Chousen #5! Go! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

A while back during the Team Fortress 2 girl challenge, I spoke of a 14 yr. old girl that was in my kinship who seemed to be in the game for the social aspect. Another kin member set up a forum for our kinship and in order to drive activity on it, I asked everyone in kin-chat during an especially active time if they would please bookmark and register for the forum so we can co-ordinate events even out of game.

Well our forum admin and staunch Tolkeinite, said in jest "Make it mandatory!". I laughed but this girl went into a 10 minute diatribe about how she doesn't want to join a forum, or use voice chat (to hear strategy and calls for help), or participate in any content that takes too long to do (like instances), and she isn't some nerd with nothing better to do than talk about LotR or what they want to do in game while out of game. She doesn't have time to dedicate to this game because it isn't even hers, it's her dad's game. She's tired of getting in trouble for being on too long. She then proceeded to call our forum admin a loser on several occasions. I told her to cut it. That was the end of the scene...

A couple days of deliberation and her being offline I decided to demote her from Officer to Kinswoman. Two days later, she sent me a letter saying that she 'logged on and saw she wasn't an Officer anymore, what happened?'. I told her her behavior the other night was rude and unbecoming of an Officer. As such she should be setting an example for the rest of the members as to how to conduct themselves. Sure I've seen other Officers take jabs at each other but never outright calling someone a loser because of their interests. I explained if she doesn't have time to do anything that calls for a couple hours, and doesn't want to take a leadership role in the kinship, "Why do you want to be an Officer?".

A day later she responded in a letter with, "I don't know cause it's fun to invite people." Not the answer, someone who really wants to be an officer would give. Mind you she only invited ONE person to the kinship, so even that answer was a crock. If she would have given me a real answer or said that she was willing to apologize to the forum admin, or even admit that she wanted to be an Officer because her friends in the kin were Officers and she wasn't; THAT would have even been understandable. Anyway, I sent a letter to all kin members that the Officers were to send me three reasons explaining why they should keep their positions as Officer. I've gotten responses from 3 of them in 2 days. I wondered why I hadn't heard anything from the girl, I checked the roster, and saw that she quit the kinship. She apparently went and started her own kinship...

Think about that...

A kinship that has...

• No high-level assistance. She's lv. 35 out of 60.
• No leader that is looking to put in the time to help others out through the things they need like... instances.
• No leader that knows how to play their class based on if they are soloing or working within a party dynamic.
  
• A leader that CAN'T turn voice chat on so they can hear they are needed to save a party member who is in trouble.
• A kinship who's leader who spends more time being ported to places where enemies are 25 levels higher than her than questing to get to the places she wants to be at.

So I wish no ill will but I don't know how long that will last. People join kinships to help and get help through the game, not to hang out and chat.

Just some interesting stuff (to me) going on. ..

Left 4 Dead is getting DLC (DownLoadable Content) soon! I hope there is a new campaign at least in addition to the other 2 versus maps. I can't wait!

We finally arrive at the point of this blog, the Chousen! With the New Year beginning, and resolutions being flung about left and right, I have figured out what this week's Chosen is...

Chousen: This week's mission is to do a one shot illustration/comic of yourself and how you spent New Year's Day. Any point in time is acceptable.

Deadline: The Deadline is Saturday, January 3rd @ midnight.

Choice of Medium: Choice of Medium is at the artist's discretion.

The Chousen has be issued... Go!

-Darrick

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hey everyone! It's been quiet here obviously because of the holidays. I've been working overtime practically every week. They say the economy is faltering, it for dang sure doesn't seem to be that way at least at my store. I have made three observations that I find amusing.

• When you are a kid, you get mad because some cashier put your stuff in a bag. When you get older, you get mad because some cashier DIDN'T put your stuff in a bag.
• Everyone looks forward to Christmas. Kids look forward to it because they get a bunch of toys. Adults look forward to it because they can't wait for it to be over.
• It's also amusing how the closer it gets to Christmas, the less people think with common sense. Ex: "I gotta get in line to get a Wii?"

Well, aside of all the wackiness that ensues this time of year, everyone be safe and have a Merry Christmas, or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanna, Happy New Year's and all of that other stuff that piles up right here at the end of the year. The next Chousen will be issued December 28th!

-Darrick

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FOLKS!

I just wanted to take a moment to say I hope everyone has/had a great Thanksgiving Day. We will be firing up the chousen again next week. I've been stupid busy with work, relationships, Left 4 Dead, and Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria. So I will leave it at that and see all of you ready to go next week.

Mata ne,
-Darrick

Chousen #4- Kash

Well I finished it up... I read this strip to myself and I think about my job. It is a circus of sideshow attractions. I didn't even mention the guy that walks into the store only to try and walk out the emergency exit in the video game department. Nor did I mention the guy who walks into our store only to go into our exit vestibule and eat the candy off the floor. He claimed, "I know (it came off the ground outside). But it just looked so good to me I just had to put it in my mouth."

The funny thing about this strip is I KNEW dumb stuff was going to happen because how it starts is EXACTLY how I started the day I began this strip Sunday. You get off to a dumb start, it's only going to get dumber as the day goes on. Not really better or worse, just dumber...

Enjoy the show...
-Darrick

Chousen 3- Kash

I know I'm going to hear it from the peanut gallery but I have been getting worked harder than a dog the past couple weeks. I had the day off today and got most of my comic page done today. I sadly had to stop because I have to get up at Crap o'clock in the morning to be in line to vote. As a result, I will call off any challenges for this week. I still have to post my TF2 girl and comic strip and I intend to do so in the meantime.

-Darrick -_,-;;;

Niff Chousen #4

Yeah, had to delete this...

Niff Chousen #3

Okay, I finally got a chance to do something for this one. Just a sketch since I'm doing it on the fly here at work.

Anyway, went with the scout, because the idea of a being a girl and beating the crap out of someone with a baseball bat really appeals to me right now.

Chousen #4! GO!

Alright, I'm trying to type this while thawing my poor slender fingers from waiting on this house to heat up but, this week's chousen came to me while I was at work yesterday while I was trying to deal with some knucklehead at my store. I thought about it and realized that I deal with a lot of silly crap throughout the course of my day. Which brings us to the chousen...

Chousen: This week's mission is to do a one page comic about what happens over the course of one day. I mean take bits from a couple days if necessary but I'd basically like the strip to be just a sample of the stuff we go through and deal with on any given day.

Deadline: The deadline is Saturday, November 1st @ midnight.

Choice of Medium: The medium is up to the artist's discretion as is style.

As for me I have to take this opportunity now to try and do my Team Fortress 2 female piece...

-Darrick

DanMonster Chousen #3

Why am I first again!? I demand a recount!!

I ended up being sick most of this week, so I got jack done. Though this Medic turned out nice.

Chousen #3! GO!

Hey everyone, I just want to say that I am really enjoying the chousen. I'm actually putting drawings and ideas into my sketchbook again as opposed to guitar tabs that I came up with or other random junk I needed to write down and my sketchbook was the closest available piece of paper. I'm using my computer for more than Left 4 Dead research, Lord of the Rings Online, and Team Fortress 2.... That's it! I just thought of this weeks Chousen!

Originally I had thought about this week's chousen being to research and design a new colossus from the CLASSIC and sorely underrated PlayStation 2 game, Shadow of the Colossus. However, during my previous paragraph, I happened to type Team Fortress 2 and thought, "Maybe we could design a new class illustration for TF2?". I then remmebered Niff doesn't really play that and it seemed a little unfair. Then the whole gender issue came to me of how female gamers (or gamer girls, grrlz, gurlz, or however the "hip" way to spell it is) who are REAL gamers and take their games they like seriously and they almost seem to be more hardcore at times than guys. I have listened to girls in vc (voice chat) in LotRO and TF2 and they are extremely knowledgeable and they KNOW what they are talking about. They have their shizzy together and I have respect for that as a gamer myself.

Then in the back of my mind I thought about it and wondered, "Are these Female Gamers so deep into it because they feel they won't get the same respect if they were more "casual" about their game of choice? Is it possible that there is a sexist mentality in gamer culture that results in females proving they are hardcore to get guy's respect?"

Honestly, I don't think that is the case as a whole. I have been guilty of admitting that I didn't expect a female to make it to endgame content in LotRO because of the fact that she was more interested in seeing the places of LotRO and didn't know how to maintain a minimum income of money to afford repairs because she's a caster who likes to run into melee where area of effect attacks abound. She plays to collect the hang around her friend in game who hangs in places where enemies are 15 levels above her and she can't get out of there because she dies and respawns back in the same place. But this girl is also like 14.

Is she in need of advice about the game and keeping your self financially sound? Probably. Am I wrong for thinking that a 14 yr. old girl won't make it to endgame content because she enjoys the social aspect of the game more than anything? Possibly. But when you contrast that with the Lv. 50 Minstrel who knows the strategy to take down raid bosses and gives direction that leads to victory, one can't help but realize that maturity is a BIG factor in building respect. Will that 14 yr. old get her shizzy together and start connecting the dots that lead to success? Depends on if she keeps with the game for more than a fancy instant messenger. Only time will tell.

After all of this soap-boxing, (Wake up, Dan!) we finally get to my idea for this weeks chousen...

Chosen: During the current week, your mission is to create a FEMALE counterpart of one of the 9 classes in Team Fortress 2. The stipulation is you have to do your best to emulate the art style of that game. In the details section will be several sites you can check out for visual reference.

Deadline: Saturday, October 25th, 2008 @ Midnight.

Choice of Medium: At the artist's discretion.

Details: Here's some websites for reference. Remember we're trying to put a piece together that looks like it could have been done by the guys at Valve.

• http://www.teamfortress.com/ The official website. They have a hilariuos section of sound-bytes up for the movie "Meet the Sandvich". Across the top you will see from left to right: Medic, Scout, Soldier, Demo-man, Spy, Engineer, Pyro, Sniper, Heavy.
• http://www.wegame.com On this site you can find videos of most of the classes by going here and searching for "Meet the [Class]"

The chousen has been issued... GO!
-Darrick

Chousen #2- Kash

Done with Manga Studio Debut 3.0 and imported into Corel Painter Essentials 3.

It felt good using MSD again. That's what I do my manga with. Sadly the PC version doesn't do color. Only the Mac version supports color. Forget you, Apple! :P

-Darrick

Jen Chousen #2

Done in CorelDRAW

Chousen #2 DanMonster

Well, this was easy, because Portal™ owns.
Also, this place is ugly!

Done in Illustrator and finished in Photoshop.
edit: Added some teeth, for the kids!

Chousen #2! GO!

Alright campers let's gather 'round for the next Chousen. I'd first off like to apologize for how late I posted this one. The climate in my room wasn't the most accommodating tonight. It was hot and dry and gave me a headache that was just bad enough to keep me from wanting to do anything. But while I have this moment of respite where it's eased up on me, I'm going to post our next challenge.

I was torn between two ideas that I'd like to see executed. I wanted something a little rougher but no less thought provoking. This one is inspired by another great game, Portal. You can also check out videos of this game on most any gaming website. For those who aren't aware of it, here's a link to start your research for reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb7aDZeO_MQ

Chousen #2: During the following week, the mission is to create 3 rough one-panel sketches that can be themed "Now you're thinking with Portals." The level of detail and art style is up to the artist. If you want, you can use the 3 panels to show ideas that can be expressed in one shot or you can take the step by step approach where each panel shows the cause and effect. Those are the only guidelines. The question is what could you do if you have the portal gun.

Deadline: Saturday, October 18th, 2008 @ Midnight.

Choice of Medium: At the artist's discretion. Whatever they feel comfortable with.

Details: Art style/level of detail is up to the artist.

The Chousen has been issued. Go!

-Darrick

Clarification

I'm already pleased with the ideas that have come from this so far, and I look forward to seeing where this goes.

For clarity's sake, we will make the day to issue chousen Sunday. If anyone has a chousen to throw out there, feel free to do so. I'll officially announce it Sunday afternoon/evening if someone comes up with one during the previous week. Saturday night shall be the deadline to post our submissions. I will be posting Chousen #2 later this evening unless someone has one before this evening to suggest.

Again, I really like the stuff I've seen. I can't wait to see what's down the line, when we finally get Dave, JB, Chad, and Paul submitting as well.

-Darrick

Chousen #1 DanMonster

Aloha! For this challenge I didn't do a survivor because I couldn't think of anything clever -and- I'm a MAVERICK! Watch out.

This here is my zombie boss of a sorts. It would be a semi-gestalt form...

Zombie Baby Swarm!

They would attack in large packs, moving in and out of attacks and dodging your fire as a school of fish might. Small, fast and a hunger filled ferocity.

Watch out for your ankles...

Chousen #1 - Niff

Alrighty, here it is, my attempt at an "infected".  I thought a pregnant (5-6 months-ish) one was an interesting idea, so went with that.  

Its just a sketch since my digital setup won't be ready for another couple of weeks and I didn't have time to do anything in traditional media.

At any rate for what she does, for the most part she's pretty tough, has a voracious appetite(as in constantly eating or searching for food), her belly is deceptively tough, bullets tend to deflect off of it.   If she is damaged at all, she spews out the infected virus.

I spent a lot of time on youtube and wikipedia on this one.  Zombies aren't my  territory, but this was fun.

Chousen #1- Kash

Challenge #1 was to come up with the concept art for a 5th survivor and/or a boss infected for the upcoming game Left 4 Dead.

My submission is Ingrid here. My intention here was to look at the established survivors and come up with a fifth who looked as different as possible from the others. This would even apply to the outlines of your teammates when they walk behind walls. I wanted the fifth to be different even in that respect.

What really drove me to go with Ingrid here was the potential story behind her and the psychological effect involved. As you may be able to tell, Ingrid is Amish. I was watching a video of L4D footage that involved a farm and I started applying the most extreme stretches to the idea thinking something along the following lines...

• What would an Amish girl who knows about nothing but churning butter and milking cows do if one day infected showed up attacking destroying the peaceful life she knew?
• How would she survive until the main 4 survivors showed up?
• How would she react if while infected are running around 4 people show up blasting everything in sight, found her, and gave her a gun?
• When given this gun, what will her mind go through as she has to shoot potential former neighbors? Will each shot wrack her with emotional and moral torment or will the survival instinct take over?

I originally sketched out the figure in my sketchbook and scanned it. I am still trying to learn how to computer color. I wanted to try a medium that I'm not comfortable in, because it will be a learning exercise for me.

I had to look up what Amish clothing looked like and I saw this kind of rust colored smock of a dress that I though looked neat and tried to replicate it, but in hindsight I realize that this concept kinda reminds me of an Amish female Goku from Dragon Ball Z. @_,@;; Oh well, some are winners, some are not.

I need to probably work with the image at a larger scale in terms of dpi so that I don't have such a hard time getting tiny little details to look decent because I had to zoom in so close. I'm using Corel Painter Essentials 3 and a Wacom tablet.

I hope you all enjoy.
-Kash

CHOUSEN #1! GO!

I have been thinking about what to choose for our inaugural chousen and I wanted it to be something that would be really exciting. This choice could set the tone for the future chousen and I wanted it to be one that was going to really give us something to sink our teeth into.

Couple that with the fact that I've been championing Left 4 Dead by the guys at Valve since I've seen video footage and decided that I will throw money at that game as soon as it is humanly possible. You can check it out at http://www.gametrailers.com and just toss Left 4 Dead in the search bar. There's a ton of videos to check out and get excited about.

So that brings us to our first chousen...

Chousen: Over the course of this week, I challenge everyone to design an original survivor and boss infected for the game Left 4 Dead. Check out the above mentioned website or any others to get research information on character designs and a feel for the game.

Deadline: Saturday, October 11th, 2008 @ midnight (I believe we are all CST). If you aren't able to post the art directly here, email it to me and I'll post it for you.

Choice of medium: At submitters discretion, but feel free to go wild.

Details: After posting, please give an explanation of what the boss infected does and any other things that you'd like to include.

Bonus: Concepts sketches would be an awesome addition just to show the process that you went through to come to your final choice.

The challenge has been issued, Drink it!

-Darrick (Kash)

Working out the kinks...

I had to fiddle around under the hood of this site to figure out exactly how to handle the presentation of the challenges. So in the meantime, I will be tinkering around here and there with settings and so on. This will also give me a chance to make sure everyone is set.

I will announce the first chousen (challenge) topic on Sunday, October 5th, 2008.

Until then, Enjoy!
-Darrick (Kash)

And so it begins...

I don't have a witty anecdote to start something like this off. What I intend for this page to do is serve as a looking glass into the minds of several of my friends, and their artistic processes. We will be issuing challenges to each other to see how everyone else responds with their various media. We will make stipulations that will call for varying timeframes, choice of medium, and so on. I am really looking forward to seeing which angle each person takes on a project. If this works out like I envision, I will have our submissions posted on a weekly basis. We will have to see if it pans out that way, but that is my intention.

We will be discussing the outcomes as well, so that we can hone not only our skills in techniques that are foreign to us, but to hone our critiquing skills as well.

I will let each of my friends tell what they want about themselves by responding to this post.

I myself, am an illustrator seeking my motivation for doing artwork again. I was filling up sketchbooks with ease then I started getting into designing my own role-playing game, I built this entire setting for it and everything. I even bought nice sketchbooks to put the reference work in there. Big mistake... when you have a nice sketchbook, you have a tendency to want everything in there to be "Oh my God!" amazingly perfect. I let myself get hung up on that concept. Couple that with the nonsense that life and work throw at you and you slowly started feeling less and less motivated to create.

Well I'm here, to elbow that lack of inspiration in the teeth. It's a small step, but it's a step. I hope anyone who sees our journey, finds some kind of motivation themselves to keep pursuing their interests.

Enjoy!
-"Kash"