Ninjatron is going to talk about SykoGrafix.

It is great to finally be back. First of, if you have not read What is SykoGrafix? yet, you should do that first.

SykoGrafix Logo

Dig that new logo. I got the idea when experimenting with different stylized skull designs, but looking for some way to make something that represented the Internet more. That's when I though of putting a side view of a skull inside of a @, kind of a mockery of the "e-business" symbol IBM uses. The whole intention was to make people think that this whole place was a little weird as soon as they saw the logo. One day I'm going to put it on a T-shirt.

If you've been to the old SykoGrafix before, and liked what you saw there, well then welcome back. I am sure that you will find this new site and all of the content within to be much better than they way things used to be.

Hot Rod and Kup from Transformers: The Movie.

If you're new here, let me fill you in. SykoGrafix first debut on June 17th, 1997, my 17th birthday. It was a simple page, hosted for free by Geocities, with limited HTML and had a few of my drawings. I drew Ninja Turtles, Transformers, comic book characters, and all kinds of stuff like that. At first I didn't even have a scanner, so the first batch was totally drawn with a mouse. Any one who has done that can attest that it's no easy task.

Harley Quinn & The Joker. 100% drawn with a mouse in 1997

Even though I did eventually get a scanner, my drawing skills were still not all that great. Eventually I took some classes and started to improve. In fact, now I work as a teacher along with the guy who taught me, which technically makes me a professional teacher and artist, though I wouldn't consider myself to be at that level yet. But my improved drawings were sharing the same space as my earlier, not so good drawings, which I think turned a lot of people off.

Chun Li & Cammy from Street Fighter 2

But for some reason, a lot of people really liked my stuff. That's why I've brought some of them back for this article, as you can see them floating around here. It was great to read and hear positive feedback, even though looking back I wonder why people liked it so much. Pity, maybe? Or maybe just the fact that a lot of people just plain refuse to believe that they can draw anything themselves, and envy those who at least make an attempt. It may sound like I'm being hard on myself, but there are a few pieces that I'm still happy with, and since I started SykoGrafix during a bad time in my life, I realize now the importance in those drawings, regardless of the quality, in working through it.

Master Shredder from TMNT

SykoGrafix lasted for a little over 2 years, until Geocities merged with Yahoo. They imposed some very harsh rules and restrictions, including one that said that they owned whatever content that was uploaded on their space. I found that unacceptable and look everything off, except for a single cryptic message. Yahoo later got rid of that rule after a huge backlash, but I was (and still am) so wary of any huge corporate type deals that I just decided to forget it all together for the time being.

And that's essentially what this new SykoGrafix is all about. It going against the big, bad, corporate rules. It's doing something different, and not just for the sake of being different, but because that is what's right for me. It's the anti-establishment. It's still got artwork based on some of my favorite things, and this time with better basic drawing thanks to practice, and advanced colouring techniques thanks to Adobe Photoshop. But beyond that SykoGrafix is going to be about style, attitude, and a strange, unique, obscure, messed up way of looking at the world. My way!

This is SykoGrafix. This is Beautiful Digital Chaos.

Sayonara.

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