#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

Program Review 3; Game Maker - Is it good for aspiring game designers?

Program Review 3; Game Maker - Is it good for aspiring game designers?

Helllllloooooo! It's been a while since I did a program review, in fact the last one I did I was told by somebody to take it down because it wouldn't be good to keep here, but I kept it anyway and bless God I've gotten the most comments on THAT post I was told to take down!


Okay so...This post will be about Game Maker! Now, you know I'm all for free programs, but this one is a special case. Although you do pay for the “Pro Version”, there is a “lite” version that you can still do a nice game with although not as fancy as for free.

What is Game Maker?

 

Game maker is a 2D focused game making program, it can make games similar to PacMan, Super Mario, and RPG games like the Pokemon games; It does support 3D but it's not focused on that so from what I have read it's not too wonderful in that regard but if it's available, why not give it a try too!

Game maker works in both Mac and Windows OS.


{For a more 3D focused game creation program, you could use Jmonkey, this is a full out engine that requires using Blender and Java Script and I believe it supports Opened GL. - Jmonkey Website Here.
Or you could try the UDK game engine, it's a a sample of sorts, you can create indie games with it. It's the engine to the “Unreal” games were made with. That Engine can be found Here.

Note: I haven't used UDK and only attempted Jmonkey briefly I have no comment other than they are available for use if you want to do more 3D games instead of platform games.}

What Functions Does It Have?

Game maker has many functions and sub functions, although I'm still new to this program (only about 2 weeks playing with it) I've learned enough to give you a breif tour, so...Here I go!


Note: This is Gamemaker 8.0 not 8.1 I'm not sure of differences from the two versions but I can imagine it's mostly bug fixes or something of that nature. 

There are 9 basic functions with many sub functions within Game Maker, here is a screen shot from Game Maker itself so you can see!

Bigger Version

Here are screenshots for other interfaces within the program:

Basic Main Interface:

Bigger Version

Sprite Editor and Creator:
You can either import an already made sprite or make a sprite in Game Maker itself.

Bigger Version

Room Creator:

This is a point and click feature for making rooms/levels for your game, this is where you put it all together. You can watch a video on me making a room in this interface here.

Object Creation Interface:
In this part you "program" what you want things to do, by either already set options or by setting it up with scripts.

Bigger Version

The Scripting Interface:
This is where you write scripts for Game Maker, to get to the script interface you have to have advanced mode on and there will be a folder on the side bar called scripts, right click on it and create a new script.

Bigger Version

How Does Game Maker Render Game Creations?

There are 2 ways that I know of to create games in this program: Drag and drop, and GML – Game Maker Language (scripting), then you put the whole thing together in the “Create a Room” option; I am newer to the program so I use the “drag and drop” option and don't know about scripting yet, but if you want to read about the scripting aspect you can go to it's Wiki Page Here; I'll talk briefly about the “Drag and Drop”.


Note: Wiki Pages Related to Game Maker are often butchered and not fully accurate if you want the best information go to the yoyo games forums to ask actual users, and makers of the program. - Forum can be found here.

Drag and Drop:

In game maker you do 2 steps with mini steps after and it would go as follows:

1: You Make a Sprite (A Sprite is an image and can be animated)

2: You Make an Object; Within making an object you do some mini steps after within the object itself, for example: Lets say you want a your character to stop at a block you create your sprites and make both sprites (the wall and the player) in to objects, then you go in to the players object and make a new event called collision and within that you tell it to move at a speed of 0 within the directional move option. Basically you tell it what to do in pre-made steps that you arrange and can somewhat customize.

Note: You don't always need a sprite, things like music and a score board for example are objects with out sprites.

You can also use scripts and drag and drop, and make invisible objects that create things like a health bar and lives, and many more things that I haven't played with as of yet!

Is this program good enough for a stand alone or do I need other programs?

Graphics:

It's really up to you, I personally am a very visual person, I want to see what I like and like what I see and for that I pair up with GIMP for the graphics, if I was making a more complex game like a Super Mario World type game I'd go with GIMP paired up with MyPaint, but that's my preference! Whatever you feel comfortable, even MS Paint isn't that bad, if you want to make Pixel Art MS paint is perfect! If you are a linux user Tux Paint might be perfect for you!


If you want my own personal opinion I think this program is best paired up with another program like GIMP, MyPaint or Inkscape (if you want to go with buy-able programs then Photoshop, Illustrator, Art Rage or other programs), it has a “drawing” tool within the sprite maker and it's not bad! But if you want the best looking graphics, especially for a 2D game I think a more professional program would be better, but that's up to you!

Sounds and Music:

Yes you will need another program for this because you can't create sounds only import, unless you want to go with the provided default things that Game Maker provides you will need to either use another program or have a friend/person make the music for you.  - I personally use the free version of Sony Acid for sounds I haven't composed any music as of yet so for that I have no personal usage recommendations, just remember any music you might add it would be the best for all involved if you make it yourself for copyright reasons.


Programs that are good for music composition would be Sony Acid or Fruity Loops (I have the “Demo” versions of both, they are limited but still semi useful), there are also other programs, like Rose Garden, Audacity, Goldwave and many others. - A full list of programs can be found here.

Price:

The price can only (from what I can tell) be said for 8.1 which I do not have, but the price is $39.99 for windows and $19.99 for Mac for the standard GameMaker, for  Pro it's $99.99.

The Free Version can be found here (Legally).
Free Download

Conclusion:

I think Game Maker is pretty beginner friendly! There are a fair amount of videos on YouTube for things, along with tutorials on the Game Maker Forum.

I give it 5 stars for beginner  friendliness , but it looses half a star because they make you pay I believe too much for the program when you buy it.







I hope this was useful for you who are interested in the program!




Links:

Game Maker Download
Game Maker Forum

100 Game Maker Games in 10 Minutes (Video - Not Mine!)

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

~ Firefly

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Colored Pencils; Which are best?

 Colored Pencils; Which are best?

In this blog post I will be doing a similar review as I did with inking pens writing out the different brands that I've used and saying what I think of them and how they work.

Please keep in mind that I am also thinking in terms of how I color and also from my skill level; And also please remember that everybody has a preference I will not say you need to get anything, I will let you decide, I'll just say what I know and see from my perspective on things.

Okay, lets begin!

Crayola:

Crayola is probably the most famous because nearly every child (at least in the US) has had at least on pack of crayolas (second closest brand I believe would be RoseArt), these are actually very good considering they are for children. I probably have between all brands that I have, I have Crayola's most, some of them are about 10 years old (Orange is my most common color for some reason) and they are still great. I personally love them because they are harder than a better brand like Prismacolor (if you use the premier pencils). You can get a very wide range of colors; here's a list of colors for the Crayola 64 pack.

Desaturated colors:

1. 

   Image Not My Own

   
   

   Black
2. Slate
   
   
   
   
3. Silver
4. Grey
5. White
6. Toolbox
7. Platinum
   
8. Cool Grey
9. Auro Metal Sarus

Reds:

1. Red
2. Red-Orange
3. Maroon
4. Mahogany
5. Rose Red

Yellows:

1. Yellow
2. Yellow Orange
3. Yellow-Green

4. 

   Image Not My Own

   
   

   Bronze Yellow
5. Lemon Yellow
6. Harvest Gold
7. Gold

Oranges:

1. Orange
2. Mango
3. Light Orange
4. Peach

Browns:

1. Brown
2. Dark Brown
3. Light Brown
4. Meat Brown
5. Sandstorm
6. Taupe
7. Sand
8. Tan

Pinks:

1. Pink
2. Bubble Gum
3. Salmon
4. Pale Rose
5. Magenta
   
6. Rasberry
   

Image Not My Own

Purples:

1. Violet
2. Mauve
3. Orchid
4. Amethyst

Greens:

1. Green
2. Guppie Green
3. Electric Green
4. Dollar Bill
5. UFO Green
6. Green-Blue
7. Pine Green
8. Jade Green
9. Aqua Green
10. Lime Green
11. Turquoise
12. Teal

Image Not My Own.

Blues:

1. Blue
2. Navy Blue
3. Sky Blue
4. Cerulean
5. Ball Blue
6. Light Blue
7. Baby Blue
8. Spiro Disco Ball

There are also other colors in special packs, their biggest pack of colors pencils is a 200 pack but the catch is there's only 12 colors per pack or 240, this is mainly for if you are running an art class with kids or a daycare or something like that. It's called the Classic pack and it can be found here.

There are also colored pencils that you can erase, as well as mechanical colored pencils I do not own these, they also sell “special” packs with “special colors”, prices range but you can get a 64 pack of Crayolas for up to $12.00.

Crayolas blend reasonably not perfect but reasonably and are good to layer with different colors and make a visual nice texture.

For a beginner and more specifically a young beginner with not much money these are good to pick up.

As a young non monetarily advanced artist I say these are very nice to start with and to keep using through the years. I haven't bought pencils from Crayola in years because I keep having duplicates and such so I know they last a long time.

Creatology:

Picture from my personal box.

Creatology is a company that sells pencils exclusively at Micheals Craft stores, I have their 72 ct. Set of colored pencils that were given to me as a gift. The colors aren't named individuality so they're pretty much up to your own interpretation. There are 36 colors and each pencil has a duplicate, good if you have a favorite color because lasts longer or if you want to share you have a duplicate and can work easy without having to give the same pencil away. I do not know how much they cost, I cannot find them online so I believe they are only available in stores.

Pros:

• You have doubles of each color making the colors last longer.
• They are very light to work with.
• Most likely cheap.

Cons:

• They can be a bit sketchy. (Can be good if you like that effect)
• These colored pencils tend to get dull rather quick and when sharpening them you loose a lot of pencil.
• More on the box than anything – The box is horrible for storage you'll need another container. (I wouldn't let this bother you too much but it's still worth noting)
• These pencils don't blend very good.

All in all, I don't not recommend them but I don't highly recommend them, I like them but I don't prefer them. It's up to you.

Prismacolor:

Image Not My Own (From Amazon)

Prismacolors are on the much higher end of quality, the type I use are their Premier Pencils, but they also sell Verithin pencils which I do not own but from what I've heard about them they are much harder than the Premier pencils. Prismacolor Premier pencils have 150 shades, they have many different sets, I personally own the Sanford Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil Set, 48/Tin it includes 48 different colors, depending on the pack also 2 “free” art stix (normally both the same color) and a hand held pencil sharpener. These are much softer than Crayola or other “Children's Brands”, and they blend much better, but they also cost a lot more, depending where you go a pack of 48 can range from $30.00-$72.00, I've had my 48 pack for about 3 years, I went through a time of not using them much because I was scared I'd waste them but still it's 3 years! I've used them the most in the past year and a half, my poor little pencils some are down to almost nubs!

Here's a color Chart for all 150 colors:

Originally from: http://transientart.deviantart.com/art/Prismacolor-150-Premier-Colored-Pencil-Chart-273397018

Image Not My Own

These pencils are best used with a “Prismacolor Colorless Blender Pencil”, in short it's a pencil that you use super fast to warm the wax causing it to become softer than it already is and blending the wax together; The colorless blender pencil also works good with Crayola and Crayons but not as good at Prismacolor pencils because it's made specifically for that type of wax.

My main “Con” for this would be that these pencils tend to have their color points fall out, mine are older so that might account for some of the problem, but I've read places that they are not supposed to fall out but they do!

Prismacolors come in different containers and can come un-sharpened and pre-sharpened, I recommend personally get them un-sharpened, I've read that Sanford does not sharpen their pencils evenly before selling and they put the point on the end where the code number and color name is on some of the pencils, which is important if you want to buy a specific pencil as they can be sold individually in stores and online.

The Black Prismacolor has gained it's own spotlight in a sense as Illustrator, Author and Youtube Drawing Tutorial Sensation – Mark Crilley's Famous Black Pencil he uses in his video is from Prismacolor Premier.

Mark Crilley Using A Black Prismacolor Premier from his "How To Draw a "Realistic" Manga Face: Anger" video.

The white Prismacolor is good for adding lighting to drawings colored with:

• Pencil then marker over the top,
• Marker alone,
• And mixed media with Watercolor over the top.

I do not recommend to use it for eye shines, though, it's not thick enough, but that doesn't mean you can't try and prove me utterly wrong!

EK Memory Pencils:

These are very mild pencils both in price and useability, they cost $ 1.50-13 Dollars depending where you go for sets of 12. They have sets by color type groups like Primary, Earth, etc.., . These pencils are in between Crayola and Prismacolor in softness, they're blending is reasonable but not wonderful, they were designed for memory books and crafting projects but they are fine for coloring too, advertised as waterproof and fade proof.

I have pencils from 3 different sets which are:

• Primary Colors – The Basic colors, vivid not very vast for 12 colors but it's still alright to have.
• Earth colors – Much warmer tones, very “earthy” as they are so called.
• Pastel - Much softer shades than the two mentioned above, good for young looking images. They are not as saturated but still pretty.

Images Not My Own - I put them all in one image

If you are interested in these I suggest doing your research a bit to get the best price I've seen them sold very cheap then really expensive, it's all about smart shopping!

Off Brands:

I've bought many off brand colored pencils and they are alright, dollar stores and other stores that seem random brands are a gold mine for super cheap pencils, they aren't the best quality but sometimes you get those few good pencils that have super nice colors. For $1-4 I'd say it's worth a stab in the dark, if they don't work for you, you can always save them for a child later on to use.

Notable mentions that I do not own:

Faber–Castle: These are higher class pencils, I only own a 12 pack of their watercolor-pencils and I like them, I do not know about their other products.- Some Crayola Products are produced in their factories.

RoseArt: A Child's company much like Crayola, I do not own a set of these only a few randoms that I was given, from what I can tell they are alright but I can't really have an opinion on them as I do not own a set. - I do own, however, their markers and I like them.

Prismacolor Verithin: I do not own these as stated above but from what I've heard they are harder, I also do not own any watercolor pencils from Prismacolor.

Quick Note For Pencil Care:

My key to long pencil life is learn to work with them from super point all the way down to flat, then sharpen them again (In other words I'm stingy.), and don't press so hard when you are trying to color big areas, shadows and things like that pressing harder is good but still don't press too awfully hard!! - You can break the point or make the pencils dull quicker.

Also use a good sharpener, a bad sharpener can break your points and you loose a lot of pencil, either get a good hand-held sharpener, or get a good electric sharpener, I have my sharpener for almost or about 5 or 6 years and she's still kick'n at sharpening thems pencils!

Another tip, if you dislike the container that your pencils come in, sort them by color order with rubber bands (blues with blues, yellows, reds, etc..) and put them in something else, like a tote-bag or a better resealable container. - Even if you like the container I still recommenced color ordering your pencils, no matter how many you have; It's so much easier to color when they are in color order to start so you're not searching for the color you want in a confusing mix up. - It's Worth The Time!

 _________________________

I hope this has helped some of you artists out there!
Happy coloring!


May God Bless You, Your Family, Friends; Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, And All That 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?

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