Well, hi everyone. It's been a while, hasn't it?

Seven months since my last news post, in fact. There's not really much of an excuse for it, I must admit; I simply lacked the motivation to keep using this site. I just found myself playing Xbox more and using Newgrounds less. But I'm back now, and with a new style of content I want to try.

Worldbuilding

As you can see from my previous posts, my current style of uploading is the same as most other internet artists out there, which is to upload individual drawings with little to no connection aside from, for example, similar characters being used. However, I've always been focused on building up my characters and the world around them, little by little, and lately I've been feeling as if this style of uploading wouldn't do them justice.

Therefore, I have made the decision to switch to uploading more worldbuilding-focused content. This means that, instead of the individual, full-scale drawings previously mentioned, my focus will be on smaller, concept-based stuff, such as reference sheets and environment art. Here's how it'll work:

Every idea, whether it is for a character, world, or story, will start off as a concept. These can range from characters I want to build a story around, to a certain species I just happened to come up with one day. Of course, since it's Newgrounds, people can also chime in with their feedback, and let me know what they think. These kinds of posts will have [Concept] at the beginning of the title.

If I decide I like a certain concept and want to flesh it out into its own thing entirely, it gets upgraded to a project. Whereas concepts start off as an individual character, world or story, projects combine all three together. As the term worldbuilding suggests, I will be building up the details of the world and posting them individually. For example, I could go into detail about an accessory worn by the main character one day, and explain the backstory and motive of the main antagonist in the next. Project posts can take the form of art posts (e.g. if I want to share a new character reference) or blog posts (e.g. if I then explain that character in more detail). I tend to only upgrade concepts to projects if I (and possibly others) show enough enthusiasm for them, and will take time to consider it first. These kinds of posts will have the project's name in square brackets at the beginning of the title.

This isn't just limited to art, however: some projects may get turned into series. These will be where I'll take the world I've developed throughout the course of the project and actually use it in a piece of media, such as a comic or animation, where everyone will truly get to see it in action. These will all depend on my skill level, of course, and not every project will get turned into a series. Comics will have the project's name plus a number (#1, #2, #3, etc.) at the beginning of the title. All other media (e.g. movies, games) will have the project's name in square brackets at the beginning of the title, same as the project posts.

I may also occasionally make unrelated blog posts to show off little tidbits and oddities that never got their own uploads.

The Newgrounds playlist system will be a key part of this new scheme. There will be a single playlist for all of my concepts, and one for each project and series I develop. This will hopefully make it easier for viewers to sort through my work without having to wade through my entire upload history.

Even though I've been away from Newgrounds for a while, I've had a similar system going in my head for the longest time. It's why I've updated some of my earlier works to follow the concept/project/series naming style, Candlestick Road being the most prominent example for now. If a couple of projects don't have an associated concept post with them, it's because I'd already developed them beforehand.

That sums up my new system of uploading and naming. Hopefully it wasn't too confusing...

Other updates

I'm also going to experiment with a slightly different art style. I've been using a lineless style as of late, as, in my opinion, it makes my characters look less cartoonish. However, at my current skill level, this has introduced some problems. For example, say a character holds up his arm in front of his body, and they are both the same colour. Most lineless artists would typically solve this problem with shading, but I just haven't developed this skill yet. So, for now at least, I've come to a compromise. I'll start using an outline again, but instead of being black or another constant colour, it'll be in a darker shade of the colour of the object I want to draw. As I develop my skill, I may or may not transfer back to a lineless art style.

I've also bought the domain glitchbuddy.com, in the hopes of one day building my own website. Newgrounds is great, don't get me wrong, but I've always liked the idea of having the freedom to lay things out in exactly the way I want. Don't expect anything soon, though. An actual, functioning website will at the very least be several months off. You can still go to this domain if you want, though - it just redirects back to my Newgrounds page.

Aaaaaaand that's it

So yeah, look at that. A new style of content. I'm always experimenting with changes I can make to increase motivation; maybe this could be one? Regardless, I'm excited at the prospect of getting to do more with characters and worlds than before. The possibilities are truly endless.

(And yes, I'm roleplaying as a sentient robotic toy on the internet now. Something to do, you know.)

Candlestick Road is a new series created by me about two unlikely friends from two completely different walks of life. But hold up, how did we get here?

So last month, I made a post to my art page about three concept characters I came up with over the span of a few days while bored. The design of these characters was in part inspired by the simplicity and charm of a lot of children's (especially preschool) animations I have come across during my time.

It just so happened that at the same time I was creating those characters, I was also thinking about a series that I might like to make in the future. This prospective series was always going to be about two friends doing things together, but at that point I was unsure as to how exactly I was going to carry that out. Since I was creating these characters at the same time, I naturally combined them with this idea, and got to work building it up.

The result? Candlestick Road, a series about a triangle and a blob. This post aims to explain the series, what experiences brought it to life, and my bigger plans/dreams for it in the future.

Premise

Zoe is your average office worker, waking up, going to work every day, occasionally going on walks or watching TV, and going to sleep. She's also socially awkward, always keeping to herself and never really making any attempts to interact with people.

Blip is an adventurer with a wholesome, happy personality, actively seeking out new places to explore and new things to try. While he does try to interact with others, no one really wants to talk with him, and he so far hasn't made a friend.

One day, Blip is taking a walk (or bounce, rather) through his hometown of Appleton when, due to his small size, he accidentally trips up a certain office worker on her way back from work. Their apologies inadvertently lead into conversation, and, despite every single difference that stood in their way, they became friends.

Together, they will explore both themselves and their surroundings in their own weird, unique ways. They will have fun together, look out for one another and experience things that they just wouldn't be able to do alone. But, most importantly, they have a lot to learn from each other.

Development

The original premise of 'two friends do things together' was inspired by Little Big Awesome, a children's show about a big jelly character and his little purple friend, which just happens to be my favourite TV show ever (it's where my other username comes from). While that show goes completely crazy and random with its humour, I wanted to make something that was a bit more grounded in reality, but still fairly whimsical. I originally wanted to make some kind of spiritual successor to that show, but that never came to fruition, and the idea stayed in the back of my mind for ages.

Eventually, I started going through a phase where I was really into robot characters, and I randomly thought 'what if there was a series about an ordinary character becoming friends with a small robot'? This is what led me to create the original foundation for Candlestick Road, with the intention being that this hypothetical robot character would teach a boring, dull character all about the various joys of life.

Yep, the so-called 'small' character wasn't even meant to be a blob. That only came about when actually designing these characters. When I was having trouble designing a robot, I started doodling a blob-shaped character instead, just because I thought of the idea. While I did eventually manage to get a robot design done (as can be seen in the post), I ended up picking the blob character after I found myself liking him more than the robot.

One last thing: The name 'Candlestick Road' came about because a candlestick was the first thing I saw in my living room while I was trying to come up with names. 'Candlestick' was originally going to be the name of the town... now it's the road instead.

And that is how Candlestick Road came to be, or at least what I can remember of it.

Meet the characters

(Apologies for re-using the concept images; it's 9:46 in the evening and drawing new ones takes time.)

Zoe

Zoe is just your average person, really: she works an office job for an insurance company, lives in a high-rise block of flats, and generally watches television for her entertainment. Her life could be better, though. For one, she makes enough to buy groceries and pay the bills, but not much more than that. She also has to regularly deal with her annoying neighbours, and worst of all, her landlord.

But the thing she lacks most of all is a friend. For her entire life, Zoe has been incredibly quiet and shy, only ever really communicating with her parents. She might seem content with her life on the surface, but deep down, she really wants a friend. She just doesn't know it.

Blip

Blip doesn't really have a home, but that's fine; he doesn't need one. Adopted into a family of robots and named as such, Blip's optimistic personality and sense of adventure started when he would regularly sneak out of the house in the hopes of making friends. While he wasn't exactly successful in this, that didn't stop him from finding enjoyment in the art of exploration, often going out of his way to visit an area or place he had never been before. Not too far away though; he always had to be back before his parents returned.

When it came time for him to move out, he essentially lived as a nomad, regularly visiting new places (this time even further away) and feeding off of the natural elements in the soil, as all blobs do. But that 'friend' thing always stuck with him. Growing up away from the majority of the blob population, he never got the chance to partake in the social life that his kind naturally crave, and has resorted to attempting to interact with the citizens of every place he visits. No luck so far, though. It's a shame. I wonder if he'll ever make one.

My plans

As of this blog article being posted, the first Candlestick Road comic is already up on my NG and Twitter. It took me about 2-3 weeks to make, but hopefully I can start getting them out more quickly. I have a whole bunch of ideas.

As of now, the comics are the only medium I have that I can realistically pull off by myself and effectively tell a story with. In the future, if enough people are interested in the series, I want to see if I can get a voice cast (and maybe a few extra helpers) together and turn this into an animated series, but no guarantees thus far.

In the very long-term, I want to eventually see if I can pitch some kind of concept to a proper television network. Maybe this could be it? Who knows?

Best not to think too far ahead into the future, though. As past GlitchBuddy once said:

"Some things are going to change, and they may not turn out to be the way you expected them to. It's better to focus on ideas you have now, and see where things go from there."

Conclusion

Well, this is it. The start of something (hopefully) beautiful. In a timeline of me saying I will do things and ultimately not following through, I reckon this could be the thing to break the cycle. There's just too much potential here to go to waste. I already love these characters, and I hope you will, too.

Between the last news post and this one, I haven't really done much, have I? I keep saying I'm going to create and upload all of this wonderful stuff, but it's been almost a month since I've created this account, and I still only have a single piece of art to my name. Why is that?

Long story short, I've had a lot of depression and apathy lately. For the past couple of weeks, I've been either playing games, watching YouTube, aimlessly browsing Newgrounds and wondering what I actually want to do on the internet, to no avail. My personal lifestyle had also taken a hit, although I don't wish to go into detail on this post.

But don't worry - I'm doing better now. I have a better idea of the direction I want to take with my online presence, I have the biggest creative drive I've had recently, and my lifestyle's been improving a lot too. For the first time in a while, I think I actually know what I want to do and where I want to go, at least in the short-term. The goal of this news post is to give anyone reading an update into what I've done since the last post, and what I hope to do in the near future.

So first of all, my slime character. Yes, I know, I talk about him a lot, but I do have some new stuff to share.

I haven't really stated this in my previous post (or anywhere else for that matter), but I had been having a lot of trouble coming up with a name for him. Yes, even after I said he would be called Sprout. I couldn't come to a conclusion as to whether or not that would be the right name for him, and that put me in a sort of mental limbo, where he kind of had a name, but also didn't. However, earlier today I got the opportunity to throw some ideas around with my mother of all people (who has a passing interest in creative writing). Not only has this brainstorming session unlocked a ton of new worldbuilding ideas I didn't even think about, it's led me to finally decide, once and for all, that I truly do want to name this character Sprout. This probably wouldn't mean anything to the average person reading this, but it's a pretty sizeable weight that's just been lifted off of my shoulders.

However, as Sprout gains more of an identity and world of his own, I feel it would be inappropriate to use him as a generic online representation of myself. Therefore, my whole 'slime' branding that I'm using right now will eventually be phased out and replaced with something different that I can use more as a generic persona and brand, although I don't know what that will be yet. I like to archive pointless stuff like this, so here's my profile with the slime branding before it gets changed:

As for what I'm going to do in the future... I have some ideas. I've learnt a couple important lessons since my last post. The first is to not think too far into the future, and instead focus on what you're going to do in the present. It's fine to have a long-term goal (I have one myself), but don't attempt to plan out every little minuscule detail of your journey towards that goal. Some things are going to change, and they may not turn out to be the way you expected them to. It's better to focus on ideas you have now, and see where things go from there. The second lesson is to not tell people you're going to do something (especially in a news post like this) unless you're absolutely sure that's what you want to do. It doesn't matter a whole lot for me now, since I have basically no following, but I still don't want to be the kind of person who constantly makes promises and changes, only to retract on them mere days later. Therefore, this will be my new policy for this blog - I won't say I'm going to do something until I'm absolutely, positively, 100% sure that's what I really want to do. It sounds simple, but it's a lesson I still needed to learn. Going back to these ideas for the future, I reckon it's better to not say what they are until I actually make something out of them. I mean, they could change at any time, right?

Well, that's it for now. Who knows where this newfound creative drive will take me? I certainly don't. I now have a month's worth of Supporter, so hopefully that will give me some motivation to be more active before that runs out. Anyway, slime ya later.

(I'm going to have to change that outro, aren't I?)

I've been wanting to make an update about me, my characters, and my plans for content going forward.

So, first of all, my characters, specifically my slime OC. In my last post, I mentioned how I was yet to come up with a replacement name for my character, after I found out the name I wanted to use had already been taken.

Let's just cut straight to the point. My slime's new name is...

Sprout!

I haven't come up with an in-lore reason for the name yet, although I do have a few ideas. Apart from that, I am sure that this will be a fitting replacement name for him.

Here's a drawing of him for reference, in case you missed the last post:

Now, the reason as to why I wanted to change the name is simple: I'd rather have something fairly original than just use something Nintendo already came up with nearly 40 years ago. Additionally, if I ever want to use this character in a commercial product (e.g. a game), then I'd rather change it now to avoid any legal trouble. I'll admit, I am thinking ahead a bit, but I have big dreams for the future, and I really don't want to have to change the name then when I'm already used to it.

Apart from the character's name, I've been trying to build his world too. So far, he lives in a village with a whole bunch of other slimes, and they're not the only species in their world. Yeah... I'm still working on the rest.

Enough about my characters, what about me and my content? I'll be honest, I haven't exactly felt the best the past few days. It was a bit of a shock to receive my first genuine feedback on my work, and I also reckon I've been spending too much time on the computer, Newgrounds specifically. I feel as if all of this has slowed down my thinking and put me in a sort of creative block. You can notice in this news post; I have all of the base ideas for characters and such, but I've yet to come up with any actual detail surrounding them. Don't worry about me, though, as I'll be slowly working on improvements, such as going to bed earlier and watching my time on the computer.

I've also been thinking about what kind of content I'm going to make in the future, such as art and animation. I've decided I want to have two main series of content: one where I can focus on more serious character development and story, and one where I can just goof off and make silly jokes and references. I already have some of the characters for these series in mind; however, those are all of the details I'm going to share for now.

So, what now? Well, I'm going to try to reduce activity on NG and the internet in general for the next few days as I work towards my maths exams, the last of which is on the 14th of June. After that, I basically have until September off as I get ready to switch to a new school, so who knows what I'll do between then?

Well, that's all I have to say. I haven't gotten any better at ending these things, so... slime ya later.

The name's GlitchBuddy, as you've probably already discerned. I'm a British guy who likes art and animation. Simple enough, right?

Well, I wasn't always into art and animation. In fact, I'd say I only really started to care about it in the last 6-7 months or so. Since then, I've unlocked a passion for creating and designing characters, stories and worlds. However, I'm just starting out, so I can't exactly say I've got much to show for it.

In my spare time, I mostly like to draw and play video games. I'm a huge Mario and Pokémon fan, but I also like checking out the small indie games you can get on Steam and elsewhere. My favourite console of all time is the DS.

This is my OC. He's a slime. That red thing is a scarf. His name was Kuribo, but apparently that's already been taken, so I'm looking for a better one.

Enough about all that, what do I want to do? Well, really, there's no one specific thing I want to do on here. And to me, that's a good thing; I want to experiment with all different kinds of stuff and see where everything takes me. The crude freehand art style you see above isn't a stylistic choice; it's all that I can do. But I'm trying to get better.

Well, that's really all there is to it. I've never been good at ending these kinds of things, so... see you guys later!