There's a meme going around deviantART called the INFLUENCE MAP by fox-orian. I thought it would be a fun, enlightening, and hopefully motivating activity, so this is mine!


This really can't begin to encompass all of the things that have inspired me over the years, but these are the ones that came to the immediate forefront for me, and most were from my childhood.

I also posted this on my deviantART page, but I figured I'd share it here as well!

Enjoy!

Is there anything you guys would like to see me do with this blog, besides delete it and DIAF? I hate neglecting it, but I feel like I already have my stupid quips covered on Twitter, and my crappy sketches covered on deviantART.

Hit me up with your suggestions!

Here's a preview of the artwork that's going to appear with CAG's Price Tracker!

I figured I'd share this here since it's CAG related and I haven't posted in this blog since last November. Here's a preview of the artwork that's going to appear with the new version of CAG's Marketplace!



It won't have the background or the "Cheap Ass Gamer" signage. Can't wait to see how it's going to be incorporated. It started out as a doodle in my sketchbook, and I liked it too much to just leave it there.



There will probably be a few more of these popping up as well!

Also, the CAGcast logo was recently re-designed in celebration of the milestone 200th episode



Everyone looks refreshed without changing too drastically!

Other than that, I've moved my sketch postings over to deviantART, and you can follow my inane ramblings on Twitter and favstar.fm as well. Please feel free to post your comments, follow, star, respond, etc!...

After three weeks without my Xbox 360, my refurbished console arrived today. Unfortunately it smells of cigarette smoke when powered up, isn't entirely clean, and the DVD is noisier than my old one. As a non-smoker, I picked up on the smell immediately and was not thrilled. The rim of the chrome DVD drive bezel is scratched as well.

In the box they provided an Xbox Quality survey and listed xsersurv@microsoft.com as an address to send additional comments. I fired off a quick email and Microsoft told me what I could do with my opinion - the email was rejected with a delivery failure. I contacted Xbox Support with the email I tried to send the apparently defunct customer support email address and mentioned my concerns.

I'm happy with their return process, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the quality of the unit I received. I don't think I would exchange the console given that it actually works but I'm not pleased with Microsoft's reassurance of "Certified...

I don't play my Xbox 360 that much but now that it's E 74 I kind of miss my "Rock Band" box. Still waiting on a return label from Microsoft. Perhaps I should start an epic PS2 JRPG to hold me over. Persona 3? Final Fantasy XII? Rogue Galaxy?

Just shy of two years. Was a Falcon too.

I selected "Console is displaying the error E74." on the support site and it looks like it may be covered after all. I'm now an official member of the Xbox 360 RLOD club. Already have it bubble-wrapped, boxed, and awaiting the shipping label. Good thing I finished ODST's campaign and didn't start that copy of Mass Effect I had on loan.

Awesome.

I haven't done an uncut sketch-dump in a while, so I figured I'd post this. Not every sketchbook page is a masterpiece, and not every sketch is a winner. Sometimes you just know a page isn't going to work out so you plow through, fill it up, and call it a night. Here's one of those pages, unedited. Well, somewhat edited.



Variety of media: blue and HB leads of varying thicknesses, Pitt artist pens, and a really crummy Liquid Expresso pen.

A couple of the sketches were winners and were posted in a couple of previous blogs, like the tank-top chick and the suited muscle-dude. The tank-top chick appears twice on this page because I started her face in blue pencil, but had already drawn the ghost-goblin thingy in Liquid Expresso, so I just kind of "drew-through" in pencil and then inked it on a separate sheet of paper. Then I cut the inked version out, and taped it into the sketchbook with magic tape.

I kinda...

Just another weird little random character doodle. Not supposed to be anyone in particular.

Yeah, I got nothin'.

I've had a pretty rough last couple of weeks. Hoping this one is way better! Please? 'k, thanks!


Here's a sketch. Dunno who it is, but I thought it looked kinda retro-Capcom-esque and I liked it.

Yet another weird little crappy sketch, this time - Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle.

Here's a weird little sketch of Cammy White from Street Fighter. It was just the doodle in a margin. I'm not sure really my head was at today, and I wasn't really planning on drawing her when I started scribbling, but that's how it happens, I suppose.

I'll probably regret even bringing this up, but I'm going to open this for discussion:

From time to time, I get requests for avatars. Generally, I don't take requests. I like to make them for my friends, for prominent forum members that I'm a fan of, and sometimes as birthday gifts and random surprises. I never liked assigning a value to them or having a specific formula to earn one. However, when I tossed around the idea of doing this same thing with sketch cards a few months ago, it seemed more people asked if I'd make them an avatar instead.

I'd thought about this once before and the general consensus amongst the people I talked to about it was that it was a bad idea, but now that we have CAGblogs, this may be an appropriate venue for re-opening that discussion.

So, here goes:

I'm considering opening up a "my avatar for your game" exchange, at least on a temporary, experimental basis. At least for the initial...

This time for CAG Maklershed. It's Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.

CAG manthing had a similarly awful day to me, so I figured perhaps a small way to make me feel a little better was to do something nice for him. I haven't made an avatar in quite a while, and as a longstanding member of CAG, I figured he deserved one.

So, with that, I present, Manthing:

I know it's unusual for me to blog about my personal life, but I figured I should expand on the message I just left on Twitter. I don't know why I'm blogging about it, or even making it public, but I'd almost rather it "out there" than "in here."

I got a call this morning that my Mom has breast cancer.

The doctor says it's early, and he wants Mom to get stronger before he goes in for more surgery and radiation. He said he'd talk to her further at her appointment on Monday.

I really don't know what to think right now.

2MM HB lead over 2MM non-photo blue.

I decided that I liked yesterday's sketch so I went ahead and inked it. Didn't bother wasting the Pitts on it, though...simply Sharpie and a tiny bit of Pilot.

Cats always land on their feet, right?

WeaponX2099 requested this a while back, IIRC. Yeah, I know the pose is a bit wacky, but I was sketch-perimenting with something a bit more dynamic and foreshortened.

I've never had any delusions that I would ever be an accomplished draftsman on the order of Adam Hughes or Alex Ross, but I'm lately I'm finding that I'm reaching more and more for my own artistic "voice."

I always thought I admired the likes of Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri. I realized recently, though, that my true inspiration growing up was actually afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons. He-Man, Transformers, GI Joe, Voltron, Tranzor Z, Thundercats, Silverhawks, and even Robotech. I always drew as a child, but those shows really hooked me in to the "art" of it.

It wasn't until my high-school years that I really discovered comic books and traveled down that road. However, it seems like more and more of the "Saturday morning cartoon" style is leaking out into my artwork these days, and hopefully I can grab onto that and use it as fuel for inspiration and find what motivated me to draw when I was younger.

Anyway,...