I played the Mafia 1 remake, the Definitive Edition release from a few years back. G570/1000 – 16 hours.

I also finished God of War and played Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Illestrader and I finally finished the main campaign of Suicide Squad, and won’t be looking back to any of the post game content. G535/1000, 18 hours. We’ve since moved onto Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand, which is a co-op rpg-lite platforming melee combat game. It’s been ok. The visuals and scenery are decent.

So this year will be the year of the sequels:

  • Horizon: Forbidden West (currently playing)
  • God of War: Ragnarok
  • Spider-Man 2
  • The Last of Us II
  • Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
  • Mafia II: DE

Looks like I’ll be playing a lot of PlayStation titles this year while my Xbox gently weeps.

I think that mostly catches everything up. I didn’t really talk about books or new art, post Drawtober, but I’ll save that for the next post next week, which will catch us up into 2025. I’ll go into more detail regarding my love of MGS, God of War, MAfia, FF VII, and Miles Morales. Oh and Horizon Forbidden West. Sounds like quite the follow-up. Hope I’m up for it.

Take care,
Rogan ❤

Ready to move on?

Posted on by
Reply

Hello everyone, and welcome back for another monthly wrap up. Last post was end of May, so I shall catch us up to end of June. Lots of art, lots of games, lots of reading comic books.

//

As always, lets start with games.

In my last post I had wrapped up playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as the big completion. In June I completed Another Crab’s Treasure which is a souls-like action game where you play as a hermit crab who has his shell repossessed through a collecting loan shark, because he couldn’t afford a new rent imposed on his tide pool. It was a recent release on XBox Game Pass, and a good palette cleanser. The cool gameplay mechanic is your shell acts as your shield, and as a hermit crab you can swap out of shells on the fly, testing out a variety to types of garbage found in the ocean. A fun, humourous, colourful game with similar souls-like fighting and gameplay mechanics. 22 hrs – 1000g/1000g.

I also beat Exoprimal‘s story, just in time for the team to announce that they’re basically done with the game. No more seasonal content or anything as the player count had dropped down pretty low. Multiplayer will still be available as well as all the content on a repeating rotation, but they’re just done with it now. So, so am I. 23hrs – 850g/1000g.

I started Atomic Heart and I’m a few hours in, but as we’re getting into the hot summer months, and I’m playing it on the PC – its a little too warm to play in the evenings – so I’ll probably take a rest on this game for a few months. Same with Final Fantasy VII Remake. In FF I think I’m up to chapter 12 now.

Illestrader and I completed Saint’s Row reboot (2022) but we had an issue with the final mission. Half way through the mission, last week, we called it a night – against my better judgement. And the issue came about because the final mission stipulates that its an end-game mission, warning you that you can’t return to the city hub whilst this mission is active. So what happened this week? Illestrader launched the co-op campaign mid-mission, but I can’t join a mission in progress. So I’m locked out of the final mission, and because its his campaign save, I can’t do it on my own, and there’s no mission replay function. So he got to complete it and I didn’t, which sucks. On my own I might blast through the campaign missions again just to get the final mission’s achievements – everything else in the game is unlocked for me, so it shouldn’t be too bad plus there’s a lot left to do and DLC. But right now I’m too mad to think about it. 14hrs – 215g/1424g.

Also playing through Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I play this for 20-30 minute spurts usually after dinner, before putting the boys to bed. They enjoy watching me play it and the gameplay is exciting and colourful and kid-friendly enough.

Lastly and most recently, I’ve started playing The First Descendant as a new co-op game with Illestrader. Game launched free to play a week ago, and it’s a lot like Warframe and clearly a lot of Destiny 2 influences. And Outriders similarities. A lot of egregious microtransaction incentives since its F2P – P2W, with the standard and premium season pass, and multiple character options that are not unlocked outright, but you can unlock them naturally with enough game time spent, or you can pay to unlock, and the skin bundles, etc, etc. Lots of mods and currencies. I will play through the story missions and then move on – I’m not sticking around for the grind. And not spending any more than the season pass. Like one of the top tier end-game characters is $135 if you bought it outright. No thanks.

//

Onto some drawings:

In May I drew Scarlett from G.I. Joe and said I’d draw more. Well I drew one more at least: Baroness. There’s a few more I’d like to draw as well. One day…

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been writing a comic reading / review column thing over at Substack. I don’t really know how to describe it, other than I’ve tasked myself with reading at least 1 graphic novel / trade paperback book a week, and then writing about it. Discussing the story, the art, and the creators and my thoughts – just to get them out of my head. At this point, like this journal, its really just for me, as an outlet, as I don’t have any subscribers.

But one of the cool parts is its gives me some motivation to draw some characters I wouldn’t typically draw. One of the series I read was Jupiter’s Legacy, and I did a quick fan art of Lady Liberty.

Next up was a fun inking render of Magik, from the X-Men. This piece has also inspired me to draw her demon side, Darkchilde, which I should be able to share in my next post.

Harley Quinn Fan Art to celebrate another graphic novel reading review. Not that I need an excuse to draw Harley Quinn…read Suicide Squad: Get Joker, by Brian Azzarello and Alex Maleev.

Next was Black Cat, a quick ink wash render.

And then finally a multiple day fully rendered piece for the anniversary of Beyond Good and Evil, Jade. A really great game from 20 years ago. And a fun piece to draw. I’ll probably turn it into a poster as I need some new art on the wall.

//

Comics, still reading a lot and buying a lot. Roughly 15-20 months issues a week – which is crazy to think about. And also very hard to keep up with. Presently I’m 5 weeks behind on my reading. I’m hoping over the summer to catch up a bit, as usually my gaming and art slow down due to the hot weather – I don’t enjoy sitting in front of a computer, sweating.

But for my Substack graphic novel / TP schedule, here is my next 5 reads, and my last 5 reads:

Next Read:
Week 26: The Hard Switch – Own D. Pomery
Week 27: Chu – Vol. 1 – John Layman & Dan Boultwood
Week 28: Spider-Man: Noir – David Hine
Week 29: Far Sector – N. K. Jemisin & Jamal Campbell
Week 30: The Watchmen – Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Previous read:
Week 24: Phenomena, Vol. 1: The Golden City of Eyes
Week 23: Suicide Squad: Get Joker / Wolverine: Rot
Week 22: Jupiter’s Legacy Vol 1-5
Week 21: Head Wounds: Sparrow
Week 20: The Incal

Also some more recent books I’ve acquired:
The Hard Switch
Homicide: The Graphics Novel parts 1 and 2
Seven Secrets vol 1-3
The Ballad of Halo Jones
20th Century Men
IN.

Looking forward to getting around to reading those at some point in the next few years. Ha!

//

I think that wraps up June. Take care. ‘Til next time.
Rogan
G407468

Silence is Golden

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
Reply

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