Category Archives: What Im Playing

To Finish First, First You Must Finish

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There’s an emotional feeling when a game comes to its conclusion, but Death Stranding has, like, 4 endings, in a row, which takes the wind out of the sails. You’ll sit back, feeling accomplished, and then there’s more. Nothing left to mystery here, every minor detail over-explained. Leaving you fulfilled, but also relieved that its actually finally over, but maybe it should have been over 3 hours ago.

Either way, its still a great game, and the ending doesn’t take away from that, but in some people’s eyes, I can totally understand why it would. Especially those that value their time.

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What I’m Playing

Now that Death Stranding is in the rear-view mirror, I’ve slowly moved onto Guardians of the Galaxy. But also simultaneously, Halo Campaign Co-op released, and I’ve been playing that too.

Halo Campaign has been fun. I’ve been playing it in 4-play co-op and recording the footage, tip-toeing back into video editing, and posting the results:

Returning to editing (I say that like I used to do it regularly, which I totally did not) has been enjoyable. Fulfills my creative impulses, but is not necessarily as taxing on me, mentally or physically. I can usually pump one out in about two hours, and I have (will have) lots of footage to use as we make our way through the game. I’ll probably have Episode 4 completed tonight.

I will say one downside, is that video edition requires both visual and auditory senses, which is a downside. When I draw, I can usually reserve my ears for music, or “watch” TV or a movie, so I can sort of multi-task. But not with video editing.

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What I’m Drawing

I was able to add one more drawing to my Drawtober list, day 20, before Death Stranding / GotG / Halo totally took my attention. Day 20 was Spider-Man. And it granted me the time to go back and fix my Green Goblin, from Day 4, and make an action piece. There were a lot of things in the GG piece that I wasn’t happy with, but had to abandon as the day was over and needed to move on. The glider namely, and smoke. But also his proportions were off – legs too big. So when I decided to add Spider-Man I was able to go back, and go over GG again.

PowerGirl is #21 and I hope to get to that before the end of the month, just having too much fun with other creative outlets at the moment.

iRogan

November

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Don’t call it a come back, I’ve been here for years…

October is over, so TECHNICALLY drawtrober is over too. I’m conflicted as my prompt list isn’t done, but I’m kinda done, if you know what I mean. Here’s week three:

Android18 – DBZ
Frog of Thunder
Junker Queen – Overwatch 2
Elizabeth Comstock – Bioshock Infinite
Tank Girl

So, to date, I have completed 19 drawings. And I still want to finish my initial prompt list, but maybe a bit slower. 12 drawings left, maybe I can get them all done over the month of November. But I also want to get back to video games too, and my wrestling comic has been an annoying buzz in the back of my brain. So maybe over the next two months?

Speaking of games…

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What I’m Playing

I jumped back into Death Stranding after a month off. Finished Chapter 6 and 7. Got to brave the mountain during a white-out which was intense, only to find another Super Cell storm that completed chapter 6, and concluded with another dimension/time jump to WWII, and chapter 7.

I briefly took a step into Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which is what I’ll play more consistently once Death Stranding is done. And I’ve been playing Fall Guys, when I get 5-10 minutes to sit down (ie: my lunch break 😉 ).

That’s it for now, quick update.

iRogan

I Won’t Break

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I’m up to 14 drawings now this month for Inktober/Drawtober/Artober…whatever. So many names. I remember a few years ago, someone came up with Pouchtober, and the prompt list was just a bunch of Rob Liefeld characters who were overburdened with pouches.

Here’s week two:

Tira (Soul Calibur)
Fragile
Harley Quinn
Usagi Yojimo + Leonardo
Medusa – Queen of the Inhumans
Felicia (Darkstalkers)

Tira is a redraw from a 2003-2004 drawing I did back when I worked in Flash. I never finished that drawing as I accidentally wiped my HDD and always wanted to try again. This year’s drawtober is all about 2nd chances.

Fragile was really just me inking a drawing I had completed earlier in September and more or less needed a night off.

Harley Quinn, another attempt at trying to make my evening a bit lighter. Not a full pose.

Usagi Yojimbo and Leonardo. The tortoise and the hare. But really just a Turtle and Rabbit, but that doesn’t sound as cool. This one was spread over 2 nights as it was 2 characters. So it counts as 2. My rules after all 😉

Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans. Obliviously wanted to torture myself with some hair. A lot of fun to draw though.

Felicia, from the video game Darkstalkers. Another re-draw, or inspired for an old drawing. This character I had previously drawn in 2011. Funny story, re-reading my 2011 post, I had wanted to draw Felicia and then Morrigan, but never got around to the latter. Well 2022 me resolved that.

So that’s week two. I feel like this set has some strong entries. More better than not. Harley’s corset lacks any type of detail which I feel is hurting the piece, and Felicia could benefit from some shading or colour or something as it is just very fine line work right now. Fragile’s face got lost in the inking. i feel the pencil was stronger, and I ruined it. Another post-October fix I think. Due to cold (still ongoing), I’m actually 4 days behind schedule, but that’s OK. I still intend to complete the full set. Just maybe not exactly on time.

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Otherwise, I haven’t done much else. Playing Fall Guys in my spare time, and “watching” a lot of movies and TV in the background as I draw.

iRogan

Doc Oc-tober

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Shit, do I have to draw Doc Oc now? But my prompt list is already overfull.

Drawtober or Inktober, however you wish to call it…I have been calling it #drewtober. Included in the gallery below are the first 7 additions to this months drawing festivity. Pretty good start so far. Some hits and misses, which is to be expected and accepted by myself as I need to learn to let things go, and I’m drawing and completing one of these per night. Perfection isn’t a guarantee.

King Spawn
Morrigan
John Wick
Green Goblin
Poison Ivy
Zatarra
Tifa Lockhart

My favourite so far has got to be Poison Ivy. Partly because it has more detail. I was able to take a day off for that one, but was able to put in some work in the afternoon, so that piece was almost two sittings. But the results speak. Also this year I wanted to try out some watercolour rendering, when time allows for it.

I’ll be adding a photo album to house all these drawings, and posting weekly with each batch. Wish me luck as I try to actually complete the whole month. Every year I’ve made an attempt, since 2013, and never done 31 drawings. The most was 15 or 16 I think.

Also, as an updated from last post, Crush, fully inked:

iRogan

Time to Shine

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Ah… Fall. My favourite season. Cooler weather and rain, warm blankets and drawing late into the evening without sweating. When I was younger I’d always say Winter was my favourite season because of the snow, and snowboarding. And was always flabbergasted when my parents claimed they didn’t like Winter. But as an adult I get it. Its cold. There’s snow. It’s a pain to drive or walk around. “Snow belongs on the mountains” and now I agree.

So yeah, Fall. And back to drawing after a summer off.

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What I’m Drawing

I’m still playing a lot of Death Stranding, so I decided to draw Fragile. Work in progress as I have to finish her funky umbrella, and then ink. Not sure when I’ll get around to finishing this one.

Dusted off Photoshop with this one. I typically don’t sketch in PS as I leave that for colour. But I wanted to test out the brushes and I’m honestly happy with the results.

Crush, daughter of Lobo. Also a work in progress that I intend to ink tonight.

Back into Clip Studio for this one to test my brushes. New computer and all. Gotta get my settings setup still. It’s a process.

That also brings me to Drawtober or Inktober, or whatever you want to call it. October’s full month long drawing event. I have my own prompt list tentatively completed with some alternates as back-ups in case I change my mind. It’s mostly video game characters or comic characters, obviously.

So that means I probably won’t be playing much games as I try and draw every day. Hopefully I’ll have time for a weekly update here.

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What I’m Playing

Still playing Death Stranding, but I did take a brief 3 day break to start and finish A Plague Tale: Innocence, as the game was leaving Game Pass ahead of the sequel’s release. A good stealth / puzzle type game with lots of rats. Gorgeous visuals too. Excited for the sequel.

Death Stranding I finished Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. Chapter 4 was the WWI time jump sequence that was pretty crazy. And chapter 5 is Mama’s heartbreaking story. Seems like there’s a lot of heartbreaking stories so far, with Mama an.d Fragile. Still loving the game and hope to get in some time over the next month

Here’s some more photos and the rest added to the gallery: Photo Mode: Death Stranding

I think that’s it? Just a quick update this week.

iRogan