the ostrich stables

[jouste]

@jaro: thanks man! *highfives* some really nice words from a really sharp artist! went through your sketchbook and holy crap has it got some tight stuff! awesome work pal! thanks for dropping by!

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worked on another alien soldier! alot of fun with this guy. i always wondered why wizards didn't just use two staffs? they'd be twice as powerful!!

it's the hagian supermagus!

lo' its the hagian supermagus! descended from the equally disgusting and amazing hag fishes native to our own planet!

the hagians have always been very amazing science-mages since way back when they thought they were just messing around with "magic" and weren't aware that it was just super-science being effected by their wills and hand gestures.

once they engadged in the "war of the wizards" (an interplanetary battle between magicians) the hagians were outnumbered by the numerous swarms of the swarmians they had to think fast. the hagians decided to double their numbers by equipping all their mages with TWO magic staves! this doubled the size and effect of all their tricks and the swarmians were quickly annihilated with a few boughts of lightning balls and the odd lava-syringe.

centuries past and the hagian supermagus is still represented by their military, teleporting across the galaxy with a science focusing staff in each hand and a mean streak for any foe they run into. their science magic has become refined to a degree that it has not been able to be duplicated by anyone else in the galaxy.

the dual-staff science slinging style has also been managed only by the supermagus. any other race that has attempted this art has been met with agonizingly fatal results. bottom line is that its best to leave the dual staff wielding to the hagian supermagus' (obviously).

[Muz]

Woot pushed your thread over the edge to 5 stars!

Kick ass work as always man... so much so i might post this comment on both pc and here... well maybey not

Keep it up.

[JohnStump]

You're a badass. Love your work

[Arden_Rey]

Wonderful characters design! I like how you use the details. 5 stars

[vshen]

Really enjoyed looking at your sketchbook. Great Characters!

[young paddy1]

You get some serious style points, for these werks. Your character designs are supoib, with great wit and fnarr.

cheerio

[Deodatus]

Wow! Nice characters in here. I like your sketching style. Many dynamic forms. Keep it up!

[Costau]

Man, I've been so uptight with my art process and studies lately it has gotten me down. Your stuff inspired me to just start having fun again with drawing and painting, loosening up. Keep up the good work!

[jouste]

@muz: thanks so much dude! i shall keep up the work. i'm so used to seeing you +1 z and rocking on at polycount!

@johnstump: thanks dude. i always wanted to be badass.

@arden ray: wow really flattered for that rating dude, your stuff is really incredible. thanks for stopping by man. i look forward to keeping in touch.

@vshen: thanks! i loooove doing characters! glad you like em!

@young paddy1: great! glad you dig it dude. i'll make sure i'll keep up the werks, thanks for stopping by!

@deodatus: the forms shall keep coming friend!

@cole.ossus: thanks soooo much for saying that pal.

i think if anyone can snag anything from me its to be able to have fun with art. if you're loose and having fun, people are gonna HAVE fun experiencing it, WE ALL WIN! hooray! *high fives*

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drew this pretty late, thought it would be cool to have an army of super-old war vets... that can stay in the war and keep fighting!!!

the lazarus legion!

there comes a time in any hard-core, gun toting, star-soldier's career that time kicks in and turns him from a hardened space commando into a senile ridden veteran. luckily with the invention of the lazarus suit they can keep the war going on well past their years!

the lazarus suit injects a horrible cocktail of chemicals and space-ox blood into the wearer that preserves both their body and mind. they are a little tricky to keep properly maintained and tend to wheeze a lot and constantly alert enemies to their location. the constant bickering about "the good ol' days" is another reason that the lazarus legion can never sneak up on anyone.

a lot of the members of the lazarus legion have been kept alive so long with crazy cocktails of drugs and gases that they've been promoted well through the standard military space code. this leads to medal saturation among the ranks of the century old soldiers and some pretty obscure titles. the actual structure of military ranking has collapsed so badly in the lazarus legion that they rarely listen to anyone other than themselves.

from this image we see that they aren't the greatest shots (although that target was placed 2 light years away so give him some props).

[smokenmirrors]

fantastic characters! subscribed! and the character notes are-------> great!

[Izer]

Hag fish FTW, I just had to say that cause I love that character. Awesome sb, lots of style and reminds me of ol' Earthworm Jim. Very cool. Look forward to more.

[ohnojenny]

Love the character references you're laying out. I do think that helps make a character more real, in a sense.
And sorry I've been gone a bit! Life got unexpectedly busy. :/ Can't wait for future posts!

[jouste]

@smokenmirrors: hooray! thanks so much for reading them all! i love writing them

@Izer: doug tennapel is probably one of the greatest artists in existence, i've always aspired to be as good as that guy. thanks for saying that! that is a super awesome thing to say as far as i'm concerned

@ohnojenny: hope you're life calmed down a bit ohnojenny! thanks for the nice comments. always a slice of awesome pie to hear from you ;D

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had to get another alien soldier done up to re-organize my brain meats.

look out galaxy!

it's lunq the planet peeler!

lunq is one of the wielders of the cosmic brands; intense weapons that are so insanely powerful they are in a constant state of exploding and must be contained in a magnetic stasis scabbard that locally slows down time around the blade.

when brandished the cosmic brands have been known to detonate planetary cores, ignite atmospheres, and make nickleback not suck. there are only a few of these truly amazing swords in existence the known ones are "flaggrus, the eternal sunderer of suns", "hrr'zuuh, the galactic galvanizer" and "steve"

lunq won his weapon at a pot-luck as a door prize in a general mix up of deliveries (hey, nobody's perfect). once armed with the fabled "steve" lunq became a major player in the great cosmic game. ending violent demi-gods and quenching destructive galaxies before they even get a chance to spawn anything awful.

wish lunq luck as him and steve scour the galaxy for existence ending threats!

[LtPlissken]

Still following your SB, and I cannot say anything more than you are fantastic!

[Sebastian Wagner]

omg yeeeeeeees. Steve is the shit!

[jouste]

@ltplissken: awesom! thanks a lot for stopping by dude ;D i really appreciate it.

@noro: lol, damn right he is! never mess with steve! D:

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getting back into the swing of drawing more often again! here's another alien dude to start me off!

oh no! hide your kheltin fields and blood crops! it's none other than sluds von starsworm!, that slimy insectivorous enforcer!

sluds is a buglian warrior; buglians were once a force to be reckoned with but now are in shambles, confused workers and out-of-work soldiers stumble around the galaxy in eclectic groups of insectoid vagrants.

sluds was once a high-bodyguard of the omni-queen until she one day watched a full episode of two and a half men and suffered such a severe headache that it cracked her hold on the hive mind. once the hive mind fell the buglian's super organization and efficiency went to shit and the buglian's were nothing more than a group of nomads, always feeling a great void in their lives where the omni-queen's voice once echoed.

sluds has done alright. in the initial confusion he murdered all the officers that out ranked him and claimed to be the one true buglian messiah (sluds is as clever as he is deadly). he then donned the crown of swarms and now leads a rag-tag group of mercenaries known as the insectoid apostles.

his primary weapon is the traditionally gruesome "bug-chucks" barbed rods chained together and strapped down with bo'tharian agony-beetles. the venom is so caustic and painful that it has been actually loaded into star-fighter cannons and fired at enemies because it rates higher on the pain scale than laser blasts.

we can also see that crafting bug-chucks is not without it's heart ache. larry the agony-beetle (shown bottom right) has just gotten back from a business trip only to find his bride to be strapped to slads weapon! D:

[Garth Cochrane]

You're out of control, jouste! Someone get a leash Great updates, I always enjoy hearing your descriptions of these crazy guys.

[Lakka]

envy... -_-

I love works like these. Just .. love em.

[scholz]

I love your style

keep going man

[KingElvis]

haha i think youre totally crazy. And I mean that in a good way Do you come up with those stories about the character while youre drawing them?
very nice ideas so far. i bet your quite a good artist in the game design field, or smth. youre actually having fun with art and i think thats great!

[Undeadartist]

dude i love your work funny as hell and really amazing, hope to see more and want to see this comic rest in space

[armando]

This stuff is great. "Super-science", "Steve", hella funny.

[zweiDee]

nice sketchbook. like your style!

[NickyBeats]

great characters! i love how you make them into those character sheets with the close ups and expressions. really nice work! also awesome descriptions! they really suck you into the world youve created, are you planning on some kind of comic series with these characters? id definately be in line to buy it!! keep these guys coming!!

[armando]

Went looking through the rest of the book. This stuff is genius. All these characters have a ton of personality, and their stories, weapons and such are super-creative. Do you have plans of turning any of this into a comic, or something along those lines?

[Jakers]

Man I cannot believe how well your characters are coming along. Your imagination is rockin and I think thats what will take you to a sweet dream job someday

[carnalizer]

superfun characters!

[moving.pictures]

nothing short of amazing, dude! haha, loved reading the stories, can't wait to see more of your characters

[sandeepbarot]

like colors too!

[jouste]

@garth cochrane: haha thanks for dropping by pal! i'm really glad you like the descriptions, i have a lot of fun writing them. it's like a cool down period after finishing up the picture to write a goofy little story about them.

@lakka: thanks! haha envy? good to hear you like stuff like these cause that's practically all i do and so i'll keep on doin' em. thanks for stopping by!

@scholz: that i shall! thanks for the boost dude! ;D

@kingelvis: hey kingelvis, the stories core ideas are usually in my head the first time my pen hits the tablet.

the story gets "polished" when i am going over my lines or dropping broad colors i tend to try and make sense of the situation with some more refined story ideas.

after its all wrapped up and i'm about to post i can usually get a few final ideas down in writing or justify a particularly silly idea i came up with. so i guess its just like the drawing itself. there's a rough "sketch" of it at the start, then i polish it over the course of the drawing while i do the more mundane 2d bits.

hope that answers your question!

@undeadartist: haha awesome! glad to hear you like the stuff! and as far as the comic goes, i really need to find which character people enjoy the most before i decide to go in a direction for the story. i just have too much fun making up new guy after new guy and i really gotta stop and pick one or two.

@armando: thanks for the boosts armando! as stated above i'd looove to get some of these guys down into a saga of some sort. i really do enjoy writing a lot and will get too it when i got a bit more time on my hands. buti gotta find out which pile of dudes people like the most and would like to see more of.

i have the attention span of a woodpecker when it comes to characters, the second i'm finished a loose image like these i'm excited to be working on another one that's totally different. hopefully i can find some focus along the way. the folks here have been pretty helpful with that. thanks for stopping by!

@zweidee: hey thanks dude! you're stuff is really great. i love your movement, direction, and super sexy palette decisions! hooray!

@nickybeats: thanks a lot for the vote of confidence! eah a comic would be the ultimate thing i'd like to be doing, i just gotta start focusing on the elements that people like the most about them.

like pick a fan favorite or something. i know that i have guys that i tend to like that people don't at all and i would hate to make tha mistake when embarking on something as big as that.

thanks so much for the kind words! its nice to hear that you enjoy my stuff!

@jakers: snake! awesome of you to drop by pal. we have to hook up sometime soon! your stuff is looking super awesome and i see your entering the 2d UC challenge! that's super awesome, whose side are you on?

thanks for boosting my thread pal. always good to hear from you and lets get something going on sooner than later.

@carnalizer: haha hooray! glad you find them fun, that's what i'm all about! well... that and sleeping in...

@moving.pictures: thanks man! more characters shall be coming along for sure! great of you too drop by and share your thoughts, much appreciated!

@sandeepbarot:thanks for the comment! until quite recently my palettes really only recently became as simple and muted as they are now, they used to be crazy and kinda gross haha. so it's super nice to hear a comment like that, thanks!

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sorry i didn't get back that fast to you dudes! i've been pretty busy and haven't dropped by as much as i'd like too. but here i am with a new dude! i had to get another guy out just too organize my head around some of the stuff i'm working on. i find just laying back and blasting out some crazy character really therapeutic.

so here he is!

lo'! it's yults the yeti without a soul!

true enough yults had a perfectly fine soul until drack the despicable stole it from him! drack is a nasty demon that steals souls from pretty much anything he can get his hands on. this made yults a very tragic yeti, and he was exiled from the grand yeti-capitol because without a soul he failed to "get" any yeti stand-up comedy, a long time honored practice of the yeti culture.

fortunately, yults doesn't take any shit and tore off drack's hand before he got away. now yults ties the hand around his neck and like a grim dousing rod, the hand will twitch, flinch and point in the direction where drack is. eventually yults hopes to be led to the demon so that he can extract his big yeti revenge and reclaim his stolen soul.

the weapon yults and the majority of yetis prefer is the vampire club. these brutal weapons are actually carnivorous plants that feed off blood and violence and have evolved themselves into a perfect tool of bashening. these pods fire out thorns that puncture flesh and catch and drain the blood from the mutilated victims while the general impact of battle excites the growth and development cells of the plant.

once a vampire club's seed pod drinks enough blood they start sprouting roots that look for a place to anchor so they can explode their seeds into the wind to keep the beautiful cycle of life flowing.

so wish yults luck as he hunts down that soul thief drack!