most of the time she just thinks about birds

I recently received this email from my website (emphasis mine and edited to protect people’s privacy):

Hi Jon,

This is [REDACTED] from [REDACTED] and we are fascinated by your work. Congratulations! I’d like to extend a personal and exclusive invitation to you to join our […] Studio platform.

This. A hundred-million-billion times this. I think that the avoidance of “spec-work” should be more widespread among artists (especially young ones on the internet, who sometimes don’t even know any better and end up getting screwed). It’s so easy to just say “OMG somebody likes my art! HERE, HAVE IT” and forget that you need to, like, feed yourself. I think the problem needs to be addressed more in the super-independent games world as well (like with GameMaker game creators who want artists on their teams) because, while it’s true nobody has any money to begin with, things still need to be fair in the end, and people need to be compensated for their work.

maxistentialist: Tweenbots by Kacie Kinzer: Given their...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:17:28 -0400

maxistentialist:

Tweenbots by Kacie Kinzer:

Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost little robot, I initially conceived the Tweenbots as disposable creatures which were more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination. Because I built them with minimal technology, I had no way of tracking the Tweenbot’s progress, and so I set out on the first test with a video camera hidden in my purse. I placed the Tweenbot down on the sidewalk, and walked far enough away that I would not be observed as the Tweenbot––a smiling 10-inch tall cardboard missionary––bumped along towards his inevitable fate.

The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”

The Tweenbot’s unexpected presence in the city created an unfolding narrative that spoke not simply to the vastness of city space and to the journey of a human-assisted robot, but also to the power of a simple technological object to create a complex network powered by human intelligence and asynchronous interactions. But of more interest to me, was the fact that this ad-hoc crowdsourcing was driven primarily by human empathy for an anthropomorphized object. The journey the Tweenbots take each time they are released in the city becomes a story of people’s willingness to engage with a creature that mirrors human characteristics of vulnerability, of being lost, and of having intention without the means of achieving its goal alone. As each encounter with a helpful pedestrian takes the robot one step closer to attaining it’s destination, the significance of our random discoveries and individual actions accumulates into a story about a vast space made small by an even smaller robot.

Progress, progress…

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:04:25 -0400

Progress, progress…

I made a Shy Guy for GuilelessMonk (an excellent games essayist...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:27:00 -0400

I made a Shy Guy for GuilelessMonk (an excellent games essayist and also a game designer), as one of my small commissions! Thanks, Chris!

Reworking this sprite for Seep for Machines. I looked harder at...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:41:59 -0400

Reworking this sprite for Seep for Machines. I looked harder at sprites from other games and realized what I’d been doing wrong, namely using a side view when a 3/4 view gives better depth. Trial and error!

So, wouldn’t you know it, I got all excited about this new...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:09:49 -0400

So, wouldn’t you know it, I got all excited about this new game-animation software called Spine, got the trial version, learned to use it, and then the MINUTE I turn to grab my wallet, I find that my car is on fire and my mailbox is full of angry letters from the student loan sharks! Shucks! So, now that I have to throw all my real-job money into the Bottomless Pit of Adulthood for the next few months, I figured I should open up commissions again, in hopes of getting my game’s animations done before the programmer flips his desk into orbit. So please! Read on if interested!

I’m doing one-color ($5) and black+white ($3) drawings of anything you like, either with no background or a very simple one. I’ll do fan art, original characters, avatars, cute animals, whatever! Okay, well, “whatever” excludes porn. Sorry! These will be loose drawings, like in the image above, in my usual style. Payment will be through Paypal. Interested? Email me at mikitharp@gmail.com or drop a note in my Ask!.

If you’d like to help me out, you’ll also be helping my team’s game Sleep for Machines, because I’ll be putting the proceeds toward better software! Better software makes more pretty! More pretty makes better game!

Thank you!

Photo

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:33:38 -0400

It's really awesome to see the progress you're making with the game art work. I'm still so happy for you! I can only hope that once i'm a more capable programmer, you'll still be interested in making games so I can invite you to work with me on something =] Keep up the good work! -MGM

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:18:42 -0400

AHHHH! You are the nicest person. You keep programming and I’ll keep drawing and someday soon we’ll take all we’ve learned and combine our new superpowers to make the best game ever!

Looky, a test sprite for Sleep for Machines! In Photoshop,...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:44:52 -0400

Looky, a test sprite for Sleep for Machines! In Photoshop, I’ve got her layers set up like a paper doll, with each jointed part on its own layer. I’m currently in the middle of painstakingly saving each layer as it’s own cropped png and planning to move them into Spine to start animating soon. Hope that works out x.x I’ve never done this part before, wish me luck?

Working on color for Sleep for Machines! Here’s our main...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:31:00 -0400

Working on color for Sleep for Machines! Here’s our main character. We haven’t named her yet…

agardengrows: Posting this video onto the toombles for good...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 12:29:22 -0400

agardengrows:

Posting this video onto the toombles for good measure, with a billion tags for VIRAL MARKETING

The Song: Wallow of of the Cortez Cortez debut EP
The EP:http://cortezcortez.bandcamp.com/
The facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cortez-Cortez/553444424695642

Today’s my birthday! As a gift, the universe has granted...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:35:32 -0400

Today’s my birthday! As a gift, the universe has granted me a good drawing day. Here’s a little sketch of a character that I’m rethinking. There aren’t enough curly-haired girls in games.

YOU GUYS. I was officially asked to be on the development team...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:45:24 -0400

YOU GUYS. I was officially asked to be on the development team for an indie title called Sleep for Machines! They’re actually going to trust me to draw their game! I’ve been talking to the team for a few days, but today we finally made it official. I’m so excited! Here, have an early character design sketch. Do I have to mention that I don’t know exactly how to make a sprite? I’m going to be doing a lot of tutorial-reading over spring break…

mikitharpillustration: This is just a collection of some of my...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 22:40:36 -0400

mikitharpillustration:

This is just a collection of some of my favorite sketches/unfinished pieces that I’ve been making since about December. Some of them are concepts for videogame characters on a (currently shelved) personal project, some are avatars, and others were portfolio pieces that just weren’t meant to be. Most of these went up on my non-professional tumblr at some point.

I’m realizing now that I should work a lot more on interiors and landscapes, and stop drawing so many people all the time :D New challenge!

Reblogging my own post to point out that I have an official artist’s website XD This here is my “non-professional” tumblr, as it were… check out www.mikitharp.com

Look what I did! And it only took FOREVER!

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:08:45 -0400

Look what I did! And it only took FOREVER!

idrawnintendo: A while ago, I drew a little pic of Cloud and...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:56:23 -0400

idrawnintendo:

A while ago, I drew a little pic of Cloud and Red XIII leaning on a railing together. For the heck of it, I tried to imagine what sort of conversation they were having annnnnddddd then I remembered that Hojo tried to force Aeris and Red XIII to mate in captivity. True story. It’s in the game. Look it up. I’d blocked it out of my mind as well.

Sorry for the prolonged absence! I’ve been crazy busy working on a ton of awesome new projects! You’ll see soon!

For you, Amby.