Against my best judgement, I'm gonna do Artfight again this year, although I probably won't be able to make too many pieces for it. Feel free to join me though! It's super fun! I'm on team vampire, because vampires>werewolves, obviously.

https://artfight.net/~BleakCreep

It feels so surreal that it's finally happened. The team started this thing proper back at the start of the new year (and there were murmurs of plans being made even before then, which is about when I joined) and we had a real good schedule going where most of the assets were already done by like the end of February for a planned release on March 14th to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the first game, but...things did not go according to plan...release day was pushed to Pico Day, to Piconjo Day to "sometime in June" for pride month, and I'm happy enough we made that goal.

It was a rough road to getting this game out, and I even reluctantly learned how to code in Renpy in order to help make it happen, which was something I never thought I'd do...I do have to thank @Abanoy for giving @CaptainStevie and I a push to learn the basics initially, because I don't think I would have felt capable to carry it to completion if not for that.

All in all, I'm really happy with how the project turned out as a whole; I never really imagined it could all come together as well as it did, but I think we accomplished pretty much everything we set out to do with it. Thanks to @NeuromancaEspa for bringing us all together for this thing, and thank you again @TomFulp for giving us such a great platform to publish this game on (as well as the banner itself) It really means a lot.

Now go play this game! There's a little something for everyone in there!

We gonna keep this short, I just wanna say the reason I haven’t posted any art lately is because I’ve been uh…coding…which is not something I was very familiar with before (and I’m still not), but the thing I’ve been coding (with some help!) will be finished sometime very soon….and it’s pretty gay.

It’s a big collab project, a sequel to a beloved game made here last year…That is all I can say for now, but sooooon! I promise!

Once I finish this thing, we’ll move back on to the visual novel I had planned earlier this year too.

Missed doing one in April caus busy busy, but we're back on track now! I don't think I really have anything to plug at the moment, so we'll just go ahead and get right to it this time.

I love @deadmandapper's vibrant, punchy colors, and they've got some really nice variety in their character designs too.

I honestly have no idea how @esperance creates the sort of things they do, but the best way I can describe them are half imagined images. You have to take a step back to really take in what you're seeing and the results are very unique and unsettling.

Browsing through @rattyboyslim's gallery, it's all just a large collection of lovable dorks. They're all so charming that I want to give each and every one a hug and a pat on the back; they're doing their best.

@Erinekou has gotta be one of the most promising new artists I've seen here lately; her style reminds me a bit of chocoholicmonkey's a bit, but it's a little more painterly in the approach. It's really clean and fresh, in any case.

@deardecay is one of those MS-Paint sorcerers that manage to make surprisingly clean art in that hellish program. (He's also got a really cute gay couple he shares with nuclear-smash too, and I can't get enough of that stuff. It's adorable.)

And then, lastly, I'm absolutely in love with @ducknpluck's whole vibe. They've got some of that classic CN approach to character design, and they manage to pull off the multimedia look cleaner than just about anyone. Really inspiring stuff.

I just hopped on this morning to discover I'm the user of the day today, which is pretty neat already, but in addition, the game I helped make for Flash Forward Day along with @Intrapath, @Getterrocka, @Taxmann, and @Scarfygoose is out today too!

It's a cute little puzzle game called Tidying Up and I really hope you'll give it a try! You get to play as a capybara and a roomba to clean out a house, room by room! Taxmann even went ahead and made a full banger of an album for this thing. Play it here!

I wrote a little something for the short story contest as well as for Trans Visibility Day. I had originally written a bit earlier in the year that I intended to turn into a cartoon, but since the content was so intensely personal, I knew I'd need to voice the main character myself, and I've never really thought of myself as a very good voice actor.

I am proud of what I've written though, and I hope you'll give it a listen despite only being audio for now! (Maybe someday I'll turn it into a comic or something, I'm not sure) In any case, I wish all my fellow trans folks a good day today and here's "Homecoming" if you wanna give it a go (just as a warning, the subject matter is heavy though)

*UPDATE*

I have decided I will turn Homecoming into a visual novel sometime in the coming months. I think that's the right format for it.

*UPDATE 2*

A very brief WIP demo exists. There are a couple audio bugs I need to fix when moving backwards on the timeline....

https://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/4640814/preview

Music by Quarl!

I've been meaning to do another one of these for quite a while now, but I've just been so busy lately that I just hadn't found the time until today. Made a real effort to stick to folks with under 100 followers for this one, because I feel like their work all deserves a lot more eyes on it than they've been gettin'

@asbestosbunny has a lot of neat, somewhat abstract sorts of comics about alienation and industrialism. I think their soft pastel work is a nice balance to some of those darker themes as well.

@ozuzo has some consistently lush and gorgeous colors in their work; they've got some great environment work as well as some really fun and expressive character stuff.

In @garaco's case, they haven't put up too much work yet, but I'm a big fan of their character, Tammie, and they've drawn her in a really nice range of unique styles.

@roxydb has that fun, vintage children's anime sort of vibe to all of their stuff, and I love how expressive and lively all of their characters are. Just a really fun gallery to browse through.

@tuxed also has similarly retro anime style, but theirs is more of that Y2K style that Sega popularized in the Dreamcast era. Some really polished linework and poppy colors.

Hopefully I'll do another one of these soon, although I'm back to working an in person job again, and my time is a lot more limited than it used to be. Still, I hope I can be almost as prolific with my art as I was last year, and also have enough time to do some features like this too! Only time will tell, but I hope you'll give all these folks a follow for now!

Today's the day! Maple's Maid Service is finally out today! I really hope you'll give it a try!

I had a great time working with @Peti and @P-PAMda on this project, and I'm really proud of what we've managed to put together here (with the help of all our musicians too!) It's just a nice wholesome little game with plenty of cute characters and things to do around the town. 

I'll be putting the last promo piece I did for the game here tomorrow, but I also wanted to announce a fishing contest for the game too! There's a 1 in 512 chance to catch an ulta rare "fish" in the game (along with a medal for it) and so, I wanted to offer the first person to land a "shiny" fish a free commission as a prize! 

Happy hunting, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the game as well!

UPDATE! WE HAVE A WINNER!

@Splatterdash has won the fishing contest!

Why not? Let's go ahead and do one of these 2022 wrap up things for ourself. 

This was the biggest year for art I've ever had, even back in college when I was making stuff almost every other day just to stave off the hopelessness. I finished over 100 illustrations this year, along with a few collabs, a couple art contests, three animations (though, technically, one was done before the end of 2021, it just didn't have music yet) and ALMOST two games (Maple's Maid Service is on the cusp of being finished right now)

A few selections:

Working on art so consistently really helped dramatically improve my work over the course of the year, and getting Clip Studio Paint in February was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Before CSP, I'd have to make all of my art using the pen tool in Photoshop because my hands were often too shaky to make my lines as clean as I'd like. The pen tool works wonders for making shapes and patterns, and I used it almost exclusively while making the backgrounds for Maple's Maid Service, but it doesn't feel much like drawing, and it's really difficult to get the same level of expressiveness in a character when you're working so mechanically.

Through CSP, I got to explore a lot of different art styles over the course of the year. I dabbled with lineart again for a while there

I tapped back into my teenage goth roots

And then I eventually retreated back into my lineless style and finally upped the saturation on my colors after a good decade of almost nothing but pastels.

I also made quite a few new characters this year, some may have come out better than others on the first draft, but I fell in love with a lot of them and I'll probably try to continue making more new designs next year. 

I don't know if I have too much planned out for 2023 just yet, but I do hope to work on some more game projects, and maybe, hopefully, make another animation? I have an idea and even a little written for something new, but it's as personal and close to the bone as I've ever gone with one of these, so I'm a little scared of it too. I know it'll hurt, but I kinda want to do it anyway. We'll see what happens there...

I think that's about all I've got, so a quick thank you to you all for taking the time to read my ramblings. I really appreciate the fact that this website exists; I never would have expected Newgrounds to become the last bastion for artists on the internet at the end of 2022, but here we are. Hope you all had a good one!

Feel free to let me know what your favorite piece I made this year was, ask for an art trade, or hit a girl up with a fun project proposal? 

Been meaning to do another one of these for quite a while now, but I've just been so caught up working on other little projects and catching up on movies/games that I just hadn't sat down to do it yet. I have some other things I wanna talk about in this post too, but first I wanna get to all these talented people!

@Skirtzzz is exactly the kind of artist who I started doing these posts for; someone with way too much talent to be going relatively unnoticed. They've got top notch rendering skills and a real knack for expressions; the eyes tell the whole story. 

@Sherfuffle's character designs are stylish and inspired, and their colors palettes are always so spot on. I'd love to see them render out more of their sketches.

As I'm sure we all know by now, I've always been partial to the lineless art, and @Kerocolaa pulls off the look well. Their work is clean and crisp, and always reminds me of the sort of thing you'd see in a retro game's cutscenes.

@CaldoChico has a very distinctive art style; it's mischievous and playful and carries the same kind of energy as a really great sketch. The "imperfections" only add to the charm and give their work more character.

@thepotater is someone who knows how to use highlights better than just about anyone else on this site. I don't really understand how they do it, but that lighting is next level EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Halftones gradients! @815shiki puts those things to work. All of their work is so clean and well composed, but those gradients really put them over the top. Love their stuff.

I think that should wrap up the artists feature, but I also wanted to mention that Maple's Maid Service should hopefully be finished by the end of this year? In any case, it's very close to being done and most of what's left is just a bit of polishing. I've played a demo for myself though, and I think you folks are gonna like it. @Peti has been doing a tremendous job at putting all of that together. It's looking very cute. (And you can pet sheep!)

I also kind of want to do another free sketch giveaway thing like I did last year, but I am a little scared to make a proper announcement about it because I don't want to die. So uh, if you want a sketch, yes, I will make you one, and maybe something more polished it I like it enough. All you have to do to get one is follow me (and hopefully the rest of these artists!) and make a request on this news post. (I'll keep requests open for 7 days from now) I can't guarantee I'll get to all of the requests, especially if there's a whole bunch, but I will try my best and I'll do a big sketchdump with all of them later on maybe.