FALKE is officially open for pre-orders :D

$16 USD, print + digital comic drawn by urs truly and written by

jdwrites , buy here on https://jdriley.itch.io/falke

( promo graphic + artist's notes )

after a failed assassination attempt on rafiel, nailah asks zihark to find the would-be killer in the heart of hatari. set 12 years post radiant dawn. for queenlua .

fandoms: fire emblem tellius
characters: nailah, rafiel, zihark
relationships: nailah/zihark, nailah&rafiel, implied nailah/rafiel
tags: hatari, murder mystery hijinks, nailah tops every named dude, misuse of vulenaries

~8k, here on Ao3

(also hi i guess i write fanfiction now oops lol)

( writer's notes )

Anonymous asked: What do you like about Gonzo's Hellsing?

#i have a secret fondness for the demented carmen sandiego look that the old hellsing had #heavy gothic blacks and angular-bordering-on-grotesque suited it

still stand by those tags in a nutshell.

I also … very much appreciate how Alucard looks - not made deliberately ugly, but he’s not classically-anime-bishie beautiful, there. He has actual lines, he looks old in a fair few angles, his face is chiseled and hacked away like a crude stone to the point where it’s invoking the uncanny valley. I actually try to channel that version in my artworks more than anything, and think it’s telling that the one overwhelming compliment is that I’ve nailed how he’s supposed to come across.

It's a very little known fact in Hellsing's fandom that there's six rare JP-only artbooks containing animation pre-production work of the OVA, all with the name of "Ryoji Nakamori".

Even I had been in the fandom for well over 5 years with an active interest in sakuga animation before realizing it. Regardless, over the next 5 years I made a point to collect all six of them - and I hope this post will shed a little light to these suckers.

( 5 pictures, loads of detail, downloadable zipped file with 120 images )

As long time readers will know, these days I have a ritual that I picked back up from the middle-school years of playing console games after school (and work, now). I missed out on a lot of the hits of the N64/PS1 era, and wanted to recreate that special feeling of siting by the TV away from the laptop with some new games from the best era of gaming.

(Mind, there's nothing wrong with emulating/playing via keyboard ... but you're stuck to a laptop screen, and it's not quite that childhood sensation before work laptops were a thing.) Until now. :D

Behold, the rig that contains of:

an old PS3 USB controller that connects to ...
a System76 Ubuntu laptop with Mupen64Plus running [ $definitely_a_legally_acquired_game ], also connected to ...
a HDMI/AVI converter that's tethered to...
a VCR with AVI input from the 00's (because that's how we roll, if it ain't broke, don't fix it) which hooks up to ...
the flatscreen TV we only replaced the CRT gigamonster with because a family member wanted more real estate for sports (~~which is a choice i regret tbh because i hate smart tv's, but that's a story for another day~~)

Work in progress of the rig!

the how:

( Read more... )

preview of part two:

(1) fixing the savestates bug I've been procrastinating on
(2) testing on Majora's Mask to confirm durability of emulation (so it's truly for leisure and not just a tech flex)
(3) AVI/HDMI connection and chaining it all together physically
(4) the moment of truth ...

[ PART 2 LINK PLACEHOLDER ]

The topic of analyzing which months and seasons tend to be the "making art" ones came up when friends and I were talking about who had seasonal depression and when (summer vs winter). I've always wanted to break down the raw numbers of how many pieces I've created to see if there's patterns, and well, here you go. :o

Some of these numbers may be slightly inconsistent from the totals and my "great krad art dump" (a free folder of all the art I created from 2011-2020) since I deleted the rare NDA and extremely personal work from there, and also won't include random sub-folders that are about other stuff.

Predictions (made before analyzing)

Numbers before 2014 may be sketchy because I know i created slightly more (especially in physical sketchbooks), but wasn't always consistent about putting it in my system of folders that I do now.
Relatedly, I ramped up the number of artworks considerably towards the end of collage (2014) to try to hit ~360 artworks every year; haven't always hit that goal but I've been fairly decent about deliberately maintaining a leaning close to it, iirc.
Making IRON CROWN (2016-18) might give it weird spiky monthly inflation bumps given I was cranking out comic pages like no tomorrow and also patreon content. (I uh, do not recommend that since it made me burn out hardcore for a while after lol)
Definitely expecting a dip from August 2019 - March 2020; had a little-d-depressive spell from ~IRL drama~ that absolutely cratered any inclination to art. Expecting a smaller dip recently for similar reasons from uhh, fall 2021, I think? That was before i nudged myself in something similar to art therapy. Maybe there's an existing pattern of a fall dip? :o which would be freaking sweet to know in anticipation, ironically.

Results....

( Commentary + Conclusion )

intro post to "Evil Art (is Good Actually)" is up! \o/

https://evilart.substack.com/p/creating-in-a-moral-panic

tl;dr: a space where I interview fellow taboo/kink creatives with the vibe of a much less cuckoo version of Joe Rogan. :P Just going into who they are, what they draw, inspirations, what their thoughts are on the whole moral panic going on. Pretty awesome waitlist/lineup so far with a number of creatives that y'all will almost certainly recognize ~

( this isn't the first interview post - but been working with first three interviewees this week. :3 I anticipate the first one live at the beginning of June. Thinking a monthly or bimonthly schedule depending on what's going on in life. )

[ bangs pots and pans ] new zine, come and get 'em!

my irritation with autobio zines continues :P actually working on a few of these, this one happened to be out the door first. here's the permalink, and I'll write a few of my thinky notes below ~

( minor content warning for a potential slur or two?)

( starting off with why did i make this thing ... )

( I don't crosspost my created art all the time, just major works like zines. this one happens to be a special one.)

LIVE WIRES // 8pg digital (+soon to be print) zine. on trauma, headspaces, feelings (and the lack thereof)

>> http://log.kradeelav.com/archives/1092
frank & irreverent trauma discussion, military imagery

( context ... )

I don't usually post art things here buuuuut y'all may enjoy this one:

enjoy a free gift of a whoppin' 1.29 GB file collection of nine years / 2440+ pieces of my artwork. :') Including ~all~ old works that were paywalled on patreon, many i'll never post online, and a whole ass comic pitch.

zip link on mediafire // ( contains nsfw art )

( tl;dr reasons for doing this (also included in the readme) )

( private dreamwidth emotional... postmortem thoughts? )

I need to update the 'kradeelav' title to some appropriately cheesy font-gorey 80's alternative shit, but i love the new kiriban. got stuck on it for ages but when my single braincell went all full fucky leather vibes on (me) (lol), everything fell into place. :3

( some wip's ~ )

scene of a dream about a man with giant blackbird wings, searching for his brother(?) through a breathtaking maze of a monastery/factory/behemoth eldritch transformer tower in a set of levels. shadow of the colossus/silent hill vibes like whoa.

I wish I could make this into a game (can't get this one out of my head).

apparently i wasn't joking with that zihark fanshrine lol

( obviously all the menu buttons need to be restyled as actual image buttons and there's still a bunch of text / link wonkiness plus building the actual pages but the basic layout is there : D

that.... went a hell of a lot faster than i was expecting tbh. :b one afternoon of design, and one (work afternoon) of coding lol. honestly one of the longest/tedious parts was editing the official art, not even the code part. can't tell if I'm actually getting good at code or if this was just a particularly easy fanshrine base.

deeply deeply satisfying to just let loose the fangirl and roll around in a trash can of code and UX.

onwards and upwards! \o/

I don't usually pimp art over here (as this is the personal journal mostly separate from art-self) buuuut have to say i'm mighty pleased at the recent zine collaboration i worked on with sokol and armored called SAFETY OFF (R18), 10 pages on gunplay, can be brought here.

* god us going the extra length with printing - both in the letterpress cover and handing off the interior to armored was so, so worth it. I do love the 'made in the home on a literal home printer' feel of most punk zines, but this is exactly in that sweet zone of 'artistic with a little polish, but doesn't feel commercialized' in terms of ... materials and craft, essentially.

* I remember being surprised at how well my art style went with sokol's - we both have very different inking styles, but it ended up as this exceptionally lovely yin/yang sort of abstract balance. taking due care not to be too polished as this was first and foremost very much a 'get the id raw messiness on the page' before anything else.

* i think we started this back early in quarantine because we were of like minds on a lot of topics (designers, id topics, philosophies on being true to the self with not-monetizing our work, visual guilty pleasures...), and somebody said 'well why don't we do a gunplay zine :D' (it may have been me, i'm blunt on a good day lol) . we started off just ... doodling in odd corners of the day, tossing back/forth our drawings until we had enough to fill ~ 5 pages for each of us. after that it went remarkably fast-paced style, sokol had the larger galaxy brain for composition and verbage, we agreed on cover, and the rest was history as they say.

* 'why gunplay?' for me i've always been verrrrry open about the allure, at least in a visual/drawing sense - there's a heavy catharsis to it, playing with symbols and objects of power exchange, death/(release), masculinity, potency and potential of a tool of violence, authoritarianism; gloves just accentuate that, but it's also a 'organic vs machine' sort of sense. which is the tool-machine; the hand that chooses when to destroy, or the extension of it? why? when does it feel good? why does it? (tender stroking in stark contrast-) etc

(plus the leather-and-metal shinies are just fun)

want to do more of these; there's some ideas in the works. : ) this is the kind of artwork and zine i feel like i was meant to be doing. irreverent, deeply sordid, deeply loving.

oh my god stoner photoshop guru bob-ross DJ video tutorial was so much fun to fuck around with

never in a million years would i have expected actual typography to be fun : o

2k kiriban for the website. Some of the old crew together as a thank you to everyone who's supported my work through the years. <3

kradeelav.com

postmortem

my spring/summer project was to build kradeelav.com as a creative base - it's effectively finished, other than moving into a permanent maintenance/update cycle.

Thought it'd be interesting to make a write up of why, how, and the process - proud of how this digital floating nest turned out, and looking forward to next year, I'm hoping that a peek into the process gives a sense of 'oh that wasn't so hard!' for other creatives interested in opting out of social media.

( long post. )

here’s the post where I show off one of the major bucket-list projects of this year, getting a Zihark figurine made! :D

Without getting too sentimental, FE9/10’s been a major influence on me for well over a decade now - and while I’ve enjoyed getting the chance to buy more merch/artbooks/cipher cards/etc of Tellius lately, I’ve always wanted to go a step further and actually have a figurine of one of the characters (~~especially this guy, as my favorites always lean on the side of ‘rad side character that has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the spotlight lol~~’). I had a Moment™ earlier this year where I realized there was actually nothing, y'know, stopping me - and so, this Fuck-It-I’m-Getting-A-Goddamn-Zihark-Figurine project was born.

If you’re interested in the a-to-z process of how I got this made (especially if you’re interested in your own figurine and don’t know where to start) - hit the read-more! Also happy to answer questions/comments. :)

( Read more... )

been doing a lot of neat little side projects recently - and one of them has been collaborating with the fabulous hellsing ficwriter @lesmismignon to make Snow White in a physical form! :3

(…and *cough*, if you like fairy tale AU’s and monster/human romances minus some of the crassness/wtf-ness that the canon series has, you’ll probably dig said fic!)

Just had it shipped to both of us, and thought I’d share some pics~ It’s one of my favorite Hellsing longfics ever, and the author has been an absolute delight through the whole process.

tbh, it’s the little collaborations like this that makes me glad fandom exists - warts and all. Would never have seen such a wonderful collection of fics otherwise, and it was legit an honor to have fun with a new friend and to be trusted with this. <3

remember the other day when krad was miffed that more folks didn’t make actual softcover books out of fanfics?

w e l l

i Did A Thing™, and it came in the mail today. :D

260 pages of trade paperback goodness. <3 (link to fic)

process / thoughts / deets:

under $10 (including shipping) for 1 copy through blurb, and about 12 hours total work on my end in indesign/photoshop. Not bad for investment! (I had worked with blurb before doing a final project in college, so the general process was somewhat familiar, if a bit rusty.)
consistently impressed with blurb’s quality, tbh.
in hindsight i should’ve taken a little more than 4 hours time to put together a janky cover, but i’ve a soft spot for the multiple bits of symbolism here, so it doesn’t bother me too much.
~~quietly sobbing multiple times while doing a quick editing pass because goddamnit this fic hits me in all the worst/best spots~~
probably will not do another fic in the future just because other projects are starting to be priority-critical again; though I might be working with a hellsing author friend for one long-form fic depending on how our schedules work out. <3
(if it wasn’t obvious, these are not available for the general public/not a service that i do on the side - purely a one-off personal project out of curiosity.)

krad

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ghost in the dunes (new radiant dawn fanfic + notes)

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Ryoji Nakamori Artbook Collection (+Downloads)

Franken-linus' N64 :: Postmortem :: Part 1

crunchin' numbers with art

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zine: box of doom

LIVE WIRES (zine)

the great krad art dump

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dreamscapes

effort of the day: fanshrine intensifies

SAFETY OFF - musings

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postmortem - building kradeelav.com

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