Finally!

I am so happy to unveil this long awaited new design for my webpage! It has been in the works for longer than I care to admit, but I think the results have been well worth the effort. This new design is much more in-line with my artistic sensibilities and does a much better job of showcasing what I’m all about. This new SykoGrafix.com is not meant to serve as a portfolio of my finest work, but more of a hub for what I am doing and what I am into.

Early Pencil Title Sketch Concept

The visual concept for the site was to create this strange, nonsensical, ramshackle computer that is powered by and/or processes the tubes of cyan ink. I wanted my website to look less like web-graphics and more like something I would draw. There is old and new technology combined together to make this machine do whatever it is that it does, creating lots of funny or unique details that you can find if you take a closer look. At this time, there are 5 random images on the main page for both the left and the right sides of the machine, potentially creating a new configuration each time you reload the page. You’ll find old computers, video game accessories, an old VCR, a kaiju brain, and even a frozen drink dispenser!

Early digital sketch mock-up.

Beyond the visual aspect, this new version is just a much better website overall. I took an online class on HTML and CSS, so now the coding is much better and closer to modern standards than the 1997 style of web design I first learned about. The width of the site can also scale up and down depending on your window size. Try it out. I think it looks pretty good any way you wanna stretch it!

The biggest change to the site is that I switched the main index weblog from Blogger to WordPress. This was the biggest reason that things took so long to finish, as many unforeseen quirks and problems had to be ironed out before I got it looking like how I wanted. Almost all of the posts, going back to the very beginning, have been transferred over, but I decided to get rid of many of the shorter or less informative ones. The old version, weblog.sykografix.com, will still exist but will no longer be updated, so if you are following that site, please follow this one instead.

Pencil drawings for the random alternate image designs.

A few things have not survived the trip. The guestbook and message board were quietly done away with some time ago. I think they broke and stopped working and I didn’t feel like it was worth fixing them. The Articles page is still around, but no longer linked from the main site. It would be too much work to go through them all, extract the content, and revamp the code to bring them up to the new standard. Maybe someday I will do a few of them over again. We’ll see.

The Illustration page now works in a gallery style where a page opens up within the center of the main index and overlaps the other content. This is much easier to manage for the future, but it means that I can not link directly to a single page. Most everything is also up on DeviantArt though. I wish I had more artwork to show here, but now that the hard part of getting the new site up and running is out of the way, I hope to get on that soon.

So, what’s next? I want to do more blogging, more content, some new fan art, some more Ninjapocalypse characters, learn new techniques, and get my stuff out there more. I am excited about doing some streaming and connecting with an audience, and I will be offering commissions soon too. The best way to keep up is to follow me on Twitter. More stuff is on the way, but until then I hope you dig what you see so far, and feel free to get in touch or leave a comment right here.

Sayonara.