One comment in my previous post suggests that my recent fan art has been influenced by Penny Arcade. He was right on the money. I was indeed inspired by PA's iconic look and overall polish. But that's not always the case. In fact, it's a result of my stubborn laziness.



This was done last August, I think. As you can see, the main character sports the regular green shirt without the swirly "G" brand in the middle, and he also has eyeglasses. That's because I'm sort of caricaturing myself at the time since I just finished Shadow of the Colossus and was overwhelmed by the experience.

I don't do fan-arts to be honest; I see the 'art' as just copying an original artwork, less an art and more of tracing. But doing the SotC tribute was fun, so I made a mental note that if I played another fun game, I'll draw more.

During the next few weeks or so, I used the same character in different situations, like me waiting in line:



or barfing in the middle of the night:



At first I never considered doing a "main character" thing, but drawing new characters every time is a chore. Especially when you're lazy and you just want to get your point across. It's not a creative decision--it's a necessity. :-)

By September, I started playing FF12 (don't bother asking why I'm playing these games now). As usual, I was inspired to do something:



I've also started experimenting on different brushes just for fun. Mind you, I'm not a professional artist; I learn from colleagues at work who are paid to do art for our games. Just observing them--spying on them, even--helps me improve on my work. Especially with colors; I don't usually color my pieces for fear of ruining it. But seeing them in action kind of makes me feel I can do great stuff, too, but of course they are way up there when it comes to skills. I'm just a wannabe. A determined wannabe.

Anyway, during this period, I did, in secret, a fan comic strip for our soon-to-be-gold game. It's a DS port of a popular game, and I was, I think, randomly chosen to lead the project. I said to myself that I'm going to release this unofficial and definitely unlicensed piece when our publisher finally released the game. It took another 3 months before the game was finally released, so the strip looks outdated.



I did a major change in the character design by accident. Since the game's main character is tall and thin, I decided to make my character--I started calling him Roo around this time--just like him. It was after I did this piece that I decided to just redesign the character completely.



While I've been a Penny Arcade reader for quite some time now, I never really considered doing a character in similar style. But I liked their stuff so much, it spilled all over my design. Hence the rip-off. :-) I also added Roo's girlfriend in case things get naughty.



During this time, I was pretty much settled with the design, so I started putting him in games that I played and enjoyed.



I don't mind changing his look/physique/whatever depending on the situation. Like in Mario Kart.



Or in Boom Blox.



But there's always the standard design just to guide me:



And here's an unfinished piece. Got lazy, as always.



Sometimes, he's not even the main character at all.



Sometimes, he's with Ydine (his girlfriend's name, don't ask).



As always, I get to draw stuff when I'm inspired by something. This one's inspired by Miyazaki's Ponyo. I created a Ghibli-ed version of Ydine, too, but I didn't like the result so I cut her out of the picture.



When I get really, really bored, I change him completely. Or maybe he's a different person now?



Which leads us to the latest piece inspired by the greatness that is Plants vs Zombies. Note the slight change in the character design. This may be lead to another redesign in the near future until I can make one that is truly my own. For now, though, I'll settle for this.



Thanks for reading. :-)

(comments and suggestions are welcome, btw)