Hello Everyone!

After posting my New Year’s Update, I felt as if it was heavily lacking as to what I’m actually working on and how somethings I haven’t talked about recently have been going.

The Big Four:

I was doing some reflection, and found that there were mainly four projects that are *live* right now. Each of them receive almost weekly work, even if it’s small:

“Life of the Beyond”:

So, I was at a local arts center where an artist was showing some of their work before a play. I got the contact info of one of the managers… and now I’m doing a gallery showing for about one and a half weeks from late August to Early September.

I’m planning on having an opening and or closing during the show, and wanted to have an open invitation to everyone here on NG :)

I’m still working out the details since I’m focusing on travel details for school, but it’s going to be a wild time.

This is one of my priority projects at the moment, since there’s so much planning and a lot of physical work I have to do. It’s going to be fun, but a lot of work. I’ll provide more updates when I can.

Rick’s Diner

This is a comic that has been floating around for a bit and only recently came to light.

It spawned as a branch off of the now retired “Afterocalypse” idea.

I’ve been doing mostly writing and pen tests of the characters, and so far the writing has been pretty smooth.

That’s about it, you’ll see a lot more drawings with a few of the character from this (like the most recent), and it’s been a fun overarching project behind the scenes.

Robot New Year’s

This is a short cartoon that I started work on late December 2021, y’know, for New Year’s. It’s been a testing board for my animation process and working with Opentoonz to the fullest.

Back in December of 2021, I had just finished a class with a professor to work on the storyboard for Telebuddies. The class went ok. It was a tough time for everyone on campus, but I learned a lot about breaking up animation shots and sequences.

The animation is overall at about 60% completion. Mainly because I’ve been stuck in robotics laboratories all of last year.

I consider finishing this a prerequisite to finishing Telebuddies EP 1. Which is another reason why it’s been delayed a long time. My life also changed a lot since 2018 (which was when the original script was written) and the Telebuddies changed a lot to reflect that.

Robot New Year’s is planned to be finished before the end of summer, since it’s just a lot of grinding left.

Leech Band Pins:

I’ve been hinting at it on my Twitter here and there about a pin set that I’ve been working on getting manufactured. It’s a 4 pin set that’s pretty big and which I wore on my backpack for a good amount of time.

I worked with a manufacturer that I liked their quality and sent out a final request for more sets, and after about 5 sets being distributed among friends… we found issues. My friends and I have been doing testing and working to push what I initially ordered and I’ve been getting more advice from other artists.

At the time of writing, I’m getting samples from a different company and we’ll be doing testing and I will be trying to break them and throwing them half across a campus building to see how things hold up.

I’ll give updates when the pins are on full release. I won’t be talking about them much otherwise because it’s mostly emailing and invoices to deal with this project at the moment.

This is slated to be finished by end of summer this year, taking into consideration I won’t be anywhere near my normal set up for two months and can’t receive packages “normally”.

(I’m also helping some folks on campus with a game, not important to this list for detail, but important for completeness :) )

Also In Queue:

Telebuddies (has a pending pre req of Robot New Year’s)

Resetting up my Etsy (has a pending pre req of the Leech Band Pins)

Resetting up my Kofi (pending pre req of me finding time)

Dead:

Patreon:

So, my Patreon is pretty much dead at the moment. Most of the stuff that’s available right now is about it, my Patreon is now pretty much similar to my Kofi in the sense that, if you want to send me money… cool! I can’t really give anything back besides a digital high five. It might change at the end of the year, but I can’t see that far ahead. We’ll see together.

Reflections:

Something that I’ve learned from the past year and I’m still working on is mostly time management and being honest with myself on how much time I have and can spend. I’m very used to having multiple projects at once, but each with differing commitment timelines. The pins, for example, are low on time and work I need to actively do, and fits in well. However, larger art projects like Robot New Year, takes time I have to set aside.

So, I guess it’s best for me to reiterate what I’m doing is what I like to do, and drawing these characters in the margins of my notebooks has been getting me through college. And it’s been a repeating thing, but I’m sometimes scared to branch out in art and just do silly drawings that aren’t anything “serious” when I want to do drawings that are just… me. It’s very much a trying to maintain a sense of “professionalism”, but what’s illustration without telling the story you want?

I know which drawings are ones where I just kind of let myself relax and draw because I smile remembering the hours I spent working on them.

I want to do more of that as I did we a few of my recent illustrations.

Even as someone who draws robots a lot, I want to make drawings are more.. human...

And man, humans are weird.

-TheDyingSun

Happy New Year Everyone!

I finally am settling back in my apt and getting ready for school again.

If you missed it, I did a drawing of most of the folks I met in person this year!

It includes:

@ProffessorDunce (Who I met up with in Philly twice in 2022)

@SyrupMasterz It was Thron's idea to wake you up with syrup

Thron (The plague doctor, they're non NG, but a few of ya'll know em)

@maxxjamez @heyopc @Droid  THE BOYS

@poptaffy Mate, I'm going to draw your OC again, it was fun

@jack Jacked Jack

@littlbox  @GoodL ACOCK Rock

@bitbeak Vibing in the airbnb watching littlbox's stuff right before we picked him up

@dogl EGG

@PsychoGoldfish Thanks for Hosting Pico Day :)

@OddboyAnim Randomly encountered at a club, thanks for allowing randos to compliment your shirt XD

@Onic Vibing

@ChutneyGlaze  and @Maiden-Chynna Congrats guys <3

@Goji Goober

@Shal Professional "fast walker"

@Jacob I can still taste the peanut butter

@Xinxinix We'll start a dance circle some day

@BuhlBoy Thanks for the help last January btw

@Spadezer BUNK BRO

@chimp-shrimp How's the onion doing?

@StaggerNight we found him, we got big foot

Admittedly it is missing @AJtheRed

Thank you all for saying hi to me this year! I hope to see a lot of you guys again! Maybe for... Pico day?

Check out all these cool folks above though :D

Otherwise:

2022 Recap (fast edition)

-Got a few physical pieces into a gallery

-Went to Meow Wolf: Convergence Station

-Went the furthest from my spawn point as I've even gone (Salt Lake City!!!)

-Working with art faculty on campus

-Gave a robot anxiety

-Got better with physical mediums, for no reason at all ;)

-Programmed a robot arm, roomba, and fancy roomba

So, what's next?

So while I was stalling to post this, I got a notice that I would be exhibiting. More details later, it's like late August/September it'll happen.

I'm still working on animation, and I'm done all the robotics courses I need at the moment.

More illustrations (of course, and my New year's drawing forced me to get good at drawing people)

And you'll see me for Pixel day in 19 days (as of posting)

I can't think of anything else at the moment, so that's it for now :)

Happy New Year's everyone. I got a lot of great memories in 2022 thanks to Newgrounds community. I'm proud to be part of this community and share the passion and liveliness that exists here.

<3

-TheDyingSun

Been busy with classes and such so sorry for the deadness around here =.=

Will it change, likely not, but somehow my Twitter has been more alive. So check that out if you want to see at least somewhat what's up.

Cheers!

-TDS

(Copied from my collabinator post)

Hi all! I'm open for commissions again! Here's the base page with examples:

I'm always open to questions, and DM me if interested! I'm currently doing 5 open slots at the moment.

Other Examples:

-Icons:

• Retired Rocker

-Normal Illustration:

• Clam Girl
• Tankmas Remix Disc Cover

-Complex Illustration:

• Gay Robots Single Cover (Medium High End)
• Robot Day 2020 (Higher End)

Other Notes & Terms:

-PLEASE give me good references, character design is another branch of my work I can do, but please DM me about a ref sheet and or illustration if that's what you're looking for.

-I take Paypal, but can also send you invoices through Square (etc.... we'll work it out)

-The prices for the normal and complex illustrations are the base price for said complexities and additional request (like more fully detailed characters) may add onto the price, HOWEVER, these prices include pretty much standard and give you a good amount of illustration choices :)

Now for a bit of extra stuff BESIDES the collabinator one;

For specialty commissions you do have to DM me for more information and a quote since some stuff has certain material costs and requirements. (As an example, for plushes, I have to take into consideration fabric types and amount + details)

Specialty commissions are basically just the random stuff I don't usually mention, SO, here's a small list:

=Jewelry (from basic bracelets to necklaces)

-Physical acrylic paintings (Usually slightly more expensive than digital depending on size and detail)

-Wire statues

-Lamps like this one

-Plushies

And yeah, for specially commissions those aren't usually as public since it's just kind of there, and some are a bit expensive due to materials (no kidding), Otherwise, that's it and DM me if you're interested in anything.

Thank you all again!

-TheDyingSun

(Fair warning, this is a stream of thoughts from redesigning Escoco. Escoco is from Project Tiyaka, an old project of mine that I've entertained new ideas with. Escoco is a humanoid dragon, crazy right...?!?! I do talk in depth about anatomy and guts, so fair warning. If you're wondering what I'm up to rn though, my Twitter is mostly up to date at the moment. Otherwise...)

...So what about the wings? The main thing is that they would need to generate lift. but how would they connect to the back? The trapezius mainly connects the shoulders to the spine to lift them up right? So what if the deltoid for the set of wings was in the muscle layer right under the trapezius? That would interfere with the other muscles a bit would it? Having a purely muscular connection for the wings on to the torso would cause a lot of strain wouldn't it? So what if we were to thicken parts of the skeletal structure? Ok, if we do the ribs, that causes a lot of strain. If we find some way to connect directly to the bones that make up the spinal column, that would cause a lot of pressure on the spine, causing higher risks of herniated discs if there isn't compensation. And since the wings I would say... weigh 20 to 30 lb... even with hollow bones. the spinal column would need a good amount of compensation in the ligaments that cushion the spinal column. Ok, so we have a wider spinal column. This may make it harder for the character to most their torso, but that's ok. Most of the movement they need is in their neck, arms and wings.

Their legs would also need to carry the weight. so thicker bones, larger footprint (literally). And some sort of way to compensate for the fact their COM is moved backwards. Wait... is that why most dragon characters are drawn with those bent legs? I think that would be helpful to change the location of the COM over the feet and since they have a tail, it would help to increase their footprint area and stabilize them if it was on the ground a good portion of the time. Ok cool, we have weight distribution down.

What about the lift that wings create? We have two animals that have different flying styles. Bats and birds. Birds have good lift with their wings. Better than bats right...? (after a bit of googling) Ok, nevermind, bats have better control over their wings and have more senses on their wings so they can do better acrobatics. However, to keep the idea of an airfoil for Escoco's wings, having the bones slightly curved, mostly in the front and then straightening out in the back, would help give him more lift during flight. This would also reduce the amount of energy that is needed to actively fly, with most of the force going into keeping the wings static. So bat like wings are kind of better in this case for Escoco, more control and shaped an airfoil so that having his wings static is the only energy he needs to expend.

This makes me highly concerned about circulation. If the wings have similar artery sizes at the beginning similar to the femoral artery, it should be mostly fine, but since the lower ends of the wings would have low circulation, they might need to be mostly some kind of collagen and bone. It still with be innervated and have veins, but less. Escoco's heart would have to be bigger so that he could supply enough oxygenated blood to his wings. His lungs would also have to be bigger for lower pressure, I have a feeling that a limitation would be that Escoco can't climb or fly to mountains higher that humans can due to needing extra oxygen for the extra limbs and being at a high altitude.So Escoco would either have larger lungs, or more effective alveoli, which is near impossible as the human lung is quite efficient with maximization of surface area. So larger lungs, or just diver's lungs.

I think that's about it, without the obvious, being a large creature, Escoco would need a lot of energy consumption to keep up with the demand of extra muscles and use of said muscles.

This all said will be reflected depending on the weather that Escoco is in as it would limit certain functions in certain weather and resource conditions.

Ok, cheers for now!

Boy have I been busy with school etc. So sorry you all haven't seen much of me since Tankmas is December!

Thank you all for 700+ fans though. <3

To keep the conversation going, how are you guys?

Heya Everyone!

Thank you so much for over 500 fans here on NG! Sorry I'm a bit late to the party (about a month late, that's pretty normal for me). I'm really happy to see a whole bunch of new faces here on NG. So whether you've been here for a decade or just a day, Welcome to Newgrounds!

Anyway, I've started a Patreon page recently and have been posting longer updates on there! So if you want to support my work through that that would be greatly appreciated. I'm not cutting out any of the usual large updates I do here on NG or any of the mini updates on my Twitter, it's more of detailed updates or things I usually wouldn't want to show because I didn't want to tease it and it drags on (I go through spaces where things get set up, don't get worked on, and then get bulldozed through). I'll update there weekly as much as I can, and if something big happens I'll update on there too.

Otherwise, thank you guys so much for everything here on NG so far!

Cheers,

-TheDyingSun | I

Look at these cute emotes by @MKMaffo

I love them so much, and Maff is awesome, give them some love <3

Happy Pico Day Everyone!

I wanted to do a little write up on the drawing, so here we go:

Last year after Pico Day, I thought of a group setting where Captain was serving a cast of NG characters. I thought it would be hilariously cursed to draw him.

Come this week, I started the thumbnails and the perspective each time was awful.... which leads up to this morning where I woke up an without my contacts in drew the thumbnail for the drawing. It was EXACTLY what I wanted, but... I was not capable of my normal set up, so I had to wait until arriving back this afternoon.... and performing my usual marathon to finish it. 😅

But yeah, Thursday night I had a full on sketch that was about to go into final render... which was scrapped. But hey, thought it would be fun to mention how the piece was processed.

Included in the drawing is:

• ACOCK (A couple of crickets)
• Chutney Glaze (Holding a phone with the Flower doctor on it, late last year I had made a "Date with Chutney" drawing and it went downhill FAST)
• Gentles
• That girl from JoelG's Deadline
• GF from FNF
• Tankmen (Steve and Captain, Steve finally getting his pink birthday cake. I keep adding this in because it happened in 2018, anyway)
• Psycho Goldfish and VoicesByCorey (Both part of the NewGrounds Podcast)
• Duncan and Jones
• Henry Stickmin

I wanted to focus a tad more on what Pico Day meant to me this year, and while a lot of that got lost in translation from the original version, the Inclusion of ACOCK, PsychoGoldfish, VoicesByCorey, and myself with ChutneyGlaze (for those who know about Richard, don't say a WORD). But yeah, I've been kind of missing being able to hang out with my NG team. School is ending for the year soon, and I've been getting WAY faster, but that's because of, well... less time. It's been an interesting year, and I'm still in a tad of a sticky web, but we'll see how that goes through.

Otherwise...

To celebrate besides the drawing, I chilled with a friend and introduced them to Friday Night Funkin and Chutney Glaze, to which we are currently watching the latter.

Even with the stress of the drawing, I'm happy I completely scrapped it and redid it.

True to my name,

Happy Pico Day

-TheDyingSun

Hi everyone, I know it's been a while so I guess it's best to do an update.

I've still been pretty busy with school and while a good portion of it is over for the semester, I'm still working through everything. I don't have many updates with much of my projects, and I don't like to keep teasing at things knowing that it might be delayed/dropped due to time.

Art

Because it was more spatially reasonable, I picked up making crochet plushes, or at least have started to when I have time. It's been a good way to spend my free time and it's kind of fun to have tiny plushes around. I am currently in an art class as well and we've started to work more with vector illustration and cutting things out on the laser cutter on campus.

Illustration

I haven't gotten much of a chance to really sit down and draw recently. So I don't know if I'll have a drawing done for this month or not. If I do, I bet you it will be posted at some crazy time of night, like 11 PM or something.

Robotics

Classes are going well, electronics was fun :)

Otherwise...

This is just a quick check in. I'm still technically on a hiatus due to school, but always feel free to DM me on here or on Discord (if you share a server with me).

I also think it's almost surreal how big FNF is getting. The other day I saw someone on a school discord with a "M.I.L.F. is the best song from FNF" as their discord status. I've always seen NG as this one thing that very few people know about yet I remain a part of. Kind of like a serious joke in a way? Otherwise, I'd say I don't really have a favorite song from FNF, Isaac makes all of the songs have an amazing bounce! Though, for mods, gotta say "Lo-Fight" is a favorite.

Oh yeah, and this is a little Orca I crotched recently

Cheers!

-TheDyingSun