The 2012 Advent Calendar

Hold on to your trebleclefs, folks! Decon's got a musical 12 Days of Christmas! Click here.

Day 1

Golly What a Spirit

This year, I decided the best ambassador for 2012's new calendar would be Rudy, one of many of Decon's great OCs from his series Fantasy Veil. Its nice to have Lucy and all, but you can't deny the adorable-ness a reindeer boy has.

The fisheye effect, more subtle than I expected in the end, was something I tried last year with my NiGHTS piece. Maybe its because I really want a fisheye camera? XD

Rudy belongs to Decon.

Day 2

Strings of Street Lights

I saw a similar look once somewhere else and I liked the hanging bead lights look. Its been a long time since I drew Anni and Kawaii-chan by themselves, so this year, they get a center spotlight for a night.

Anni and Kawaii-chan belong to me.

Day 3

Mind if I Move in Closer?

So Pokemon Black2/White2 was more than a sequel, it burst open a whole new world of story telling for the Pokemon franchise. As the kids these days call it: "SO MANY FEELS". XD

The Dropped Item/Xtransceiver side-story was a really cute treat. I play a girl trainer so I have Curtis/Christoph as my interest, and its lucky his costume has a lot of green. I made slight adjustments to the "student" Pokestar wardrobe for Rosa and Nate (adding more red and green) to make them more festive.

At some point I gave up trying to to an actual perspective shot of Nimbasa because I couldn't get it right. But this works out better; highlights the snow and the placement. I really like this one.

Lyrics from Baby, Its Cold Outside, Pokemon belongs to Nintendo.

Day 4

Silent NiGHTS

Have you played Christmas NiGHTS yet? Now that the remake is on the PS3 shop, you should check it out. NiGHTS occupies a sad little place, forgotten and neglected by most gamers these days, and unjustly so. The music is always amazing, and the art design of the levels are works of high art themselves.

But I suppose its like a secret handshake when you find other fans. So I think the little place its in is sometimes lonely, it still shines brighter than others when people come together. Here's to another installment one day.

Until then, we'll just dream together by ourselves.

NiGHTS belongs to Sega and Nintendo.

Day 5

Super BIG Christmas Cake

Happy birthday, Adam!

Xander belongs to Adamkun.

Day 6

I'm Gonna Let it Shine

Just started a new series about cowboys exorcising demons and vampires in the Wild West; it falls in the same universe as Creepy & Crawly. Ohio (blue-haired gent on the left) and California (white-haired gent on the right) ride around and be general badasses in the Old West. I wanted to do a quiet scene, especially since this the first time they've been put to paper (no holiday outfits, sadly, because I forgot to design some @_@). I like it though.

States in Our Union belongs to me.

Day 7

Help to Make the Season Bright

So I caught a cold today, and then I had to finish shipping cookies, and then write and everything. @_@ I opted for something clean and simple, so I went back to the cross-hatching style. Lunis looks pretty elegant with all the swished lines.

Lunis belongs to me.

Day 8

Merry Christmas, Baby

Another nice and simple image, with Doll this time. She came out nice and elegant as I wanted. The sparkly sticker makes a nice touch.

Doll and Milo's Room belong to me.

Day 9

Been an Angel All Year

This is a replacement redo of a previous illustration for the advent calendar art book (since the previous illustration wasn't cleared for print and selling). Since Sailor Moon was one of my first anime, I always like revisiting it. Chibiusa is my favorite character next to Usagi, so this image came together quickly.

Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Day 10

Christmas Dreaming

So my laptop broke down, and I had to complete everything on a borrowed computer. @_@ As such, the image is again, nice and simple. I had some leftover tags from last Christmas and simply used them as bubbles. The effect was really nice.

Lucy belongs to me.

Day 11

Its That Time of Year

My baby (that is, laptop) is back with some minor tweaks to get her running, but its likely I'll be moving to the new one this week. Things have been rather demure and simple, so I went a little more elaborate with today. If JP appears in the calendar, he's usually melancholy or quiet, due to the fact the Winter Special of Distance is something of an epic dramatic adventure for him. This one shows off his usual nature of calm and cheerfulness. I tried a perspective shot, which was a little tricky for me, but it seems to work out. JP's winter pics always end up wintery and cool, and the palette reflects that. Its good to see a smile on that face in winter, anyhow.

JP and Boulevard of Distance belongs to me.

Day 12

Toasting the Snow

Chocothunda has a great paranormal private detective character, Kundaba Lupon. I wanted to do a nice quite scene (things can get so hectic!) in the office. I'm still practicing drawing other ethnic characters, but this came out pretty good. Lupon has ice powers, so toasting the snow seemed an appropriate sentiment. ^^

Kundaba Lupon belongs to Chocothunda.

Day 13

White Dresses & Blue Satin Sashes

I think Christmas can be a lot of reds and greens, so its refreshing to see something in blues. Elpis, the goddess of hope, is the most advanced robot in the series Brutal Gods Project, and so I kept to the initial designs for her, mainly in the color palette. Yes. She is THAT blue. XD Not too different from Lazuli in my series AICA. I like how her wings came out, and the movement is pretty good. I went a little curly with her hair because the lines seemed to fit. The outline's in a dark blue, with the only black being in the eyes and the eyebrows. I think it makes it all pop nicely. All in all, its a really nice image, if a little blue.

Elpis and Brutal Gods Project belongs to Decon.

Day 14

We're Happy Tonight

In those years, we all used to go out in the woods and fish til midnight, and took what we had and fry it up at a bonfire, and sit and stare at those stars and stuff ourselves silly, so that the next day we'd all be sick. But those were days I felt like nothing in the world could hurt us, and that the trouble out there would take the night off, so we could just be. Be be, you know? Those were the days I always looked back on and promised, when things got bad, that I'd protect because one day...I know I'd have my own boys to do the same. And that if they couldn't feel as free as that, then the world really did end. I was protecting that most of all, when Chaos stared us all straight in the eye.

--Ridley Winchester

Distance: Golden 7 belongs to me.

Day 15

Sit Around All Day, Hear the Music Play

Our party this year was early, and those days can get crazy. Its was nice and intimate at a new venue, and the secret santa is always really fun. I got a beautiful gift also from a friend: he gave me a family camera--a 110 Minolta--and I couldn't be happier. My secret santa, for the second time in a row was Chocothunda, and as always it was a great present (a handmade box with a hidden bottom, vintage lock with 2 keys, and a special "puzzle" relating to C&C (plus a roll of my fav film: fuji 120 ISO 400). Good times.

Day 16

To Kids from 1 to 92 (and More)

A few admin changes and mixs ups, but this one is the true Dec. 16th image. I wanted to do a sort of pixel wonderland as the background and everythone being all 3D and shit (as you can see, Leo's ornament is flat as the Old World XD). I'll need to rescan to fix Henri's shading and the missing date, but here's the C&C image for this year. Not quite as smooth as I'd want but smooth enough. It was painstaking, but fun in the end. XD

Creepy and Crawly belongs to me.

Day 17

Mamacita, Donde Está Santa Claus

Well, its been awhile since I've done art for a MST3k episode (last time I doodled Troy from Final Sacrifice), so I figured a Christmas ep was in order.

No, Lupita! You shouldn't steal! XD

Santa Claus (movie). MST3k belongs to Best Brains Inc.

Day 18

Was A Gift From Someone's Heart

This year's Ragnatroplis image is a sort of extension of the Distance image with the boys and the scarf. All hands are on deck to help wrap up all the gifts. Wednesday made it in again, which is good because this is only the 3rd time he's been put to paper (and last year was the first time put in color XD;;;). Aina's sweater dress always gives me fits. Those colors are crazy. I forgot Bren's little cowl cape. Aaaahhh. But its a nice sweet image.

Ragnatropolis belongs to me.

Day 19

Meeting Smile After Smile

This was the 3rd OC I tackled this year as gifts. The pretty girl on the left is Vivianna, whom is a character by the awesome Zoe. Recommended for her cute and petite figure and totally beautiful hair, I liked how she came out. The curls are so much fun. I paired her with Rya Li St. John from my series Neo Black 9 because their hair made such a beautiful contrast of black and white. I thought the two of them together would be a nice way to do a picture of someone's OC that I admire very much (I love her art ^^). A sort of meeting of two worlds. The snowflake shapes and the sticker seals were my favorite touches.

Vivianna belongs to Zoe. Neo Black 9 belongs to me.

Day 20

Are You Listening?

This year, I was happy to make sure Treble's outfit could show off the embroidered f-holes (last' year's had them covered by a guitar). The light grey of the vest is really subtle, and I like that. The warmer black on Bass' jacket came out this year. The biggest challenge were the treble and bass clefs in the string, as well as integrating the date. But I think it was nice and successful. These two look good together. XD

E.Q. belongs to me.

Day 21

A Hero to All Children!

So the world didn't end yeah? XD Time to get a whole new calendar now! My sister's 19th birthday was today, and she's a huge Legend of Zelda fan. So why not let her be Link for a day? I thought about Zelda, but her costumes are waaayyyyy to complicated! I haven't done a really moe cutsey style in awhile, so I did this one. Nice bold lines suit it. ^^ Happy birthday, Kristen!

Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo.

Day 22

Hold Still, Wait for the Click

This year, I started a new series about new gods and goddesses (ah, I must love mythology XD). Gods of androids or information, or new kinds of music. Chronexci is the Goddess of Captured Time, or a goddess of photography (of course, I would make one XD), and under the watchful eye of her sometimes strict parents, she roams the world, inspiring art through the camera's lens. At some point, there's a monkey. Seriously. XD Her outfit is mostly white because its a nice subtle color. I like her fur stole.

Captured Time belongs to me.

Day 23

Weird Danish Santa Will Reward Us in the End

Dinosaur Dracula had its own Advent Calendar, and it was a doozy. Dinosaur Calendar. For serious. Among things like devices and baby dines or lizards or something, there's been motorbikes and walkie talkies and people who bear no relevance to anything.

As to why I drew Dino Drac as the famous Napoleon Bonaparte statue/painting, I have no explanation other than it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Pretty sure it still is.

Dinosaur Dracula belongs to Matt.

Day 24

Mix and A-Mingle in the Jinglin' Beat

Whew, a little late, but you know the holidays! (its always that mad rush to finish before the new year starts, yeah?) This year I've crammed in about 27 series (up 2 from last year), with about one character per series (but a few got 2, like E.Q. or States of Our Union). Compacted images are the hardest. @_@ I love California trying to pawn that santa hat on Ohio. XD Merry christmas from everyone!

All characters belong to me.