Merry Christmas everybody!

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you all have a lovely holiday, and have a very happy new year! Bring on 2016!


P.S. are you kids looking forward to a visit from Father Christmas and all his little helpers? ^^ xxx

Kindle Fire HDX - Autodesk SketchBook - Digital Paint - Review

During my travels, sure I could sketch in a sketchpad, but I didn't want to be completely cut off from painting digitally. So on investing in a Kindle Fire my thought process was that I could kill several birds with one stone -

1) having something to read on,
2) having something that essentially could act as a personal computer,
3) something to Paint and Draw on!

I used an app called 'Autodesk SketchBook', it's free and it's pretty good but you pay a small fee to unlock more advanced features (to replicate a normal digital painting program much better).

However, painting on Kindle is a bit like smudging paint around a canvas with your bare fingers (even when using a stylus). It's Jittery, unresponsive and generally very frustrating to work with. You'll find yourself constantly drawing and erasing areas you didn't intend the paint to cover. You can create nice artwork, but it's a bit like two steps forward one step back the entire time, because the stylus just never is precise and accurate enough.





Nevertheless, I've soldiered on with a few pieces and did come out with some nice artwork, but I feel that drawing these on my normal Macbook with Graphics Tablet would have taken a lot less time (maybe four times quicker).

So my conclusion? Definitely don't rely on digitally painting on your Kindle, it just isn't developed enough to work properly for that. I have heard that this isn't the case with painting digitally on Ipads, so maybe it's worth trying, though I have no experience of that myself so couldn't say for sure.

Overall? 4/10 - I'll be sticking to my beloved Macbook and Intuos Tablet for now :)

All the best,

xLouisax

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - just some casual line-art!

Happy Halloween everybody, hope you all have a great day! This is my this year's Halloween line-art.



And do you guys like my Scary Clown outfit? (I won 1st prize in my office yaaay!) I'm not surprised as I can't even recognise myself in these photos!






And does anybody fancy one of my rotted fingers? (red humous and ham haha)



xLouisax

Miss Mouse

Here's the completed version of my latest masterpiece, I think I posted some WIPs of it a couple posts ago. Basically my favouritest kind of thing to draw, plus it belongs to a series, so keep your eyes peeled for more!

Beauties

I bought this set of 25 Beauties a short while ago, and they live on my desk so that I can shuffle them about and look at them all he time. I love them dearly and I'm a little bit obsessed with them so I thought I ought to share some with you!

They're a card set featuring famous women through history (I love this kind of stuff!) so not only is it educational and inspiring (there are little blurbs about them on the back), but also they are gorgously illustrated.

Here are a few of my favourites <3

Gilbert & Sullivan characters = Period Costume!

I recently went to a car boot sale selling an almost complete set of Player's Cigarette cards, featuring Gilbert & Sullivan characters!

Coming from a very musical family, I've grown up to seeing my parents performing in the majority of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, which is actually how they both first met. Although I didn't really understand or appreciate the shows as a child, now that I am older I have grown to appreciate them for their light-hearted and ageless comedy, as well as the beautiful range of costume eras they offer to period costume geeks like me!

My favourite shows are probably The Pirates of Penzance, Gondoliers and The Mikado, the latter perhaps being one of the most famous. Here is a few of my collection of the exquisitely drawn characters.

And aren't there here two very significant characters for me! Below is the sweet Rose Maybud from Ruddigore, whom I was named after! (Louisa Rose Brooks)

And here is the character Robin Oakapple, the first role my Dad ever played on stage, and one he has played again countless times since. He actually looks a little like this drawing too, wooOOOOOoooo!

These cards have been added to my ever growing collection of objects related period costume, and remain upright on my desk for at least a full working year! :)

Hope your all good,

xLouisax

Geek Game for Girls - when History met Zombies

Maidens, Pirates, Steampunks & Zombies
Dress up Game!



Maidens, Pirates, Steampunks & Zombies is a quirky new Dress up Game, featuring the option to ‘Mashup’ some of the more boyish and overlooked genres.

I challenged myself to make this game as the Final Major Project of my Graphic Design degree at The University of the Creative Arts, Epsom. A true labour of love, it gave me the excuse to study not only the gorgeous aesthetics of 18th and 19th century fashions, but also the culture and ideas behind some of the coolest fantasy genres on the planet.

The majority of Dress up Games at the moment only tend to feature modern fashion, Justin Bieber, or Unicorn-riding Princesses, vomiting rainbows. Though we can all enjoy such frivolities at times, for just one moment, come over to the dark side. Bring out the geek within and make your own Pirate-Steampunk-Zombie-Lady!

Click HERE to play the game!

Let me know what you all think!

xLouisax

Zombies Zombies Zombies!

Recently I've been making the zombie graphics for my Dress-Up game, which have been fun! I read a book about zombies and drew and analysed a few zombie features.

The zombies glorified by Hollywood films are called 'Romero' zombies which are the ones that are viscious and hungry for human flesh. Because 'Romero' Zombies are essentially a fairly modern idea based on the Zombies created in George Romero films, I wanted to create modern zombified clothes (because they are the true zombies) but also have zombified versions of the other costumes, because it mashes everything up which is the theme of the game.



I learnt that zombies look best with sunken in eyes, torn off lips and pale faces and they don't usually wear shoes? Oh yeah, and their clothes are ripped or in the least covered with blood (from their own wounds or from their victims).

So here are my zombies, complete with complimentary Zombie head (which you can select in the game. :) Also a couple more accessories:









I am just about to put the zombie stuff into the game but here is my game so far, you can now select different backgrounds and turn the music off if it shivers your timbers.

xLouisax

Skeleton Game!

Hey how's it going?

I've began setting everything up in Flash for my game. The buttons make noises and stuff!

Please click here to play the skeleton version so you know what I mean ;p.

However....

I've hit a massive wall in terms of programming my interface. It was to be that the user selected a glossy button to select a section of clothing. This section of clothing would then appear to the right on the Dresser Mirror, and provide the option to flick through the inventory. On choosing an item, the user could click on it and it would appear on the doll, tada!



I think I figured out how to do this, however, it's not working the way I need it to. There's a way to use buttons to load external files, but they all load in different places because each file image is slightly different! Basically it doesn't work, short of individually programming 100 different sources, it's certainly not on a timescale I have.

Therefore, I need to alter my interface a little. I feel a little disappointed that the interface won't be exactly the way I wanted it to be, but trying to program it that way has completely baffled me and my peers.

Also, here is crying shame reject number one:



It was such a nice clock!

xLouisax

Louisa Rose Brooks Portfolio

Hi guys, here is my current mini-portfolio.

Open publication - Free publishing - More brooks

xLouisax

Pirate Dress-up!

Been researching the internet, books and films to create my Pirate costumes for my Dress up game. The 'Golden Age' of Piracy was between the mid 17th and 18th centuries, so most traditional pirates are portrayed as 18th Century characters.



I was reading up about famous female pirates such as Anne Bonney and Mary Reade. They had amazing adventurous lives as Pirates and it's no wonder why it's such an exciting and popular genre.

If you search female pirate in google, you'll mostly get sexy adult pirate costumes, which is something I could go for with my dress up game. However, like the other genres, I want the pirates to have substance and some kind of historical standing aswell.

Anne Bonney and Mary Reade were known for dressing as men to disguise their sex, and they were so fierce and good at fighting that usually no-one usually questioned them - that is until they got preggers.

So, I basically need some 18th Century male fashion mixed into my pirate costumes, in order for my doll to be a 'realistic' female pirate. :)





And here are my current Pirate outfits!









xLouisax

Steampunk Dress Up

Here are my Steampunk costumes for my Dress-up Game!















Pirates next! :D

xLouisax

Dress up Game Progress

18th Century Lady - COMPLETE!

Here are some screendumps of the new stuff and a couple of close ups.











Steampunk

Yes, I have begun my next section, Steampunk. It's a genre based on the idea that if the Victorians had digital technologies such as that we have today - how would they look? Machines ornately decorated with brass or wood. In terms of Steampunk costume, it's based on 19th century fashions (<3) but with a technological twist. Steampunk fashion is usually all about buckles and goggles and big thick gloves.

I began by looking at some lovely real-life Victorian fashions, as I do not want all the Steampunk costumes to be totally ripping off existing designs. Of course, I have also been looking at and sketching some really cool Steampunk costumes that are already out there.





And so the journey begins...



xLouisax

Dress-up Game Dolls

Here are some sketches of some of the dresses to be featured in the Dress-up Game I have been working on for my Final Major Project.









As well as this, I feel that I am getting closer and closer to designing a suitable layout for the game, which will be fun and easy to use. This was my rough mock-up today of how I think I may lay everything out :s



I had originally planned to have two characters, 18th and 19th Century, who would have wardrobes featuring upper class and lower class clothing. Since the start of the project however, feedback has encouraged me to have even more variety than this, to make the game something really original, and a sort of 'mix and match' idea.

Now, the game will feature one character/doll with one huge wardrobe featuring different periods, classes, and even non-fiction fashion.

I've been trying to get my head around how to program this so that it will be easy to use, and so far various tutorials have been helping me out, so hopefully this trend will continue.

xLouisax

Final Major Project - Beginnings

I have begun working on my super exciting FMP.

My FMP proposal is now more focused than before. I had originally planned to make an activity pack (i.e. dress-up, dot to dot, spot the difference). However, whilst writing my dissertation I learnt that it is better to focus in one a few things, rather than on a lot of things, as you will be able to make the few things really amazing.

According to Games4Girls Dress-up-games are aimed at 12-15 year old girls. There's a real 'dressing a princess' element to dress-up-games which I believe makes them so enjoyable and appealing. I feel that no-one before now has taken advantage of the princess element of period costume, insofar as that 18th Century fashion for example was so lavish and luxurious and amazingly beautiful, it astonishes me that no-one has really channelled these colourful aesthetics and used it to make a really original yet educational Dress-up-Game.

So, for my FMP I am making a super pretty dress-up game featuring 3 period characters. If any of you can remember my Pirate Dress-up game, it was a simple interface featuring a blank page with a doll and different clothes all around her.

The Dress-up game I will be making for my FMP will be far more advanced. Not only will it have three different characters, it will also have a title page, inventories, the buttons will make noises, the dolls will blink and there will be funky music playing in the background. It will also all be historically accurate. I have been learning snippets of new codes such as how to make a preloader screen and also how to make clothes 'snap' to a doll.

I will be challenging the conventional Dress-up-game format by adding narrative to the game, and giving the characters more substance than just being a doll. For example, it will begin with a title page whereby you can select a character of your choosing. Each character will have a profile and a historically accurate and beautiful bedroom and wardrobe.

What this project will do for me:

• It will challenge my Illustration skills and show people that I am good at drawing.
• It will show people that I can create characters with substance.
• It will show people that I am passionate and am capable of bringing my ideas to life in an interactive and entertaining way.

I am having so much fun with this already, and the research in order to make this game will be extensive (not just dresses, rooms, beds, furniture, make-up, hairstyles...). I have begun researching for a character from the 18th Century.

Therefore it will be the best dress-up-game ever (confidence is a virtue :p)

xLouisax

P.S. here are a few examples of some really cool Dress-up-games

http://www.candystand.com/play/fashion-star

http://www.rainbowdressup.com/sunny-days-style.php

http://www.girlgames4u.com/faux-fur-dress-up-game.html?utm_source=users&utm_campaign=newgames