Armed and Ready
When I was little, my mom used to sew Halloween costumes for my brother and I. I always liked dressing up, putting on a persona. When I was in high school, there was an anime I really liked, and a convention I wanted to go to. And by god I was going to dress up, no matter how weird or amateurish I looked. So I threw together a costume. Learned to do woodworking, papercraft, sewing, even dyed my hair.
I’ll save you the photos. It looked rough. But looking back on it, all I can think of is how much fun the experience was. I made a few more costumes after that, but nothing really spectacular until I fell in love with a specific set of armor from the game Monster Hunter.
I’m the kind of person who will throw my whole self into a project that interests me, but I do so only after making sure it’s something I know I can commit to and succeed on. For something like this, that meant starting small. I started with a weapon from the game, made of papercraft and foam. I told myself that if I could make that to a level I deemed acceptable, I could tackle the full set.
After several weeks of careful papercraft, layer with foam, filling gaps, priming, and painting, I had a true-to-life video game weapon in my hands. It looked great, it felt great to hold, and I was so unbelievably proud of it.
That was my first mistake.
What followed was my room and garage being slowly filled with foam, paint, rope, fur, and dust as I went to work. I made body mannequins out of duct tape. I made armor patterns to cut into foam using plastic wrap and packing tape. I took crafting knives, flames, dremels, and hot glue to foam to shape and mold it into the shape that I envisioned.
Over the course of the year, I slowly built up an armory in my bedroom. And it all came to its conclusion at PAX West back in 2018. Me and a couple friends arrived at the convention, I donned the armor, and walked the halls. I was even lucky enough that that year they had unveiled a new, high fidelity entry in the game series, Monster Hunter World. They had a massive booth with a flagship monster looming over it. And I got to be there, in all my armored glory, and experience it all.
Was it fun? Absolutely!
Would I do it again? Maybe if I won the lottery and had a dedicated crafting room or two…
Letting my Brush do the Talking
I started drawing in 2009. I read dozens of webcomics online, and wanted to be just like my favorite artists. So when a friend approached me wanting to take some work and make it an online comic, who was I to say no? I scrounged up what money I had, bought my first digital drawing tablet, and everything just rolled from there.
Over the years I’ve practiced, iterated, and expanded my artistic abilities not only professionally, but personally as well. I’ve run several multi-year Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and with them come character art, map art, scenery, and more. I’ve learned how to properly apply color theory to my paintings, paint in different styles and techniques, manipulate photos to suit my needs, illustrate people and places and characters, and more.
I love drawing. I love watching a piece come together from just a rough sketch, slowly building up linework, colors, shades, effects, and more, until the vision is fully realized. And I treat every painting like a learning opportunity. If I come out of a painting feeling like I’ve learned or studied something I wasn’t good at, I consider that a successful illustration, regardless of if the final quality is good or not.
