Allow me to introduce myself. My name is RipRoarRex...




Yes. I know, it has been a very long time. To be more precise, it is just short of five months since I submitted my last piece of artwork, or indeed really involved myself in the fandom at all. In that time, I have gone from logging into various accounts every day to logging into FA about once every 2 weeks and not at all on most other sites. In truth, the only place you really see me regularly these days is over on Eccentricities. But this constitutes a comeback of sorts for me, and upon my return to this site, I would request that people take some time to try and read this journal as it contains important news about myself and my work.

For those to whom it is not already obvious, my protracted absence has primarily resulted from having taken on my first full time job back in November, and the subsequent lack of time or energy that I have had in the past five months or so has seen my activity decline considerably. Having already suffered with a severe art block since about May 2009 which in some ways never really went away, my motivation for artwork sank to a new low - I felt that the precious time I had was never enough to achieve anything and, even when time was forthcoming, my frustrations about the standard of my work and the struggle of doing every picture sapped away all my enjoyment and motivation to the extent that I had several times considered posting messages stating that I was giving up on the artwork.

In truth, something of a turning point came in early April 2010 - for whatever reason, random as it may seem, I developed an intensely strong mood for webbed bird feet which lasted about two weeks. During this time, I began putting together a series of pictures (which ultimately became 'Mike - Duck'd') that gave me the opportunity to rediscover my cartoony style - something I have admittedly sacrificed in recent times in favour of greater technical standards and higher quality artwork. In many ways, it has been my pursuit of better standards that has drained all the fun out of my work and led me to become frustrated and miserable with it. I started out as a cartoon artist and the lack of restrictions or demands that such a style presents is somewhat liberating by comparison. This is in no way to suggest that I am no longer producing higher quality realistic pieces, but it is primarily cartoons that have given me a new lease of artistic life.

As such, since the start of April, I have endeavoured to make something of an artistic comeback. Setting myself a target of submitting a new batch of work at the end of May, I have managed to create a number of pieces (as well as one completed before April) which I have decided to share with everyone today:

Mike - Behind Closed Doors
The Punisher
Brian & Stewie in 'Road to the Macroverse'
Mike - Duck'd (Pages 1, 2, 3)
Beside the Seaside

A word of warning - this sudden batch does not mean that it would be a good idea to anticipate a renewed flurry of works from me. Whilst I would say that this confirms that I have finally gotten back into my artistic groove, my time is still limited and my motivation mercurial. I am hoping however that there won't be another big gap like this again - at least not for a very long time to come.




At this point, I should probably establish some hard truths. Firstly, many of you may be aware that contrary to outdated statements on my website and profiles, I have stopped formally taking new request ideas in recent months. The simple truth is, folks, that I do not have time - or much enthusiasm - for requests anymore. When I first came into the fandom, I had immeasurably greater reserves of time and motivation, and demands upon myself from others were far less significant. However, reopening my request status back in August 2008 brought with it a considerable level of demand that I knew fairly quickly I would never be able to meet. It cannot have escaped anyone's attention - least of all those who have made suggestions in that time - that I have not completed a single formal request picture since about September 2008, thereby constituting a request backlog stretching back almost two years now.

I'm afraid to say that the harsh reality is, guys, if it wasn't obvious already - this is never going to happen.

People regularly come to me asking questions like "have you considered doing another picture with Rocky/Cassie/Carlos etc." or "I would like to see you draw <insert cliched idea here>" as if I have not thought about such things myself or do not intend on drawing particular characters in future. The fact is that my overactive imagination creates a vast quantity of ideas for each and every one of my characters as well as plenty of others - a quantity of ideas that I can never possibly fulfil in the little time that I have. And without wishing to put too fine a point on it, my ideas are virtually always more appealing to me than those that are suggested by other people. Therefore when I find time and motivation, it is mostly for working on my own ideas rather than anybody else's, and hence in my diminishing free time why I have failed to fulfil any of my requests for nearly two years.

At this point therefore, I find it only fair and appropriate to state that I shall no longer be taking formal requests.

I have known for a long time that this decision was almost inevitable and more a question of when I would decide to call it a day rather than if. However, this does not necessarily mean that I will never again draw an idea inspired by somebody else if it appeals to me sufficiently. But I am tired of the guilt of enjoying my own ideas when I feel I 'should' be drawing for somebody else. At the end of the day, if a request idea really drove me wild, I would probably have done it already. If something does not appeal to me in the way my own ideas do, there is not much point in investing the vast quantities of time and effort I do for my work in something I am ultimately to get little or nothing out of, especially if it is in place of working on one of my own ideas. It would make little difference if the proposal in question was a trade or commission instead, as my primary motivation is not for gain but seeing the realisations of my personal fantasies. As such, it would be unfair to leave anyone under any further illusions and offer my sincere apologies to anyone who has been waiting or expecting something from me in this regard. However, I will at this stage stress that I do still intend to take on some of the suggestions which have been submitted to me prior to this point - should your idea be one of these, you will most likely hear from me at some point in due course.


Now onto a second issue - Rexar & Mike: First Time.

I receive a lot of questions about this comic, as I know the idea has proven popular with many people. My original intention was - and still is - for this comic to be at least 10 pages long; in no way is Page 3 to be seen as anything like the end of the storyline. It is no secret however that having already stalled for around 6 months between the creations of Page 2 and Page 3, Page 4 has failed to materialise for an even longer time. Should one wish to inquire whether I have given up on this comic altogether, the answer is still a firm no. However, rather than attempt to make promises over its continuation and completion given my ambitions for it, I would only suggest that it should no longer be expected that I will be finishing more pages. The chances are that I probably will at some point, but the mood for this piece takes me so incredibly rarely and progression is only ever likely to happen when it does, and I wouldn't like to get anyone's hopes up. At this point therefore, I must ask - please stop messaging me about this comic. I confess that doing so is only likely to annoy me.


This might lead some of you to wonder therefore what the hell all these other ideas I have must be. Truthfully I can't list them all - they enter and leave my thoughts on a whim and only a few grab my attention in such a way as to demand that I work on them at any given time. But here is a round-up of some of the things besides this new batch that I have been trying my best to make progress on:

1. A King Koopa Animation - it is ambitious, and like most ambitious things I take on, it is highly unlikely to ever see the light of day. However, I have so far put together about 28 seconds of this and I'm rather enjoying it too. I'm not ashamed to admit that it will be 100% geared towards my own tastes - that is an element of footworship and crushing with the implication that Koopa has smelly, cheesy feet. If crushing is involved, I may attempt to create two sequences - one violent and one tame - that people can choose between, though at this stage that is merely extra work that I may never even get to. I would like to finish this but I would also like to make a really good job of it - and given that I have been working on it now since about February, that gives you a sense of just how slowly it is moving.

2. A Hux Animation - many may know that this has also been in the pipeline for a while; far longer, to tell you the truth. This, I should point out, will be a definite hard crush animation, which is my major kink as far as Hux is concerned. This has probably reached a similar point as the King Koopa animation so it is also nowhere near completion and may never be, but if I do find the time and enthusiasm, you may be seeing this one too.

3. A TMNT footworshipping comic/picture - some of you may be aware that this has been in production at some level for goodness knows how long. Technically, one panel has been pretty much finished for months now, but I dislike the way it has come out, and it is highly likely that I will just take the extreme step of starting it again. As such, this probably won't be finished for a very long time either, but as one of my more pronounced kinks, it is likely to get time here and there.

4. A Rocky and Mike picture involving macro and sock-sniffing - this is drawn and ready for colour but I've had difficulty deciding upon lighting and I'm not happy with Rocky's face so it will probably be undergoing reworking before it actually progresses much further.

5. Something involving Marco sitting on Mike - I should stress that it isn't really butt crush as that is not my thing, but submissive nonetheless. This idea has been in my head for a while now and having sketched it a few times, it works for me, so I will probably be taking it further. As of this moment however, consider it as 'not even started'.

6. There are 2, possibly 3 gift pictures/overdue requests that I do intend on doing at some point. One of these is very well progressed but may be expanded to include several panels and so is some way away yet, while the others are barely even started. To avoid getting hopes up, I won't contact the people in question until the pictures are significantly closer to completion.


As with all of my anticipated projects, the best advice is to assume it will never happen. It is likely the assumption will be correct but at least you'll be pleasantly surprised if something does actually manifest itself!


Anyway, I feel I have probably said far too much already, but there has been a lot to get off my chest here that I have in many ways been waiting these five months to express to everyone. I hope I have not disappointed or offended too many people and I apologise unreservedly if I have. However, my life has changed in many ways since last year and it is time for me to recognise that my fandom life has to change too - in ways that I can begin to enjoy it and revel in it once again.


Best wishes to all of you - and for anyone who read all of this, thanks very much for your time.




RRRex