Did some much needed updating....

I've updated the blog archive and drawing archive after 2 months...sorry for the delay I might update the timelapse video page too and the slide show as well.

Blessings.

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.

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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.
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I hope this was helpful to somebody!




Blessings and Health to all you know and love!




~ Firefly

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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.
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 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

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Would You Like To See My Drawings? Click here.

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