It is a tad awkward when people actually like your drawings. You think you owe them more, hell, you owe them a copy to take home. So, quite naturally, they ask you whether you dump them somewhere. And then, the dance starts:

“Yes, I’ve got a blog, had it for years now, but I really rarely update it, in fact I kinda cancelled updates altogether, ahahaha…”
“Why?”
“… don’t know.”

And that’s where the conversation usually drops off.

So, why? I’ve been asking myself that very same question quite a bit. Nothing important to tell? Only whiny shit? My art not fit to be released into the wilderness of that vast land we call the internets? Balls. This is the internet. All of the above infest it with abundance. I’ve been semi-active on ze twitters ever since micro-blogging became the in-thing, and half of the stuff there ain’t worth more than a chuckle.

The truth is, I’ve been neglecting my drawing for all kinds of activities, some required, but most should never have been as high on the priority list. The result? In the last one-and-a-half years my skills have not really improved. A song I’ve known too well. But no more. I bought a shiny new sketch book, and I will use it… with a vengeance!

And maybe… just maybe… I will finally get to tell the adventures of these two.

Screw technology. Screw pretty. Rugged is my style. My pencil is my sword. The paper is… mine… enemy?

I’ll be working on that metaphor till next time. I’ll have a word with my favourite webmaster to rework the site design as well. I’ll also inject myself with some manner of vile poison, and the antidote will only be dispensed upon a new blog post. Wheee.

No way that plan can fail.

Upon naming the site back in 2004, we thought up a few ways to stylise the place. We put up a forum, and I had lotsa fun painting little customised buttons for it. Oh yes. Fun. Right.

After all that work it was nice to see that 4 actual people registered… and about 180 spambots. This rush to our forums made us become a bit more… lax about the whole website business. I mainly started practising on “how to draw” the main characters of the good ol’ Seiken Densetsu 3, as we even thought about putting up a little webcomic about their travels. Or rather about what really happened, in the likes of 8-Bit Theatre. The only thing deriving from that, though, was a tremendous shift in my drawing style and skills. But see for yourselves…

As of September 2004.

As of August 2006.

While I enjoy doing stuff like that and honing my skills, I really take way too long for an image to actually make a regular webcomic out of it. But a man can still dream…
Anyway, after two years of nil site activity we scrapped the forum, and with it all the pretty icons. But hey, since blogs became so popular we decided to get down and join the online sensation of… ranting!

The black rabite’s elusiveness is matched only by its immense power, and a player would have to go far out of their way to find one. First appearing in Seiken Densetsu 3, the black rabite is an optional boss character that wields powerful magic and has a staggering amount of health. The origin of this beast is unknown, but it has somehow come into possession of powerful mana that allows it to cast nearly every spell in the game, as well as summon equal-level monsters to its aid.

Right. This brings us back to the original question… why get a ridiculous domain like that. If a reference to the almighty and most powerful rodent in the history of video gaming ain’t enough of a reason for you, just note that we were playing a lot of Seiken Densetsu 3 at the time we thought about a name for our site.

If you don’t know what Seiken Densetsu, or “Secret of Mana”, is… tsk, tsk.

Most likely we’ll be doing what most blogs do, plus a bit of artsy craftsy from my side. No idea where this’ll lead us, but let’s see what the future brings.