So here’s the annual kraken, this time celebrating the site’s fifth birthday.

Obviously this marks a break from previous birthday kraken illustrations, which usually depict actual birthday shenanigans, but who knows—maybe invading desolate moonscapes is a cephalopod space-birthday tradition in its own right.

I had just finished looking at a bunch of old space adventure illustrations when it hit me that this was obviously the direction I needed to go next. And since it’s been a while since I’ve done what could really be called a “complete” illustration, I decided to put a bit more work into it than usual. Stay tuned.

To celebrate Albino Kraken’s fourth birthday, I figured we should get a glimpse into one of the typical games that can be expected at a kraken party.

While similar in most respects to the human piñata tradition, this version does have the added complexity of the time limit in which to gather your tasty morsels before they’re claimed irrevocably by Davy Jones.

Well, Albino Kraken is now three years old, and contains over 300 illustrations (albeit in various states of completion).

Anyway, I figured that not only was it time for the required birthday kraken, but also a design update was finally in order.

So, here you go.

And remember kids, as the Philosopher once said, “The road to happiness oft leads past cephalopods of large stature and suspect demeanor. Make their acquaintance and shun them not, for true friendship can many a time be found in those of large heart.”

Put this together recently since I didn’t have a nice clean logo I could use on other, um, related materials. I should also probably work it into this site at some point now…

As of today, this blog is two years old!

In the first post, I said I’d be uploading sketches and stuff that didn’t quite meet the standards of my more official online gallery. However, I find it pleasantly surprising that many of the entries over the last year are better than the work I was displaying in the gallery (which doesn’t even exist at the moment). This is encouraging.

Anyway, here are some interesting stats:
Total number of posts: 207
Total number of comments: 349
Most clever use of candle flames for St. Elmo’s Fire: This post

Okay, the blog software is updated and happily running on the new server.
Hopefully things should be back to normal at this point.

So far, so good.

Anyway, just because I’m curious, let me know what your favorite picture has been so far.