Sorry in advance for anyone that was worried about me due to my unannounced hiatus from Newgrounds and YouTube. Aside from me being busy lately due to my job searching at the time, I'm still a bit of an emotional wreck (not that I think that's embarrassing for me to say and it's important to talk about anyways), my overall hiatus stemmed from my addiction to video games and my newfound employment as a retail worker.

To help make things up for my hiatus, I'd like to take a moment to talk about my ongoing plans for Fantaji, along with a new passion project of mine I've been closeting for some time that I want to share with y'all. :)

Fantaji - Ongoing Directions and Progress Update

I have a lot to say about what I've got in store for Fantaji so far, so here's a quick bulleted list about stuff I have in mind:

• The "art style" I use for Fantaji will no longer be something I'll exclusively do for Fantaji. Now, I plan on using it for all my work. Period.
• I'm going to stop restricting my character design to clothes I can find online and instead just go ham on what I want them to look like. :D
• There's a lot on my plate still regarding the worldbuilding of Fantaji. Stay tuned for some lore updates!
• Due to my ongoing employment, I won't have as much time to work on my artwork as I used to. I won't let that stop me, though!
• I wish to, at some point between now and 2022, make a mod of Empire at War that takes place during the War for Andromeda - a major war between 8 armies for control of the galaxy.

"Legends of Lucasia" - A Fanonical Star Wars AU

Star Wars is one of the bigger cultural influences that motivated me to create Fantaji in the first place, next to other legendary IPs like Warhammer 40,000, Dead Space, and Bionicle. I've always had a bit of a closeted passion for making "fan fiction", but I've always been insecure about my writing to the point where I was afraid I'd never be able to create anything worth a damn. Starting today, I'm telling my own insecurities to stfu and let me actually start feeling confident about my own work - not just the fan fiction, but my writing overall.

Introduction to "Legends of Lucasia"

A long time ago - in many galaxies that lied far, far away from our own - there lied the galactic cluster known as "Lucasia" - where the Great Founders created life throughout the universe. When the Great Founders passed on to old age, their presence remained in their creations through The Force.

As humanity traveled beyond the Local Cluster, under the banner of the United Republic of Man, they came across Lucasia and its many worlds populated with tribal alien societies - from the mountainous villages of the togruta, the sprawling catacombs of the twi'leks, and even the recently industrialized arctic cities of the pantorans.

Despite the URM's uplifting of these many aliens to become spacebound civilizations, the dark beasts that lied within mankind would eventually give way to open civil war, fragmenting the United Republic of Man into the Empire of Mankind and the Commonwealth to Protect Lucasia.

In the aftermath of the "War Against Mankind", the united alien races of Lucasia prospered under the new banner of the Democratic Kingdom of Lucasia, with only a minority of humankind living under their banner. As the Kingdom's culture began to flourish, two major political powers would arise among their senate - the Jedi and the Sith.

The Jedi - conservative in their views - believed strongly in their traditions and the "Peace of the Force" - that a true understanding of The Force is to be at peace with the universe and maintain societal balance. The Sith, on the other hand, believed in the "Chaos of the Force" - that the Force cannot, and will never be, truly controlled, much like the universe itself, and that the only way to maintain society is to embrace constant change and constant conflict.

It is now the year 2121, more than a hundred years after the War Against Mankind, and war has begun to rise again in the growing injustices of the Democratic Kingdom of Lucasia. Greed and corruption has run rampant, and the growing mistreatment of the human populations has led to a new separatist movement - the Confederate Kingdom of Independent Systems. Their independence, unrecognized by the DKL, sparks a new war across the entire galactic cluster of Lucasia - the Clone Wars.

A Short List of Notable Differences between the Official Star Wars IP and My "Legends of Lucasia" Fanfiction:

• The Jedi and Sith will not be intended to be portrayed as a "Good VS Evil", but rather a "Yin and Yang", and are inspired by IRL political parties and how they seem to butt heads all the time in modern society.
• Legends of Lucasia, much like Fantaji, takes place in an alternate reality of our own universe, whereas the official Star Wars IP takes place "a long time ago - in a galaxy far, far away". By comparison, Legends of Lucasia is meant to take place "a long time from now - in several galaxies far, far away".
• Legends of Lucasia will have many elements similar to Fantaji. This is due to me wanting to "stick to what I'm good at", if that makes any sense. There will be, however, some intended parallels to George Lucas' official works (along with many other noteworthy writers like Dave Filoni and such) to help retain the fact that it's about Star Wars. :)
• Not every gun in Legends of Lucasia shoots tibana-fueled plasma.

I'm Getting a New PC! (And I'm Gonna Build it!)

Unfortunately, my current Alienware 15R2's battery is not charging anymore, so I need to move on to a new PC. This time, however, instead of buying a pre-made one: I'm gonna build one!

Here's a link to my build, for anyone interested.

That's all the news I have for now. Ty for reading. <3

Starting today, I'm gonna help keep my Newgrounds followers stay up to speed on what I'm working on by sharing the videos I've been making on YouTube outside of the work on my art and stories. Feel free to subscribe to me on YouTube, as well, and to provide any feedback you have regarding my stuff. <3

Here's my newest YouTube video! Please subscribe and leave a comment, if you can. :D

Real quick, I've got good news regarding my artwork! Heck, more than my art - my whole work setup! I've got reason to believe that I'm getting a new PC for my birthday this year - one that I'll be building myself! I'm so fucking excited! <3

Regarding my YouTube channel that I mentioned in the title of this blog post, I'm currently working on making YouTube content on the side. I don't have a "consistent" upload schedule quite yet, nor am I able to monetize my videos yet, but for now I'm basically making videos for the fun of making them. You can find out more about what to expect from my YouTube by checking it out there.

Here's a link to my most recent YouTube video, for anyone interested.

For more specific news regarding my art so far, I'm still working on my character portrait of Maria the Divine. I took some time away from Her illustration so I could get myself familiarized with Vegas (video editing software I plan to use for my videos at some point), but I plan to resume work on Her very soon.

That's all for now! Ty for reading! <3

I apologize in advance to anyone who has been recently following me that was concerned during my time off of Newgrounds.

For real, though, these past few days were pretty rough for me. Not emotionally - but physically. All you need to know is that I've gotten a nasty toothache lately due to me taking shit care of my teeth growing up. I've gotten back in the habit of brushing and rinsing regularly, but it's, ironically, agitated my cavities further and not done a whole lot to mend my teeth.

Very recently, I got to visit the dentist, finally. The good news? Root canals are not out of the question! The bad news? Some of my teeth are beyond repair and will have to get removed (and likely, hopefully, replaced with dental implants).

On the topic of my art, however, I got good news!

My toothache did stall my progress (it was so bad that it woke me up at night from time to time), but the pain has died down enough, so far, that I think it may be safe to say that I can resume work on my ongoing art. Here's a list of goals I have set in mind for my artwork so far:

1. I fully intend to create more character portraits of the Old Gods and other significant characters in the Fantaji metaverse. (What I do is that I basically hand-draw the line art out first, then I scan it with an app on my iPhone, and then I do the rest on Paint.NET or Autodesk SketchBook.) This isn't the *only* thing I'm going to be making, however. I also intend to be working on landscapes, maps of the Fantaji metaverse, and maybe even take up commissions if people ever develop an interest to work with me.
2. I hope to also share "traditional art" versions of my work, but I'm not too sure if that'd be accepted into the portal. I'm not certain if they'd accept that since most of the artwork I see in the portal is professionally digital. My trad. artwork, in this context, aren't "sketches", as far as I can tell - they're basically meant to be completed illustrations completely I made using pencils and paper. If anyone has any information regarding these kinds of art posts, I'd wish to be informed whenever possible.
3. I'm gonna be straight with y'all, but I don't intend to exclusively make "SFW" artwork and stories. The Fantaji metaverse, like our own real world, has its fair share of mature subjects - both in terms of emotional weight and in terms of, "mmm... booba..." I fully intend to branch out my work into various genres - even if some of it is stuff that's best enjoyed privately. For me, it's more fun to be able to branch out my metaverse into different genres rather than try to come up with a completely new one for a different genre.

Currently, I'm catching up on all the stuff I've stalled up due to me staying in bed with my toothache (and living off of painkillers and yogurt :P ). That includes chores, my art, and my social media. I've got a lot on my plate if I wanna catch up, but I'm in no rush.

That's all for now! <3

Sorry in advance for the inactivity over the past day or so. Gaming tends to take the best of me, sometimes. XD

I wanna take a moment to provide a little bit of lore regarding the peoples that inhabit the various Realms in the Fantaji metaverse. Only the True Goddes, Gaia, Herself knows how many universes there are in the metaverse, but she did bestow seven of them to Her son and daughters - the Old Gods.

Each of the Old Gods, though they are based on the Seven Deadly Sins, are basically the artists of their own worlds - sorta like me, you, and every other passionate worldbuilder, writer, etc.

(Wrath) Heaven - Realm of Maria the Divine

• A universe where chunks of every planet's crust floated throughout space, like as if life itself knew only the beauty of the sky.
• Gotham's Curse sent the floating crusts of all of Heaven's worlds into each other, forming entirely different planets in the process.

(Envy) Millennia - Realm of Medusa the Beautiful

• A very magical universe rife with forestry coated with moss, flowers, and trees that pierced the clouds.
• Gotham's Curse caused wildlife of Millenia to become openly ravenous towards Medusa's people, forcing Her armies to live underground to survive and rebuild.

(Greed) Opulentos - Realm of Arabella the Rich

• A universe rife with asteroid fields, gigantic planets with subterranean civilizations, and valuable minerals.
• Gotham's Curse caused people to begin fighting over the valuable resources of Opulentos, forming various corporate nations.

(Gluttony) Esuriit - Realm of Freya the Strong

• A universe that can be best described as: "Can you eat that? Yes you can!"
• Gotham's Curse made some of the stuff inedible, addictive, unhealthy, etc.

(Sloth) Brumellia - Realm of Elizabeth the Unflinching

• A cyberpunk-esque universe where everything was pretty much fully automated. Factories, robots, and other mechanisms of mass production were all the rage.
• Gotham's Curse transformed many of the robots of Brumellia into actual living beings - causing massive disruption in the overall flow of automation. Now, people had to actually get up and do stuff! D:

(Pride) Fortisera - Realm of Katrina the Great

• A cold universe filled with snowy and ice-covered planets, yet still somehow diverse in terms of ecology and climate.
• Gotham's Curse greatly amplified the intensity of Fortisera's snowstorms, forcing Katrina's people to hibernate during their planets' Winters.

(Lust) Pulchra - Realm of Gotham the Wicked

• This is our universe - in all its chaos, and all its beauty.

As of now, I've almost finished coloring in Gotham the Wicked Himself (including His dress), and I've made good progress in shading Him in. When I'm done with that, I intend to do the same for Sol (Earth's sun) and Earth (whichever comes first), then finish it off by coloring in the outer space of the illustration. If all things go according to plan, I should be able to get this illustration done by tonight or tomorrow.

Just like my last blog, here's a link to view my progress that I shared on my Tumblr.

As of now, I'm currently working on an "HD Remake", if you may, of one of my more recent drawings. The drawing in particular is a full-body portrait of Gotham the Wicked - the only son of True Goddess Gaia. He's one of the lore-significant characters of my original stories in the Fantaji metaverse, and He created all life in the Realm of Pulchra. More information will be gladly shared as I progress, but I won't spoil everything just yet. :)

Here's a link to my progress so far, shared on my Tumblr.

I hereby mark this day as the first day of me having my own Newgrounds account!

I remember when I'd come to NG as a kid, growing up, to play Flash games. I was sad when Adobe basically pulled the plug on Flash, but was excited to see that NG is a place for much more than just Flash games. Currently, I'm working on my own original stories, art, and even planning to - one day - make my own video games based on said stories and art. I'm super stoked about making some new friends on Newgrounds.

What you can expect from me:

• Artwork based off of popular IPs, as well as my own original IPs. This artwork is primarily hand-drawn and scanned, but I'm working on also being able to make good-looking digital art at some point.
• Blogs regarding video games, art, and the cultural media I enjoy overall.
• Blogs regarding the progress of my personal projects, etc.
• "Bronze-tier memes"
• ...and maybe some selfies (because my self-esteem is bad and I wanna improve it).