IMGUR really has come through for me, so let's jump right in and take a look at some old pictures and share a blast from the past! ^^
^Despite all the pictures that have disappeared from this gallery, this one still managed to survive. It is arguably one of the first drawings I've ever done, and actually was completed LONG before 2005 when it was posted here on the forum for the first time. I drew so many Legend of Zelda pictures from the Game Guide books back in the day that I eventually poured out this beauty - Gohma, completely free hand and just by looking at the image.
I still remember being like 13yrs old, just newly moved to a big house on a hill in Florida after the death of my Grandpa Williford, laying on my bed late at night and just furiously drawing with my pencil to churn out the darkest, meanest Gohma you(or I) have ever seen on paper. I remember the next morning I showed my mom, and my mom isn't a gamer or anything but she was seriously impressed by how accurate it looked despite no tracing, and little-to-no erasing done in the process.
Gotta say, Gohma is still, to this day, one of my BEST.
To be honest, I couldn't even imagine trying to draw anything out on paper that looks this good now at my age of 28. I remain pretty impressed myself! ^^
^These two images are being shown together. If you can remember THESE... Then you have known me an exceptionally long time, because I used these two images back on the very first TLC forum - that's right, the one I made when I was 13yrs. The smoldering ember looking image was actually plastered in repeat as the forum background, while the gif animation fire was part of the forum home page details, like nearby the online members, etc.
Like, seriously, I had a 'whoa, these still exist?' moment when I came across them. How they even survived Photobucket seems impossible, but they survived the sands of time and here they are to give a nostalgic kick to anyone that recognizes them.
FRIENDS, WE'RE GETTING OLD. JUST SAYING. ;]
^Ok, so this one I DID NOT DRAW, but... It is extremely important to me and I'm so happy it survived the Photobucket-Fallout. Does anyone recognize this image, or at least know who this character originally portrayed?
If you guessed the RP character 'FM5', then you are correct!
Yup. This picture was a fanart made out to me by my dearest old friend Lilliana, capturing(at the time) my RP character through her eyes after writing the very first FM5 Story on Sonic Haven forum together. This image is like a symbol to me of my friendship with so many great people - some that I still know or those that have said their goodbyes over time - and I will always cherish those memories writing together.
This pic is in honor of those people:
Lilliana (Snow)
Flare (Flare)
Serebii (Howler)
Doug (PureHeart)
Naraku/Blaze (Blaze the Dragon Knight)
Saevar (Liquidsonic)
Juggernaut (Juggernaut)
NintendoMaster "NM" (Various Cast of Characters)
IllusioN (IllusioN)
+Others whom, by this point, I may have forgotten due to merely time, but TRUST ME I think of everyone often and fondly. Thank you everyone for befriending, at the time, a broken and lonely girl. You'll all be happy to know, I'm sure, that I'm doing just fine now. ^^
^This image was a banner I made, and boy was it one amongst many during my childhood/teenage years. I had plenty of folders on my pc filled with stuff like this and even had images plastered everywhere on my BEDROOM DOOR too as a kid. Let's just say I had a bit(ok, maybe a HUGE) obsession with the LoZ franchise, and I couldn't help but carbon copy the image of Link and sport it as MY HERO CHARACTER from my stories. I just couldn't see my character as anything else, so a lot of fanart and fanfics derived from it, despite me having total open imagination on scenery and events otherwise(or at least put my own spin on things).
So this collection of images in a banner was of...*sighs*...
'Red Link Power Flames, hero from Hylia and later leader of the mysterious Light Castle, the Child of Destiny meant to thrawt the evil Ganon, but oh wait!, there's a scary new bad dude named Evil that threatened all worlds and...' BLAH BLAH BLAAAAAH.
Yeah. Ok. It was REALLY BAD. And I apologize for unleashing this beginner's hell out onto the world. But, hey, this one is showcased to PROVE that time, maturity, and imagination can bring a flop fanfic into an incredible epic story that is NOW
Almega.
And I can truly be proud of the direction(s) my book has taken over the years.
^Ok... So, up until this point, I've shown pencil art, art from a design program, and a fanmade request art that I didn't do, so then we come to THIS - which I, by my standards now, can barely even say that it is in fact...art.
This image was one of my first Adobe Photoshop doodles. That makes me at least 15yrs old when I drew this, because the Adobe Photoshop CS2 was the only thing I wanted for my birthday when I turned 15. I was ready to put down my pencil and finally become a master artist on the pc. Which, to be fair, still hasn't happened...but hey, don't crush a girl's dreams! XD
So this character is named
Curse. He is definitely NOT impressive - and looking at him makes me wonder what the hell is up with his arm because, buddy, no one's arm bends that way, aaaaaaand are you really a skeleton because your belly and legs are pretty buff, sooooo... - but great looking or not, he was actually a serious miniboss in the original scripts of
Almega. In fact, he was so important as a miniboss that he freaking upgraded onto the current pages of the book, now fully fleshed out as a mastermind villain and is arguably the most dangerous creature walking the planet of Almega. And, to top it all off, he registered a new name, put some muscle on, lost the wings, gained some elemental features, and embraced the glowy green effect to the fullest.
So who is he now? Well, if you can believe it, he's
THIS guy.
Talk about improvement, in every sense of the word! Let's chew on that for a bit! XD
^So comes one of the first avatars I ever posed online of a character - the concept anyway, not the art - I own called
Exor, or aka
Massacre. This toon went on to become a pretty famous RP character. Far as the avatar itself, it was a beginning, but cool for its time. All forums back in the day were these dimensions, so I stuck to the formula across the board.
But there's more on Exor!
^As shown in this picture! I'm so glad this pic survived because it was the first REQUESTED fanart I DREW, and it actually featured one of my characters, too. I made this drawing in honor of Blaze and me after he requested it, and it showcases the love relationship our characters
Exor and Crimson had in the RP stories!
This was the most detailed image I drew at a young age, and though the characters aren't perfectly proportioned it was one of the first times I was brave enough to drawn toons in nearly full-form. It was a definite added challenge drawing Crimson, a knock-off of Rouge the Bat from Sonic but with her own total unique flare.
this pic was all the rage at the time of
The Chaos Warriors, RP started/lead by Haunter 360.
Speaking of which...
^This leads us to the starring character of The Chaos Warriors, and Haunter's toon,
Seismic! This pic was yet another fanart by me. It was not requested by Haunter and instead a surprise gift for him from me. You might say we all were a little Sonic crazy, but hey, it made for great RP angles. VERY good times!
The Chaos Warriors admittedly was a great turning point for me in my writing. It started to get me out of my old patterns, at least mostly.
This pic wasn't very hard, but the background was awesome and I think I brought Seismic's personality out well - after all, he was a no-nonsense kinda Echidna. ;]
^I feel like this lizard is about to mount a mechanical bull and say 'Yeehaw!'...
*sigh*
Anyway, why is this horrid pic important? Well, it was my first GIF image. That's right, ANIMATION. And many more minor GIFs followed it. So I suppose it was deserving of this spot.
But it's still...just awful... XD
^^^These three images fall neatly alongside each other because they all reflect the story
The Diamond Monsters that I had worked on several years ago. Oddly enough, I can see the character Jake giving some inspiration for another youth in
Almega, and Spirit actually was a crossover character into the world of Almega at one point but eventually was completely adopted, and changed into Mirakon as we know him now. ;]
The Dragon Lair image was a college project, and I was immensely proud of my skill at the time. There's also the dragon on the bottom left that became a new species in Almega too - the
lasdves. So it seems The Diamond Monsters were by no means a waste of time, laying foundations everywhere for a new and evolved Almega. :3
^So once upon a time,
Lukrite had a debut image for Angel Alliance. Not so coincidentally, this pic was drawn just after another college project that became a 'CD cover art' - which, to my sadness, I could not recover from the web. But this pic did, and it was the first time I had attempted him on my own.
Which is nice to see because later on... I try again, and he looks so much better. ;]
^^These are also college projects, and made from Adobe Image I believe. I had a lot of work done across multi programs during my Tallahassee Community College days, so that makes all these projects back when I was 17rs old.
And yup, Twilight Princess was just about to release with the Wii. I was so hyped for this new console and game at the time. TP will always be cool.
I made the darker version to reflect the game, but I had trouble getting the lettering to show through where it was readable. So I had to try again, and the result was the white one to reflect the Wii it was being released on.
Not the best, but certainly not the worst. I recall getting good grades on all my projects. My teacher Rick Rice always could tell I put my heart into things even if they weren't perfect.
^
Duel For Domination - firstly, I know the difference between 'duel' and 'dual' now, and secondly this was not just an RP me and several others worked on, but it is the FINALE STORY that combines everything of mine into one simplified universe. Kinda like the way Marvel does with it's Super Heroes, yanno? Only this feels way cooler because it puts two of my major protagonists together.
That being said, this image doesn't do the justice of what will come. So much has changed. As mentioned above, Spirit is now Mirakon, so there's that. And Link needs to shove over because freaking Redd is in da house now. There's also FM5/Searina, who looks waaaaay too childish in comparison to her new look now.
So forget everything you see about this pic.
Just know it was a wake up call for me and helped me make the changes I told you about.
^Speaking of the DFD RP...
These two characters were requests by Tymki! Myra and The Nephilim were her submitted toons to the RP, and played heavier roles as the RP went along.
Fun characters to draw! I always liked that Tymki's female toons were on the less exaggerated beauty side, as it suited Tymki and honestly myself more. :]
^Another college art project! And yet, this was a designed image for a particular scene between a corrupted Spirit and heroic Raijin from, again, the DFD RP era.
I was quite proud of this picture for its time. It's when I really started looking up images online to help me CONSTRUCT characters, and it ultimately made it my style from here on out really once I saw I could literally make anything...if I could SEE it. ;]
^Need I explain? The famous baddies Dr. Techis and Vigor from multi RPs, debuting in FM5/Searina's line of stories after a massive edit(stepping out from the Dr. Robotnik time).
Really loved designing this image. I had drawn Vigor as a standalone earlier, but when I finally added a FACE to Techis and drew him in... It just fit so nicely.
You really get more of an idea of what kind of special insane genius he really is. ;]
^Pictures get slightly more random for a time here!
This was a pic I drew for tattoo purposes. Not on me, though. This Triforce & Winds is actually on my sister Shelley's shoulder! She requested the image herself! ^^
^Ah... The Digimon RP that never really happened for some reason... :[
So, we were all making a Digimon RP, picking and fleshing out what our monsters would look like. And I chose my starter as the Libra-inspired "Balamon".
My drawing was getting better, even by free-hand here.
Absolutely adorable critter!
Colors just really suite me, too.
^Lastly, for this post of the showcase, we have an early concept art.
This pic was drawn as, at the time,
E'vysinn - before he was renamed, before when he still looked a little too closely to, perhaps, Fierce Deity Link.
I could only call him 'Evil' before. Which sounds more like a codename than anything, and I suppose now it does feel like a placeholder.
But what he looks like now?
Ohhhhhhhh.... That time will come!
And it will be grand.
GRAND I SAY!!!
