128 Marios: February 2009

Monday, February 9, 2009

About This Site

From October 10th, 2008 to February 9th, 2009 I drew a new picture of Nintendo's mascot character Mario every day. Some were straight homages to the game series, many were humorous, others were juxtapositions of the character into entirely new art styles.

The project was first and foremost a personal creative challenge to boost my creative output and improve my drawing skills, but I like to think I made it entertaining to follow along with, also. I suppose you can be the final judge of that.

The "128" derives from the infamous Super Mario 128, a promised sequel to Super Mario 64 that was hyped by Nintendo for years but which never materialized. I suppose "64 Marios" would have been more obvious, but 128 seemed like the right length for the project.

A Retrospective

Archive Links

Older Posts
Look for this near the bottom right of most pages to browse through the archives manually!

Top Marios
15 of the better pieces from the archives (in my opinion, anyway).

Style Parodies
Mario drawn in the art style of other games, TV shows, etc.
(Note that this doesn't account for non-art style specific parodies, of which a great many more exist in the archives)

Powerups
Different forms Mario has taken in his many adventures.

Holidays
Celebrate festivities with Mario & co.

Months
I gave Mario a sort of day off to enjoy himself every month.

Bottom Marios
For the sadomasochists in the audience.

Pro Tips

I learned quite a few things from doing 128 Marios, which is enough in and of itself to have made the project a success. A few choice bits of wisdom for any artists in the audience who are thinking about doing something similar in the future:

Don't waste too much time on your ideas. This isn't to say you shouldn't be ambitious, but understand what level of ambition is appropriate for whatever you're working on. Too often, especially early on, I'd find myself getting far too caught up in the minutia of a Mario - and yet, not only did the extra work not come through in the art, these pieces actually got consistently less positive feedback then the ones I hammered out quick and painlessly! Maybe it's just irony, but I think there's a value to spontaneity in art (even if the artist's first instinct is to fight it).

Buffers of content are not as great as they sound. A lot of online cartoonists suggest working at least a week ahead of your update schedule. And yeah, it does spare you the initial anxiety of having to get your next update hammered out before the deadline rolls around. Personally, though, I find that it's in working through this anxiety, and in knowing that your work will be seen by someone as soon as you're finished with it, that you're able to put the most spontaneity (I'm using that word a lot) and creativity into your work. I feel like the quality of my work on this site shot way, way up once I stopped worrying about how far ahead I was.

It's really not that hard to keep a schedule. Unless you make it hard for yourself, anyway. This is sort of in opposition to the suggestion above, and yeah, you'll need to create small buffers at points where you know you literally won't be able to make it to the tools of your trade. In general, though, if you really care about what you're working on you will find a way to make time for it, no matter what. (Or maybe I'm just saying that because I'm a jobless college student.)

Special Thanks

Like any proper game ending, I have a list of weird names to read off! Huge thanks go to the following ladies and/or gentlemen:

Rei, official #1 fan of 128marios, whose promotional efforts and support have been invaluable to the site.

Max, Deebee, and everyone else who commented on the procession of Marios via the inter-net. Without your support, I never would have made it this far.