13 + 1 Drawing Challenges for Visual Artists!

Hello! In this post I'm going to talk about art challenges! Or more to the point why one should do them and some of the challenges that I know about that you can do and/or participate in...So without any further ado lets get going!

Art Challenges; Why should I do them?

This is a golden age for artists right now, and when I say artists I mean visual artists, I'm sure it's good for the other types of artists also but I'm not in those worlds so I won't talk about it as if I know what I'm saying! This is a time where all you need it a camera or a screen recorder and a youtube channel and you can get subscribers, maybe not millions but you can at least get a few hundred but often I see artists with thousands and some in the hundreds of thousands. And with that growing community there have arisen many art challenges that we as artists can do to be more of a community. Now before I talk on about these challenges I will note that at this time I do not have a channel. The reason is simple, I can't. Don't ask why I can't because it's personal in nature but that is my simple answer I can't, not right now. Eventually? Possibly, right now no. Anyway moving on.


These art challenges are great for people to draw, paint, and express themselves all in their own unique way. And with twitter, instagram, facebook, snapchat and all these platforms even without a youtube channel you can still participate in these challenges!


Now the question is, why should I put my time in to these? Well the answer isn't why you should, it's more of an answer why you would want to. Because art is one of those things most people do out of enjoyment not obligation (unless you are being paid then you have an obligation obviously).

The reasons I'd say you want to do these is:

1. Recognition.

People will see what you have made, even if they don't click on the heart to like it or comment, they still saw it. And if they do like it and/or comment it's a bonus!

2. You get to be involved in a group.

Of course everyplace has bullies, and artists are no exception. There are art bullies, but in general fellow artists are friendly and supportive; and with that you will be able to share with similar minded people as yourself.

3. You improve as an artist.

   Most of these challenges I will touch on don't forbid you from drawing what you like, so if you want to stick to drawing one thing but want to be better at that one thing you can still do that. These will simply push your creativity more even if you want to stay in one realm. I don't say however you have to limit yourself, expanding your horizons is always a good thing and I encourage it!
   

4. You have something to look back to and enjoy once it's completed!

   Some of these challenges are actually small projects and in the end you will have a pile of drawings to look over and see real results of your hard work.
   

Okay, those are some reasons, I'm sure there's more now on to the challenges! I haven't done all of these but I have done some of them. Also None of these artists asked me to link them or talk about these challenges, this is purely on my own.

The Challenges:

1. Sketch Book Video Challenge

This is a Challenge done by Juicy Ink on Youtube. Her challenge was to do a video everyday and post on YouTube of her getting back in to the habit of drawing in sketch-books and improving here video editing speed. She did this for 30 days. - I haven't done this challenge but I followed her through the process and I think if you can do it, you “should” do it. It looks hard but it would be rewarding and enjoyable! If you want to see her videos click here. For more Information about the challenge, here's her first video talking about it more.


Now you don't have to make the videos, but I think drawing everyday is a good thing if you are able to do it.

2. #MayWeDrawDaily

This is a current thing going on right now, started by Jellie Bee and Audra Auclair and inspired by the Sketch Book Video Challenge. The simple premise is drawing every day in May, if you want to post a video you can. That's it. And if you post it use the hashtag #MayWeDrawDaily. You don't have to draw everyday to participate. I'm participating in this at the moment.

3. #MerMay

This is another month long challenge, you simply draw mermaids all May long and if you post on social media put the hashtag #MerMay. I first saw this from ArtALaCarte. - I don't really draw mermaids but it's still a clever idea.

4. March of Robots

This is a drawing challenge I first heard about from Jake Parker. The premise of this one is drawing robots all the month of March. I haven't done this one either but it sounds fun.

5. Draw 100 Somethings

This is another challenge I saw from Jake Parker (You'll see a lot from him on this list), the premise of this is to take a very specific subject and draw it 100 different ways, this is to help you solve problems, think outside your respective box and expand your horizons. For example, instead of drawing 100 robots, draw 100 robot mice. It's more than a general subject it's an actual specific thing.
For more detail on this one watch his video here.

6. 8 Minute Drawing Challenge/#8MinuteDraw

This is yet another one from Jake Parker, only I think he got the idea from a book. The idea is to draw the same picture 6 times in 8 minutes starting at 4 minutes, then 2, then 1, then 30 seconds, 15, 5.
He made a timer on YouTube so you can bounce from one to the other. His video here, and his timer here. - If you post it you can take it #8MinuteDraw and you'll be in a semi popular hashtag.
I have done this one, you can read about how I approached it here.

7. Inktober

This is a challenge I'm sure more people know, InkTober.
Basically you draw pictures in ink/pen every day in October.
Jake Parker started this one to learn a new pen he received, I believe it was a brush pen at the time (something he still uses a lot) and then people started to hope on board and now it's actually a thing.
I participated in #Inktober last year and I have to say my pen skills improved a ton because of it. I HIGHTLY recommend this challenge it's so much fun! If you post it tag it #inktober and more people will see it. If you want to see the full history of #InkTober you can watch the video here.

8. Cheap Art Supply Challenge

This is a challenge a lot of people have been doing lately, where they go to the dollar store (or their country's equivalent) to buy the cheapest art supplies possible and then make art out of them. You don't have to go that cheap but it should be cheaper than brands like prismacolor or copic or a brand like that. I'm not sure who started it but I have a few favorite videos and I'll post the artist's name in the links.


Kattvalk – Cheap Ball Point Pens
Baylee Jae – Cheap Art Supplies (Mixed)
Sakuems - Cheap Watercolor
Kattvalk – Cheap Water-Based Markers
Jellie Bee – Cheap Art Supplies (Mixed)
Sakuems - Cheap Markers



Sharpies also count as a challenge too.


I can't say that I have or have not participated in this challenge because I can't afford good markers that cost 6 dollars each so I use sharpies, and I have prismacolor pencils but I also use Crayola and off brands as well. I mix it up so for me it's not a challenge it's how I am normally. But if you use the fancy stuff, try to do a drawing with the cheaper stuff!

9. Crayola Challenge

Again, for me this isn't a challenge because I always use crayola mixed with better brands but if you do not use crayola then this would be a good challenge for you to try, and if you're not going to use the supplies again you can give to a kid that likes to doodle! Basically you do all you coloring with crayola products. Many artists have done this challenge I'll post a few below.


ArtAlaCarte – Crayola Crayons
Jellie Bee - Crayola Markers
Baylee Jae - Crayola Colored Pencils

10. Wrong Hand Challenge/Left Hand Challenge

I first saw this one from Baylee Jae but I think she got if from somewhere else (not sure). The idea is that you draw a picture first with your native hand, then try to redraw it with your none native hand. I've tried this and it's quite hard but it was interesting to look at when I was done. It's normally called the left hand challenge but since Baylee and I are both Lefties I call it wrong hand challenge.


You can watch her video here.

11. 3 Marker Challenge

The premise for this one is you close your eyes and pick out 3 markers at random and try to color a drawing with them. Some people get all up tight saying you're cheating if you draw a picture to go with the drawing, or if you ink with a pen but there are no rules except to color with the 3 markers that were randomly selected.  Baylee Jae's video made this one popular, I think Sakuems made a video a while back but it got taken down due to music or something stupid because Youtube is a bunch of jerks sometimes But she has made (another?) one after that which you can see here. You can see her (Baylee's) 3 marker challenge videos here, and here. I highly recommend searching in youtube 3 marker challenge and watch the different videos ( I haven't seen them all so I don't guarantee the rating on every image, however in general they are G or PG, just watch your step). - And I have tried this with my Sharpie/Bic markers.

Sakuems also took this principle and did a 3 watercolor (color) challenge you can see here.

12. 1 Marker Challenge

Also made popular by Baylee Jae, it's basically the same as 3 marker challenge only you only pick 1 marker.
You can see her original video here. - I have not done this one.

Others:
Sakuems Video
Jellie Bee Video 
That Artsy Girl's Video

There are many others these are just a few I like.


And in honor of Friday the 13^th, here is the 13^th challenge I will cover.

13. The Blindfold Challenge.

For this one you blindfold yourself and try to draw and color an image blindfolded. The first video I ever saw of this was Baylee Jae but I don't know if she started it. There are many videos of people doing this one, it's quite amusing so please search in youtube for some videos!


Those are the challenges I know of so far, there is one last challenge but it isn't really a thing so I'll add it as an unofficial challenge because as far as I know only I have done this.

14. Poetry/Drawing Challenge

Here in the states April is national poetry month so for that I wrote poems and drew pictures to go with them, my goal was 15 sets but I only did 10 so I'm still working on it a little bit. So if you want to go with national poetry month or make little stories every day and draw a picture to go with them that would be a good challenge.


And with that I shall bid you all good day, I hope you enjoy your challenges!




~God Bless ~


~ Firefly

Animation Demo - Me Animating Atoms on a Path

Yes, you get two posts this week! Yay you! This time it's an animation demo, what I mean by that is you will see me animating something. It won't be in real time but double speed.
All animation is done in GIMP.

 Hopefully something useful will come out of this for somebody!

I'm animating this:

 This is a sprite for Tilly's Rose Garden. It will be used when she "dies". I don't want bloody violence in my games so this is what I came up with so you get the point she's incapacitated but without the blood or anything.

I did sketch out the basic idea of what I wanted to do in my sketch book.

Here's The Video:
No sound for your own convenience. I also didn't put any captions because doing that takes up too much space on the screen. I'm uploading directly to blogspot not youtube or anything like that so I can't add annotations. 

This animation only has 8 frames, and took me about 20 minutes to make, maybe less or more I can't tell by the footage. It says a very low amount of minutes and I find it hard to believe I did this that fast. LOL

Oh well, I hope this was enjoyable!

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Some Drawings I've Done Over The Past Few Months

Okay I know the middle or early week would have been better but I'm a lazy jerk and never got the nerve to actually write a decent article so we get these pieces of artwork instead. I'm sorryyyy!!!

Okay here we go, some of these are going to be mentioned in future posts. I'll say a little about some of the artworks. And yeah...it'll explain itself.


Monochrome inked with brown pen and colored with watercolor.

Sunflower with bees, colored with sharpies and colored pencils, on mixed media paper the background is watercolor and the outlines are with inking pens and a sharpie fine tipped marker.

These first two are done on printer cardstock using Prismacolor multi-liners and Sharpies to color. (The light blue from the dress is a Prismacolor marker [I only have 3 of those]).

This next one is I believe the first drawing I've ever colored not in monotone while having the outlines in brown. Colored using watercolor, crayola markers and soft pastels on mixed media paper.

I was watching Jake Parker videos while drawing these from photo reference. I didn't aim for realism just a likeness of the different leaves. The top row left to right: Oak, Ash - Botton Row Left to Right: Maple, Birch.
Colored pencil, pen, soft pastel on sketch paper.

A pen drawing using color inking pens and IDentipens all from Sakura brand.

Opaque watercolor painting on mixed media paper.

Colored pencil drawing on watercolor paper with a watercolor background.

I have drawn more but I think that's enough for now.

I hope you enjoyed these drawings, if you did please +1 on google plus and show other people.
Thank you!


~ God Bless~

~ Firefly

#8MinuteDraw - My Jouney and Tips

Hey everyone! Miss me?...Probably not but look at me and my bad self I finally found motivation to talk about something. A Challenge! A Challenge posed to us by Jake Parker, a well known Illustrator, Animator, and Artist. He's the creator of #InkTober which is a totally different subject in and of itself....So yeah back on topic!

#8MinuteDraw

Today I tried out the #8MinuteDraw, where you take 8 minutes to draw the same picture 6 times. You draw the first for 4 minutes, second for 2 minutes, third for 1 minute, fourth for 30 seconds, fifth for 15 seconds and finally the last time for 5 seconds. And Yes this is a challenge if you do not have all your art tools handy, and I being blonde kept forgetting to get my knead-able eraser.... Here's my journey that I took today!


I generally stuck with things I knew so I would be able to feel out the "project" and see how much I liked it. So the first idea that was stuck in my head was a mushroom and a butterfly. In general 4 minutes was actually quite giving  since the drawing was so small I wasn't sure of what to do to make it more detailed without making it look like a black blob. - Materials used :  Mechanical Pencil, 08 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, Sketch paper/book.


After this, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had fun. Which is saying something since I don't like pressure, and timed pressure is even worse. The pen I chose however was a bad idea, I ended up using the 08 twice once for this and the other time for the next one; Another bad idea was to not get my knead-able eraser for a while...I didn't get it until I did this challenge about 4 or 5 times...something like that I don't know at  the moment.  - Tip #1: If you are going to do this, make sure you have all of your tools handy now or else this isn't happening with any ease at all. Drawing a picture in 5 seconds is hard enough, please have your tools.  -  Another thing to note is by the time you get to the one minute image you can forget sketching, you are going in there with the pen outright (unless you only use pencil then pfff to the pen).


After my mushroom, I decided to draw a face, so I went with an elf face...why? No idea but it was awesome!!!! LoL! ....Anyway, in drawing the face I did the dumb thing of no guild-lines to start, which for some people that's fine, for me...it's not. But I think it was alright...I guess...the second one I like better and that one I had less time for. - Materials used :  Mechanical Pencil, 08 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, Sketch paper/book.

After this, I learned my lesson with the 08 pen. For me it was too thick for fast lines and adding details. So I switched to an 05 which is smaller, it was better but in the end was too thick as well, but I did 2 rounds of the challenge with it.

So now, I'm thinking I was to do something else I'm generally good at...So I picked a sunflower...Which for some reason wasn't going smooth for me but in the end I think was alright..I suppose anyway. Lol!! By the time 5 seconds came I forgot what I was drawing so that's why it looks like road kill.... -
Materials used :  Mechanical Pencil, 05 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, Sketch paper/book.



 Next up, I thought about drawing a cup of tea so that's just what I did! I wasn't sure of the design so this one took a bit of sculpting with the pencil until I came up with something I liked. A lot of the inking was freestylin' since I didn't know what I was doing. But I think this one is one of my favorites. Around this time as the time passed for each I started to inspect, see and think "Which one of these details can I eliminate to make the general idea", from looking at the image you can see that the pattern on the cup is what changed the most drastically in the overall aspect of things (though the shape did too that was due to lack of time and a sketch more than intentional). - Materials used :  Mechanical Pencil, 05 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, Sketch paper/book.

By this time I was realizing a new problem, my pens are too small for big black areas so I kept in my hat that I needed a thicker black pen for some areas. - Tip #2: Keep 2 pens ready and uncapped for this challenge, so if you want to ad line weight or contrast you'll be ready for the task. (just remember to re-cap when you are done else they will dry out)



 For this one, all I really have to say is the inspiration for this is a pillow I have that has teddy-bears on it.
I also started using the 03 pen for my drawings so I could add more details.

Materials used :  Mechanical Pencil, 03 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, Sketch paper/book.


 This one I actually had to find something to do, 4 minutes was generous in this case. I ended up adding pointless details like the butterfly and ladybug. It was interesting to see how long I could keep those little details without wasting time. In the end 15 and 5 second(s) I ditched the bugs I could hardly get the rose or vase never-mind other details. Another thing to note is I sketched in the sketch for the 2minute point so I could just color it in as I inked the vase to save time and to make it as close to the original as I could.
Materials used :  Mechanical Pencil, 03 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, Sketch paper/book.

These next two I used an 06 Sakura Pigma Sensi pen for the thick lines and an 03 Prismacolor for other lines. I picked out an eye for the first one since I generally do eyes half okay even without a sketch and I wanted to see what I do with it. And for the mouth/nose I originally just wanted to draw lips but I got that done so fast I added a nose, I find it interesting to see how an after thought ended up making it to every version to follow. By the last 3 drawings for each round I just used the 03 so I could get as much done as possible without delay. I also found it interesting that you can see how my foundation in the manga style comes out in the eye when trying to simplify and speed up the process   - Materials used :  Normal #2 HB Pencil, 03 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, 06 Sakura Pigma Sensi, Sketch paper/book.



For the eyes and mouth/nose and all the drawings to follow my sketch was not with the mechanical pencil but with a normal #2 HB pencil, I found the mechanicl pencil was too dark to draw with. Tip #3: If a tool is fighting you or is making another aspect of your artwork too hard to complete then try and find a more effective replacement ASAP. Don't do what I did and keep fighting it hoping it will magically work out. Chances are, it won't.

At this point I was running out of ideas looking around where I was trying to find something to be inspired by so I ended up drawing my pitiful little flip-phone. And this time I switched back and forth with the 06 and 03  even in the 1 minute square, upping the challenge a bit. I was trying to eliminate things to go faster but there wasn't much to eliminate so I ended up not doing the solid black area in black since that was the most time consuming. I wasn't overly happy with this one but eh C'est la vie. - Materials used :  Normal #2 HB Pencil, 03 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, 06 Sakura Pigma Sensi, Sketch paper/book.

 Again I say I was running out of ideas so this was a basically just lets draw a bow and see what happens. For this one I switched as much I could between the 03 and 06 all the way until the end as much as was possible.  I like it, I think the very last one is kinda cute.... - Materials used :  Normal #2 HB Pencil, 03 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, 06 Sakura Pigma Sensi, Sketch paper/book.



I figured since I've gotten some practice doing this 8 minute challenge maybe I should try a face again, so this time I did a male elf face. I kinda was lost doing that since I had no idea what details to add to a face that small. But in the end I think I have improved even after doing just this challenge because the time before I didn't get a face on the head for the 5 second slot, this time I got the hair, face and head...they're ugly but I got it on the page. I suppose that means I improved. I also find it interesting that as with the eye before, when rushing I went back to a very manga look to make things faster.  - Materials used :  Normal #2 HB Pencil, 03 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, 06 Sakura Pigma Sensi, Sketch paper/book.
  

And finally this one. I needed a final idea...I ended up seeing a thumb tack that's on the wall (there is a reason it's there! Lol) and I figured eh idk what else to draw but lets start with a thumb tack. That went somewhat fast so I added an eraser, paperclip and a staple. I ended up adding every element in the 5 second drawing...though you can't really tell what anything is there is a representation of each thing. I also attempted to switch between pens as much as possible. - Materials used :  Normal #2 HB Pencil, 03 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker, 06 Sakura Pigma Sensi, Sketch paper/book.
 

So in the end I really reccomend doing this, it's only 8 minutes and it's actually fun!



If you want to try this out Jake Parker made a timer which can be found here.
And if you want towatch his video about it click here.


Enjoy and thanks for reading.


~ God Bless ~


~ Firefly

Inking Tips: Solid Vs Loose Lines

In this post we're going to talk a little about inking. I've spent a little more time with pens and ink so in my tests and drawings I've learned a few things that I'd like to share. I will sperate this in to two sections: Solid vs Loose Lines and Texture/Shading. This isn't extensive but I hope it's helpful in the long run!

Note: When I say inking, I mean art pens, not a brush or fountain pens, though these things might apply to those as well. I am talking about art pens like Prismacolor pens or Sakura Micron (or pigma) pens (or other pens like them, there are other brands as well).

So, without any further ado, lets begin!

Solid Vs Loose Lines: 

I've learned in recent months and really over the year that just because something is outlined that doesn't mean that the lines themselves have to be totally hard in nature. For example, if I drew a cartoon cat face I could ink with hard lines and you can tell he's fuzzy, or I could ink with looser more fluid lines not following the exact curvature of the face and he could almost appear to feel furry. He's still a cartoon but he's got more detail.

Neither one is better than the other but they are different. However if you like to color with a looser medium like watercolor, or a more detail oriented medium like colored pencils (pencil crayons in some countries) then maybe the looser style is more fitting. Of course it depends on the subject matter.

In the drawing below the inking on the character is loose and the inking on the poppy flower is solid. Knowing when to combined styles is key to making a picture coherent and not just a rambled mess.  Another thing to notice in this drawing is that there are different line thicknesses. The pattern on the dress has thing lines the fur on the character is thicker as well as the outline of the flower itself. It's all about finding what looks good.

Combining styles, knowing when, and creating something nice comes with practice and also some knowlage of yourself. Your style might be different than mine, so as I say these things it's not THE WAY it's just how I see things, take what's useful and ignore what's not....Anyways, moving on!

Texture and Shading:

There are many ways to add texture and shading while using pen, it can be VERY time consuming but it is well worth the effort.

 Within the styles there are many things you can do, a few are:  Hatching, cross-hatching, circles, scribbles, lines, and dots. Each of these have their place and are great for texture and shading, as well as fun patterns if you like artwork that isn't a subject oriented but an abstract style.

As a few examples I drew grapes, a tulip and an eye to show some of the things you can do with ink.

Grapes:

With the grapes I added a lot of black areas, these show contrast, three-dimensionality , and also some shading. I also did cross hatching on the grapes and the leafy part as well as scribbles on the grapes that would be more shaded. The section that says highlights refers  to those little parts I "roped off" that show where light would be hitting the subject.

Tulip:

For the tulip, I also did some contrast with the highlights and cross-hatching, but I also added some lines along the edge of the flower following the curvature, it's a more subtle looking approach to shading lovely for "softer" shadows.  I also added cross hatching in the more shaded areas.

Eye:

The eye shows fluidity with the eye-lashes, making fast but calculated strokes can make your artwork look much more "alive". I also used lines to the hair of the eyebrows, also using fast movement to make the hair look more fluid and textured. Highlights as  well on the white of the eye (since it's really off white and moist you would have a highlight sometimes) and the iris itself.

Another thing you can do with ink is make areas black (or dark if you're using a colored pen) then go over it in white. In this picture I colored the edge of the butterfly-wings black then went over them with a white pen. - You will also notice that I used different pen sizes as well as did lots of contrast black. Also if you look at the picture you'll see I added dots which add texture and a pattern to the butterfly.

In this drawing you can see I used hatching to texture the sash, circles in the paisleys and scribbles to show the shadow of the neck. There's also some contrast shading too.

Overall these are some things I've learned and I hope they help you as well!
Thank you for reading and God bless.


~ Firefly

{Resource} How To Paint Hair in GIMP 2.6 and 2.8 [PDF]

Hi there! I made a new resource after a VERY long time for this blog....actually I was making it for a friend but figured why not post it here too, but yah...details details!

Okay as the title implies this is a PDF on digitally painting hair in GIMP. I chose to do both 2.6 and 2.8 since the friend uses 2.6 (and it's better for this imo) and 2.8 is the version being used majorly right now so it only made sense really. I hope you learn and enjoy my tutorial!

View Online
Download


~ God Bless ~


~ Firefly

Few Tutorials and Challenges!

Over the last week I followed a few tutorials and did a few "challenges".
I hope somebody likes them!
Enjoy!

1. The Lighting Challenge

I have done this challenge before a few years ago, and described my process but this time was a little different. This time I also used a different media for each angle.

2. Following Tutorials By Mark Crilley.

I first followed his current (as of May 30th) tutorial on How to Draw Baymax From Big Hero 6 (Must see that movie else you're not living life right!). After that one I followed How to Draw a Mouth/Lips Front View. Lastly I followed How to Draw a Mouth/Lips 3/4th View. I showed him (via internet of course!) and he said they were beautiful! I feel cool enough to do this.

I used 2 different HB #2 pencils (one was cheaper so it was more scratchy and made darker marks), a black prismacolor (must stay true to Crilley tradition!), cotton swabs for blending, kneadable eraser for normal erasing as well as highlights, and I broke my own tradition of NEVER using a ruler (because I in all honesty hate them) and followed the tutorial even down to using one. Which it worked out good but I still hate rulers.....I'll get over that....Eventually...Yeah..

I also hardly ever use grayscale, I do ink drawings but that's black and white. So since I don't do any of these things I'm pretty proud of my results!

3. "Right Hand Challenge" (For me it's the Left Hand Challenge!)

The challenge is originally called right hand challenge because most people are right-handed but because I am in the same category as Einstein I am left handed. ( I kid about being Einstein but he was left handed)

The point of this challenge is you draw a picture with your "favorite hand" and then try and draw it again with your "dumb hand" (the one you don't use as much). I drew something I know good, a sunflower. This actually got me feeling physically sick going against my body's natural rhythm. But I managed to finish it! - I think considering I'm not ambidextrous at all this came out pretty well.


Just a normal pencil.

______

 

May God Bless You, Your Family, Friend; Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, Friends, And All Who Know You. ~ Amen

~ Firefly

Useful Links:

Would You Like To See More Of My Drawings? Click here.
Would You Like To Read My Blog Posts? Take A Look At The Official Blog Archive.

Have A Question?

Ask The Firefly!

Programs For Artists and Game Creators

Hai! I was thinking that maybe the programs I use and would reccomend to others for making games and graphics might be helpful for others who are aspiring artists and game creators. - Mind you, these are just the ones I have mentioned there are countless programs one can use these are just my select few.

I hope this is helpful to somebody!

Graphics:

GIMP

I do pretty much all my graphics in GIMP, some of them are edited in the program I used for game creation but not overly often. GIMP is an opened-source photo editor and graphic program. This of is as a free photoshop. Granted photoshop might be aimed more towards painting but GIMP is just as good for making game graphics and it's free no strings attached.

MyPaint

As stated GIMP is my main source for graphics, but if I ever make a more advanced game or have a more painted style in mind I will for sure collab MyPaint and GIMP together for better coloring quality. MyPaint is another Opened-Sourced art program, this is more like a free ArtRage, the boldness isn't as sharp as ArtRage but it's still a wonderful program. If you want a more painted look I'd recommend MyPaint for sure; however there is another program called Krita, I can't seem to understand it personally...But I only use a mouse and that's probably why. Can't hurt for you to try.

 

Inkscape

 

I don't personally use Inkscape for the simple reason I don't understand Vectoring. When trying to make a vector I get so lost I'm on another planet. That aside, for those who would be more apt to use a vectoring program Inkscape is like a free Adobe Illustrator, it is as well opened source and is powerful enough to make sleek graphics that are vectors instead of normal images that use pixels.

Sounds:

Sony Acid (Free Version)

 

I use Sony Acid's synth pad to create my sounds (like picking up points, impact noises, power-ups...etc). I don't have the full version so exporting to .wav is an extra feature you can only get if you buy it so I have to use another program to convert to .wav...For what I need it for it's useful. You could maybe use Fruity Loops as well, there's free version if you have no money. Or another alternative is Linux Music Making Studio, it's a lot like Fruity Loops only you don't have to pay for it. (And it works in Windows too)

GoldWave ( Free version)

 

I use GoldWave to export my sounds in to .wav (that's the format I have to use in my game creation program) and I also edit the sounds in goldwave, like the volume and some effects to the sounds. You can buy GoldWave if you want too, I honestly don't know what you get if you buy it , I've been using the free version for stuff since I'm 10 or 11 years old so...yep. If you want a similar program that's fully free you can get Audacity, it's a free program for editiing music and stuff like that it would 

 probably be just as useful.

Game Creation

GameMaker 8.0

 

This is a program you'd have to buy for full functionality (unless you learn to code out of the gate). It's a very good program for noobs like me who don't know what they're doing. There's a drag and drop option and a coding option, if you code you have to use it's own coding language. Any previous coding knowlage would probably help you understand the codes in GML (Game Maker Language) however, its it's own lauguage and you'd have to learn it.
GameMaker is currently on the 8.1 version, and if you pay the most money (which is ungodly exspensive) you can make games on nearly every platform there is; however, though, if you are just starting out you don't want to spend all that money if you don't even know if you like the program. I'd mess with the free version first. GameMaker is a primarily 2D based program, there is some 3D ability but not a whole lot.

 If you're more in to 3D you can use J Monkey which uses Java Script as the code but you'd have to also lean how to use Blender which is a legally free opened source 3D animation and modeling program (Think if it as a free Maya).

I wrote review about GameMaker, it's rather old and I have learned a whole lot more about it since then but it might give you an idea. LINK

_____

Program Links:

Audacity

GoldWave

Sony Acid

Linux Music Making Studio

GIMP

MyPaint

Blender

Krita

JMonkey

GameMaker

____

May God Bless You, Your Family, Friend; Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, Friends, And All Who Know You. ~ Amen

~ Firefly

Useful Links:

Would You Like To Read More Blog Posts Similar To This One? Take A Look At The Official Blog Archive.
Would You Like To See My Drawings? Click here.

Have A Question?

Ask The Firefly!

The Usefulness of Sketchbooks

Sketchbooks, something that I've always wanted but I never had the money to have. Whatever supplies I have (which is a fair amount) they're either old or other people bought them for me or just gave them to me. But recently I was able to buy a sketchbook and wow! I love it, it's like my friend and I hope I can have another one when I finish filling this one up with my practices and ideas and stuffs. In this blog I'd like to talk about some uses for sketchbooks.


First to say what kind of sketchbook I have, which is a Strathmore sketch book, the paper is 50lb (74 g/m²) and 9in x 12in (22.9cm x 30.5cm), it contains 100 sheets. It's good for pastels (the kind I have) ink if you don't press hard on the paper or layer it too much, and colored pencil, as well as normal pencils...okay on to “how to use” a sketchbook, or better some of the uses of one.

1: Freedom

The thing about a sketchbook is that you don't have to finish anything, it doesn't have to be good drawings, you don't even have to draw if you don't want to. It's like a diary of sorts you put your emotions and ideas in to it and make beautiful things without needing the judgement of “but it's not finished” or “it looks terrible!”. You don't need to do any of that, it's just fun!

2: Practice

Pastel and colored pencil practices

I don't know about you, but for me as stated in the opening, I don't have money to buy paper all the time so if I buy good paper I don't want to “waste it” by not finishing drawings; But with this sketching book I can doodle and plan out drawings with ease, no “guilt”, no feeling bad, that's its purpose, to be used for the less of par to make the good drawings great with better planing. And following tutorials, making terrible drawings in the process doesn't feel like I wasted anything. I can feel the accomplishment of finishing a tutorial without being like 'goodness me this looks terrible I wasted a page for nothing!” Also you can practice new mediums which is daunting if you're using good paper but in a sketchbook you can just have fun!

3: Pre-planing

I used this to draft my points system in a game I'm working on.

If you have a sketchbook you can pre-plan your drawings, doodle, work out kinks and bugs. It's a good tool for composition and story-boarding also. As well as writing notes, doing ideas for things like books and games. I personally use my sketchbook to plan out games, writing code that I think up or drag and drop options, as well as splash-screen design and menus. And many other things. Even if you don't stick to the original idea you can still use the pre-planing to help you do your final result on your project.

4: Doodling

This is a doodle.

I know that sounds like a childish thing to do, but doodling can actually teach you a lot. I've learned a lot about pastels by doodling with them, drawing without a sketch and just going alone made some nice results. I've also done things with just a pen, doodling that way is quite lovely and fun. You come up with ideas that way too!

This is a doodle too.

______________



Now that you've heard some good things about sketchbooks I'm going to talk about a few random things in closing.

Types of sketchbooks:
There are countless types of sketchbooks, some are in flimsy paper like the one I use, some that are almost like watercolor paper and everything in between. The size as well ranges from pocket sized to coffee table sized. You are not limited in any way to be free in what you want to do. You just have to be able to buy it, and for most that isn't a problem.


When to use one:
I  encourage those who are really in to committing to sketching as a good way to learn, to bring a book with you everywhere you go that it's permitted. Got a doctor's appointment? Doodle in the waiting room, it'll relax you. Have a late flight? Sketch a bit so you don't slap the people at that desk that can't help the plane is late but we still blame anyway.....But really putting snarky humor aside I really do think that taking a sketchbook with you can be wonderful! I took a drawing book with me when I was on my 15 minute break, so I could work on a picture a bit. If you can take one with you, do it! And don't feel bad if you don't get to use it every waking moment, it's supposed to be fun not a whip to the back.
_________




I hope this was helpful to somebody!




Blessings and Health to all you know and love!




~ Firefly

Useful Links:

Would You Like To Read More Blog Posts Similar To This One? Take A Look At The Official Blog Archive.
Would You Like To See My Drawings? Click here.

Have A Question?

Ask The Firefly!

Creating a points system, how I did it. - Semi tutorial

I'm working on a game that will have an actual intelligent reasoning to it's point system and I figured since I had no idea what I was doing that maybe telling my process might be helpful to somebody else who wants to attempt the same thing.
_____

 1.

I had no clue where to start so first I went in to gamemaker and arranged all the blocks by color so I can create a point system based on color pairs. I wanted a pattern but I didn't know how to limit the points. So I decided what's the highest number I want to go with as a point value. I decided 20 was a nice round solid number not that large but not too small, which is what I wanted because I have a bonus block of 50 points and I make one or 2 others but you'll have to work to get to them.
I also wanted the highest values to be the largest blocks and the smallest value with the smallest blocks so I went with a loose guideline of splitting a number in thirds for the sizes, but I also didn't want a double point in any sub section of blocks (Large, Medium, Small) [ex. two blocks with the value of 4 in the medium block category]. So the fun starts.

Pre-point system arranged blocks in gamemaker

2.
Before I did the point assigning I first made a color chart on paper, using normal washable markers in a sketch book. I made what you could call a primitive excel-sheet splitting it by color using a maker to represent the color , and size making 3 collums to work with. I then marked with a tick mark (or a check as some call it) the sizes that go with that color. It did more of a preparation on how to figure out what strategy I was going to use to create the system than anything else since I mostly referenced the blocks in gamemaker since it was easier to read but it was helpful none-the-less.

Color Chart

3.

Now comes the "fun" part, point assigning, it was at this point that I went through the point limitation idea and thought process. I counted how many large blocks there were and I made value decisions based on that. I was going to go with factors of twenty but I ended up using another route, which was a better one because all the factors can't be split by 3 without going in to decimals and gamemaker doesn't use decimals in point-values. There are 6 blocks of each (I forgot until now! lol) but since I am going with thirds as a general though not hardlined theme I went with 3 blocks going by multiples of 6 and 3 blocks multiples of 5 skipping five so there would be a higher point value.

So the large blocks ended up being:

Point Chart

• 6
• 12
• 18
• 10
• 15
• 20

To make it easier to remember I used my markers again and marked the color and made columns like before only each column had a point value assigned to the color, but the colors stayed uniform. If a block existed in that color it got a point value, if it didn't it got an X to say this doesn't exist. I noticed I forgot to mark one the unmarked on has a value of 6.

I didn't end up being able to split in 3rds in the end, a few numbers were repeated more than once in any given column and I didn't want that so I had to be more loose; but it was a helpful general guidline to get my mind rolling.


I'm not saying much will change, but I still have to look over the points see if I can make it maybe slightly more coherent but for now I'm still happy I made it this far!


Here's what the full draft page looks like:

See how I added notes.

Final Comments:

The  main thing I want you to take away from this is preparation, even if you don't use all of it, it will help you get in to the mind set. And stay organized and undistributed I turned off distractions and put music on that I ended up blocking out. And be willing to make a loose mold to get the best results, somethings are point blank and some aren't. Also, be willing to use all your resources, if you have paper and markers draw out what you need done, whether it's a point system or how you want game menus to look. Anything you want to have you can draw out first to get the idea ahead of time. Movie producers and writers do this all the time, it's called story boarding.

I hope this was helpful!


~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Useful Links:

Would You Like To Read More Blog Posts Similar To This One? Take A Look At The Official Blog Archive.
Would You Like To See My Drawings? Click here.

Have A Question?

Ask The Firefly!