Some of the newer social media sites out there have a trend going on...

Due to the lack of hashtag support for social media sites like Threads and Blue Sky, many users have taken to trying to manipulate the algorithm to get the right people to see their posts. Basically, people are specifically listing off the type of people they're wanting to see on their feeds. Examples include "Dear algorithm, bring me artists, illustrators, plumbers...etc." The super interesting thing is it seems to be working. I have been getting a lot of those posts showing up in my feed looking to connect with artists and art appreciators. I have been doing all I can to interact and engage with those posts to try to get more eyes on my work. 

And it seems to be working! 

Especially on Threads, I am approaching 100 followers. This is the most engagement I have ever gotten on ANY social media platform. I haven't had a chance to check numbers, but I think I pretty much cap out at 30 on most sites and that usually consists of people I know in person or tangentially. So 100 followers is an amazing improvement in terms of visibility. 

If you find this site via your recent Threads follow, welcome! I super glad you're here. 😃

I am going to continue to work on my visibility online. That includes making a serious attempt to go into my artistic process here on my website. This place allows me to go way more in depth than the character limit on social media. I want to drive engagement here as well. So if you're making you're way here from one of my socials, sound off in the comments and lets get a conversation going!  
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So I have been continuing work on my concept art for my TTRPG setting. I really want to explore themes such as what it means to be human after Earth is long gone and what the next step in human evolution looks like in the face of that. Will it be technological or biological? Will it be both? At what point to different factions augment themselves to the point where they diverge from homo sapiens? I also what to explore themes of the cosmic horror of deep space and the existential dread that comes with it. 

It's a pretty dark and gritty setting, but like any TTRPG it will also have the appropriate amount of levity as we deal with what everyday mundanity looks like in the face of these huge themes. I have been obsessing about this setting for a while now, and things are starting to come together as I get close to honing in on the exact visual style of the setting. 

As far as the system goes, I am building it using the Cortex Prime system. It is actually a TTRPG system designed around the idea of giving you the building blocks to create your own system from the ground up. I have been having a lot of fun building my own system and setting. If you have any desire to build a TTRPG system but have no idea where to start, then I suggest giving them a look here: https://www.cortexrpg.com/

I mentioned some concept art. Here is the latest. 😊

Once again, feel free to comment and give feedback. I would love to talk some art. See you soon!

I have been radio silent here for the entirety of October because I had been deep in a passion project. Currently, I am playing in a Hunter: The Reckoning TTRPG where we are all paranormal investigators. Even though the themes of the game world are super dark and serious, we've adapted a more "Scooby Doo" vibe while we are hunting ghosts. We call ourselves the Pacifica Paranormalists™. 

So this became great inspiration to draw ALL of our characters. So I took almost the entire month drawing eight characters with various designs and moods. I drew one at a time and them complied them all together into one "Promo Shot". 

It wasn't until I was in the middle of this that more inspiration struck. The general vibe and action of the game lended itself well to being a movie so I leaned into it and took my art and created a movie poster as well. It was a big hit with my gaming group. 

They thought the "Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Director was a nice touch. 

So my October art dump is going to mostly consist of characters from this game. Eight characters in a month is something I would never have dreamed of even a couple of years ago as it used to take me a week or so to complete one drawing. I have really nailed down my process. 

2023 has really gotten away from me. Though I knew Halloween was just around the corner, I didn't really KNOW Halloween was right around the corner so aside from the Pacifica Paranormalists™, I didn't really do any art that was Halloween themed. I did, however, work on more world building for the TTRPG setting I'm creating. 

Two concepts around cybernetic enhancements which will be a big mechanic in this systems I'm building. I'm wanting to do something a little modular where enhancements can have different mod slots to use certain powers. It's still not ready for prime time yet, so more to come. In the meantime, enjoy my character concepts! 

As I mentioned above, I have begun work on trying to reach out via social media and engage with the larger art community. I have already seen a huge uptick in traffic so I think it's working. If you have found yourself here reading this via any one of my social media accounts, welcome. I will try to make it worth your while. 

As my TTRPG setting and system begin to take more shape, I will be posting about it here and bringing people along the journey with me. I'm still working on what framework I am going to base it on. Right now, I am building things out using Cortex Prime which is a TTRPG "engine" that allows people to build there game system from the ground up, but I don't know if I'm going to stick with that. Right now it is serving my purpose and I think it is flexible enough to work with my setting. We shall see. 

In the mean time, everyone stay safe out there and make good choices. Remember, you're enough. Also, Happy Halloween and eat some candy for me. ^_^

After getting back from a little vacation, I am ready to get back into doing some art. I managed to finish this one piece and I am currently working on another. It's been rather busy since I got back so it's been a little difficult to buckle down and get some characters done. I'm rather enjoying being a little more focused in what I'm creating. This world building is fun! 

This next piece brings us back to space. The Outer Worlds are a dangerous place to fly as well. You have pirates, you have the Commonwealth military ready to board and inspect you, and you have strange anomalies ready to tear you apart without a moments notice. If one captains a vessel flying through or bound for the Outer Worlds, then one had to be prepared for anything...

The red lights pulsated as the alert sounds blared their intent. The intruders cut through the hull a little more than 5 minutes ago. Ahlia knew they were heading for the bridge and poised herself in front of the sealed door. 

"Take the short cut," her navigator said. "It'll knock a whole two weeks off our journey," he said. 

Well, it turned out no one comes through this sector because this is where the pirates' hideout resided. These bandits had caused no shortage of angst in this star system for a while now. From small settlements like Little Bastion to big Space Ports like Atlantis One, these bastards sewed more than their fair share of havoc. 

​And now they're on Ahlia's ship. 

The attack didn't even set off any long range sensors which completely blindsided Ahlia. By the time she noticed something was wrong the hull had already been breached and the outlaws were on board. This didn't mean the captain got caught with her pants down. She had been preparing for just such an occasion. At the first sign of strife, she activated an response automation that sealed off all of the doors within her ship, The Ace, which would funnel them into the direction she would want them to go. Since their first stop would be the bridge anyway, they wouldn't notice they're being funneled. The safety protocols were then disabled so the maintenance hatch that led directly out to the void could be opened even with people in the main pathway. 

After getting her crew locked into the bridge, Ahlia stood outside the door and waited for her guests. She moved forward preparing to put up a fight. All she needed was to buy enough time for the enemy to all make their way into this hall. She would then blow the maintenance hatch and take as many of the assholes out in one swoop as possible. The trick: not get killed as well. 

​A small smiled flirted with the edges of her lips. Ahlia loved a challenge and if she made it to the other side with was going to be one helluva story. However, the moment of musing passed rather quickly as she heard the sounds of boots hitting the metal floor just on the other side of the hallway indicating how close they were. 

​"Here they come..." Ahlia said, to no one in particular. 

Another week, another piece of concept art. It am going to do more of these little story blurbs to accompany my concepts. They add a little something to my work. This one works in tandem with my previous post. If you haven't read it, check it out! 

Despite the thin atmosphere, gentle wind blew sand across the rocks. It was this slight breeze that shaped the Valley of Giants over the course of eons. As the morning suns broke out over the horizon, the silence broke by a heavy pair of boots landing on a stable slab of rock. 

​Mira had been tracking the bandits all night. She had lost visual sight of them a few hours ago, but she had ways of finding the trail. She was, after all, a competent hunter. A talent that has since become sharper as the rage inside her boiled under the cool her exterior. They were going to pay. 

It had been a few cycles since Mira was made a deputy—an honor she didn't even know she wanted. Ora, the Sheriff, saw something in Mira that she couldn't even see in herself. The time to return the favor had arrived. 

When the bandits came to Little Bastion, Ora and Mira held them off, but injured Ora in the process. The pirates then ran off with whatever supplies and medicines they could. 

Now Mira was going to take it back. 

The deputy kneeled down, took a pinch of dirt from the ground, and rubbed it through her figures and thumb. Opening her scanner, she began a chemical analysis of the soil. Though it only took moments, she could feel the tension crawl up her neck. Indeed, a chemical residue consistent with motorized vehicles permeated the ground here. 

It was fresh. The bandits were here recently. Mira was close. 

The sound of pebbles falling off a rock wall behind her took Mira out of her train of thought. Something had moved in this little rocky locale. The deputy was not alone. 

Mira slowly pulled her twelve-shooter out of its holster. If it was a fight they wanted, they were going to get it. 

This week I am exploring the Outerlands of the Commonwealth. The loosely organized star systems that make up this tabletop setting I am creating. The farther you get from the central worlds, the more lawless things get. All in all, I am loving how all of this turned out. One of the things I am trying is coming up with a story to go with these pieces. I think it will help out a lot in fleshing out the scenes in which these characters occupy. Hope you enjoy! If you like this piece and/or the story, comment below or head on over to my Commissions page to request you own! 

See below for an accompanying short story. 

Ora never wanted to be the law. 

The small settlement of Little Bastion had barely any need for law and order when she was growing up. The most conflict she ever saw were petty disputes over land and property. For that, Little Bastion looked to Ora's father for guidance and moderation of these disputes. For that, he became the defacto "Lawman" of this little Outland town. It was a peaceful life. 

When Ora's father passed, the town looked to her as the clear successor. At first, it seemed like a great gig. Without much happening out in the far reaches of the Commonwealth, being Sheriff was an effortless job that came with a great deal of respect. 

Then reports started coming in from other settlements. 

Joseph's Port was the first settlement to go dark. At first is seemed like a downed transmitter. However, some local traders who came out to Little Bastion confirmed the unthinkable. Joseph's Port wasn't there anymore. The months that followed became more and more worrisome as town after town on the little border planet disappeared. Ora tried to keep the townsfolk from panicking, but even she was scared. 

One dusk, a smoke cloud appeared over the hills to the south of Little Bastion. Taking a speeder out to check it out, Ora saw her worst fears come true. A ship, flying near the ground, was heading right for the town. From this distance, Ora couldn't make out what model of ship it was. One thing she knew for sure, no one on this planet had that kind of tech. Judging by the dust and dirt it was kicking up, it was heading right for Little Bastion. 

​Ora never wanted to be the law. Today, she had no choice...

In the last couple of days I finished up two pieces. Both are more concept art for my TTRPG setting. I have been focusing on the "ships computer" character concepts like "Star Charts", as well as military pieces like "Commander". See my blog post here and here for more info about those pieces. 

This week I have been focusing more on these concepts. Like what would happen is a "computer" freed themselves and began to walk around as well as more military concepts. The military piece, "Forward Breach" is in greyscale as I have not done a lot of grey scale lately and it's good practice to get those gradients right. I will be doing more time-lapse videos of those this week. 

​Hope you all have a good one! 

I'm feeling like I am making real progress with the way that I am engaging an audience. I have had more traffic on my website in the past month than I have in the last 6 months combined. I think isolating myself to one social media or two really limited my reach. 

In celebration of this, here is a new piece of art called "Star Charts". 

Timelapse's of this piece coming soon. Stay tuned on the TimeLapse Page or my Youtube Channel. It'll be up within the next few days. 

Hello! It's another week here on internet land, so here is a fresh post coming out. Not much as been happening except the MASSIVE overhaul of the content on my site.I like how sleek things look now. The biggest thing that I have to keep considering is the landing page. Due to my social media blitz, I have seen a lot of visitors (relatively speaking) to my site, but there are not as many views of my other pages. That means, a lot of people are finding my website, but not really clicking on anything and leaving. So I think it's back to reconsidering how I want that page to look in order to get people to see my stuff and want to request my work. 

Anyway, there are a couple of talking points I want to touch on today. 

In line with my concept art for this TTRPG campaign I am planning, I thought I would go for the more military side of things. I will be doing more military and weapon concepts as the weeks go by. The inspiration is definitely Warhammer 40K, a little bit of StarCraft, and maybe a little bit other influences. I can't seem to think of all the sci fi muses that helped me with this, but I like to think that I've truly made some unique armor here. 

This will be the first in a line of militaristic pieces for the setting I am creating. I will then move onto the more remote areas of the world. I am pretty excited for things to come.

I mentioned above that I have started doing a social media blitz to get eyes here and looking at my portfolio. Interestingly, this is a time of great change happening in social media as the "Bird Site" is slowly crumbling right before our digital eyes. Since this monolith is falling, several other contenders are rising to take its place. In the last few months we've witness the emergence of sites such as Mastodon, Threads, Blue Sky, Hive, and even Reddit competitors like Lemmy. I saw this as an opportunity to jump in on the ground floor of new social media and created an account with all of them. 

All of them...

Managing all of these is not a big deal, however there doesn't really seem to be a way to make my posts more visible or searchable. Threads and Blue Sky don't even have hashtag support. This may be because I skew a little older, but I have no idea how to reach an audience without hashtags. I feel like when I make posts on these platforms, I am just yelling into the void and getting drowned out by everyone else doing the same thing. I am not quite sure how to make my stuff as visible as possible. The thing about Twitter (or X or whatever), is that it has had years to develop these robust networking tools that make it easier to make your stuff searchable as well as giving you access to vital analytics to see what's working and what isn't. We shall see if these platforms mature. 

The second frustration that I am having is that these platforms, especially Blue Sky, seem rife with bots. Almost all of the engagement I have gotten with my posts have been bots. It's super frustrating trying to find an audience when the only audience interacting are filled with AI. This also frustrates me. 

/end rant

If you are stumbling on this post, head on over to any social media and search "poofypuma". Give my stuff a like and follow me. This will be a great help and will only allow me to grow on these platforms. I hope you all have a wonderful day and stay safe. 

I know I only posted yesterday, but I wanted to shout out some of the updates I am making to the website. First of all, the old splash page is gone. I wanted to do something a little more minimal. I will probably be making a few more changes as time goes on. 

I have also rearranged my art and cleaned out some of the older pieces that don't quite represent my current work. I decided to go with a more asymmetric grid for my layout vs the very rigid and contented layout of the previous version. I think it turned out really well. Of course, it appears a little different on mobile because of the screen size. It's all good though, it still represents my work in a visually appealing way. I also renamed a few things such as "My Art" is now "Portfolio". Subtle, but I think it gives off a different vibe. 

On the docket for future redesign is my "About Me" page. I will be revamping that with new info. First, I am going to add a pricing structure for my work to make it a bit less opaque about my commissions. I hope to add more professional work to resumé through a more transparent pricing structure. 

Lastly, I will redesign this blog page as well. It feels a little to 2000s with its layout. I will probably get rid of the archive in the sidebar and include some other way to find old posts. The sidebar takes up too much space and is kind of an eyesore. Also, it dates back to 2016 and a lot of evolution in my work has happened since then. 

Goodbye for now and look forward to more changes to come. 

UPDATE: The redesign is done and hopefully way more intuitive to navigate and explore. Already I am seeing an uptick in page views for my portfolio. I can either thank the fact that I am blitzing the internet with self-marketing or that I made the website a little less cluttered. No matter the reason, thank you for stopping by. 

It’s been a little over a month since my last post, but that doesn’t mean I have been resting on creating some fun projects. I have made several character concepts for an original TTRPG setting I’m currently working on. I’m going for a very cyberpunk aesthetic, but I also have high concept fusions between human and machine in the pipeline. I’m thinking of a more western like style as I get farther out into the "Outer Worlds". Obviously Firefly is another inspiration there. Stay tuned for different aesthetics in my future pieces as I concept out different areas of this world I’m building out. All of these current pieces are in the “Center Worlds” and are very industrial and high tech. I’m excited for where these are going.