blackrain8

Here's the thing.


Llama Badges mean absolutely nothing.
They don't contribute anything to an artist's life, they don't profit anyone, they don't inspire, they don't challenge and they don't discuss.

They are completely meaningless and as creatives, anyone dishing these out should feel ashamed at their total and utter lack of respect for their peers. This site is home to thousands and thousands of artists; writers, photographers, painters, sculptors, animators, 3D modellers etc etc. We are all here for a purpose. Some of us are here for exposure, to get our work out into the wide world, some of us are here for a shot at the industry, illusive as ever. Some of us are here to improve our talents through feedback and advice, or tutorials and guides. Whatever the reason an individual may submit art on DA; they want something back, they deserve something back. I think I speak for a lot of us when I say:

- I want your opinion
- I want your criticism and your praise
- I want you to tear me down, and build me up
- I want praise, and insult
- I want advice, and requests
- I want affirmation and refutation
- I want to see that my work is among your favourite and I want to see if you absolutely hate it.

I want you to give a damn for whatever reason. And if you don't want to stop and actually acknowledge my work, then fine, ignore it. But DO NOT patronise me with your meaningless badges because you couldn't give the time of day to actually contribute something of worth.

Hey guys (dunno how many of you there are anymore), as you've probably noticed, I haven't uploaded anything in a while, i've been on a bit of a 'leave of absence'. See, it all started when I ran outta phone net data, a few weeks ago, I went ages without checking DA, when I came back, I had well over 80 deviations, and since i'm on a mobile, it's such a chore to scutter through them, picking out favs and deleting each after it's been assessed. So, I decided to not do that. A few more days, it became 150, then 200, then 340. I realized that this is what my DA presence had become, a continuous cycle of my fav-ing the works of professional artists who are 'too good' to thank us less talented. I joined this site to share my work and hopefully find recognition, an audience for it. But i'm sad to say, that hasn't really happened, met some mad peeps, no doubt, shoutout to Ravajava, Mrishimaru, jailgurdnegative and Kozloff to name a few (sorry if I forgot anyone I ought to remember, my memory is kinda shithouse).

But, it's time for me to move on, I have a print making business in the works, and to be entirely honest, i'm really motivated to get it up and running. Most of my life i'm constantly being told "you can't...", "you have to do things you don't want to", "you should get a part-time job like everyone else", going to be great to give a little personal "fuck you!" To all the people who said that shit.

So, with that, i'm off, farewell to all.
If you are interested in my work enough to follow me, then I implore you to check out my page on Facebook. Blackrain Art and Prints.


www.facebook.com/pages/Blackra…

Hey everyone.

Now, as i've said in the past...Multiple times :/
I will be 'actually' starting art commissions soon. (This time, i'm serious XD)
But before I get my ass into gear, I will do 3 'test' commissions.

So, the first 3 people to reply, get a free sketch, one coloured, one uncoloured, and one uncoloured bust (in that order.)

So, who's keen?

Christmas, a time for giving, a time for sharing and caring, a time for going off your shit!

Hahaha anyway, as some of you may know, recently, I had my birthday, and on this joyous occasion, I received 3 games as a present from my older brother.

The first two, were guaranteed 'damn good games' (seeing as how I had played and finished both before.)

The third however...Wasn't.
On a whim, I decided that I would grab the new Ninja Gaiden game, NG3, re-released as an R18+ game in Australia, under the title "Razor's Edge".

Now, I don't particularly 'like' this series, I grew up with Tenchu and Shinobi, Ryu Hayabusa isn't a fucking ninja (yea, I said it.)

So, I figure by this game, they'd have changed up the formula a bit...

Nope.
You hack away at an onslaught of maybe, uhhh, a million enemies, who all spam the one attack, and never give you breathing room.
This would be ok if I had combos, what's that, there are combos? Funny, I didn't see any, occassionally Ryu would do a new not-very powerful move amongst the thrashing of the X and Y buttons, buuut, I had no idea how, so it made no difference.

Ok, so, story first.
There isn't one... (It's laughable)

Ok, next, controls, X & Y, Lt and A.
The camera is the boss battle in every stage, and man is it hard to beat.

The level design is laughable, "hold to see the correct path", there 'is' only one path, 'everything is either an invisible wall or a visible one (hahaha.)

Enemies actually have variety in later levels, but they have maybe 2 lines of dialogue, "Die!" And "You're dead!".
All enemies must be paid a ridiculous sum of cash by their employer, seeing as how they are all to eager to press on after losing both their arms and their head (slight exageration).

Music, think i heard the Bond theme in the second last stage, not even kidding...

This time around, there are 2 playable characters in the story mode, wait, didn't Ninja Gaiden Sigma do that, or was it NG2 Sigma?

The other character is what at first appears to be an attractive young...Psychopath.
Buuut then she opens her mouth, and you discover, she's likely under the age of 15, and dresses quite slu..*clears throat* inappropriately. Question, why does the media never go off their rocker concerning sexism in games like this? Because it is en-mass.

So, pro's and cons (surprisingly, there were some things I liked about this game.)

Pros:
- Very violent (i like violence in my games)
- The Scythe is back!
- Easy difficulty actually grants you invincibility (because fuck would this game be tough as shit, even on easy.)
- Certain action sequences actually look pretty awesome.

Cons:
- Every single level is the same (sure they look different, with different enemies maybe, but c'mon.)
- Enemies refuse to die
- You get fucking spammed to the point of actually losing track of where Ryu is on-screen.
- Story is retardedly shit, predictable, and takes itself too seriously.

So, all in all, I give it a 3/10, barely.
(FYI, I didn't mind NG2, besides the hellish difficulty even on easier modes.)

Recommend this game only if you are a hardcore NG fan and felt let down by NG3.

Another day, another topic for discussion.

And today's topic is...
Singing, or rather, voice.

If you've ever listened to hardcore, metalcore etc, you'd know that really nice and professional sounding vocals aren't just reserved for prissy pop singers and accoustic melodies.

However, something about this has recently been on my mind. It's not a stretch to assume the kinds of genres I first mentioned dislike association with the other ones I mentioned, right.

Anti-pop mindsets are common in heavier genre circles.


So, why then do we have heavier band vocalists who seem to sound a lot 'like' pop musicians?
A great example of this is the singer of Sleeping with Sirens, Kellin Quinn.
Don't get me wrong, he can definitely sing, and the band is pretty good.
Buuut, I can't take them too seriously as a heavy band, when he sings like one of those 10 yr olds on shows like Australia's/Britain's got talent, the Voice etc.

On top of that high pitched, *clears throat* girly voice, they like to throw in some auto tune aswell :/


The point i'm making is, why do male singers of heavy genres feel the need to sing like women? (That's a legitimate question btw) I ask this because the Goo-goo dolls have a song (that you've most definitely heard) called Iris, it's a very calm and melodical song, very sweet and soft sounding, but most definitely sung by a bloke.
Kellin does a cover of this song, annnd, it's good, but I was like "Wait, is this guy a guy, or a girl that looks like a guy, or what?".

So, what do you guys have to say on this subject?
(And try to keep it on topic ey hahaha, i'm looking at you Medivh.)