To do:+ Azumanga '80s movies pictures for Osaka, Yomi, Sakaki, and Chiyo (practically forgotten...
)
+ #48 - Childhood
+ an idea I have for fanart of *
VanHeist's Gogo Bomango, and maybe for Didi, Andy, and Hector too (in which case I'll start with Andy)
...can't think of anything else right now...
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I passed by ~
WinonaHeart page for old time's sake and among the messages were two that insult not just her but all Sonic fan artists. One of these comment is by
~CheesyC:
[link] while the other is by
~MingoDog:
[link]CheesyC: "Gets a crapload of *cough*undeserved*cough* Pageviews, and leaves. Wow."
When asked why they're undeserved, he replies: "I'm just too strict with judging an artist's quality by originality.
That's me."
MingoDog goes further, getting a wholehearted endorsement from CheesyC in the process:
"...You know, you, Purity, and a few other artists all have hedgehog girls who look exactly alike, minus color and few hair-changes, but other than that, they all look exactly like the same character.
It's a turn-off, and takes away any originality."
He goes on to say to a defender:
"Perhaps you say these things because you know them well/are fans/friends of them, but those who do not know them, can tell the in a pinch what is obvious and what is not.
Do not convince me otherwise when I have done the work and believe me, I've taken a look just fine. "
*****
So, I ask myself: Is this true? Does the Emperor really have no clothes? Why am I a fan of Sonic fancharacters?
The artists who draw them will be the first to tell you that they aren't high art. However, there is some effort in their creation, giving them their own looks and their own personalities.
It is ultimately the personalities that hook us. Venus was funny, interesting, and charming. She liked boxing and jogging and octopi and watermelon and martial arts and insulting Shadow (the last very much to her cost). Becky, whose design seems to be pretty much an un-recoloured female Sonic, nonetheless has her own irrepressible personality. And if one interesting personality isn't enough, try five: Jade, Crystal, Emerald, Sapphire, and Ruby, the Jewel Carriers.
Perhaps MingoDog is right when he says: "I don't care if someone has an Amy recolor, there's only so much you can change with Sonic characters without making them look ridiculous..." After all, the formula is fairly straightforward: big round head with some kind of muzzle, bean-shaped body about the same size as the head, and some limbs and accessories for good measure.
It's a basic and rather limited formula, sort of like twelve-bar blues. No-one's ever going to become the next Santana by sticking to the twelve-bar blues, and the uninitiated might not be able to tell the difference between Etta James, Koko Taylor, and Big Mama Thornton, but that won't stop me from rompin' and stompin' 'til midnight! It might not be "Breezin'" or "Gypsy Queen", but it's still fun. If fun can still be extracted from the formula, who cares if it's formulaic?
Postscript:Part of MingoDog's tirade goes: "...when multi-artists can't seem to make their characters look separate, or ditch the exact same Amy-style of having three bangs with the addition of longer hair and Rouge the Bat-eyeshadow and facial expression... It doesn't even need to be said. Originality had been lost." Based on this, I wonder what he would think of *
chibi-jen-hen's Jewel Carriers, none of whom is a hedgehog, none of whom normally wears eye shadow, only one of whom has the "triple-bangs" (and in so doing reminds one more of Tails than of Amy), and one of whom is a horned lizard girl without hair or boobs. I hope his words become stale and unpalatable by the time he has to eat them.
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LOAD UP THE NISSAN SUNNY!!! 
GRAYT COMICS:The definitive Joe Bar Team comic (3 pages)
Next Era comics:
[link]Felinia va a Paris by ~
momo81 (English translation):
[link]XDRAGOON by ~
yuski [link]Housepets! by *
RickGriffin [link]The Boondocks - Afro Denial:
[link]Interesting artists and works featured here:
Ten Featured Artists If you want me to feature your work, there's space on this one! TWENTY FEATURED ARTISTSMy friends' anthro characters with cars!100 THEMES ART CHALLENGE! Policy on requests, trades, commissions and kiribansAnthromanga Daioh/Azumanga DogsMy InsaneJournal My Back Pages, which will probably be going further and further back...
The Jamaican Postal Code system has been scrapped.CSS help:
[link] [link] Clubs
Merry Xmas Everybody 
Christmas Spirited
Questionable
Tired
Cheerful
...um... erm... 
Stumped
Hello! 
*insert witty comment here* 
*
