Nozomi Sasaki - By the pool...

... and looking as cute as ever. Love her! ^_^

My favorite song right now...!!

Jeremiah - Birthday Sex. Love it! ^_^

Echidna - Ryu Moto

Recently, one of my favorite artists, Ryusuke Hamamoto (or 'Ryu Moto' for short) was taking requests on his blog. I asked for the character 'Echidna' from Queen's Blade and he did a sketch for me! Yay! I think that's SO awesome. Hope you like the sketch as much as I do. ^_^

You can see Ryu Moto's blog here: Check it out!

...and the Echidna post here: Echidna for Mike :)

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

Asian Cutie

No time to draw extra today... so here's a pretty pic. Yay! (and the peasants rejoiced) Ha! ^_^

Hope ya like it! :)

-Mike C-

No one respects artists anymore?!

Alright, I'm usually a pretty easy-going guy. I don't let too many things get to me. However, when I saw this today, I just got mad. Furious, really. I mean, I grew up reading comics in the 90's, when artists were respected and loved. The way the 90's are talked about now, it's as if it's something to be ashamed of. I hear so many people saying that comics of the 90's sucked SO BAD and everything. Um... the reason I'm a comic book artist today is because of the awesome work I saw in the 90's. That's when I first discovered names like J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee, Joe Madureira, Bruce Timm, etc. They opened my eyes and made me wish that I could draw like them. They were superstars to me.

That's why when I saw the two covers posted here today it just made me mad. Artists USED to be the main pull for a book. I STILL think they do WAY MORE WORK than the writer of a book. But today, they are respected so little that their names are way at the bottom in small print, while the writer's name is BIGGER than the the actual title of the book. Ridiculous. This makes it seem as if artists are a dime a dozen, and it really doesn't matter who draws the book since it's the writer that's important. I hope that we can get back to a time when artists are respected and treated as such.

PLEASE take the time to comment to this article. I haven't heard from anyone in a while and I would like to hear your feedback on this. What do YOU think?

Talk to you soon. Much love.

-Mike C-

The Last Airbender - Trailer

So, MTV put out an exclusive "The Last Airbender" trailer. I think it looks pretty awesome! What do YOU think? ^_^

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Girls are awesome...

...and they remain the one thing I don't have to 'wait for inspiration' to draw. Here's another flashback pic. Life is very full right now. Much love, y'all. Hope you like it!

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

The Metal - Tenacious D - 100%

Hey, all. I recently fell in love with Guitar Hero 3. I know... I'm kinda late. That's alright. The game is still awesome and I LOVE the song 'The Metal' by Tenacious D. I played it so often I can do it with my eyes closed...literally! (I memorized the sequence). I was trying for a long time to get 100% on the song and I finally did it. Yay! Check out the pic!!

That's all for now. Hope y'all are doing great. :)

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

Girl a Day - 12

Hey, all. Just keeping my hand moving. I think asian girls are *so cute*. Sigh... a guy can dream, can't he? Hope you like it! :) -

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

Fight! Ippatsu!! Jyuden-chan! - Preview

Well, I think I just found my favorite show of the Summer season. Check out the preview screen shots. Ha! :)

I need to get some other previews. Lookin' pretty good so far!

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

(P.S. I'm still working on this Blogger picture hosting thing. I wish I could get the formatting better. Argh...all in time.)

Flashback Pic - Comfort Girl

Hey, all. Here's another flashback pic. One of my faves. What can I say? Girls make me feel better. Hope you like it! :)

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

Flasback Pic - No U-turn II

Hey, all. Quick one today. I find it interesting to look back at recent pics. I don't really draw like this anymore. There's so much pencil rendering here; Now I'd just use copic markers to get some quick tones in. Hope you like it! :)

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

Assassin's Creed - Review

Alright, so I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed for some time now. I know it came out a while ago, but I only recently got the game. Also, with ‘Assassin’s Creed 2’ on the way, it renewed my interest in playing the first one. I had heard mixed things about the game, but quite frankly I wanted to try it myself (and I had heard more good than bad).

So, I’m about 20 hours into the game with no end in sight, and I started to wonder why I was putting myself through this. Now, if a game is good, that thought shouldn’t really enter your mind. For example, one of my favorite games is Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. I remember playing that game for HOURS on end (I still pick it up and play it every now and again. J) I never asked myself, “Why am I putting myself through this?” In fact, I didn’t want the experience to end.

Now, with ‘Assassin’s Creed’, there are so many things wrong with it that I don’t know where to begin. *sigh* Oh well, I’ll just start from the beginning.

- TOO MANY THINGS GOING ON; NOT ENOUGH EXPLANATION -

At the beginning of the game, there’s a tutorial

of sorts, but (at least to me) it didn’t really catch you up to speed with the universe the game is in. There’s A LOT of stuff the game is trying to do, and the system by which the game works is so complex that I would have liked a little village or town to play in before I was dropped into the huge, expansive world that is Assassin’s Creed.

For example, there are ‘Templars’ in the game that are trained ‘Assassin Killers’ that attack you on sight.

(Normal guards leave you alone unless you bump into them or aggravate them.) There are VERY difficult and every time I’ve run into one, I’ve died. The only way to kill them is not in a head-on fight, but a stealth assassination. However, these Templars are not marked in the game (or discussed at the beginning at all). If I could check my map for them and plan a way to take them out one by one before they see me, I’d be all for that. However, the only way to see where they are in the game is to stumble across them, by which time they’ve spotted me and I’m running for my life. This gets old after a while and I got in the habit of slowly peeking around every corner before I explored a new part of the game. Which takes me to my second point…

- DOES NOT REWARD EXPLORATION; IN FACT DISCOURAGES IT -

One of the things that I love about a game like

Donkey Kong Country (or Spyro; Ohh! I love that game too. ^_^) is the fact that you are rewarded for exploration. Instead of going in a straight line to a destination, you could say, “Hmm. I’ll go down this path and see what’s over here… Oh, wow! A box of treasure! (or extra health or something to that effect). It was literally FUN to just explore the world and see what you would find (that was “off the map”). In this game, however, all that awaits you “off the map” is death. Like the Templars for example. After a while I DIDN’T WANT to explore the game less I run into a Templar that kills me on sight. Why should the developers make such a big and pretty world (and it’s freakin’ HUGE; going from town to town felt like I was pl

aying an MMORPG) if they didn’t want me to explore it? If I start running in a city, the guards might become suspicious and attack. So, although I have the ability to run, I have to walk ON PURPOSE. It’s like they’re trying everything in their power to make the game NOT fun.

-DOES NOT REWARD PLANNING AHEAD-

So, having lost interest in the actual goals of

the game because they’re pointless and not fun, I started my own missions. One of these missions was “Take out all the guards”. This is the most fun I had in the game… and it’s not even an objective. While the city streets were filled with people, the rooftops were empty except for guards scattered in certain spots throughout it. It was great fun to systematically go after the guards, looking for a blind spot, hiding in the darkness and then jumping out and killing them one after the other. THIS is what the majority of the game should have been. There are also throwing knives that you can take guards out with (in case you can’t get too close enough for a stealth assassination). “Oh!” I said. “I’ll take out all the guards in this area, so when I come back I’ll have a clear path on the roof. Yes!” So, I did just that. I took like an hour to “clear a path” on the rooftops for myself. I even blew my cover a few times and had to fight them off man-to-man. I didn’t care. It was fun and I felt I was making great progress. Imagine my horror when I left that part of the city, saved, and came back… only to see all of the guards that I had taken out back at their positions. This. Is. Not. Cool. I had actually FOUND a fun thing to do in this mess of a game… and it took that away from me.

What’s the point of killing guards if they come right back? W

hat’s the point of saving citizens that are yelling “Save me!” if I have to blow my cover and afterwards have to fight for my life EVERY SINGLE TIME. After a while, I just stopped caring.

-TAKES ITSELF TOO SERIOUSLY-

Good grief…I’m an assassin. I know. You don’t have to remind me by making it so (seemingly) everyone in the game hates me. In actuality, this is probably very close to what it was like being an assassin. If that’s so… being an assassin SUCKS. I mean, a game centered on the fact that you kill people for an organization that believes in the “the greater good” is heavy enough. I need some humor/wit to keep me interested. ‘Metal Gear Solid’ for example, had very intense and serious moments. It also has blatant fan service (boobies!) and silly stuff like hiding in a cardboard box. The levity balances out the violence to make an experience that’s actually enjoyable. Quentin Tarantino does this quite well in his movies. Brutal violence alone is horrible, and no one is going to sit through it just to be “entertained” (at least I’m not). There’s’ virtually no wit in this game, and that’s just inexcusable.

-COLLECTIBLES ARE NOT FUN TO GET-

In a game like Fable (which I loved) I went out of my way to get everything that I could get in that game. It was a joy to hunt down things and add them to a collection. J All there is to collect in this game is flags. Just…flags. You can’t even do anything with the flags (like sell them or trade them for better weapons). This is stupid. There’s no reason for me to hunt these things down, especially in a world that I don’t like exploring.

-THE MAIN KILLS OF THE GAME ARE NOT FUN-

After you work through several smaller missions,

you unlock the “main assassination” for that particular city. These are generally huge events (and if I could plan ahead and do things like take out guards to make my mission easier, I’d be all for that). However, what the game does is drop you in a place FILLED TO THE BRIM with guards, so a stealth kill (an unnoticed kill) is virtually impossible. So, for the last few assassinations, I’ve had to kill the guy and then run for my life. Running for your life SUCKS. First of all, the controls seem to get like ten times worse in a high stress situation. I’m pressing up (for him to climb up a wall) but instead he jumps backwards into the crowd of angry guards. Huh? Also, trying to find a hiding spot is barely possible. The guards spot you all the time. Since this situation is VERY STRESSFUL and UNFUN, there should be an option if the assassination did not go as planned. If you didn’t perform a stealth kill, the game SHOULD give you two options like “Try again” (in which you’d go back to you last checkpoint and restart the mission) or “Try to escape” (if you want to feel the adrenaline rush of running for your life and hiding, which can sometimes take as long as 20 minutes to find “safe spot”. (Very stressful and not fun at all to me). As it is, I HAVE to run for my life after a kill… which makes me dread a kill, not look forward to it. Where’s the fun in that?

-FINAL THOUGHTS-

I really wanted to like this game. I kept on playing after the initial badness just to see what else the game had. I also wanted to add it to the list of games that I had beaten. In the end though, it’s thorough lack of fun and seemingly endless, uninteresting story got the better of me. I do not plan to finish this game. In fact, I do not plan to play it ever again.

Final Verdict: D- (unfinished)

Well, what do YOU think? Have you played it? Let me know! ^_^

That’s all for now. Much love! *hug*

-Mike C-

Girl a Day - 11

Hey, all. Hope you're doing well. Keepin' the series going. Not much to say today. Hope you like it! :)

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

Anime Girl - Pen Sketch

Hey, all. Here's another pen sketch. I saw the design online and I just had to try my hand at it. I think it turned out alright. Hope you like it! :)


Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

Nozomi Sasaki - Cutie :)

Hey, all. No drawing today. Just felt like posting a pic of one of my favorite models, Nozomi Sasaki. I'll pick back up daily drawing on Monday. Hope you like it! :)

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

-Mike C-

Flashback Pic - Female Ranma

Hey, all. Just sharing one of my pics I drew a little while ago. I'm sure many haven't seen it, so I'm sharing it here. Pen sketches are a great way to get ideas down. They also help you to improve (since you can't erase). Ha! Hope you like it! :)

Don't forget to comment and subscribe!

Talk to you soon. Much love!

-Mike C-

Girl a Day 10

Hey, all. Figured I do more of a painting practice today. I think it turned out alright. Still have a lot to learn with the whole painting thing. Hope you like it! :)

Don't forget to comment and subscribe! ^_^

Have a great weekend!!

-Mike C-

Girl a Day 9

Hey, all. Just keepin' my hand movin'. Thanks so much for the support. Let your friends know I'm here now. Much appreciated! Also, please take the time to leave a comment or two. It really does help. :)

Much love, y'all. ^_^

-Mike C-

Back on the Net

Hey, all.

Well, DA found it right to ban me without so much as a warning notification. Thus, I've moved on. Ha, I say.... Ha.

So here's my last pic again, just catching up to where I was. Hopefully, the shift over to this page will be as smooth as possible. If you watched me on DA, please take a second to subscribe to this new page. Subscribe, please!! ^_^

Much love, y'all! Talk to ya soon. :)

-Mike C-