31/08/2011

Cats, people, and heropon Riki

Lynsey and cats - here she is with my cat indie, who will be leaving us soon as my parents move abroad. I will miss her and my other cat, FT (both named after newspapers) very much. We've had them since kittens.. about 8-9 years I think. At least we won't have to see them falling apart in old age, or sneezing their brains out like our previous tomcat.

They're moving to the borders (between Scotland and England) so they have nice countryside to roll about in.





More lynsey! and secret of kells



minstrel:




minstrel, I tried to draw the way his face looks, I think the bottom might be closest.

Observational drawing:







Ganetalk; Xenoblade chronicles




(I didn't art this!)

Such a good game! It's honestly the best JRPG i've played since FFX. It breaks down the expectations of JRPGs and totally rips a hole in it's modern counter parts! There are influences of western MMO's such as WoW (I hope you're keeping up with these abbreviations) and it totally works for the benefit of the game mechanics.

It has large (note: HUGE), beautiful environments with a distinct lack of invisible walls, the ability to jump, and save anywhere, fast travel systems, changing characters on the fly, visible armor alterations - all things usually absent from the traditional, now outdated JRPG model.

The only problems is that the Wii seems to be having a fit trying to run it! It makes more clicking and whirring noises than a clockwork dog in an oily graveyard.

The little guy above is Heropon Riki, easily the best character and resident mascot i.q. final fantasy's moogles or dragon quest's slimes. Other characters features the Balthier/Auron hybrid Dunban and the Yoko Littner-esque Sharla. (she has big boobs and big guns.)

TL;DR - Buy Xenoblade chronicles if you have ever enjoyed JRPGs (and you own a Wii.)

04/08/2011

sketches and scans










For the last month I've had some eye problems - in my right eye I've had a bothersome blurry circle in my vision! So I went to the opticians, where it was confirmed to by central serous retinopathy - yeah I hadn't heard of it either - a condition where my retina is pushed forward by fluid left behind by eye goblins. Which is as good explanation as any because no-one has any idea what causes it.

And I could be stuck with this circle for up to 6 months, which is a bugger, but really it's not any more than a nuisance. So here are my eye scans (cross section of the back of my eyes, including retina)

My healthy, trustworthy, left eye:




My right eye:



It actually makes me less shortsighted in my right eye - like a miniscule superpower!


However, on closer objects it's a bit more annoying:


Keyboards! My kryptonite!