New 8-Bit Girl Art!

So, 8-Bit Girl has a new design! 

My friend Mark Pearce kindly created this image of me to pop up as the banner image on the blog. You'll also see it over on my Facebook and Twitter pages too. I love that he added my kitty in, and that tongue expression? I'm totally guilty of pulling that when I'm concentrating. :P

Thanks buddy! I really appreciate it. Here's the artwork in more detail:

Game Art: Manuel Kilger

Hailing from Germany, Manuel Kilger is a digital artist that has created a wide range of fun and vibrant artworks, reflecting games, fantasy, popular TV shows and more. 

Looking through his gallery has been a treat, so I have posted a few of my favourite game-inspired artworks below. (Click to enlarge)

Please be sure to visit his gallery to look at the rest! 

Dead Space

Old Link (The Legend of Zelda)

Samus (Metroid)

Got any great game artwork of your own to share? Please feel free to get in touch! 

NintyFans Halloween Contest Winners

My Nintendo group on deviantART ran a Halloween competition that ran from mid-October to the 8th November.

We had plenty of people enter for a chance of winning some great prizes, such as commissions from artists, deviantART points and features and more. 

As the Founder, I also got to judge the entries. Here's who I chose as the first, second and third place winners. Congratulations!

FIRST PLACE

Smash Halloween Party by Spelarminlind

SECOND PLACE

Haunter House by artisanpanda

THIRD PLACE

GKHGKGDHG


DFKJDFGKDFHGF

FLKJFDLKJG

Halloween Boonanza! by Misswaterfox

Princess Zelda by artspell

Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda series is given something of a Disney makeover here with this piece by artist David Lojaya (known as artspell online). 

Beautifully vibrant, whilst picking out Zelda's key features and peaceful demeanour  this is a great piece of fan art.

See it below:

Check out more work from artspell via their deviantart page.

NintyFans: Halloween Contest Now Live!

It's October, which means plenty of Halloween shenanigans are found around the internet.

My deviantART Nintendo group, NintyFans is currently holding a Halloween contest. The idea is to create a Halloween-themed piece of Nintendo art in any medium.

Plenty of fellow artists have come on board to kindly donate prizes for our first, second and third place winners, who will be announced on the 7th November 2013.

If you would like to get involved and enter this competition for a host of excellent prizes, then head on down to the competition entry page. Similarly  please get in touch with me via my email address if you would like to donate a prize for one of the three winners.

Have fun!

Kayleigh
8-Bit Girl

NintyFans: Smash Bros. Competition Winners

My Nintendo deviantART art group (NintyFans) recently held a competition to create a piece of art based on a character the entrant would most like to see in a future Smash Bros. game. They were encouraged to draw some of the characters move-set if they wish.

We had a lot of excellent entries, but these three were by far the best, and were awarded our three winners!

Ridley by BonnyJohn

Tetra/Toon Zelda by Icy-Snowflakes

Wart!! by Dominosaur

Congratulations to those who won! If you wish to enter future NintyFans competitions, please keep an eye on the group page.

Machinarium: Beautiful Hand-Drawn Artwork

I picked up a bunch of games for next to nothing in the Steam Summer Sale these past few weeks (resulting in spending no more than £6 in total-bargain!). Machinarium was one of them.

A point and click game loaded with puzzles, quirky but beautiful hand-drawn animation and a cute robot, I am loving this at the moment.

I also found out that Machinarium was created by Amanita Design, creators of a bizarre, surrealist, sometimes disturbing but equally enthralling point and click browser game Samorost(<-click to play it!), which I loved when I was younger.

I definitely recommend giving this a play. The demo is up on Steam; so download it! http://steamcommunity.com/app/40700

One of my favourite aspects of Machinarium is the artwork, some of which you can see below. (Click an image to make it bigger).

NintyFans Smash Bros. Competition

I often use 8-Bit Girl as a place to let my readers know about my Nintendo deviantART group's competitions. Every few months or so, NintyFans holds an art competition based on a particular theme, with a bunch of prizes up for grabs each time.

The theme this time is:

Smash Bros. Characters
Draw a character you want in the next Smash Bros. game. They have to be a character that has never been added to the series character roster before!

Prize Donations?

As for the prizes, there are drawing commissions, features and more up for grabs, but we are still on the lookout for more!

If you are a dab hand at being creative, or would just love to feature some fantastic Nintendo art on your gaming blog amongst any other prizes you may have available to donate, then please get in touch with me!

I would be happy to add your prize to the competition blog. Also, please feel free to enter yourselves if drawing is a passion of yours. As the saying goes, the more the merrier!

For prize donations, please email kayleighjpowis@gmail.com with the headline 'Smash Bros Competition Prize Donation' and I shall add them to the competition blog straight away.

Check out the current prizes, rules and entries here: http://nintyfans.deviantart.com/journal/New-contest-386645991

Good luck everyone, and have fun!

Artist Feature: Ry-Spirit

For cute art, look no further than Ry-Spirit. His Pokemon art is a favourite of mine in particular.

Check out some of his art below, and check out his gallery for more.

My Lara Croft Makeover for Pages and Panels!

Artist and pal James Stayte kindly drew me for my comic blog, Pages and Panels!

Being a huge Tomb Raider fan, I was chuffed to see that he had drawn me in Lara's classic costume! I am actually planning to review the latest Tomb Raider comic for Pages and Panels shortly (the comic that was released to coincide with the release of Crystal Dynamic's excellent Tomb Raider reboot), so this was rather fitting. I was also unaware that he was going to draw me again, and in that suit, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Check out the illustration below. Thanks James. Once again, you've created a winner!

Please show him your support by checking out his blog: http://www.stayteoftheart.blogspot.co.uk

Pages and Panels: http://www.pagesandpanels.blogspot.co.uk

Tomb Raider Art Feature

Crystal Dynamic's Tomb Raider reboot was released last month and was met with great critical acclaim. Fans also loved it, with the game selling an impressive 1 million copies in just 48 hours.

I've been a Tomb Raider fan from the beginning, and have always found Lara Croft to be a strong, likeable character. The latest game is, in my opinion, fantastic, and is a welcome, and much-needed revamp for a series that was sadly in danger of becoming tired.

If you like browsing art online, you may have noticed that a lot of fan art and cosplay has been created for this latest Tomb Raider instalment. Here's few of my favourites below. I had so many more to include, but then this post would have gone on forever!

By Remoraz 

Cosplay by JennCroft

By hamsterfly

By Sophia-M

By Gigei

By Terribilus 

By Deivcalviz

Dr Seuss Meets Silent Hill!

What if Dr. Seuss branched out from his classic children's oddities to something a little more sinister?

Artist DrFaustusAU has imagined it for us, in this great Silent Hill/Dr. Seuss mash up. Check it out below!

Cute The Walking Dead Fan Art!

Check out this rather cute piece of The Walking Dead fanart by artist Bisparulz.

This piece features Omid, Ben, Kenny, Christa, Clementine, Lee and Chuck from the Telltale Games series. Check out the larger version of it here. 

New NintyFans Contest!

Art by Know-Kname

I often let you all know about the latest contests that are running on the group I founded, 'NintyFans'.

NintyFans is a deviantART group which brings together thousands (5,966 members at the time of publishing!) of creative/arty Nintendo fans. I'm the Founder and boss of the group, and have been for over 3 years now. 

This month's contest is: What Nintendo Characters Do In Their Spare Time.

Plenty of prizes are up for grabs, including points (dA's currency), features and llamas. Hopefully more people will be donating more prizes shortly!

Head on down to this journal entry for the competition rules and the full list of prizes! http://nintyfans.deviantart.com/journal/New-Contest-358148552

Tomb Raider Reborn Contest!

To celebrate the release of Crystal Dynamic's new Tomb Raider reboot, they have teamed up with art site deviantART to host a Tomb Raider Reborn competition.

Professional and budding artists alike are encouraged to depict Lara Croft's latest transformation in an original piece of artwork.

The prizes include points to spend on the deviantART store, cash prizes, hoodies, bags and Tomb Raider Xbox360 consoles amongst other things.

You must be a dA member to enter, and entries must be in before the 14th March 2013.

If this sounds like your type of contest, then you can enter here: http://ayame-kenoshi.deviantart.com/journal/Tomb-Raider-Reborn-Contest-351846219

Good luck!

Da Da Da Daaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

If you've never seen artist James Stayte's art, then you're missing out!

A Zelda fan, James has drawn Link opening a chest to reveal a piece of heart. It's a great piece, (and of course, I'd love it, being a fan of all things Zelda) which you can see below.

'A Link to the Past' by James Stayte

Check out more of James' art here:
deviantART - http://stayte-of-the-art.deviantart.com/
Website - http://www.stayteoftheart.co.uk/

Feature: Nerdy Aprons!

I love seeing people's creativity, so I jumped at the chance of featuring DarlingArmy.

The brains behind DarlingArmy is Amanda Marin, who creates custom-made aprons for a whole host of nerd-dom, gaming being a large proportion of it. On her Etsy store and deviantART page, she shows off her creations, those inspired by Zelda, Pokemon and Portal to name a few.

When I asked Amanda these two questions, she replied with these answers:

What inspired you to create these aprons?
I've actually been creating femme cosplay designs for my best friend and myself for several years. We're both a little tan and therefore can't always cosplay for authenticity, so why not cute it up? Afterall, I don't wear pants in real life, why should I when I cosplay?

Anywho, the aprons came about when I was strapped for cash while I was student teaching full time and still going to school full time. When Christmas came around and I had no cash, I had to use scrap fabric to make my friends geeky aprons.

From there I decided to sell them. Instead of offering dresses, I decided pinafores were much more versatile and accessible for all women since they can be worn fifty different ways instead of just one way like a dress <3

What has been your favourite design so far?
Gaaaaaaah. Such a hard question. I would say...probably my design for Matt Smith's new costume for the newest season of Doctor Who. When I found the leaked photos from the filming of the new episodes, I instantly fell in love with the deep colours!

Amanda's current favourite design!

Check out a few of her gaming designs below.

This has to be my favourite!

Check out more of DarlingArmy's work here:
Etsy- http://www.etsy.com/shop/darlingarmy
deviantART- http://darlingarmy.deviantart.com/

Kirby/Skyrim Crossover by Michael Edstrom

A while ago I was asking for Kirby art for an anniversary themed piece that I was planning to run on 8-Bit Girl. Unlike my previous features (Metroid, Resident Evil and Zelda), I wasn't swamped with artwork, comments and other things that people wanted me to feature. I am not too sure why Kirby didn't get the love that the others recieved!

However...I did get one fantastic piece of art sent to me during that time.

Above you can see the Kirby and Skyrim crossover piece that Michael Edstrom, a graphic designer, podcaster, gamer and 8-Bit Girl reader created. I love Skyrim, so it was brilliant to open this email and see Kirby dressed as the dragonborn doing the 'Fus Ro Dah!' shout!

Thanks for sharing Michael!

NintyFans Halloween Contest Winners (Art Feature)

My Nintendo deviantART group, NintyFans, held a Halloween contest throughout October. The contest closed on the 13th November, allowing me (the Founder) and our Co-Founder to judge the entries.

Three winners were chosen, with plenty of great prizes up for grabs. Here are the winners!

FIRST PLACE

Super Mario Halloween by ViralJP

SECOND PLACE

Happy Late Halloween by Prince-Marusu

THIRD PLACE

Trick or Treating by Babyblisblink

Please keep an eye on NintyFans for upcoming contests! We hold them every 2 months or so. The next one shall be hopefully over Christmas. 

Art Feature: Juan Rivera

As many of you know, I love checking out Tumblr and discovering new artists. During this weeks Tumbling' I discovered the artwork of Juan Rivera.

Fun, eyecatching and full of character, I just knew I had to give him a feature! So here are a few of his video game work.

Please go and check out Juan via his Behance page.