Familiar Castaways

Art Lessons

Oh, flippin’ heck. I established a rule in my first post then broke it in the second.

After all my promises about “working at my own pace” and “not making long-term plans,” I went and said:

I’d sort of planned to make a more detailed character before thinking about integrating them into MonoGame, but I’m pretty hyped about building something interactive. So, next time I check in, maybe I’ll have the first stub of a game to show you?

When I wrote that, I genuinely thought that I’d surely be able to draw a simple character to rig. Not even a character for the game; just a sketch to experiment with then throw away.

But I can’t! I know I could try, but it’s overwhelming! I’m sure I’ve said this before, and this won’t be the last time either, but; art is the part of game development that I have the least experience and confidence in, and it feels insurmountable.

I don’t know if this makes sense to anyone who hasn’t felt it themselves, but my self-preservation instinct would really prefer I stopped before I made a fool of myself. Just picking up a pencil makes me loathe myself. It isn’t healthy, but it’s not a choice either. It’s just my rubbish, messy brain.

So, I spent a week fighting the impulse to give up, but I pushed through and figured out what I needed to do.

Pausing the game to learn a skill

I always knew that I’d take breaks from development to focus on learning the skills I’d need, but I didn’t think I’d be breaking to focus on art so early. But I think it’s the right call, because some fundamentals and some confidence will really help me out with the prototype.

So, after a couple of weeks of wondering where to start and feeling miserable, I started Brad Colbow’s Learn to Draw in 60 Days.

I love Brad’s YouTube channel and the way he teaches, so I didn’t sweat over handing over the cash. I’ve got reasonable expectations as well, I think. All I want from the course is:

That’s still a couple of months off, so let’s see how it goes!

Learning to draw in 60 days: days 1-3

The first couple of days covered warmup exercises, which were a great excuse for me to also get used to drawing on the iPad, like finding the best way to hold it and a comfortable posture, and try a few different apps. I know everyone loves Procreate, but Concepts is really neat too, and I’ve settled on Fresco, at least for now.

So, I eased into it by drawing lines. Lots and lots of lines.

A drawing exercise of multiple overlapping colourful lines.
Drawing exercise

I can do it! I can actually do it! I put pencil on screen and did it!

Day 3 focussed on breaking images down into fundamental shapes. I found some photos online to trace–and yeah, I was supposed to be drawing from reference rather than tracing, but I cut myself a bit of slack while I’m still easing in.

A photograph of a Steam Deck, with a sketched overlay breaking it down into fundamental shapes.
Breaking a Steam Deck down into fundamental shapes. Original photograph is A person holding a smart phone in their hand by Georgiy Lyamin used under the Unsplash License.
A sketch of a Steam Deck broken down into fundamental shapes.
Breaking a Steam Deck down into fundamental shapes. Based on A person holding a smart phone in their hand by Georgiy Lyamin under the Unsplash License.

I’m just one weekend in and sure I don’t have much to show for it, but you know what? I’m happier than I was last week. I’m more confident than I was last week. And that’s good!

inkJam 2025

Just as an aside to everything else, I’m thinking about joining inkJam 2025 at the end of September. I’ll be using Ink for the game, and I think that having something that breaks the routine to look forward to will help me push through the days that my confidence dips.

Inspiration

One of my favourite videos I saw this week is Karl from ThinMatrix’ trip to exhibit HomeGrown at Gamescom. It’s so soothing for me to see good things happen when they’re well-earned, and I smiled all the way through.