This may be the last Sketchbook Monday I do. Not the last one this year, the last one period. No one really reads the blog as it is, so I might as well save my efforts for entries that are more worthwhile. Meh.

A character design for a super-quick game idea. Except that nothing is super-quick with me. I could turn The Raven into War and Peace without so much breaking a sweat. And I could do it in my sleep. With both arms tied behind my back. And a blindfold. Although if I were sleeping, that’d be kind of redundant.

This is the co-pilot design. The idea of the game is that you’re piloting a drill from the Earth’s crust all the way to its molten iron core. Really, from a gameplay standpoint, you’d only need one character to personify the player, but I felt like giving the hero a co-pilot so here she is.

Here they are together. They make a cute couple, don’t they?

One more of the girl.

Something I just felt like sketching; a girl in a basketball jersey.

This is what I wasted my time on all last week. This page is an excerpt from a simple sketched draft of a short story in comic form. The draft is complete, but as usual, I am doomed to never finish anything so don’t expect to ever see me work on the real thing. 🙁 There’s fourteen more pages besides this one. Ouch! It was well over what I was shooting for.

I’m not wild about this new sketchbook I’ve purchased. The paper is too dark and flimsy, and the scans are coming out very poorly (though a bit better than I expected they would, I will admit). I’ll probably try to “burn through” this paper as quickly as I possibly can. In the meantime, here’s a very, very late Sketchbook Monday.

Still experimenting with the art style for Under a Different Moon. Here’s an older version of Iccari, along with ????. I’d like to serialize the story here on Vision Riders, but I’m waiting on input first. I want the story to be the best it can possibly be, despite its age and cliché-ridden plot.

Look, it’s anime Iccari!

Here’s a more realistic rendition that my sketchbook paper utterly ruined. This is close to the style I’d like to use, but it wouldn’t look right with my horrid skill, so I’m afraid to use it at all. Oh, how I wish I could paint! T_T

Iccari again. I actually managed to finish the second draft of his story here recently, but I’m not sure what to do with it anymore. 🙁

A slightly older version of Iccari. OH MY IT MUST BE FOR THE SEQUEL. Or not.

Here’s the female version of the nomad from a few weeks ago. The idea is that each class has a male and female version you can choose between, with a few different “palette swaps” of each.

Male and female variants of the feral.

A random girl, because I felt like it.

More concept art for the same game idea shown last week. This is the feral class, perhaps the most tank-worthy of the classes. They can equip a great range of armor and are right at home on your party’s front lines.

Some more sprite concepts along the same lines as the ones featured last week. These ones are of the nomad. The left two are map sprites, while the rightmost one is a battle sprite.

Concept art for a game idea that may or may not replace AetherFall. This is a character class you can have in your party, the Illusionist. He toys with the threads of time and space to confuse and attack the enemy. He’s also a decent melee fighter.

Hey, it looks like an NES sprite! Oh, the nostalgia! Or something like that. I’ve actually considered doing the in-game art like this; in high resolution but with simple shapes and a limited palette of bold colors.

Here’s an alternate look with much more detail. No nostalgia factor, of course, but it would be much better animated.

Another character class, the ranger. These guys can attack from the back or front row, but also double as a support class to heal your other characters.

It’s Sketchbook Monday Monday—as opposed to the usual Sketchbook Monday Tuesday and Sketchbook Monday Wednesday, of course.

Perhaps a princess in need of saving?

Concept art for Yet Another Game Idea I Will Never Completeâ„¢.

Aetherfall is currently being put on hold while I evaluate the title. In other words, I need to take into account what’s done so far, what’s working, what’s not, and come to a conclusion on whether or not it’s worth going on or if I need to focus my efforts elsewhere. In the meantime, though, this means that Swordmaster Odyssey should return in a week or two. For now, though, here’s Sketchbook Monday.

Another attempt at coming up with a decent costume design for Iccari. Of course, in the story, he doesn’t wear the same thing from beginning to end.

Costume design concept for the antagonist. I really need to finish up the second draft of this story…

Talk about a blast from the past, this is a sketch based on a character I doodled way back in Sketchbook Monday #7!

Costume design concept for Glenn the paladin, yet another character of mine in need of a production to call his own. 🙁

Here’s yet another one of Iccari.

Don’t worry, Swordmaster Odyssey isn’t gone forever. 🙂

A concept sketch of Zorgamund, the hunter who tracks Iccari relentlessly. It seems he has no tangible reason to spend so much time tailing a single elftail, besides perhaps his own unyielding madness.

An older version of Dante from AetherFall. I may end up using a version closer to this in the final game.

A bandit from the mountains of Laurooga. You encounter them throughout the early section of the game. Thankfully, they’re pretty weak and your militia and crossbowmen should little trouble dealing with them.

A concept sketch for the bandit’s in-game sprite.