Things have been picking up for February! I’ve been starting up the con season, doing commissions, and more art! If you want to keep up with my tasks in real-time, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram! I’m also cultivating my new Ko-Fi page for tips, so stop by there as well!

Most of early February was preparing for Northwest Indiana Comic-Con, the first con I’ve had in years due to the plague. My Cat Stickers are a smash hit there, they sold even more than my comics! I’ve been working on new commissions, both traditional and digital as well! If you want more detail of the process of making my commissions, you can read in depth on my website.

Blackmask is still in progress. My programmer, Adam's been tackling stuff like swimming, lock picking, and music currently. As I've mentioned before, there's enough art stuff and mechanics to make a demo, so I don't need pixel stuff for a while.

Most of the game function stuff is in my programmer's hands, so I'm in the writing phase of the demo's story. Since the game loop stuff is still in flux, the most I can do is make broad strokes plot scenarios. I've also been pondering myself about if it's worth it to scrap the monochrome Game Boy look and put it in color. I can rock the monochrome, but I'm sure I'll have to put the game in color sooner or later. Maybe I'm biased to the art style since I got used to it. I'll figure things out.

Finally, I bought an iPad and Apple Pencil for my birthday! I spend the first few hours, downloading apps that my Android phone has, such as Google Docs and Toggl Track. But I purchased the app that I bought the damn machine for: Procreate.

This Owlbear piece is my first painting created completely in Procreate. The sketch stuff is okay, but I feel like I got lost in the weeds fighting with my default brushes. I'll write more about my experience with Procreate in a future blog posts.

The status of Blackmask is the same as it's been so far. There are tiny updates working on specific mechanics, like projectiles and stealth.

I animated Cole's Bow and Arrow sprites, so the programmers have plenty to work with art-wise. Plus, I drew some Trick Arrow ideas for Cole's new bow!

I want to do more than simple elemental arrowheads, and try my best to think of other things Cole could fire with a bow. Of course, there's still programming in progress to get Cole to actually fire the damn thing. So, I'll keep these in the blue sky until they can land!

In my "Next to Pixel Art" list are some swimming animations. There are some good starts with surface swimming work from last year.

Now I'm getting to work on some underwater swimming animations. Adam wants to take a break from figuring out some fuzzy issues with stealth. So he's shifting to swimming, and I'm dropping in the pretty stuff.

The next task I want to work on is building a separate website for Blackmask related news. I'm worried that it's confusing for people to hear me talk about my other art without actual game news. I do want to drop in some articles like my process in making pixel art from my drawings. But I'll tackle this as I go.

Anyway, I'm pressing forward with my art duties and my programmers are tackling theirs!

It’s been a productive start to my new year. Despite nursing a head cold, I had for the first few weeks, I made plenty of art to prepare for the coming year!

On February 12th, I’ll be tabling at Northwest Indiana Comic-Con! It’s the first time in two years that I’ve tabled at a con!

The things you’ve seen on my Etsy Store, you can get them at the convention! This comes with the added benefit of meeting me in person and having a chat!

If you don’t know what you want to buy from me or have everything I have to offer, from my comics to my stickers, I opened a Ko-fi page as a tip jar. You can drop a small tip to me and commend my efforts!

If you want to hear some more news about my latest happenings, you can check out my latest post on my website!

It's almost the new year and I look back on 2021 with thoughts. It started out with promise, but I think it went downhill closer to the end. I can't help but say I felt directionless and the stuff I've been doing wasn't as amazing as I'd like for it to be.

This year is a less exciting year, but I want to be optimistic and press forward to the future! There's tons of stuff that I want to get finished, so it's time to work hard at it!

If you've been following this blog, my Twitter, and Instagram for news about Blackmask, I haven't been working on much myself. But my programmer has been going all out on the game!

My Programmer tells me that he has all the art assets he needs from me to build up a playable demo! This is lucky for me as now as I can be on stand by with my pixel art! I want to work on self-indulgent stuff like manual art, and promo illustrations! My current plans for Blackmask is to work on sprites I want, such as death states for enemies and Cole. Plus, I want to give Cole underwater swimming animations to round out his skill set.

After this, I figure out some storyboard stuff for cutscenes like Ninja Gaiden. Most of the stuff I want to do has changed, but that's the nature of collaborations. I like posting my art and ideas on my personal pages, but I don't want to give anyone unrealistic expectations that we aren't ready to fulfil.

We're confident that we can finish the demo and game on time. The team is on the same page about being professional and working to completion. There's still plenty of non-development tasks to figure out, such as making a website and researching stores such like Steam, Good Old Games, and Itch.io for places to post a demo

It's now up to me to believe in my training, research and creativity to push Blackmask's demo to completion. I've made animated shorts, I self-published three comic books, and I completed a whole children's book.

I can trust myself to ship a video game.

I'm having car problems right now, so I'm taking commissions for 10 slots.

Fill out the Google Form or DM me.

Check out my website for even more details.

My freelance work is nearing completion. The ball is in my client's court. There's notes and adjustments that I need to make before my final approval and completion. It's been a feat, and it's convinced me to assess my next possible art projects more. Next time, I want to set up my future projects to let me livestream and add some activity to my Twitch and YouTube.

Been preparing for next year's con stuff from interrupted by the Plague. I'm vaccinated, so I'm in a better situation to not be vulnerable. No amount of medicine can stop "Con Crud" so I'm nervous about returning to conventions. I can confirm that I'm tabling at Anime Central 2022. That spot has been in my vice grip for two years, so I'm pressing forward on this!

I haven’t streamed on my Twitch channel in months! Concentrating on finishing this freelance crap and my day job, I’m never in the mood to draw more. The games I play are currently on console, such as Metroid Dread and Shovel Knight. By November, my freelance art stuff should be wrapping up, I’ll start streaming again. There’s indie games I want to show off, like: Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo! I’ve been watching get made by my friends for the last few years! I want to show off the demo on stream, but if you want to try it out yourself, the demo is on Steam right now!

Blackmask is making tiny baby steps. My programmer buddy is in a place that I don’t need to do much else with pixel art stuff for the moment. Still, I can’t stop thinking about working on the game. I keep sketching up character designs with no rhyme or reason. Thinking about it, I’ve been in a comfort zone with my social media sketches. I keep harping to myself about doing more writing and background stuff

I have bad news and good news about working on my self-published comics.

Some bad news is that I changed my mind about making The Pizza Man a book. Good news is: I’m going to put The Pizza Man, Shirley’s Day and Incident at the Game Store, in one bigger book!

I made several proofs, and I was just about to go forward on buying prints, but I realized that instead of sitting on many floppy comics that don’t sell that much, I’d make a big trade paperback containing not just my comics work so far, but behind the scenes stuff like my original pencil art and inks! I can even include other illustrations and sketches in the book to show off more of my artwork!

I’m still rocking my Pumpkin Cat Stickers for the month of October! I’m keeping these up for the month, so if it sells out, I won’t be making more until next October.

Been changing up some things I want to do for my next print books, plus sketchbook updates and more on my website!

I made a new Halloween-themed Pumpkin Cat Vinyl Sticker based on my latest art, and it's up for sale on my Etsy Store!!

The sticker is smaller than the initial Bread Cat sticker at 3x5 inches, but I'll see if I can order larger ones when the initial prints finish up!

In addition, I'm also having a Halloween Sale for the month of October of all my stuff on Etsy for 40% off! Not only can you pick up a Pumpkin Cat sticker, but you can get the rest of the Pastry Cat Stickers and my print comics!

There’s not much to write about besides being laser focused on my freelance stuff. Since I was between notes on work, I took an impromptu commission as well. I should’ve taken a harder line on my commission times, but I needed bills money and the commissioner is dependable.

Progress on Blackmask is making baby steps. I haven't been doing too much pixel art but after the few meetings Adam and I managed to put together, we're at a good understanding of what we want to accomplish for the demo, so stick around for more news on that! Currently, I do bits of writing when I can to have some ideas so story stuff.

Adam's the programmer, so I leave him more in charge of the gameplay systems, with little bits of feedback here and there. Despite me always worried about overscoping, Adam continues to impress me with all the stuff that he's able to do! The next demo video should be a monstrous one!

In terms of other life stuff, I'm hanging in there. I haven't streamed in a month because I'm too much of a downer right now. Perhaps I'll be in better spirits once I can take a longer break from the heavier art projects.

I even drew a cool idea for the holiday season!