ralphenstein

I entered Ludum Dare 22 last weekend with a few friends. I drew the sprites for the game. The game we made had two parts - a point and click adventure style part, and a shoot 'em up.

You can play our entry, entitled "Void", here: www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-…

You can leave comments, and you may be able to rate the game as well, and if so, please leave us feedback!

I think I just had a mini breakthrough! I think the model building software in my brain just got upgraded. Lately I've been sketching a lot, and trying to fit more in each day. My interest in drawing usually comes in occasional little waves, with too much nothing inbetween, but this feels like the beginning rumblings of an unstoppable tsunami. I just sat down to draw, and perhaps for the first time, what appeared on the page was actually better than what I had in mind.

I cannot believe how much I've improved at drawing with no reference over the last week or so. I've still got a long, long way to go, but this is a good start, and I am excited about it.

It is criminal how much time I've wasted so far, but I cannot change that, so it's pointless to dwell on it.

If I have learnt one thing, it is that whenever you catch yourself thinking about what your former self should have done to please you, you should stop beating yourself up, and start working out what you can do now to please your future self.

Oh, that and the secret to becoming a good artist. Which, of course, is...





















work. Loads and loads and loads and loads of work. Practise, practise, practise followed by a bit more practise. After that you can do more work. When your hand starts bleeding on the paper, have a break. Then bandage the hand and get back to work.


That's not to say it can't be fun, though!

Looks like I've neglected this site for some time. Again. I'm having a week off work, in which I was planning to knuckle down and do a dirtload of artwork, but typically for a break from work, I am ill. I always make promises to myself that I'll start taking my artwork seriously soon, and I always disappoint, so I'll stop making that same promise and just get on with it instead. Don't be surprised to see some new stuff here when I finally get better.

Thanks to everyone who has added my things to their favourites, and is watching me (do next to nothing!). I'll try to thank you individually, but there's quite a lot to get through. Thanks for your patience.

I've just tidied my gallery up a little bit and moved a few things to my scrapbook. If for some reason you can't find something you've seen in my gallery in the past, it's probably now in scraps.

I'm currently working on a painting for a colleague. It shouldn't take all that long seeing as I can't afford to go out at the moment. It's my first ever properly paid commission, and there's a list of others steadily growing, too.

I've just finished reading Charlie Brooker's Dawn of the Dumb - a collection of his columns for the Guardian. If ever there was a man who was 100% right on absolutely everything, it's him. He has a tv-based tv show called Screenwipe, and now a news-based spin-off called Newswipe. Both are immensely funny and informative in equal measure. I can't recommend his work highly enough. I could go on about him all day, but instead, why not google or youtube his name and see for yourself?

I fixed my scanner/printer! Turns out it just needed a good old cleaning out. I'm so chuffed (not least because I bought two new ink cartridges for it before I knew it wasn't working)! Not sure why cleaning it fixed the scanner, but it did anyway. So if anyone has a knackered printer or all-in-one, it's definitely worth cleaning the paper rollers, ink cartridges (DON'T touch the ink nozzle plate - refer to the manual or look for instructions online), ink carriage contacts, capping station and anything else you can before you throw it away. I honestly thought mine had kicked the bucket. I still can't quite believe I brought it back from the grave. Life is sweet!

There's a few things I'm working on which I can finally start adding colour to, and I'm on such a high right now I feel really spurred on to do more. Watch this space!