Random Knight Guy drawings

Sorry I haven't written much. You'd think now that I'm focusing my college studies in editing I'd be more inclined to come up with short stories or something to put on the blog. Alas, but my writer's block has almost reached its two-year mark.

These are a couple of graphic art drawings I made last week, inspired from the drawings of Knight Guy I found. I remembered the four basic Knight Guy types and decided to put them in color for the first time.

Obviously, they're somewhat based on the different genres of armor through history—European, pseudo-Nordic, Groman, and New World(?). I think I've made some mocked-up ones of Oriental armor and even a futuristic style. Perhaps I'll add them later.

The Mirror Armor looks retarded. Maybe I'll fix it sometime and make the gradient chrome instead. At any rate, these upgrades to the basic ones are based on unlikely materials that could be used for armor. I'm surprised that so many video games have cacti but rarely use them for anything but dyes and potion ingredients. Why not make a not-so-durable armor that returns damage to attackers?
Anyway, it's a style thing more than any

Audiobook practice

I really got into audiobooks a couple of years ago. There's just something about someone reading a story to you aloud that makes it easier to visualize than when you're using decoding power in your brain reading it yourself. I also like hearing professional voice actors use different voices for every character in a way that I like to do impressions as well.
That's why I'm considering doing an audiobook version of a story on my Argaenothruzil forum. Namely, the only story that really has a beginning, middle, and end, Alfred and the Cavern of Time. Here is a sample of what I would try doing if I were to do the entire book.

What do you think? Do I speak too quickly? Are the sound effects in the background too distracting? Since it was my first time, I obviously didn't articulate too well. I'm sure there are ways I could facilitate that for myself while reading in the future. Also, this is not the final cut of the book itself. There are parts in this story that will be changed. This is mostly just a test to see how a project like this would work, if I did decide to do it.
For the most part, however, it was fun to make, and my cousin and I (his blog is listed as Whited Sepulcre Blog on the top right) are going to begin copyediting and cover editing the story so that the real production may begin.

Relic Comic: Knight Fight

I've saved the best for last this week of uploading Relic Comics, though I have enjoyed every one of them I've been able to share with you. I hope to be able to find more to post on Pretzel Lectern after future visits to my ancient Tablet Vault. This is another comic with Knight Guy, showing him against his nemesis. This is obviously a much more pseudo-friendly situation than was normal for the two, but the presentation in my opinion is excellent.

I hope you got as big a laugh out of it as I did. It's funny how Knight Guy's cape keeps appearing and disappearing. That was kind of a running gag throughout his lifetime as a character, because I could just never decide if he looked better with or without it.

Relic Comic: The Hero Comic

I made this as a way to illustrate the story of The Hero, the pen-and-paper precursor to Corridor. The story used to begin this way, with King Forseti defeating the Hero and banishing him to his personal dungeon. This comic also shows briefly the second level of the dungeon, the Hedge Maze, which would be encountered after making it through the dungeon (although my friends and I never kept a single game going that long). Thirdly, the Hero would have to navigate through the final 'layer,' Forseti's castle.

I apologize for some of the hard-to-read text. It's a lot easier to read on the pencil copy.

There are a few notable things in this comic. Every game of The Hero would begin with you alone in a room with a sword. You would always get the sword straight off, as well as sometimes a simple spell leaflet. Also, this was when I was obsessed with Norse Runes, so one version of this game had an entire array of runes you could socket into your weapons to give them abilities. The Princess uses the Ansuz rune, which was the rune of wisdom (and thus, the mind, used for telepathy in this case). Any playtesters of Corridor will recognize nearly all the enemies here—the orc/ogre, the ghost, and the stone dragon head, which is what is attempting to kill the hero in the last frames. The boss monster Krakgrag is based off of the giant seen here, and Heimdall the shopkeeper is indirectly implemented in the board game as well.
I have also since done away with the "no eyes" concept of art used in this comic. Though in a future post I will talk more about where I got the idea for the little stick figures in the The Hero/Corridor universe.

Relic Comic: Knight Guy's Lament

I drew quite a bit of this guy my senior and junior years in high school. The way each part of him is put together makes him not only extremely easy to draw, but very expressive as well. I've tinkered with different names for him, most on puns of the word "knight" ("Silent Knight" was a stupid idea, but somewhat fitting, as he usually talks in punctuation marks and thought bubbles), but I guess for now I'll call him Knight Guy. There are at least four different Knight Guys I made up, each based on a different helmet type. But this guy was always the main protagonist. The wizard shown here was an example of how hard it was to create a universe of same-proportioned beings like these without helmets on.

I tried a different approach on Photoshop to make this one look more shaded. I can't tell if it works or not. It's a shame I drew so much in pencil back then. No, I take it back: it's a shame that scanners can't accurately scan pencil drawings.

Relic Comic: Reginald the Ugly Hero

While at my parents' house for President's Day weekend, I uncovered a veritable treasure trove of old comic pages that I drew when I was in high school, and will be uploading them this week. They really made me sentimental about the days when pencils were my medium of art, and really made me want to draw comics much more often. I think nowadays I worry way too much about plot and forget how much fun it is to simply draw a comic and let it write itself.

As far as commentary goes on this little gem, I like the humorously melodramatic dialog, the trope breakers of making the hero hideously ugly and making the king extremely jumpy and nervous when he's surprised, the deus ex machina hanging plant and bucket of water, and the hilariously unexpected ending.

Sorry about that panel on the right... The paper I scanned actually seemed to have some sort of burn damage somehow. O.o

Another tiny pointless vid

My brother and I are considering making a simple computer game or app with some unused graphics he made a couple of years ago. This is the archer.

Path of Exile playthrough

Hey-lo friends, my friends Jarockajule and Asrenim and I all played a few hours of Path of Exile this past weekend. You can watch our adventures and get a feel for the dynamics of gaming in our friendship on YouTube. This link here will lead you to the first part of the series. It shouldn't be hard to find the others on the same channel.
I hope someday I can afford a nice recording program (not to mention a more powerful computer) so I can do these more often from my point of view and with my own editing touches.
Enjoy!

Game Review #1: Path of Exile

I've been wanting to do this for awhile, so here goes. I hope you find my reviews of games informative and entertaining.

Abelhawk's Game Review of

 Path of Exile 

Data Month Snippet

Data Month is going pretty well. I have to wear a wristband to remind me all the time that I need to be recording stuff. But it's pretty good. I'm managing everything on an Excel document to calculate totals and averages. As a commemoration of the first week of Data Month, here are a few weekly averages of my life:

Average hours of sleep per night: 7.5
Average webcomics looked at per day: 1.8
Average car rides per day: 2
Average diapers changed daily: 2.3
Average number of daily urinations: 7
Average hours of computer played each day: 1.6
Average phone calls daily: 3
Average number of encounters with friends: 1.14

Well, that's just a tidbit, but it's kind of fun to see it calculated like this. I hope that I can continue firm to get an actual monthly average. It's kind of nice to see these stats too, in case anyone asks. For example, the number of hours I sleep on average. The urination one was always a curiosity to me as well.

I've got plans for some posts real soon! Keep it real!

Data Month Begins!

I've started Data Month, which has a stupid name but a fun premise—recording statistics of day-to-day life! I'm keeping a notebook in my pocket at all times to record every encounter I have with other people, every time I access Facebook, the hours I spend working on projects and playing computer games, and even how many times I clip my fingernails!

I think the hard work and concentration of this "project" will do me good, and provide some interesting results of statistics and averages come March 1.

I'd just like to say I'm really glad I created this blog. It's been sort of a Magnum Opus to me, compiling loads of memories and using it as a way to record the progress on my projects. I have some great things planned for later this month when I visit my parents. I'm going to showcase a planet I invented when I was a kid. That'll open the possibilities to add to childhood storylines with the knowledge I have as an adult now.

So many possibilities! So much to explore. I wonder if I'm the only one who digs into my childhood and past like an archaeological dig, hoping to find glittering gems of interesting ideas and adding updated edges to them.

Thanks for visiting Pretzel Lectern today!