Monday, March 18, 2024
Friday, March 15, 2024
I just wanted to do a sketch of Financier Cookie and Clotted Cream Cookie from the Crème Republic storyline in Cookie Run: Kingdom, which was awesome. Financier rocks.
This picture is actually based off of this illustration which was posted on the official CRK Twitter account.
When the Crème Republic storyline first started, I was absolutely certain Clotted Cream Cookie was the bad guy. With that smug smirk and charismatic demeanor and super fancy clothes, I just knew he was hiding something.
Okay, that's not the first or last time I've been wrong about someone being the villain. Maybe I have trust issues.
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
More old art. This is from when Pokémon Go first came out and I was so totally psyched to have a Pokémon adventure in real life.
Then I moved someplace that didn't have nearly as many Gyms or PokéStops, and that kind of killed the fun a bit. So I'm looking forward to Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link, which has a somewhat similar concept but the ability to actually move your character on the map independently of where you happen to be.
(Don't get me wrong, I still play Pokémon Go, just not as often nowadays given the circumstances.)
Monday, March 11, 2024
Updates have been kind of sparse because I've been busy, and because it's been really snowy here which has impeded my ability to get to the museum to sketch. And also because I am - I think understandably - a bit miffed that people don't seem to be paying attention to my work despite my best efforts, so I'm not exactly feeling super motivated to produce/post more of it.
Anyway, that's neither here nor there. I said I'd be uploading more old art, so here are a few pieces I submitted to the Art Gallery on Neopets. I can't remember which of them actually got in, and unfortunately the AG does not have a function to search submissions by username like the Neopian Times does, but if you're feeling really bored, you can go through the thousands of AG pages and try to find these.
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
More sketching fun from the Idaho Museum of Natural History! They've got a Protoceratops mount in their current fossil exhibition about fossils from the Wayan Formation. While no fossils from the Wayan have yet been identified as Protoceratops, there are a few fragments of ceratopsian fossils that may have belonged to a close relative, as around that time there was a land bridge between Asia and western North America, and the fauna of the Wayan is very reminiscent of parts of Asia (including my homies the oviraptorosaurs).
I gave it whiskers because Protoceratops remind me a bit of pigs (in a good, cute way). It could have happened!
Another thing that's fun about sketching paleoart from fossil mounts in real life is that you can choose whatever angle you want; most photos of fossil mounts on the Internet are side views, sometimes face-on, but in this case I was standing right next to something about the size of a golden retriever and wanted to try drawing it from my vantage point looking down at it. I think the result actually gives more of an impressions like you're taking the family pet out for a walk; much more nonthreatening than dinosaurs are often portrayed.
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
More sketching from the Idaho Museum of Natural History! Have I mentioned lately how much I love living five minutes away from a natural history museum?
This one was inspired by a chat with Dr. L. J. Krumenacker at a recent museum event where we discussed the mobility range of Oryctodromeus tails (pro tip, if you come give a paleontology lecture at the museum I will badger you with weird questions afterward). Oryctos, like most ornithopods, had tails that were strongly reinforced with tendons, limiting up-down flexibility (so no, no tail-dragging hadrosaurs like you see in older art), but Dr. Krumenacker said these tendons didn't affect lateral movement. I was seeking to understand how it is that oryctos had tails longer than their bodies but lived in burrows only 25 centimeters in diameter, and I suspect they curled up rather like this.
If you'll notice, a little friend is peeking in to say hello; fossil orycto burrows have indeed been found with much smaller burrows off to the sides, strongly suggesting that mammals co-opted the tunnels like a Cretaceous apartment building.
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Why I'm not going back to Neopets
It's time for another highly opinionated rant, and with a provocative title like that, you know you want to read more. Actually probably nobody cares, but sometimes it just feels good to blog out my feelings, especially when it's a subject that I feel passionately about and has been a big part of my creative life. Besides, on the off chance that people actually pay attention to my Neopets work and are wondering why I no longer submit to the Neopian Times, am not pursuing a more prominent position in the fan community, etc., this post will explain it.
Spoilers: If you actually like the direction Neopets has been going lately, you will not agree with this post. You have been warned. I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm just feeling some feelings right now and want to air them for anybody curious, since at one point I was a mildly prolific Neopian Times writer.
Also, this is a long read, so buckle up. I've got several bones to pick.