Cylent-Nite

This is out of nowhere! As the title suggests, this is more for those who have been rather closely following my Sonic Expanse lore I've been building up over the years and those with more of an avid interest in canon world-building. My current project at the moment is working on building up my own Wikia for the Sonic Expanse world, at the moment it's going pretty swell and I'm mostly building up a list of potential articles to write for future reference, and the ability to add in-text linking is a really helpful tool for getting all the information in my head out there.

Something I need a little bit of help with is for compiling a list of potential articles that need to be written (or ideas that you'd be interested to see me establish more on). So whether it's about characters, locations, events, artefacts, or any other subjects of interest, it'd help a whole ton if you could list out what you think I should add to the Wikia- can be SEGA game-canon stuff, things I've already talked about before throughout my gallery, or stuff from my Q&A journal a while back (SONIC-related Questions and Answers!), or if you just want to see subjects further expanded on, list it out!

Any contributions will be extremely helpful!

Uh, hello? Hey? Haha! It must be a bit odd seeing a journal from me, I literally haven't posted one of these since... May of 2014, goodness. It's been nearly 2 years since I've really engaged you guys on a social level, I feel like I should really try to make a more active effort here in the community. So... Hey, how's it going? Had a good year? Hahahaha-

--- Personal Update

That being said, Happy New Year to everyone! I've sort of waited a little bit since I know a lot of you have still yet to move into the new year; Here in Australia it's already evening on the 1st of January 2016-- The future isn't all that exciting yet I can tell you much! Regardless, I have a particularly good feeling about 2016, especially art-wise. I've got a lot of projects lined up with my Sonic Expanse ideas I've been tinkering with for years and I feel like I've ironed out my plans enough to start properly moving into action with them. In my personal life there's going to be a lot of changes happening in my circumstances, so I'll be able to better manage my time to work everything in better.

I kinda feel like I should give an update on myself from these past couple of years (feels kind of strange reporting on several years as if I've been in isolation, haha!) for the sake of resolution. I've updated bits and pieces about myself throughout a lot of my deviation descriptions, but otherwise I'm not much on the personable side when posting here lol. To summarize: 2014 was a particularly difficult year for me, especially with work and other personal circumstances weighing on me. Ironically as a consequence, with things being tough it had been my busiest year when it came to drawing and posting stuff here on dA, haha! But overall as far as life enjoyment went, 2014 wasn't all that.

For 2015, it was very mixed. The early portion of the year was less stressful, even being quite pleasant. I was taking on a lot more responsibilities with work and even found a lot more purpose and identity in myself on a very personal level. Which incidentally actually took me away from the internet and drawing for the longest time- Hence the very long art block I went through for a good 6 months and why it was so difficult to get back into routine (the longest I've ever gone in my life without drawing!). Around mid-late into the year I hit a major wall and things started to crumble over me a bit again, so I've been a bit on the reclusive side. Thankfully over the past few months I've been able to get my groove back with drawing and I feel like I'm back better than ever!

I have managed to make a couple of good new friends over this time who have really helped, so thank you very much to those special people haha.

tl;dr: I don't say much about my life normally, things had been rough but things should be okay!!! I do plan to be more community-oriented where possible.

--- Art Update

As you've been seeing from my gallery this past year (I've posted a lot less in 2015 compared to 2014, likely because of the very long art block haha), my submission rate as well as the quality of my works have fluctuated greatly. Nowadays I'm a bit more relaxed and just do whatever. At the very least, despite posting a lot still, I've been working out the kinks with my projects in the background... So I'm hoping things are ironed out enough to finally move forward. New information will be revealed about this... soon.

With regards other stuff I should be doing, particularly commissions I still have owing; to those people, I am very sorry that I've taken so long with them. I don't really have any excuses, I just admit that I don't have as much discipline (or rather didn't when I took them on) as I'd expected to be able to do commissions as a focus. I do still plan on getting them done eventually, but at the rate of things it may take a while due to my lack of focus. So to those people who I do owe: I am very sorry, and you are still welcome to wait- or if you'd like a refund on them/cancel, you're welcome to do so also.

Regardless, commissions are something I do personally want to be able to do in the future, I just haven't felt much need over these past couple of years due to working a full-time job and being able to earn my own keep through those means. However, with recent changes to circumstances to the new year, commissions may be a requirement, so watch this space.

Another thing happening lately, I've started giving a bit more life to the ShadowXTikal club I run here on dA. Lately I've been doing a lot more Shadikal art, and I've been deeply amused by it's increasing interest it's been receiving-- secretly I'm trying to brainwash you all, hahaha. Anyways, I plan to try and raise a contest at some point in the next month or so; The theme of the contest will be "How They Meet". More details will be revealed about this soon when I've worked out the plans for it, but in the mean time, why don't you head over to the club and join/watch? lol

I feel like there's a lot more that I could be saying, but it all seems to have slipped my mind, haha. In any case, it's nice to give an update, and I hope to continue to keep your attention in the new year!!

I really haven't done one of these in a very long time, haha! But, I've just noticed that my deviantART account has hit the 10 years mark, so I guess that's a little bit worthy of note! (even though, I've only really been active on here since July of last year). I keep meaning to have made journals commemorating other common milestone-related achievements (gaining 2,500+ watchers, receiving 100k+ pageviews, etc, etc), but eh, it's too much effort trying to celebrate every little thing so I'll celebrate them all in this once post, haha. But still, it's nice to see that I've been a bit more recognized around the place in the short time being active!

Life update, as mentioned in a lot of my deviations, I've been keeping myself busy with work throughout the weeks, it takes up a fair bit of my time but helps me to appreciate my free time I can have to draw more, haha. Art-wise I've been experimenting with different skill, as well as refining and presenting more of my Sonic Expanse-related concepts. At some point I do plan on producing a comic series of sorts, but I want to make sure all my ideas are ironed out first before I start on it (incidentally, which of my concepts would you most like to see presented in comic form?). When I do get around to that stage, I may even ask for a little bit of assistance for the project. We'll see!

Anyways, this journal's short and sweet as I don't have much to say at present. I have a lot on my plate at the moment and plenty of projects that I want to work on and show off (also commissions that i'll get around to one day, hahaha), so I'll be sure to present them all eventually!

Just really felt like posting up a journal, it's always nice to communicate socially every now and again! How's everyone going? All well? That's good to hear!

Just really wanna take the time to thank all who have supported my ideas and works over time. It's been just under 6 weeks since my last journal in the 19th of July, and I'm intrigued noticing that since the then announcement of 50,000 pageviews and 1,400 watchers, I've since accumulated another 10,000 pageviews and 300 more watchers, so thank you all very much! My recent poll has also produced pleasing results, with a rather decent balance tipping more towards Ideas! So it's nice to see what people enjoy more with regards all I have been submitting!

I have a lot of projects that I'm currently working on, so I have a lot of ideas and concepts that I'll be sharing more of over time, especially now since I've branched out into alternate timeline ideas that diverge from my main Sonic Expanse continuity timeline. For those interested, I've also recently re-organized my gallery in different sections, to make it easier to browse my ideas and to distinguish the worlds with a different title designation for each of my individual alternate timelines:


Earth-1: Also acceptably "Earth-Prime". This timeline is the main Sonic Expanse timeline. As per my Sonic Expanse ideas, this very specifically relies on game canon, drawing elements from every existing game and piecing together all the concepts and ideas to form a single seamless continuity timeline. I specifically make sure the ideas are still suiting to the continuity, with the stories that fill in between the different points of history are made sure not to contradict anything that is established in preset day canon.

Earth-2: This timeline is where the world where my alternate Mephiles and Iblis exist, for those who are familiar with my designs for them. In this world, it diverges from the Earth-1 timeline from the point 10 years ago after the Solaris Project accident. Unlike in the events of Sonic 06, Shadow and Silver do not return to this time period in order to seal away Mephiles and Iblis, and instead the two are left free to roam and develop their own identities without the fear of being sealed away, eventually developing a sense of empathy and humanity. This timeline is also where my old Chimera characters, Destiny, Fate and an unrevealed third, Kismet exist, except 200 years in the future from Mephiles and Iblis' present day time period.

Earth-3: This timeline is actually a relatively new idea that I haven't come up with art for yet. This timeline diverges from Earth-1's timeline from the point 50 years ago during the raid on the Space Colony ARK, where Maria is spared from her death sentence. However, Maria Robotnik's survival begins a chain of events that sequentially leads to the destruction of planet Earth via Dark Gaia's awakening. A small group of survivors of Earth take refuge on the Space Colony ARK shortly before Earth's destruction, and travel through space, eventually landing on planet Uranus and take habitation there. After colonizing the planet it is renamed "Planet Freedom". This timeline is actually a game canonized adaptation and tie-in to the world of the Sonic OVA.

Earth-4: This timeline is the one I've been putting the most focus on as of recent, which is the world of Proj the Echidna. In this timeline, it diverges from Earth-1's history prior to the creation of Project Shadow, with Mother Wisp being discovered and used as the DNA donor for the creation of Project Shadow instead of Black Doom's and the creation of Shadow the Hedgehog. With the placement of Proj instead of Shadow, there is a drastic shift in the timeline's historical developments, which leads to an era filled with war and combat. This world is more open for use of my more fandomy ideas, unlike the previous timelines which are more strict towards canon concepts.


So yeah! Now you have a bit more of an idea of the worlds of my ideas, so's not to get confused with which characters exist where. Good job to all those that have taken the time to read all that! Anyways, once again, thanks all for the support, and a special thanks for all those I have commissioned for such lovely art of my character art, Proj! She is essentially the face of my newest timeline that I've been working on and having much fun with, so it means a lot!

Also randomly, if anyone's interested in chatting or whatever sometime, I'm free to give out my Skype to those who are interested: cylent_nite. Anyways, until next time!