Lately I've been struggling to produce good quality work. My art is bad, my story telling is worse and my ideas are generic. I've made multiple attempts to start another Contrast chapter but all have ended in the bin. I can't think of a single interesting game mechanic... nothing seems to be working. I decided that I need a change of environment, and so I've ventured (with my Toyota Supra) 4 hours out to a small town called Lakes Entrance. Lakes Entrance is a fine town that sits by the seashore where the lake enters the sea.
This drastic change of environment will hopefully spark some creativity. All distractions and worries are left in the city. I'm surrounded by nature and the sea. During my stay in Lakes Entrance, I'm going to try and rediscover myself artistically. I'm going to brain storm and develop many interesting game mechanics, I've going to try to create a new style of drawing which will be used for contrast, and of course I'm going to play lots of guitar.
Often when I'm in solitude I seem to raise the bar, or discover something new. For instance, on a camping trip, I was carrying a sketch book. After 5 days drawing in the wild, I discovered a prototype which eventually lead to the cartoon style of Attack of the Birds and Pen License. In fact, whilst I was in Lakes Entrance back in 2004, I animated 'Scorpion' which is a short sprite film which can be found on Newgrounds.com. I was very proud of Scorpion at the time.
When I return to Melbourne I hope to have achieved three things. I hope to have found a new style of drawing which I can apply to Contrast, I hope to have brain stormed and even prototyped some game mechanics and I hope to have sparked the lost creativity in me.
I'm motivated, but motivation without creativity is like cooking without fat.
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UPDATE 18/12/2010
Discovered a quick and effective way of shading within photoshop that looks similar to water color...
It's important to know that is was done rather quick as well.
