More process on designing my version of pinocchio.

He found a sewing chest and decided to make himself a needle sword and button shield to become a knight.

Here are some photos of his adventures.

Working on two different children book things at the moment. On the one side a re-interpretation of pinocchio for university and on the other side a mini-book with bunnies for my grandmas birthday.

Drawing animals and faces (60s and 90s) to extend my palette of animals and expressions!

EDIT: Also did a thing were I let https://duckduckgo.com/?q=random+color&t=lm&ia=answer give me a random color and then I built a color palette around it. As well as some doodles with the resulting palettes.

late upload as I had a long train ride yesterday.

Drew some interesting buildings I saw passing by the train window.

Gotta do a perspective practice streak soon-ish I think, want to improve there.

colored a sketch of some rainmonsters and doodled a bit

chill entry. watching youtube and filling a sketchbook page - trying to get back to go bed in time ^

a couple of illustrations of places/things in my head & experimenting a bit with styles

Drawing on top of my photos, thinking up little monsters that could live in those tiny worlds

Experimenting with different styles for plants, a study of an acorn and a study of a sparrow

A grumpy monster, wearing an acorn as head, as well as some random sketches to practice making color palettes from scratch, and a study of a cool window out of my inspiration collection

Last one in my color theory practice series. This Youtube Tutorial by Blenderguru is the best I found so far, can really recommend:
Not sure if this really counts as "daily art", but I did some quick thumbs to try out the different color harmonies.

Spend way too much time on this, but I think it payed off in the end :)

This is my last submission to the 10 ideas a day streak for now. My goal for this streak was to improve on my creative thinking, as I believe that can be treated like a skill you can train. So this last submission is devoted to more ideas to improve.

1. collect inspiration & ideas in a filterable/searchable system/database (tags) to spark new ideas (by association)/ collect for later reference
2. train Neural Network on idea database, to automatically generate new, similar ideas -> possible inspiration
3. find new ideas together with other people to diversify results
4. Separate process into a) analyzing problem and defining goals b) find ideas (judging-free) c) judge and select ideas based on defined goals
5. Try out clustering method -> could be daily creative exercise around random word
6. This streak accidentally used a creative technique - an idea marathon -> can keep on doing that, but in notebook I carry it with me, which makes it way easier to fit in the day to day
7. Travel -> new impression, unfamiliar environments bring fresh perspective
8. Participate in a creative writing class
9. Idea finding process is like a Recurrent Neural Network: formulate goal, create output, measure quality of output based on goal
10. Create more text generators to facilitate associative thinking

This was a fun streak! I really felt like I there already was a change in my ability to come up with ideas, putting me in the right mindset.

And I created some maybe interesting ideas on the way :D May continue this in analog form in my notebook.

Continued developing the style for our game today. Thinking of combining inked outlines & structures (similiar to Kay Nielsen) with watery aquarelle colors. Besides that I worked on some thumbnails for places. Thinking of using a shabby lighthouse as home of the main characters family.

Today I chose a random theme using https://www.randomlists.com/random-words and added the modifier of "3d prints" to it - I want to come up with 3d printed products.

1. tiny modular boat as child toy - you have a basic case and can add objects, fisherman etc. as you like (maybe Lego-compatible)
2. Toy for adults: little rowboat with mechanism to move the paddles
3. Contest: who can make a boat go the fastest/longest? All parts must solely work with 3d printing.
4. Little "boat garden" for cress, to swim inside glass bowl -> sponge inside soaks up automatically with new water
5. Make custom 3d printed "waterpark" with channels for boats to swim in
6. little ocean diorama: Print ocean floor with beautiful corals -> fill up with transparent resin -> add boat to top part
7. On longer sail boat trips, use battery/generator powered 3d printer to quickly fix broken parts/for little repairs; note: must be very manageable, as there is not much room on board, also potential fire hazard -> optimize printer or use on bit larger ships
8. 3d print and sell boat in bottles with great detail and few manual work
9. swimming boat in water bowl, which has an uneven surface on the bottom for underwater plants to grow on and move with the boat
10. Collect plastic part in oceans and find a way to use them for 3d printing

WIP style exploration for a game project. Plants didn't turn out as wanted, so for now here are some nice rocks.

To switch things up, this time I asked my Twitter followers to give me a theme. Well, I got this. Not my favorite theme but I'm gonna try.

1. You explore an abandoned house. As you make your way trough the building a narrative forms from the things you find lying around. You observe, trough the documents and objects, the family dynamic and how it fell apart. (could be game) - I explored such a building myself once .. very sad
2. You wander trough the dream world of a person, meet both good and bad sides, meet the people that bullied them in school, that didn't ever let them feel safe or able to trust someone outside of family. The game could be resolved with the notion of moving on and growing, but still it's hard and it may influence them, but it hasn't have to control them. (the game is about gaining control about the dreams, the inner world)
3. Game where you experience the world trough the eyes of a pig in a stable .. would make the graphics simplified, to make it more universal/ to allow for a bit distanced reflection on the matter, while stile letting emotion and empathy in
4. a game where the main character can be robbed of their ability (to move, communicate) partly or total, by another character of the plot. But they change, sometimes they are nice. You never know when it breaks out again, and want as character just for things to be normal.
5. A game. You meet a strange girl, with a face filled with a void of stars. You're curious, you follow her, try to understand. Can you?
6. A game where you play as a witch helping people to get rid of their problems. In this world, mental illnesses and/or "baggage" can be visually seen as monster - but only by the witches. Your goal is to help people, but you maybe can't always. You fail, feel guilty, get better. Swore that this will never happen again and you try your best.
7. The game starts with the players character relation to the other main character. They never like them, always feel endangered around them. But then the other surprisingly dies and you as character try to make sense of it, try to understand. Was he really all bad?
8. You are a crow, a spirit, searching for food. You have chicklings and they are nearly starving. You fly out and find yourself next to several violent scenes. Who will you help? Your chicklings or the humans? Most players will probably try to help both, but this shouldn't be possible to highlight the dilemma. A game about life, and how life needs death to keep on circling.
9. An experimental game or short movie, where the player is swathed in fine strings. As the piece progresses, the character is facing their fears, but often their strings grow more and thicker. But as they keep on fighting, more and more strings go, until you see the body beneath made out of a field of stars. Then the body vanishes.
10. You find an old set of VHS tapes. For some reason you decide to start watching them. Soon you can't stop. Scenes of family life, but inbetween things are breaking, things are falling apart, characterized by the static of the TV. Exploring the wish of the character to act, to help, the player finds themself in a made up, distorted universe, together with the family. They try to help, but in the end, it was all just about looking back. Things are long gone. Who are they know? Did they ever get over it?

So this was actually a good theme! Lot's of meaningful, darker things here. Thanks ludonaut for the theme! :)

The first doodle is inspired by dead wood/fallen trees and how new plants and animals use it as home and food.
The 2nd doodle is some further experimenting with using white marker as sort of permanent masking fluid.
With the last doodle I just looked a bit at how the colors mixed. Wanted to try a transluscent effect orginally.

It's already pretty late, so I'm gonna try to make it as quick as possible this time :D

Theme is from my generator again!

1. A place in an autumnal swamp, an old witch house - the player/film viewer finds the house and explores the lost magic
2. A tree is growing out of a ruin, with beautiful colorful leaves. It's a tale about the "cycle of life" and the relation of man and nature
3. A house cut out of colorful autumn leaves, set aflame in a video
4. You explore a lost city, overgrown by large, looming autumn trees. Who lived here? Why did they leave?
5. An abandoned mushroom house or tower. The player is tiny or could also be normal sized (wonders all around us)
6. A huge old tree has fallen down - a point and click game about exploring the tree and seeing all the species living in and from such "dead wood"
7. A skeleton covered by autumn leaves like a bouquet of flowers - lost but not forgotten, nature cares for it
8. Parts of an old apple tree have grown inside a lost childrens bedroom, transforming it into a surreal, dreamlike scene - game/film about the dream about being close to nature and animals; you meet a squirrel showing you around
9. A game about the "zone" around the Chernobyl area - you play as animal, and see & explore how nature reclaims the old buildings (set in Autumn)
10. Sleeping on top of a bed of colorful leaves you find a girl or woman - curious you get closer, but she wakes up, get's scared and run away. You decide to follow and soon discover the secret of her laying her (she is a spirit/symbol of nature) - but now that you learned how to live with nature you can't go back anymore

Today I did a study of a "sunken ruin" in a nearby forest. It was getting dark, sorry for the photo quality.

I think it collapsed because the river undermined parts of the structure. And then it broke at it's weakest spot (where I think there was some sort of metal plate, acting as a watergate).

Today is a little experiment! I used my generator to give me a random topic and will try to come up with art ideas around it.

1. A movie/game where the main character is really hungry - he sees a fruit hanging high up on a tree and makes several (humorous) attempts to get it, until a girl suddenly appears and takes the fruit in a swift motion. He chases after her and a play between them two ensues. Then the girl introduces him to her world.
2. The witches garden - a game/installation where your task is to "babysit" the plants of the witch .. which have a life of their own (see "Pepper and Carrot" for style of narration)
3. An old lady in a shop sells the main character a special plant .. she is really nice and the main character likes her. Then she dies and the character is left with the plant. Soon they discover it has a life on it's own ..
4. The player meets a dyrad (a ghost connected to it's tree). Soon they discover the tree is about to be lumberjacked. (from here on player could either try to stop it or the tree gets cut down and a new sapling comes .. and he kinda has to watch over it, care for it.)
5. Art installation where plants are projected (with lightbeamer) into little glass jars - if possible: react on touch or other sensory input
6. A botanist's apartment that is filled with botanical illustrations come to life
7. There is a special flower that only blooms at midnight .. the main character is trying to get it, as it's a way to cure someone dear .. but next to the flower they meet another person, who appears to be ill themself .. who will they help? Someone dear to them or a stranger right in front of them? -> movie/game about moral dilemma
8. The player is a spirit that has the ability to inhabit plants and make them grow - game about moving around in the city, from green spot to green spot, with little city scenes, how people live, how they react on things growing
9. In a gray city, you enter a secret garden trough a back alley door. It's growing wild and is a bit dried out - the player finds out that the former gardner is gone and that he used to spread the plants around the city to bring people joy. - game about spreading seeds and plants in the city without getting caught -> player will see people smile and "blossom" themselves; nature as symbol for freedom, individualism, expression
10. A forest monster that forms out of plants, needles, etc.

I really liked this experiment! Was a really fun way of brainstorming, it just kept the ideas coming ^^

Today I did some studies in the forest again. I found a nice pond with the first frog/toad-"eggs" swimming in it's water, right among some young reed plants.

1. Use paper with seeds embedded into it -> can be planted by the receipient
2. Use materials with an interesting structure when touched, e.g. felt, structured paper
3. Make colouring books/templates to customize for each postcard sent, e.g. funny monsters
4. Take photo of place you're writing from/about and use as motif
5. Make a little comic/story as image on the front
6. Hide little secrets on the back of the card
7. Print empty mason jar on the back and later draw in there objects you find/see while writing the postcard
8. Press plants you find next to your home and photocopy them as postcard motif
9. Put a funny/inspiring quote on the front, as the recipient may put it somewhere where they see it often
10. Rectangle shaped house as motif - in every window something else is happening

Tweaked the light and composition of and older gamelevel, to prepare it for my portfolio.

While I'm still a student, I heard from quite some people how much of a struggle it can be to earn a living as an indie developer.

As I'm also considering this as an option, I want to come up with alternate ideas about getting an income, besides the regular selling games as product and filling the gaps with contract work (not that there would be anything wrong with that).

1. Sell (physical) merch of your game - this is still a topic not thoroughly explored. Could be especially applicable if the game has strong, memorable characters. Options could include plushies, artprints, 3D prints, artbook
2. Create tools/plugins (for gamedev) - might be an interesting additional income, but may require quite some maintenance work
3. Host local gaming events with entry fee or paid by venue (e.g. local multiplayer, make/play game with audience)
4. Not an income per se .. but one can benefit in many ways from a good network of indie friends and colleagues
5. Non-intrusive, optional Micro-transactions (see e.g. Viridi)
6. Interesting idea in "Meadow" -> unlock special skins, sounds, characters if owning other games by the developer
7. Offer paid gamedev tutorial videos/ebooks
8. Sell game assets
9. Teach making game workshops at schools or other venues
10. Sell soundtrack separately