I had some ideas for today’s doodle but none of them were working so I actually just started scribbling to see if I could draw a decent face out of nowhere. I might try this again to see what kinds of variations I can come up with. It’s more important to me to be able to randomly create as many good faces as possible than it is to draw the same one face over and over.
This is the chapter that’s given me the most difficulty writing-wise. I knew I wanted it set in a space station and the first draft took place in a modern setting. That felt like it slowed things down so I started one that was more futuristic. Things still went too slowly as I didn’t know how to introduce the creepy elements like I wanted to. I believe I know how to approach this when I workshop these tougher stories.
Today’s doodle took a little figuring out. The scene was basically the same, just the framing and positioning went through a few passes. I also needed to decide exactly what was going on outside the window. This is another story I’m probably going to rewrite. I like the idea but the execution can benefit from a second attempt.
I’m feeling pretty good about this one. The idea’s solid and it’s coming along alright. My biggest issue here is I kept moving between the rough sketch color and the refined sketch color. It’s better to do scrawling on one layer and cleanup on another. But sometimes you’re fixing something and know exactly where you want to place something. There’s two modes my brain goes into: One where it’s scribbling to fill space and place objects, the other tightening up what’s established. I also realize how much I rely on the shift key in Photoshop where I lock brush orientation for straight lines. Manga Studio has rulers and the like but for rough sketches I just wing it to correct later. But that’s the nice thing about working digitally – you can add layers and correct as many times as it takes to get what you want.
This chapter right here represents a change from where the stories go from being largely visual to more dialogue-heavy. The more I think about it the more I want to re-write it. When I’m feeling better I’m going to take some time and retool some of the chapters I’m having issue with. I really like the concept, I just don’t like the angle I’ve taken with it.
Here are some panels from my rough layouts so far. Getting sick has really punched my productivity in the gut but I’m still trying to work every day. I was really enjoying drawing on Monday’s Daily Doodle and then things went off the rails. Hopefully I’ll feel better next week so I can get more done.
Today’s doodle is for the chapter on greed. I look forward to contrasting this with the fleshed out version I’ll make when I’m not sick.
Today’s doodle is literally a doodle. I want to do more but I’ve come down with something and can’t stop hacking right now. I’ll probably stretch this series of doodle out another week so I can tighten up, ink, and actually finish them for the book.
This week’s new mini project ties back to the 7 Deadly Sins book I’m working on. I figured I’d do a cover for each chapter. Today’s doodle is unfinished for now. I tend to sketch a lot before I ink but here I was really having fun building stuff up with the brush. I think that’s good as the entire point is to be enjoying the drawing. I’m trying to play with the perspective which looks a little wonky here right now. I’ll play with it more when I have time but for now I think I should move on to the next chapter.
*UPDATE: Future Ben here. I’m taking this project offline so it’s not a security concern for the site. I’ve got more interactivity planned in the future but with more secure, up to date tech*
You know how they say the last 10% is the hardest to complete? That’s pretty true, though sometimes it feels like a whole lot more than 10%. Budgeting 3 days of coding was good though I probably should have focused on the different play modes first and left the menu screens for the last bit. The play modes had a habit of breaking whenever I added something new, which meant tracking down bugs. There’s a few I wasn’t able to get that are either Stencyl specific or Flash debugger specific. (Specifically one with the custom bullseye mouse cursor where the score and other text jumped around it instead of where they were supposed to be) There’s also something up with my high score code that causes a second game to not start properly. I figure I’ll go over it again sometime when I’ve got fresher eyes to look at it. As it stands it’s playable and a satisfactory coding exercise.