Didn’t have much free time the last 2 weeks. Lots of exciting stuff going on in the army, too bad I can’t blog about it.

Anyway, I managed to squeeze in a portrait of Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li from the upcoming Street Fighter movie. As usual, I used a reference and still only noticed the glaring mistakes after I finished, check it out in the Bygones page.

And before I forget, here’s a quick sketch of Akemi.

Now on to the update!

The past week has been a rather exciting one, for me and for my buddies. FinalFantasyXIII.net has finally launched! And we’ve already updated 3 times with user created content and a mid ‘08 — mid ‘08? Man, time really flies fast these days — news wrap up on everything FFXIII related, which isn’t much, but at least it’s something! Hahaha.

And right after that successful launch was GamingUnion.net’s turn to shine, I designed the logo and skinned the forum, it’s not much, but at least it’s clean and shiny. The main site is still under progress, it’s a long term project says Darryl. The community’s steadily gaining new members and we’re having fun discussing about our favourite hobby and livelihood: video games, with none of that fanboy hostility crap.

Next up is a little surprise with Forever-Fantasy.net, I’m not saying what it is, but I’ll have it done before I ship off. So keep your eyes on the site.

As for the collaboration project with Graham and The Duo Group, that is finished! Well, my side of things are finished, so that’s a great relief. I’m really excited to see the final product because from what I’ve seen, it’s looking pretty sweet.

As for portfolio updates, I’ve added a design piece to the portfolio, it’s the GU Logo as seen above. I’ve also added a fanart of Soul Eater to the bygones.

Just some quick sketches! I drew a chibi! AWWWW. Hahah.

Yeah…see earlier post.

Hm, to Photoshop…or to colour with markers? Guess I’ll go with the markers, I need the practice and I don’t want them drying out!

I felt an overwhelming sense of relief after drawing this…for some reason or another.

Anyway, 2 weeks left before I get shipped off! I only have to finish up that Metal Gear collab project with The Duo Group, checking through the pages for FinalFantasyXIII.net- -which reminds me, I still gotta do the CSS for the gallery pages- -coding up a layout for my buddy’s blog and…um…preordering Metal Gear Solid 4 from Play-Asia! Hm, wait a minute, that shouldn’t be on my top-priorities list.

I’m in love with Soul Eater! It’s far more amusing than Naruto, at least.

Spetznaz Spartan Jump? Some outlandish Call of Duty 4 meets 300 humour between myself and my brother.

Yeah…just needed to do something even if did turn out like crap, haha.

FinalFantasyXIII.net is coming along nicely though! I can’t wait until we launch, I’m so excited. Haha. Oh, and FF-Illumina.net interviewed Kyle, Lauren and I concerning the new site! It was a lot of fun, too bad quite a few of our messing around didn’t make the cut!

Also, I somehow lost my database and had to restore it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a very up-to-date back up file. The only significant posts that are missing are the two video recordings- -which I might as well post here.

Well, technically, it’s 1:29 in the AM. Anyway, here’s some random sketches done with a brush pen, it was incredibly fun to fool around with.

The FXN Final Fantasy XIII Podcast is back with episode 7, but…there’s absolutely no news! An epic misadventure ensues as news-hungry maniacs chase down the newly formed four person crew for their fix of FFXIII crac–I mean, info.

This was a blast to work on. I just had to draw something for this week’s episode after listening to the kickass intro sequence that Kyle cooked up. It’s the best one so far, in my opinion. Anyway, got a couple of easter eggs in this piece! The car chase is based off of Burnout Paradise’s “Marked Man” event and David’s got a Zat from Stargate.

It’s a lot more cartoony than my usual works too and I think I’m getting better at noses. However, I noticed that I haven’t been that great with hair. I guess it’s time to start doing more studies again, I haven’t done any in a while. There’s a couple of perspective issues too, I guess I should’ve used a vanishing point, haha.

By the way, I’ll probably be doing some tinkering around with the CSS in the next few days, so if you notice anything wonky with the colours and layout, don’t fret! It’s just me.

Procrastination is not a good thing…Anyway, I finally managed to finish this before the deadline. I totally forgot about it, good thing I opened my sticky app this morning.

This is my submission to dA’s Okami contest. I loved this game on the PS2, such a beautiful piece of art and the story was just so engaging. The funny thing is, out of the entire game, my favourite part has to be when I’m doing nothing and Ammy just plops herself down to rest and all sorts of pretty flora begins to grow around her. I gave this the same title as one of the music tracks since I was listening to it pretty much the entire time I was working on this. That’s another thing I love about this game, the music. It’s brilliantly epic.

You can either click the thumbnail to view the larger version here or check it out in the Portfolio page.

Finally, as you can see, I’ve done it once again! Don’t you just hate love me? Anyway, if you’re oblivious as to what I’m speaking of, I’ve made yet another layout for unartifex.com. The layout space is significantly wider–just like I’ll be if I don’t start exercising. Other changes include the addition of an archives page, which I’ve named BYGONES, just so it doesn’t get confused with the blog’s archive. The info page that somehow magically went missing during the last layout change has also made a return! Now with just as much boring information as before.

I have also reorganized my portfolio. For the moment, only selected pieces will be showcased in it, everything else has and will go into the bygones. Visit the blog for works in progress, sketches and the usual unimportant ramblings of a conscripted fool. If you haven’t already noticed, I’ve also given the comics section its own page. Why, you ask? Simply because the thumbnails would have looked rather funny compared to the rest of the art in the portfolio.

One of the biggest changes to the site is that everything is now powered by Wordpress! In the previous layout, I had seperate sets of images and CSS for the main site and blog; however, now not only does unartifex have a single set of images and CSS, but I’ve learned how to pull posts from my blog to be displayed on the index page too. Hooray, neat stuff I’m learning here.

Anyway, there’s a bunch of new art in both the portfolio and bygones, so feel free to check those out!

So I’m incredibly excited for the MGS4 presell program, which includes a Bonus DVD(Metal Gear Saga 2.0) and access to the Metal Gear Online beta in mid April. I’ve had my sister preorder it for me, since, well I’m in Singapore and she’s in Canada Anyway, unfortunately, the idiots working at our local EB games seem to know nothing about it. I’ve phoned them a couple of times, and each time I’m met with “it only comes with the special edition…”

…

THE HELL IT DOES! There isn’t even a freaking special edition, just limited and regular <_< and the bonus DVD comes with both. Okay, maybe he isn't game savvy...ironic considering he works in a game store. So I phone up Bestbuy instead, even worse, the guy says they won't start taking preorders until a month or so before the game's release. Doesn't make sense, the presell program started this month and the online beta starts on the 17th and ends in the first week of May...

So here's the deal so far, several branches of EB, including my local one, and Bestbuy, are oblivious to these bonus DVDs. I'm really frustrated now. Anyway, I phone up the EB at Metro and guess what! THEY ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT IT! Success! Except I can't pick up my preorder there...The girl said that all the branches have the same information and that they will call customers that have preordered once the shipment arrives. However, considering the situation at the local EB, will they even do that? They don't even know about the damn things, how will they know that they should be calling customers?

I phoned them again today, this time I'm met with a girl who simply says 'Hi'...I had to ask her if it was EB that I called and not a wrong number. I ask her about the DVDs, she says they haven't received it yet. So I guess at least one person knows about them.

I've also left a comment on Blog.Playstation, hopefully I can get some answers there. Does anyone of you know anything about this?

This is the most anticipated game for me this year, next would probably be LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2…It would totally suck if I can’t get my hands on MGS 2.0 and the online beta

PS. I need a haircut…