I noticed something on this here front page. There are some days were there are just no stories whatsoever, leaving you feeling empty inside. To rectify this void, the “Fan Spotlight” is now renamed “Fanatics” and will be a daily community feature now. There are so many fans and so many works of art, so I think showing off an artist/fangamer/ROM hacker/remixer a day is the right move to make.

January 4th’s spotlight shines on DeviantArt user ThePepster. His piece, simply called “My Best Flash Sonic Drawing,” showcases a classic Sonic figure dashing at the speed of sound past a group of rings.

The Pepster describes his process: “I was fooling around with Flash and I’ve had quite some experience now. But getting used to the Wacom tablet is a pain in the ass! So I decided to do what I do best, draw Sonic on paper. But I then decided to scan it and trace over it by using the line tool in Flash. And from there, I went crazy with gradients and all that fun stuff. Then, I used Fireworks for the motion blur.”

His choice to use the “American” Sonic, with the single set of spines, is something that I do not see often, so I like this piece because of it.

(Click the image for a bigger view.)

Ah, that’s more like it. After a few weeks of Unleashed drama, it’s nice to get back to why I still hang around this community. In fact, I should just go back to community reporting altogether. The crusading and potshots are getting old. You should feel that way by now, too.