B7
-presents-
So, I stole a perfectly good idea from TCF. Ive put together a collection
of every work of my own that I have access to over the past 20-some-odd
years. I dont have a witty comment on progression, other than I guess to
say that that they start off bad, and get mostly progressively less bad
over time. Give or take a few hiccups. Painfully bad anatomy Wolverine
and sorceror werewolf thing still hurt my eyes.
The first batch are from 1994. Rogue wasnt my first ansi, but it was the
first released in a group, which is the only reason I can find it. It was
probably my 3rd or 4th ansi, but lets call it 001 because starting the
numbering sequence at 003 would just look dumb.
In 1994, I started my text art career a local DC area group called VoR
Visions of Reality. I recall that it was a very exciting time. I was
part of something. People wanted artwork that I did Fuck if I know why,
it was horrible. Things move fast at 16, and I founded my own group with
my friends called iFX not long after lots of drama, leaving VoR, and
then a whopping 2 or 3 months later, my buddies and I merged iFX right
back into VoR also drama?.
In 1995, After VoR colapsed I guess? Who can remember, I took a few
months off, then joined RoC Reign of Chaos, which if memory serves was
another mostly-DC Area group. After putting out a few ansis in RoC, I
decided that hey, maybe Im good enough to apply to Acid. because
17-year-olds are nothing if not lacking in humility and a sense of
perspective.
I never really sent in that submission. Before I could finish it, I went
off to college, where we had T3 connections to the internet, constant LAN
gaming, instant access to 0-day ware... poetry, pr0n, drinking, less legal
intoxicants, girls, and also schoolwork... or so I heard.
I forgot about ANSI for nearly 15 years. Well, not forgot, more like put
it aside. I was always willing to talk about it to anybody who would
listen, but the only form of art I ever cared about was dead as far as I
knew. I took a few art classes in college, but I wont say I was or am
particularly good at traditional methods. Ansi was pretty much it.
Sometime in 2008 or 2009, I was bored at work and googling ansi art
because thats what one did in 2008, google nostalgic portions of their
90s teenage years. I somehow missed seeing packs from 27 and whoever else
was active then, but I did find pablodraw. I figured Id play around with
it, and loaded up one of the only ansis I still had, that unfinished acid
application ansi. I tweaked a few things, got bored, saved the changes,
and started my first new ansi in almost 15 years, phoenix. I got her about
2/3 of the way done, and then promptly lost interest again. As I saw it,
I was just one guy messing around with an artform that nobody else in the
world, as far as I knew, cared about at all. I wish I knew then about the
passionate textart community that still exists.
Finally, in 2013, I was playing around with HexIRC and found out that
ansi still existed. I talked to the one or two guys who actually said
something in there, and dug up pablo and my unfinished Phoenix ansi. I
finished it up, and posted it on Deviant Art. I made another Joker and
did the same. A few months later, a Mexican from b7 BlockTronics saw my
work, and sent me this email:
Would you be interested to release your artwork elsewhere? I run a group
with other 60 ansi artists that releases periodically and weve a big
community on Facebook.
In retrospec, Im not sure that was exactly an invitation to actually JOIN
the group. I just took it as such and nobody ever said it was time to get
the fuck out. So Im still there. Its been a great ride. Since 2013,
textmode art has exploded well, relatively speaking, and I like to
pretend that maybe, in some small way, I helped push that along. Theres
that modesty thing again...
I almost included some of my favorite WiP pieces that, if Im honest,
will probably never be finished, however since Im ripping off TCFs idea
anyway, and he didnt do that, neither will I.
I hope you find a few minutes of enjoyment from this mess.
-Cyonx, aka Scythe, aka Skarecrow, aka Pat Swanson. 11-03-15
02-09-18 Wow has it already been 2 years and change. At the urging of
some dude from West Virgina, Im pushing this pack up where somebody might
actually see it. I figured as long as Im doing so, Ill throw in new art
and give a real brief outline of my thoughts on each piece. Because navel
gazing is fun.
001 - This is not the first piece I did. I know I did at least two
GODAWFUL pieces for a board named Wayreth Forest Dragonlance. a staple
of my teen years, and who knows what else. This is the oldest one Ive
got, and Im pretty sure its the first time I tried to shade something.
Note, I only bothered to shade 5 of the piece. Because reasons?
002 - I shaded 10 of the piece, and expirmented with black space! I dont
actually know who this is. Comic sourced obviously, but Marvel? DC? Image?
No clue. Also I think this is the first time the group I was in actually
assigned me to do an ansi for a board Id never been to. They dont get a
logo apparently. I do though. Geez...
003 - I started an art group! I was the ansi coordinator! This was my first
toon shaded ansi, and my last for a while. Also that is one of the
shittiest fonts Ive ever seen. Although if Im honest, Im not much
better now...
004 - Look at the angle of the arm. Look at the angle of the claws. Try
not to wince.
005 - 006 I started to develop a shading style. I still cant font.
007 - I actually like this one a lot. A lot of the artist I later became
shows up for the first time in this piece. In my defense, her head is
actually that small compared to her body in the original comic I used as
reference too.
008 - 009 - More progression on developing a shading style. STILL NO
PROGRESSION ON FONTS.
010 - I decided to do something 100 original. It did not go well.
011 - a real meh effort after some of the progression in previous stuff.
012 - possibly the best font I did back in the day.
013 - Another attempt at 100 original well, until you get to the cat.
014 015 - Ok, so, backstory here. I wasnt in a group. I had nobody
requesting my art. I was just doing it here out of habit. With no deadline
I had time to get better. I started to think I was so good, I could apply
to ACiD. I never did get around to doing so. When I found pablodraw as an
adult, I looked at the piece with the experience of an extra 15 or so years
and realized it was not nearly as good as I thought it was. I did some
freehand edits to it I had long ago lost the source, and to this day I
dont know what it was, and got bored. Ive included both version here.
016 - First ANSi I did start to finish as an adult. I had to invent a new
shading style for myself, and it took awhile to find one I liked. It
amuses me that DeviantArt actually uses this ANSi as an example of what the
Text Art - ANSi catagory should look like... and 99.9 of submissions
still ignore that suggestion.
017 - I love this one. Even if I half-assed the suitcoat. Further develop
that new for me shading style.
018 - First ANSi I used custom colors on. I had a LOT of internal struggle
over that decision. Finally deciding that if I was just making art for my
own amusement, which I was at that point, I wasnt in a group, then I could
use whatever rules I wanted to set for myself on any given piece. I still
abide by those guidelines. I draw how I want to draw.
019 - A colaboration with RaDMaN. RADMAN MOTHERFUCKERS! 16 year old me
would have had a teenage coronary if hed known that was coming. I think
I did almost all of this piece live on the Acid public pablo sever too.
020 - Luciano said he wanted a superman piece in the next pack. I made one.
I think this is the first piece where the gritty style I found on 017
really started to develop.
021 - Colaboration with 2m. He made this piece awesome. I was just there.
022 - This was the piece where I figured out light sources and perspective
just a bit better. Also Luciano is a fucking god and turned this from an
interesting oddity into something with real feeling to it.
023 - Collaboration with TCF. My lines. His colors.
024 - Collaboration with Zeus II. Top is his, Bottom is mostly mine. He
fixed some of my shading.
025 - I had no idea how this was going to be received. I knew when I did
it that it was something different, but I didnt know if that was a good
thing or a bad thing. Custom colors, 16x10 ratio. This is still shit
people get worked up about.
026 - The reception to 025 was pretty good, so I tried custom colors again.
the implied texture on this one is some of my favorite shading work that
Ive ever done.
027 - Happy Birthday TCF. the top 2/3 of this are his. The bottom 1/3 is
mine.
028 - Well, I hadnt done a comic rip in a while. I also wanted to try
24bit ansi. DO NOT USE 24BIT ANSi. xbin 4 lyfe.
029 - I needed a good ole fashioned 80col default 16 color piece to cleanse
the palate.
030 - I drew a font. I sent it to Filth, and he made it something special.
031 - I almost hesitate to include this one. The lines are mine, but once
again Luciano really developed the entire feeling and theme of the piece,
including redoing the color scheme. This ones all him guys.
032 - It just... all came together here. I dont know. Lighting,
perspective, emotion. A sting of happy accidents? Even the totally half-
assed background ended up working.
033 034 - First ANSis Id completed in over a year a half-dozen WIPs
dont count. The rules of the pack specifically called out alternate
colors as acceptable, so of course I chose not to use them. No idea why.
03x beyond - Who the hell knows?
B7