Exciting Career Progression!

In terms of my career I've been in a bit of a dream-like limbo for the last few months! I was away travelling and exploring the world for most of 2015 (which was amazing! :D), and the plan was to return home and lay low for a few months before moving on to a new full-time job. The idea was to spend a few months doing some personal projects and also to study coding in more depth to satisfy my insatiable thirst for learning, and also to open more career doors in the process - the cherry on the cake!

Where it started to go wrong...

So my idea was to 'fund' this study time with freelancing... but what actually happened was that when my freelancing began to really kick off, it started going SO well that it completely took over my life, to the point where I was working such long hours (and sometimes a 7 day week) that I had no time for personal study, let alone time to refresh and recharge between each working day. To make matters worse, I realised that I wasn't even making a great deal of money from all of this time and effort, partly due to my mistakes (which I've now learnt from) and partly due to me buckling under the pressure of competing with fierce competition (which I now refuse to do - nothing is worth lowering your rates to an unsustainable amount :p).

It's been a tough few months but I've learnt ALOT along the way and I've finally brought everything back down to a manageable level. Everything is finally back in line with my original goal: to spend the majority of my time learning and growing, and 'working for money' as little as possible. I now spend the majority of my working day studying and drawing, and only do bits and bobs of (well-paid) freelance work. I also spend a few hours a week doing bar work which is great because I've found that having two small sources of income has massively reduced the stress of worrying about bills, which in turn makes everything else easier to manage.

Where I am now

I'm so much happier with how everything is going now! I love the fact that I'm back in the family home at the moment, my sister has just moved back for a few months also, so we are all living together as a family (for perhaps the last time in our lives!). We also have a new puppy, Charlie!

Dedicated this time to studying and drawing is the best thing I ever did! I'm learning and growing everyday and all of it is catapulting me towards my dreams! Life is good!

I'll be making an ace personal website and an app with my new found knowledge so watch this space!!

xLouisax

The Maze Runner - my new obsession

"If you're about to have a long plane ride definitely read this trilogy."

Oh my Gosh, I watched the Maze Runner film when it was in cinemas and LOVED it. Since then I've been desperate to read the books to find out what it's all about. I finally started reading the first book about a week ago and since then have completely devoured all three books! I couldn't put them down!




I LOVE these books, and they're definitely a lot better than the films - like usual, the film adaptations leave out quite a lot of cool things in the story and change much of the plot for the worse (especially in the second film, oh God!). Although I do appreciate that sometimes this has to happen in order for a film to work, I do have a little sympathy for James Dashner - I'd love to see this as a long graphic novel series or a TV show or something so audiences could see all the cool little details and plot twists in much greater detail!

Anyway, if you were at all thinking about reading the books, I'd strongly recommend it! They're so exciting and gripping, and have completely re-ignited my imagination - what more could a person want in a book?!

If you're about to have a long plane ride definitely read this trilogy.

Also, I really love the cover designs of the UK versions - ooh shiny!!

xLouisax

Heavy Rain - Game Review *SPOILERS*

"...if you love nudity it's the game for you - but don't play the part at the club with the volume up around older members of your family... AWKWARD :D"

So I finally got round to playing Heavy Rain! After playing Beyond Two Souls last year (which I LOVED) I had to give Heavy Rain a try too!

 
Image Source: http://static.tumblr.com/73xd9qg/xX3lpulq3/heavyrain.png

What a great game! The story completely sucked me in! I started playing after tea time and basically didn't put the controller down until I'd finished.

It's a narrative-driven game based mainly around Ethan Mars (see below) and the relationship he has with his son, Shaun. All of the characters have their own storyline and gameplay which occasionally interweave. Your actions and choices determine the fate of each character.

 
Ethan - Image source: http://www.gamesknit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/heavy-rain-1260106446.jpg

 
Ethan with his son Shaun - Image 3: http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/165034-heavy-rain-proves-ebert-was-right/bb-noscale.jpg

It is pretty cool how much your decisions can affect the storyline - you'll only notice this by partaking in a little plot googling after completing your game.

I loved all of the characters; loved the mood of the game; loved how the game looked, and most of all I loved the way tons of the gameplay is just controlling the character to do every-day mundane things. I love games like that - I don't know what it is, maybe it's something to do with feeling sucked into someone else's life and really living through them in another world? This is why I loved putting make-up on Madison and brushing Ethan's teeth. ^^

 
Ethan brushing his teeth! ^^ - Image 4: http://firsthour.net/screenshots/heavy-rain/heavy-rain-ethan-brush-teeth.jpg

So to summarise, what a great game! If you're into narrative heavy games with a little bit of mystery and thrilling action sequences this is the game for you! Also, if you love nudity it's the game for you - but don't play the part at the club with the volume up around older members of your family... AWKWARD :D

xLouisax


P.S. Now I want to draw the characters so bad @@

P.P.S Also if you want to watch an awesome video about Heavy Rain watch this :)

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

Travelling to Japan!

Out of all of the countries I've travelled this year, Japan was the place that stood out the most to me! I visited mostly Tokyo and Kyoto, but also shortly visited Nara and Osaka :)...

... and IT WAS EVERYTHING I'd DREAMED IT TO BE! Everybody there was so nice to me and so respectful and cute! And EVERYTHING was cute: the houses were cute, the trees were cute, the cars are cute, the people are cute, their uniforms were cute... One of my favourite things was that you could be walking down the street (almost anywhere) and in the split second that you recognise that you're thirsty there's a drinks machine no more than a few metres away from you!

And the toilets... oh my... that was a real treat, while backpacking to leave a country with some of the worst toilets in the world, to go to the place with the BEST toilets in the world! :D

Japan is such a nice place to visit in terms of aesthetics - so many beautiful and interesting Shrines and houses and Gardens everywhere! I loved every minute of my time there, and can't wait to visit again someday (and get me more of that delicious noodle soup!!)




My only regret is that I don't follow Anime very much! I was having kittens over all the video game merchandise I found in Akihabara, Tokyo! Imagine if I'd also been finding posters and figurines of my favourite Anime characters! Maybe I'll have to get into Anime properly before I visit again!

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

Travel time!

So I've been a little busy over the past several months going on an adventure around the world! I just got to a point in my life where I was happy with how well I've done with my career. I'd graduated and got a good few years of experience working as an Illustrator and Designer and worked incredibly hard for every day of my life up until this point, so I thought it was definitely a good time to go off and have a gap year which I never had the chance to do before!

And its been great!!

I've ended up in Australia where I'm staying with a friend I met on the road and working part time in a local cafe to help save up for my next portion of backpacking around Oz!

I couldn't possibly share everything I've done while travelling this year because I'd need an entirely separate blog for that, but here's a few photos to give you guys a glimpse of my adventures! This whole experience has been incredibly inspiring and rejuvenating and I'm looking forward to coming back to London to work! 

Thailand


 Vietnam and Laos


Cambodia and Japan! <3 nbsp="" p="">
Peace out,

xLouisax