Call me 'Immy'.

Concept art I decided to post separately because it has its own story.

The world of the Ba'tala is broken. Literally. It has no name, it's simply known as The Broken World. And I do mean it that the World is literally Broken. Many environments defy the laws of nature in some way, such as floating islands, fire that burns cold, clouds you can walk on, and so forth. While most are fairly benign, staying around them is seldom ever a good idea--you don't know if you'll spontaneously combust, grow a third arm, or just outright turn inside out by staying in these locations. Locations wherein things make little sense and are prone to environmental entropy are known as Rifts, as they are literal breaks of reality where nature cannot remain stable.

No, I haven't abandoned Tales of the Ba'tala. Far from it. I just.... well. I needed time to step away and reflect what I wanted with this work. To reflect on why I design the inhabitants of the world the way I do, why the environments are the way they are, who my target audience is, and how I am to approach everything. It took me about 4 years of not touching Ba'tala and lots of personal reflection on who I am as a writer and an artist, especially one who is POC. Didn't help that at the time, two films were coming out that really made me develop doubts that what I was doing was worthwhile.

I'm glad to have overcome my insecurities, as well as realizing why it's taking me so long to get Ba'tala off the ground. Basically, I learned that if you are going to write a 400 page poetic epic, you need to learn how to write short, simple humble poems first.

Tales of the Ba'tala has been going through some major overhauls the past year or so, with reworking the story outline, mythology and lore, worldbuilding, and characterizations of the tales' many individuals. Rather than write a massive linear epic, I've decided to go with an anthology of sorts, with various Tales focusing on specific individuals or locations as a stand-alone, complete story. Oh, there is still a massive myth arc, but it's told through multiple perspectives instead. Thus, if I were to, let's say, fall off the face of the Earth and never return, the Tales would be okay left alone without a conclusion. Like how Greek myths never have a "conclusion".

Right now, the biggest focus I'm on is the outline and narrative scripts. Artwork is for studies and concepts. By focusing on just studies and concepts, I'm actually able to feel less overwhelmed with trying to improve my art at an unrealistic rate. Note how I improved how to draw trees and leaves.

This is stupid.

No wait.

Tried doing the Color Wheel Meme as a coloring exercise. It ended up not just being a success, but it REALLY helped me grasp coloring in ways I couldn't before, like limiting a palette per character, keeping an eye on values and saturation, and other things of color theory that, while I know what they are, I have a difficult time implementing it.

Some colors are swapped around on some characters like Rashid's kaftan and cloak, while others like Giovanni, Frascona, and Guy are given adjusted hues not only appropriate of color theory, but even what colors would have been available during the early 18th century. Ruixiong may be unusual given that deep purple would have been impossible to obtain unless you're swimming in money, but hey, it's color practice, he probably stole the dyes and made Abena make his hanfu, or just outright stole from a rich person. Or have the Master give him the bajillion sea snails needed to make the dye WHO CARES?

This blog has been known for its Punch-Out!! and StarFox art, and I tend to get super bored of the usual prompts with Inktober and its variants, so instead, I'm going to try to draw a favorite character of mine for every day of October, starting with my favorite video games for the year of 2024.

-Immy's Inktober '24-

#2: Phoenix Wright from the 'Ace Attorney' series

...I couldn't get the taser and whip to fit in the center artwork, so...

This blog has been known for its Punch-Out!! and StarFox art, and I tend to get super bored of the usual prompts with Inktober and its variants, so instead, I'm going to try to draw a favorite character of mine for every day of October, starting with my favorite video games for the year of 2024.

-Immy's Inktober '24-

#1: Princess Zelda from 'The Legend of Zelda' series

I try not to think too much on the boxers’ real names because I like to keep mysellf open for others’ headcanons on theirs. Buuut, I do have my own list. I based my real names on either play on words based on their ring names, the closest I can find to an already existing name (if their stage name has nicknames), borrowed from their voice actors in the Wii game, or inspired by a real life boxer that somewhat resembles their character designs.

Doc is excluded because we already have his canon real name (Jerome), and the SNES Super Punch-Out!! lore confirms Aran Ryan is using his real name. For the other boxers, I have:

Little Mac: [left deliberately open]

Glass Joe: Joseph Verre (Surname is ‘Glass’ in French)

Von Kaiser: Viktor Kaiser (because I love irony and ‘von’ as a German nobility particle has been dropped since 1919).

Disco Kid: Daniel Quick (play on his character archetype (“Disco Dan”) and Kid Quick. I sometimes call Disco ‘Danny’ in my head)

King Hippo: King Hippo. Leaving his name as is.

Piston Hondo: Hondo Kenji (named after his VA)

Bear Hugger: Bernard Newman (Bernard is Germanic (fits with French) meaning “brave as a bear”. Newman is taken from his VA)

Great Tiger: I actually have more than one. I previously named him Tipu Singh (Tipu meaning “tiger” in Sanskrit), but I became so fond of the first name that I stole it for myself. He’s now just Sumit Singh (named after is VA. 'Singh’ is indicative of a baptized Sikh (thus the turban), which means 'Lion’, so regardless of what first name he has, he’ll still have a big cat in his name)

Don Flamenco: Juan Escamillo (a play on the Don Juan archetype, as well as naming him after his VA. Surname is taken from toreador character of the opera 'Carmen’.)

Soda Popinski: Valeriy Mota (Valeriy meaning “to be healthy, to be strong” in reference to Soda being able to heal himself with in the fight. Surname is taken from his VA)

Bald Bull: Kostas Yagan (a play on Istanbul’s historic name, which in turn would be a play on his ring name. Surname is taken from his VA)

Super Macho Man: Michael Savage (named after his VA and a reference to Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Yes, I know Randy Savage isn’t his real name either.)

Mr. Sandman: Cassius Irons (taken from Cassius Clay Jr. (Muhammed Ali) and “Iron Mike” Tyson)

It's been a while, hasn't it?