Gardow

Lets see where do I start.



I've recently had my inner artist re-awakened again, so I'm working on a ton of stuff right now. Will there be more Shovel Knight stuff? Eventually, of course, I love that game so you can bet it's inevitable. But is it coming soon? Probably not. But you never know, I didn't exactly plan my last complete overhaul of them either.

So what is coming then? Well, pixel art of course.

The first 'passion project' I started working on recently is a new dinosaur run cycle animation. I basically want to redeem that old 8-bit Utahraptor I did, so so I'm challenging myself by doing a 16-bit Dakotaraptor. Some might recognize it will also serve as some Saurian fan-art, but I do intend to do a bunch of wild (overly speculative?) variations. After this I might see if I can throw that Pachycephalosaurus some love, as I always did like them just a bit more than I did dromies. I just really have to redeem that old Utahraptor before I do any others. Definitely more mesozoic animals after this one though. Go show Saurian some love if you haven't already! If you love dinosaurs, this is the game you should be looking forward to. Survival in the Hell Creek ecosystem, has there ever been a better use for that Fry meme? I think not.

Next one's a bit funny really. Some may know I started doing pixel art about a decade ago at an old sonic fan forum. Getting back in contact with a bunch of veteran people from there who still practice their various art crafts has made me wonder if I can rework my old fan ideas into original concepts. So get ready to find out how this old Gardow alias started in an old fanfic, as I rework it from the ground up in a new wuxia tale. (Ancient Asian High Fantasy, think Tolkein with Kung Fu.) Maybe I'll show some doodles of it, but more likely pixel art as usual. As I often hear extinct fauna outside of dinosaurs get ignored too often, I'll be trying to focus on the Cenozoic Era here. (Probably the Pleistocene, but don't hold me to that yet.) This is what I'll be working on during this all-nighter, so maybe some of this well find its way into my gallery first?

Then earlier this week, I had a great idea for a self-portrait that is just all me. The idea came to me as I was... Well I won't spoil it, but as I was doing what I am currently animating. It will probably be my biggest pixel art undertaking yet, so don't expect this one to be done first. I'm trying to up my game with all of these, and as such don't want to rush any step. (That's an in-joke you don't get now, but you will.)

Last but not least, I might look into finally accepting some pixel art commissions, as for now I've basically rejected every one of them. Never personal, I just didn't feel up for the job, as I never quite dared throw all of myself into it. Don't go jumping at me yet though, I've got plenty on my plate for now that's keeping me both busy and entertained. But we'll see, maybe there will be some more stuff filling up this gallery on a more consistent basis some time sooner or later. Who knows, maybe I'll finally accept a pitch to work on a game later on this year.



I'll leave you with a silly palaeo haiku:

Dakotaraptor,
dumb name but radical wings,
insert turtle joke.


So what have y'all been up to?

My laptop crashed today so I won't be uploading anything any time soon. I lost a fair amount of work on another mock-up which is probably all gone now, and I really don't feel like putting in the exact same work again. Guess it's time for a forced hiatus.

Haven't written one of these in ages.

This week I reworked the Order of no Quarter bosses to fit in with my new Shovel Knight sprite. A lot of them had bits and pieces that bothered me more and more.
So once I reworked Shovel Knight, it was time to tackle these wonderful bosses again. Some are mere palette and shading fixes, some are complete overhauls.
Overall I'm quite satisfied with the outcome, the style is a lot more consistent now.

Up next, probably fix up Black Knight and Shield Knight before moving on to other stuff.