December 10th, 2012
The Raven’s Dojo Kickstarter still needs help! I even made sprites of the strip’s stars, Rodney and Dornail, to help get the word out. Okay, I’ve wanted to make sprites of these two for a long while now, but this seemed like the right time to do it. If you want to know how serious I am, click the small version of the picture and see the animated hypnotic background effect I made for the full version. The Kickstarter’s deadline is 2:44 AM Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, Eastern Standard Time, so please consider helping the Dojo crew get the TPB release they deserve!
Categories: Illmosis updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: pixelart, Raven's Dojo
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December 7th, 2012
Sorry, no goofy title for this update. Sprites of the Space Invader (from the old cabinet art) and Flashgal, possibly Sega’s most obscure heroine, now have gallery pages. The Invader and Flashgal have work progress animations to show bits of my working on them. The Flashgal sprites are the improved versions I uploaded in yesterday’s ScrollBoss update.
I’m a turdstain for being too distracted to push this before now, but the ever-awesome Raven Perez has a Kickstarter up to get a trade paperback made of his Raven’s Dojo series. He’s only got a few days left, but he’s over halfway there. Please kick in whatever dollars, zeni, rupees or ducats you can spare to help him get this project off the ground and melting brains:
Can you kick it? Yes, you caaan!
Finally, I’m working on multiple things right now, including a small 1987 game tribute for ScrollBoss. This should shed some light one one of the character’s you’ll see in that update.
Categories: Illmosis updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: BurgerTime, Data East, Flashgal, pixelart, Sega, Space Invaders, Taito
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November 22nd, 2012
I drew a quick pic of the Golden Gobblette, my Thanksgiving mascot, and put a hastily-written version of her origin in the text section. I changed her design again and this is the version that I’ll probably stick with for now own. I say that a lot, so we’ll see how that works out next year, right? Right.
Fans of truly classic games (I’m talking 1985 and earlier) and/or pixel art need to check out ScrollBoss on Saturday because there’s a big update on the way. You’ll see obvious favorites, old friends and fiends you haven’t thought of in a while and the obligatory obscure characters that only a few of you will know. Remember that “Hall of Armors” and Castlevania backgrounds I made from scratch? I have a new background for that update, too. Of course, all of it will be in the GFX Generators with alternate palettes and all that fun stuff.
Categories: Illmosis updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: Golden Gobblette
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November 14th, 2012
So I teased a while back that I’m working on a second old-school video game update for ScrollBoss that will hit this month. These improved Pac-Man sprites (click the small pic or this link to see both sprites on gallery page) are a teaser for what you’ll see in that update. While some of you may only know these characters from Wreck-It Ralph, I’ve been basing most of the upcoming sprites on their old, official artwork. No, I still haven’t seen the movie, but I really, really, really, really, really want to. Here’s an additional teaser that I posted in a few other places to show what kind of characters will show up to the party next week.
Categories: Illmosis updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: Namco, Pac-Man, video games
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November 7th, 2012
There are still sprites from ScrollBoss’ Avengers update that haven’t been posted, so I started a “Marvel Villains” gallery page with the Loki and Mandarin sprites. I also added a sprite of Princess Python that was made this weekend and posted on the Scruffy Dragon message board.
Categories: Illmosis updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: Marvel Comics, pixelart
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November 6th, 2012
I still feel like I got ran over by a Mack Truck factory, so I have one thing to show for this 8th anniversary day: a sprite of the Ice Cream Man. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to work on my own characters, so it felt really good to make this sprite. Click the small pic to see the gallery page and the hand-drawn line work it was made from. Expect more updates this week as I catch up on the sprites from the ScrollBoss Halloween update and throw some new things in the mix.
Categories: Illmosis updates by James Beaver
Tags: anniversary, Ice Cream Man, pixelart
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November 2nd, 2012
There’s a lot of lost time to make up for, so let’s pick up where we left off. The last time I was here, I was posting sprites from the 12th anniversary of ScrollBoss and this update finishes that up. Samus Aran from Metroid, Tyris Flare from Golden Axe, skeletons from Golden Axe and some criminal goons from Double Dragon have been added to the galleries with the first three of those having work progress animations that show many of the steps I took to make them.
I’m still behind on bringing sprites here, because there was a two-part Halloween update on ScrollBoss. Castlevania fans might enjoy it because both updates were filled with scratch-made sprites from the early games of that series. Those sprites will eventually find their way here, but you should really see all the different color sets that can be applied to some of them in the GFX Generators.
I’m still not able to post any pictures from the commission work I recently finished, but I’ll let you know when the project is out there. It’s not the kind of artwork I’m usually known for, but I still had some fun with those pictures.
BTW: the commission caused me to miss the deadline on something I was supposed to start in October. If you still have the 2012 Illmosis flyer, the secret URL was just updated with new info and a shot of a supporting character who hasn’t been posted anywhere else yet.
Categories: Illmosis updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: Double Dragon, golden axe, Metroid, pixelart
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August 22nd, 2012
(updated 2012/08/23) I’m currently working on the line cleaning for the last of the 100 pages I drew for the current commission project and it looks like I’ll be working on another 100 pages right after that. There probably won’t be time for updates with new material for yet another month, but at least it’s for a good reason. I put a quick page together for the Contra sprites I made for this years ScrollBoss anniversary.
Speaking of ScrollBoss, this weekend will have a very, very, very small Street Fighter-based update for the Graphic Generators. Lots of new palettes, a few newly-added arcade sprites and at least one new sprite edit.
The UnderCity Game Fair, an event for tabletop RPG players and more, will be in Youngstown, OH on September 1st. I won’t be able to make it, but some cool artist friends of mine will be there. Check out the details on the
Undercity Game Fair website!
Categories: Illmosis updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: contra, konami, pixelart
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July 21st, 2012
First, the 12th Anniversary ScrollBoss update hit this Thursday, even if the hands of fate and timing of extra day job hours conspired against it.
New scratch-made sprites based on well-known games like Metroid, Double Dragon and Contra stand side-by-side with lesser-known gems like Konami’s Crime Fighters 2. Check them out in the Custom Sprite Galleries or have fun with them in the Graphic Generators to make your own screenshots like the ones up there. In case you didn’t know, Nutroll, Passion and Twofold have sprites in the generators, so give them a shot, too.
The main news is that you won’t see any site updates for about a month because I just got a paying assignment to draw cute pictures. At least this is a delay for a good reason. I’ll still post elsewhere to let you know that I’m still alive, but I’ll be VERY busy until this is done.
Thanks to everyone who has already said nice things about the ScrollBoss update, because you helped make this a better week than I thought I’d have.
Categories: Illmosis updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: pixelart, scrollboss
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July 13th, 2012
First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who put the All-AmeriCon together and all the people who came out to enjoy it. The event keeps getting bigger and better each year as the word gets out about how much fun it is. There were even some cosplayers this year and that’s when you know you’ve got a convention going on.
Today’s update puts the recent Nutroll pic and the 2012 flyer into the gallery with extra information along with a new picture of Maceo (or Maceon, I’m still undecided on his first name) doing that thing he does as only he can do it. As the 2012 party flyer mentions, the War Begins Again starts in October, so you won’t have to put up with the annoying teasers for much longer.
The 12th Anniversary of ScrollBoss hits next week on Thursday, July 19th and I’ve been stockpiling quite a few sprites for the update. It won’t be huge, but it should be interesting. Expect a mix of well-known characters, semi-forgotten legends and a few obscure characters. I posted a sprite of Chin Taimei (from Technos’ “Double Dragon” game for the NES) in this Tumblr post, so check it out there and follow both the ScrollBoss and Ill Side-Mission Tumblrs if you want to. I just enabled them with Disqus comments, so you can leave comments, too.
By the way, I’m not sure how I’ll be handling this, I will be selling prints through the site this year… somehow. Until I get a print store set up on the site, anyone who wants to buy prints should contact me and we’ll work out some sort of Paypal/snail mail stuff. Anyone who buys prints will get a free party flyer, if you like that sort of thing.
Categories: Illmosis updates, Nutroll updates, Site News by James Beaver
Tags: Nutroll, the war begins again
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