Website: Pose Maniacs.

I had today off work, that makes me very happy.

I've not done anything with my cat comic over the weekend. I have a very short attention span for long running projects. I promise I will post something of Areia kitty at some point. I have been drawing over the weekend though, I have been practicing with different poses, all my characters are usually standing up, rarely sitting or anything because my understanding of anatomy isn't stellar.

I have however found an absolutely fantastic resource for interesting and varied poses.


Pose Maniacs is a resource for artists that's free to use. Each of the models you can see in 360 degrees or you can look at the moving images of people running. The models are all done showing underlying muscle tissue and it really gives you a good idea of what you're looking at when you look at a person.

This:

Is a picture I did using some of the resources of this site. I really like this picture, I'm rather proud of it. I think you should seriously go check it out.

Kyo - Kitty Cat 2

Friday is here, not that I can really celebrate as I'm working the weekend. That is an Epic Fail :(

Was doodling yesterday, having fun with experimenting with painting but it's no where near a 'show and tell' quality. So, I decided I'd continue on my kitty theme.

From right to left: Default Kyo Back, Lump Mode, Oooooh Kibble and/or Pettins! and finally, STRETCH!

Again, Kyo isn't really brown. He's a tabby like Aya. In fact...

From left to right: Aya, Kyo, Areia.

Aya in the comic will be black because he thinks he's a Leopard/Panther, when clearly, he's really not. Kyo in the middle is a teddy bear, hence the brown and Areia. Well, I'm pulled between yellow and pink because she's a bit... well, you know what they say about blonds and pink because she's a princess.


The bandana on Kyo is because people often confuse Aya and him with each other. I can clearly tell the difference, Kyo's a much bigger cat and way less whiney. Will maybe post another blog over the weekend with Areia... I may add a bandana to Kyo and maybe a tiara/crown to Ariea lol. I'll think about it.

Kitty Cat

This has been floating around in my head for a while. I keep thinking of doing this little comic but I never do  because I think "The world doesn't need more cat comics." I figured, what the hell, my blog may as well showcase some of the ideas for it lol!

So, I give you cat 1:

Aya is a real live cat, he belongs to me and my other half but he much prefers her to me. He's a mommy's boy and I'm mom #2 that speaks in a funny accent.

This is the first little rendition of him. From left to right its: Default Aya, Default Aya Back, oh no! my shadow! and finally *WHINE!*

He's a special kitty. There will be 2 more kitties, Kyo and Areia, I've started a Kyo sheet and I've still to decide what colour Areia will be (Aya in real life is a brown and black striped tabby or some such, so is Kyo so it'd get confusing if they were both the same colours.)

Seeing as it's a drawing week, I thought I'd post something else just for the fun of it.

Me, if i was an assassin!

Artistic Progression

I've been reading a lot of webcomics and fanfiction since I was 15. I started writing Harry Potter fanfiction and thats where I met my other half, through writing so it always makes me smile still when I do it. I don't really write very much except when participating in the NANOWRIMO, but I still enjoy it.

I've wanted to get into drawing more in the past 5 - 6 years and I got photoshop recently and a Wacom Bamboo tablet. It's gorgeous, I love it and I love drawing. I used to use Serif to draw, a free version and a cheap Trust Tablet. I thought they were great and they did me for what I was trying to achieve a few years ago.

I started drawing semi seriously in 2007 and of my first pictures I drew my favorite is of Arvahnna;

The background is pants bit I liked her staff and the wings and the general feeling of the drawing. Since then I think I've gotten much better. Part of me wants to redo this piece, another says to leave it be. I also sometimes think I should take down my older stuff but I still like my old drawings and I like to see the progression between Arvahnna and one like Senaleah.

I like her much better, it's no where near as pixelly and it's more detailed. Knowing I was only using this as a character profile page I didn't do a big fancy background. I'm not gonna use either these girls for my comic, these girls are in another story that me and the other half write for kicks.

For my comic, I want to go down a much more cartoony/sketchy route otherwise i'd be there all day drawing one person never mind a whole comic page. I have another idea as well for a silly comic that I might end up posting here.

I'm thinking this will be my cast of characters. The eye up top is how most of my random sketches start, pay it no heed, I just like drawing eyes. I want this here for a first drawing to see how my art progresses for the comic as I don't want to post it on Deviant Art.

I think this week I'll continue on an art theme!

Sonic the Deadhog

Last night I couldn't think about what I wanted to write today, then I mentioned to my other half that I was maybe gonna write about Sonic. She said "Oh?". I think she's sorry she asked, I went on a bit of a rant and realised I had a lot to say!

Sonic The Hedgehog was a staple of my childhood. When I was young and was growing up with my brother, he was a Mario fan and always had a nintendo, I was always a Sonic fan and had a Sega system. Whatever the new ones were we bugged our parents for it for Christmas.

I have really fond memories of the Sonic games. The first one is basic but I still find it really hard (I have a Sonic Mega Collection disk for my Wii/Gamecube). It's still really bright and I found the art in it much prettier than the Mario games, especially when you compare the original Mario to the original Sonic.

The second game introduced Tails, a fun sidekick that had the ability to fly, not that you could control this flight but it was still fun to be able to team up with my brother at the same time and beat the bad guys.

Sonic 3 introduced Knuckles and the ability to have Tails fly and, shock! A save game!! I was so thrilled when I got that game, I remember being so excited with the idea I didn't need to sit and play that game from start to finish in one go, I could play a  bit, go to bed, continue the next day.

Things were good even in the first Sonic Adventure game on the Dreamcast. It was a fun game if not the most amazing storyline or voice acting (The voice acting was very, very bad. Sometimes I wanted to stab forks into my ears to make it stop.) but the levels were fast and it still felt like a proper Sonic Game.

After that it began to go a little downhill, the second Sonic Adventure game took out the free roaming section and just had it as a level to level game. That wasn't so bad as that's how all the old sonic games were. What really upset me is Sonic and the Secret Rings.

I get that they wanted to go into a new direction with the games because it was a new console. But they went so far down a stupid route it made my brain hurt. I felt like in Sonic and the Secret Rings, they're using the motion sensor in the wii remote because they feel they need to use it for something.


What really bugged me is Sonic constantly runs and you use the remote to steer (Like a steering wheel) to steer him left and right. You tilt it backwards or forwards to make him speed up or stop/slow down. Its really clunky and the Wii motion sensor doesn't seem sensitive enough to me to pull that off without making you want to throw the remote at the TV.  I hate there's no way to pick how you wanna control it.

I understand they wanted to try something different, but Super Mario did something different for the Wii and brought out the amazing Super Mario Galaxy. You used the traditional controls on the wii remote/nunchuck and used the motion sensor to do some small things.  A much better use of the console controls rather than using the motion sensor exclusively just because they happen to be there.

I hope the next Sonic Game (After "Sonic and the Black Knight") is way better.

I would like to be in charge of the Sonic Team, I think I'd like to find out who made Sonic and the Black Knight and shoot him/her before they do more damage. Whats next? Sonic and The Great Gatsby? Sonic and the Merry Men? Or, more probably, Sonic and the Twilight Saga!

God I'm gonna go shoot myself.

The Legend of Zelda - Time lord?

This week I've been playing a lot of computer games (mostly assassin's creed Brotherhood but more on that in another blog) and found myself playing some Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess. It's another one of those games I've played Zelda games since I can remember. My fondest childhood memories of computer games tend to be Zelda related ones. Link is also the one thing I used to draw, I was always obsessed with his foofy blonde hair.

After playing it, I realised it'd been many a year since I'd drawn a Link picture, so I started one and once i'd done the line drawing I thought "Good god, his hat is too big." It looked so ridiculous. I went and looked for some pictures online and as it turns out, no, the hat wasn't too big. In fact, it was a bit too small going by some of the Wind Waker pictures.

It got me thinking; Why does Link have such a big hat?

I thought at first that it was just a zainy fashion statement, but really, it's such an unpractical item of clothing for a swordsman. People can poke at it, it's gonna get in your face. I thought maybe he hid food in it but then I thought that would also be impractical and a bit smelly after a bit.

Thats when the truth dawned on me. Link, is a timelord.

I know, a little out there, but bear with me a second. Time Lords have cool gadgets yes? Well, Link has a bunch of those!

Dr Who himself would find it difficult to find such an array of cool weapons and items. This is only a selection of them too, there's hundreds. Magic capes that would make Harry Potter proud, a magical spyglass that Sherlock Holmes would pee himself for and, in Majora's mask, about 70 masks to both scare and delight!

Time Lords also have the ability to travel through time. Well, Link has been in upwards of 15 titles, all of which seem to span many long years and times, also, he is either a child or a young adult.

Now, I know what you're thinking. He needs a Tardis. But! My theory is that Link's hat is a Tardis! Thats how he keeps everything in it! You see, it's the perfect explanation of both the silly hat and the number of Zelda games there are.

Yes Link, we are in awe of your AWESOME hat!

Title: Super Flat Mario!

So, I've been contemplating recently the way Video Games have changed over the years. The thing that really brought it home to me was when my 4 year old niece saw me playing an old Super Mario game and said “Why is that flat?”

I was somewhat scandalised, I mean, it's not like she's never seen a 2d game before, she plays them on her mum's DS but it was just the complete shock on her face because she's played Mario on my Wii usually and it's Super Mario Galaxy and here was Mario as flat as a pancake.

She sat with me and played it once I explained that it was a game from when I was a little girl, she laughed and said “That was a long time ago!”

I'm only 25... but oh well I suppose 25 to a 4 year old is quite ancient. We played it for a half hour and said she had to go do something else. I followed her into my dad's room where she said “Granda, can I play your Xbox?”

There she was, 4 years old, playing my dad's Xbox kicking butt on one of the Shrek games. She then declared my Mario Game as crap...I wonder sometimes what the world is coming to. I suppose at least she likes the old Sonic games.

I remember being completely fascinated by the Atari games, but I remember when I was about 5, maybe 6, my brother Hugh got his first Super Nintendo. I remember thinking after that “Wow it's so cool compared to the Atari” and all the games of the Nes/Super Nes/Genesis era are my 'classic games'

Its funny how now the same thing happens with my niece. Classic super Mario is pants to her like the Atari was to me, her classic games when she's older will be Super Mario Galaxy and Shrek 2. I wonder what she'll be fooling around with? My new gadget right now is Kinectimals on the xbox and she's only 4 so, to her that's not new, it's just always going to have been there.

I was born in 1985 and I've seen it go from Green Screen technology to 3D motion sensor capture. I can't wait to see what games my niece will be talking to her friends about when she's 25.

2011 Begins Today

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a few years now and never really got round to it. "I don't have the time." Seems to be the most common of my concerns. But when I really thought about it I realised that I do have the time and I really should have something that can use to push my procrastinating self into actually finishing the projects I start.

So, the plan is to update on a M-W-F schedule and just see what I can do and how it progresses. I'm hoping people will read but if you don't then at least I have something to push me.

Starting tomorrow it'll be M-W-F and I think I'll make this a Computer Game Week.


~ Calamus