First Underrated Artists Feature of the year so far; I'm making a conscious effort to try to get back into watching out for up and coming artists here these last couple weeks, and I'm a big fan of the art scouting change made recently that allows people to get scouted even if they only have one piece so far. I used to see a lot of folks in that unscouted portal who had three really nice pieces, but I couldn't scout them until they finished a fourth.

I'm hopeful more newcomers will be encouraged to keep posting with all the streamlining changes the site's been making on that front lately, because I'd love to make these posts a monthly thing if I can. There's always so much to see! 

And on that note, let's get started! 

@gloopyscrabble combines unique color schemes, with some wild anatomy and crazy poses. Their work has a certain offbeat sort of sensibility to it that I really admire.

@SheepHeavenly has a couple different "modes", and I really like them both, but I think there's something extra special about the MS-Paint pieces, maybe because I don't really ever see anyone attempt to do lineless work in it. In any case, I like the way they do eyes too. Very expressive.

(I'm putting three pieces here, because I know the moth girl probably isn't in the top 2, I just wanted to include it because I love her. 10/10 design.)

@anzky's art is just fun. I get so much joy just browsing through their gallery and seeing all these little goobers goofy, stupid faces. Their stuff is oozing with charm.

@mahogare is someone I just discovered a couple days ago, but I instantly fell in love with their cute character designs and expressive faces. I'd love to see them do a few more polished pieces sometime, but there's a lot of charm in what they're already doing too.

@Trisynine is a little bigger than most of the folks I typically feature in these posts, but they have SO much really high quality, really imaginative, nightmarish work, that I decided I needed to feature them anyway. There's so many crazy details and patterns hidden away in their stuff, and those neon palettes only add to that sense of surrealism.

Debated whether or not to include @Astroma on this list, because it's been a while now since they've posted new art, but maybe they just need a little push. (Please give them a follow, caus I wanna see more!) I really like their linework though; it always feels really confident, but has a certain level of looseness to it too. Some really nice character designs.

And I think that's about all I've got this time! Hope you all have a nice Valentine's Day! (or at least treat yourself to a fancy box of chocolates if you're single)

Figured it's about that time, I should make one of those year in review posts for myself, it's always nice to look back and put everything into perspective every so often.

I didn't get up to quite as much art wise this year, mostly because I got a new in-person job again, which always puts a strain on finding time to sit down at the computer and work on things after an already long day of work, but we manage! I still got to work on a lot neat little projects here and there, and had a real hand in no less than three games this year. (I even had to learn how to code a little bit in Renpy for one of them!)

The first release of the year, and the one I'm most proud of, is the one I worked with @Peti and @P-PAMda on, Maple's Maid Service. I learned so much while working on that game, there was a lot of problem solving in terms of how I'd work on the blocks of the map, and I just really enjoyed working alongside Peti as we'd kind of go back and forth with the dialogue and fleshing out the characters. Maple holds a special place in my heart, and I really hope we'll get to see her again someday.

The second project, Tidying Up, was something I kind of worked on in the background during the downtime in Maple where Peti was programming things, and I got to team back up with the old Roxy's Windows crew like @Intrapath, @Taxmann, and @GetterRocka, as well as @Scarfygoose, who did our level designs. We knew we wanted to do a puzzle game from the get go, but I originally had a very different idea for the story that was more focused on significant events in a couple's relationship. (Maybe someday! I think it could be really neat) It eventually changed into a game with a roomba and a capybara who's got depression and hoarding tendencies, haha.

And then the third was a sequel to Love Me Newgrounds, which ehh, had a bit of a "troubled" development (and even ran into some troubles AFTER release) It was a chaotic experience and it was a bit touch and go throughout the whole thing, but I do think it came together better than I ever would have hoped, especially considering just how MASSIVE a game it is, and even moreso when the original was a relatively short game. In any case, much thanks to @CaptainStevie and @BanoyAlbert for all the help in the coding, because even though it was not at all something I wanted any part of initially, I kind of enjoyed it by the end.

(I also have one more game I've been working on in the background by myself that I meant to finish by now, but eh, it'll get done eventually...I need it to break hearts. I'm really excited for that, it's just taking me a lot longer than anticipated.)

Other than all the games, I found the time to participate in Artfight again this year, which I always have a blast with. A couple pieces from that:

In some real life news, @Quarl invited me to her wedding way out in Colorado, so my bf and I flew out there for a few days this summer where we finally got to meet in person for the first time. This was a lot of fun, and the ceremony was lovely, but I was kinda sad we didn't get to stick around for a little longer. I got to pet some of Quarl's chickens (they're actually super cute? I had no idea I'd think chickens were so cute) and I got to see a lot of great scenery on the ride out to her place too. She gave me a cool hat too!

I also participated in quite a few different collabs throughout the year, including that Fishing Collab! I still can't believe that finally came out, but big props to @CJspellsfish for following through on that. I know it meant a lot to a lot of folks who made fish last year.

And then to wrap this all up, I'll just post a few of my personal favorite pieces I made over the course of this year

I think that's all I've got. Hope you all had a nice year too!

This year has really flown by and I can't believe we're in the final stretch of it already, but I figure it's about time for another one of these!

@tuffghostart is one of those people you really wanna zoom in on their pieces because they're always experimenting with wild colors or unique brush techniques that you might not be able to fully appreciate until you get up close. I love those retro half tones in particular. 

Speaking of "wildly experimental", I had to make sure I hadn't done @NeverSkipEggDay before, but I guess not! They're always using a bunch of cool textures and techniques that really blur the line on how they actually achieve the effect they're going for. Definitely worth browsing through their gallery sometime, there's a lot of neat stuff in there.

@domutstel has this fun and expressive art style with that thick and crunchy MS Paint-like approach to the lineart (maybe it really is MS Paint?) that really helps their colors and designs pop.

Admittedly @wanderer-scop hasn't posted too much yet, but I've really been enjoying what little I've seen so far. Each piece has a nice dream-like sketchiness to them and I love the way the edges of each one seem to flicker out into the abyss.

@Nornt24 is another person I haven't really seen all that much from yet, but I like the soft and dreamy sort of worlds they've been making. They aren't quite the most polished looking yet, but the vision is clearly there. Looking forward to see where they end up taking things.

I think that's all I've got for this issue, but I might throw in a couple more features in a year end wrap up sort of post closer to the new year. Might not have been quite as productive this year, but there's still been a lot to reflect on. Hope you're all able to have a nice holiday season this year too!

I've been wanting to do another one of these, but life has been so busy these last couple months that I haven't been keeping up the community as much as I'd like. I feel like it'd be a disservice not to do a proper deep dive the way I usually try to, so I've been holding off until I finally had the energy for it.

That said, these have always brought me a lot of joy, so I put together a slightly larger bunch of folks than usual to make up for my absence. So let's go!

I wanted to start off with @MyLambda, who I just finished an art trade with recently, and who's traditional ink work I've always really admired. Lambda's been on a concept art kick lately, and his concepts have a nice clean, painterly style to them that's been exciting to watch him slowly refine.

Next is @bromaster3000, who I've had on my shortlist for one of these for so long that I had to double check that I hadn't already featured them. They're still making nice work though! They've always had a real knack for cute, expressive characters, and these simple backgrounds that really enhance whatever emotion they're portraying.

@mou3tte hasn't posted too much yet, but they've got such a charming, unique, and instantly recognizable art style, and I'm a huge sucker for that high contrast look where everything pops.

I'm sure @ultra-shenanigans doesn't need my help here, as their work is easily some of the most refined and genuinely awe inspiring I've ever posted in one of these, but I just wanted to highlight them because we don't see too many painters doing this kind of stuff here. Their process gifs are really something too.

@owlgaarden has some really nice shape language in their work, where each stroke feels deliberate and it's all very clean and has a real sharp graphic appeal.

Hopefully @rotchan doesn't take this the wrong way, but their work reminds me of my childhood on Deviantart in the best way possible. It's in those big, expressive eyes, the soft colors and gentle, dreamy shading; it's all very comfy and nostalgic for me.

Lastly, we have @schllott, (and I'm just now realizing I featured a lot of painters this time) who has this soft, almost 3D sort of look to their characters and concepts. They've got a real wide range to their subjects too, which is always fun as an observer; keeping us on our toes.

I think that's all I've got for today! I suppose I'll take any horror recommendations for this month while I'm here because it's been a real lousy year for me outside of my rewatches so far. I think Near Dark and American Movie (which is not really even a horror) have been my only highlights so far. :/

Alright, this is definitely not all that great, and I was originally gonna write about everyone being equal in death no matter how great and extravagant their headstone might be, but maybe that's a concept for another time. I had to work both days of the jam, so we were too tight on time for something great. I do think there's something here, it's just in a rough state.

Anyway, thanks to @JAMRIOT for hosting this thing! Looking forward to reading some other folks' stuff.

----

"Secret Society"

I find myself at your headstone once again

This Sunday afternoon

Whether out of guilt or homage It's hard to say, but all the same

I kneel down

As I whisper my secrets to the Earth

making her an offering of flowers

in the hopes that she might pass along my message 

sharing with you all these things I never could 

The words that eluded me back then

the words I dared not speak

everything I held inside, for I was far too meek

It was the thought of confrontation 

my anxiety; asphyxiation

It was the certainty of rejection

that held me back from realization

from self actualization

And I know it's too late now

that there's no going back

but even six feet apart

I still feel so distant 

And I'm sorry

I know that one's on me

but sometimes I still miss you 

even if it was your death that set me free

Never really posted about this thing, so it's probably a little too late, but I'm gonna be hosting a panel called "Writing Compelling Characters" later today on the Newgrounds Festival Discord server at 5 PM Eastern time.

It's not gonna be anything too crazy, but I'm kind of excited about it, and I get to recommend some movies and games during it, which is secretly one of my favorite things in the world.

So uh, join if you'd like! The Discord server is 18+ only, so if you qualify and want to join the panels live, so ahead and shoot @Slimygoo or @Kekiiro a message, they should be able to send you an invite! Otherwise, I know they're gonna post a recording of each of the panels later on too if you're not able to make it. Should be fun!

Link to the panel on Youtube in case you missed it!

I also did a teeny part of the Summerfest intro for this year too! You should take a peek at that too, I think everyone did a really great job with it. :D

It's my birthday today! I have a bit of other news I'll share at the end of this post too, but I just wanted to highlight another set of underrated artists here first, caus it's been a while!

3D art has come so far over the last decade or so, but I'm still always surprised at just how much life some folks are able to squeeze out of the medium now. @kesiahh's characters and renders of said characters are so full of innocence and pure joy. I love them; they're delightful.

I'm in love with @wwiredweird's warm color palettes and mischevious looking characters, but when they do this whole "shattered stained glass" thing, it's pretty next level. The shapes and energy in those things are awe inspiring. 

We all know I love my lineless art, so as soon as I saw @jkmeilinh's stuff I had to immediately follow them. Their stuff is super clean and super detailed; it's kind of mesmerizing.

It's hard for me to pin down exactly what @CGonNewgrounds does best, because they're really good at that super inky comic book style AND that vibrant UPA sort of thing too. In any case, their art is very cool.

@thedansandoval has gotten a decent amount of frontpages before, but their art is so good and has such a wide appeal *cough* that I truly don't understand how they don't already have like 10K followers here. Genuinely one of the most polished and confident styles I've seen from anyone on this site.

So back to that "other news", first of all, I'm going to be doing a little panel at this year's NG Summerfest towards the end of the month that I'm calling "Writing Compelling Characters". I'll be honest, I haven't prepped a whole lot for it just yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what I wanna cover, and I'll get it all organized soon enough. I'm kind of excited about it; should be a good time!

And on that note, I'm also going to @Quarl's wedding here in just over a week! I'm terrified of the process of actually GETTING there because she literally lives in the middle of nowhere...but the bf and I are gonna figure it out, it's gonna happen! (Also, he's a lot better with directions than I am)

And then lastly, I've mentioned briefly before that I wanted to turn the short story I wrote for the writing contest/trans awareness day into a visual novel; I actually started that a few months ago, but I got so caught up with coding LMNG2 and working on Art Fight that I haven't really touched it since then. I'm coming back to that here now. It might just be more of a background thing until I finish it, but I'm excited about this one too. I've never really made anything so explicitly personal before, even if the events in it haven't actually happened. It's a little scary, but I like scary; that's how I grow. 

I'm one year older today too.

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.