Pen vs Pencil: A Philosophy And A Practice

At some point in my life, I started using pens to sketch. It kind of changed my life. It reminds me of that one quote by Omar Khayyám:

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

When I started sketching in pen, everything felt more permanent. It's not like I was erasing when I was using pencils, but now there was a freedom to every stroke. Once it was created, there was no going back. My creative mark on the world, however small, was made.

I started filling up sketchbook after sketchbook and really getting better at creating ideas. This extended to how I work online as well. The creations can now just flow.

And if I don't like what I created, I can just create another post tomorrow.

If you'd like to know what I'm sketching images for, please VISIT TRANSCENDENT PRESS.

- Mr Benja -

Behind The Kobe Bryant Prints (Pt 1) - "24/8"

After the passing of Kobe Bryant I was inspired to create. It just happened that way. He is one of those figures that exemplified the push that I have been engaged with lately, so I felt I had to do what pop art does, speak on popular culture.

I always think deeply about those that have inspired me, and in the spirit of pop art, I created two pieces after Kobe's death. The first of these prints is called "24/8". 

As usual, I went with what felt natural to me. But since it's the first tribute piece I've ever done, I felt weird about not going the usual tribute route. In fact, while typing this, I realized that I needed to delete all of my art-speak and just let you know what was on my mind as I constructed this image:

* an ode to Kobe's legacy

* the game we play

* the ball

* constancy

* forward motion

I will post about the second one a little later on. It's a bit more involved.

CLICK HERE FOR THE "24/8" PRINT ON THE 8BITCUBIST SITE

- Mr Benja -

Little Time With Big Impact On Social Media

I was asked how I can handle being on social media so much. Good to know that my digital sweat is paying off somewhere.

In short, the answer is that I practice at being an efficient user. I've worked to figure out places were I'm spending time making decisions or dwelling for too long. Then I remove/adjust those places.

Here are two of the major areas where I save time online.

Posting:
As far as my regular content goes, I jot down, photograph, and document my thoughts/experiences. Then, at certain times during the day, like after breakfast or dinner, I go to that archive and blast out the content quickly. Since it's been sitting in the back of my mind or has been noted for a while, I usually don't need to think much about what I'm creating.

Reading/Consuming/Checking:
Reading social media can be a huge time drain, so I only check/reply to social media in certain lag moments that have a capped time limit. Like when I'm boiling water, toasting bread, sitting on the toilet, waiting in the grocery line, etc. There are a ton of these little moments throughout the day that require us to just wait around for minutes at a time, so I put that time to use.

For example, I have a Star Wars discussion group that I engage in. Without being disciplined, it can take up all of my day. So for less than five minutes in the afternoon, I scan the updates and make *quick* comments. I then close down the browser. Later in the evening (after dinner), I do a deeper read, make longer comments, and post new content. This happens with multiple online destinations, and takes at most thirty minutes.

None of this interrupts the "me" time though. That's priority, and part of what I think allows me to just get online, do my thing, and then get off at designated points during the day.

Let me know your thoughts.
- Mr Benja -

The Design of Tools of Titans

NOTE: This is not meant to be a review, but it kinda sounds like one. I just liked the design and started typing about it.

Tim Ferriss created Tools of Titans, and we decided to start a little group to discuss it. It was offered free on Amazon for Prime subscribers, but I decided to go ahead and purchase the book when it came in (see the size of the book in this blog post).

This was great timing because I had been thinking about tools for titans-in-progress, like myself.

The thing that I first noticed about the book was the way it was designed.

It's like...a toolbox. That's a genius way to go about constructing a book and what I assume Ferriss was going for with the way it was all compiled.

Starting there, here are some things that I noticed:

The Toolbox Format:
Yo. This thing is a big box full of tools. It's like a...toolbox? Huh. Okay. I'm intrigued.

The Color: 
The book is traffic cone orange, safety vest yellow, and a workshop black. These colors are all classic visuals used by hardware stores and brands like Home Depot and Black & Decker. This not only sticks out, but it makes a natural statement about what the book is for.

The Size:
It's a big book; definitely bigger than most business or self-improvement books.

The Cover Font:
The text is an Impact style font meant to be seen as standing tall and strong, literally what the Impact font is for. And if you don't know what the Impact font is, they use it for memes so they can get a

I even made a painting once called 900 Point Impact. I'm still mad because that title is lost on most people. I'll make a note to revisit that idea.

The Cover Icon:
For simplicity and focus, there is one, singular tool on the front.

Also, it's not a hammer, a screwdriver, hardhat, or drill, but a racketing wrench. A racket wrench isn't the most visually iconic tool to use, but it works in a lot of business metaphors. It also subtly references how one would tighten/loosen the "nuts and bolts" of an operation. Combine that with it's simple and straight-forward design, and you have a beautifully constructed focal point for the cover.

For contrast, consider the different approach and effect that you get from a book like "Visual Hammer" by Laura Ries.

The Forward:
Arnold Schwarzenegger lays out the idea in the forward that people need tools to build the life that they want. This is appropriate to the book is going for. Arnold is definitely a titan to start this off as well. He's also got the vibe that would fit for a heavy ass toolbox of a book.

The Table of Contents:
This table of contents isn't so much a table as it is a set of shelves in a toolbox. Reminds me of opening up a toolbox and seeing different sets of tools that I can rummage through and get what I need. Pretty much how the contents were laid out here.

The Instruction Manual:
Tools of any appreciable complexity or with a certain presentation will contain usage manuals. This book is no different, and Ferriss does a good job of putting you in the mindset of how to work with this book.

In fact, before I read the instructions, I started using the book like any tinkerer would: by grabbing a few tools and seeing how they operate and what they can do. Amazingly, that's EXACTLY what people that make instruction manuals assume: many people will just jump right into the book.

Conclusion:
This seems to be a well-designed book that's going to fit my needs. The writing is a separate thing altogether, and I'm enjoying the nuggets. But you can't go too wrong with the resources he's gathered and the structure that he's built. So I'm all in for this one.

Have you read this or are interested in it? Let me know in the comments.

- Benja -

Tools of Titans Has A Bigger Design Than I Expected

A group of friends and I are now reading through (flipping through) Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss. I got the ebook free on Amazon, but decided to get a hardback version at well because it's one of those things that I want to flip through and use like a...toolbox.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I like the design of the book. It's big, heavy, and colored in orange, yellow, and black, just like a physical Black and Decker or Home Depot toolbox. The book is also written as a set of tools that are meant to be rummaged through while you look for just the right tool. It's organized decently well too.

I'll let you know what I've selected as my hammer, pliers, and 12-spline flange socket driver.

Knocking Off The Podcast Rust

Recording a podcast is work for me, but it's something that needed to be done for The 8BitCubist. I'm not exactly sure what to call the format that I'm putting together, but it's getting there.

The interesting (I won't call it 'fun') part of recording was noticing how many mistakes, stumbles, and logical errors I made. I haven't done this sort of thing in a while, so it took a second to get used to again. And since people expect a certain amount of quality from me on this, I couldn't just start off half-cocked. I had to knock the rust off and get to work.

Good thing that I'm an introvert that can just mull around all the thoughts in my head and put them out in a coherent manner though. Otherwise this thing would never get off the ground.

The podcast will get put out there along with my 2020 art plan.
I'll basically be centering around the 8BitCubist philosophy, which is "Life Imitating Game, Imitating Life".

Let me know what you'd like to hear me cover in the next couple weeks.

- Mr Benja -

I Stopped Using Google Docs Because It Takes Microseconds Longer To Type

I have a problem with lag eating away at my work. I just realized this and I stopped using Google Docs. Those microseconds between keystrokes really make a difference in my writing productivity. It took me a while to figure that out. While typing, I'd expect the letters to keep up with me, but that often wasn't the case.

Now, I'll plow out my fast-typed prose in some other outlet before copying it over to Google Docs if I need it there for editing.

It's crazy. Some of these small, detail fixes that I've been doing have really been making a big difference.

What To Do Next In The Game? Anything.

There comes a point in RPGs and some adventure games where you don't know what do to next. Ever since I broke out of the regular routine I find myself asking that question pretty regularly. With the multitude of options, it can be hard to decide or determine the next logical path.

I have a new answer: Just pick something. I'm usually not making any huge plans like traveling to Egypt with a group of friends, developing a new series of video games, or moving your family to the mountains of Georgia, so I have the luxury of just doing something...anything...to get a spark going. There's always plenty to be done, so the choice isn't hard.

The hard part is not falling into some bullshit. I avoid checking email, zoning out on social media, doing chess puzzles (amazingly distracting for me), or hunting down

So to keep my flow going, I pick something locally productive to get me started: cleaning something, contacting a friend, downloading a new audiobook, transcribing some notes, drawing a character, sketching a story idea, or ...

...writing a blog post.

What Can You And I Do? SHOW UP!

“What can I do? SHOW UP!” 

A year and a half ago, I found myself at an art fair and discussing my frustrations with getting the kind of traction I wanted as a creative. My art friend/mentor decided to give me a few of her motivational works. Apparently, I had motivated her in some way, so it was a fair exchange. While she does really nice artwork, she likes to bang out these quickie sayings for fun. I didn’t particularly want them (I thought they were a bit cheesy for my walls), but I graciously accepted them.

A little later, I pick one up from my desk and put it up on the wall because it was taking up space on my desk and needed to be moved out of the way. The “Show Up” painting stayed there for months. 

Then comes the day Art in Bixby Park. I REALLY didn’t feel like going, even though I had already applied and set aside the day. I got out of bed to pick up for my phone from the dresser. I was going to text the coordinators and let them know I was bailing. That’s when I looked at my sign: “SHOW UP”. Shit. I sat in bed for a bit pondering our discussion and reluctantly packed up my things and made my way to Art in Bixby Park. 

It ended up being a lackluster day for a while, but then I turned the vibe around and started talking to people and getting excited about being out there. Because what else was I going to do? Sit around being lame? At some point, someone stopped by and left a card with me. It was fantasy and young adult author, Holly Stacey. 

I ended up following up with her and that led to me making several breakthroughs for Transcendent Press and meeting a completely unique set of people in the writing world. It’s currently the reason why I have been making the next set of short stories.

So yeah. SHOW UP. The whole attraction thing might just kick in, and whole thing might end up being well worth your while.

Productivity Tips: Notebook

Ever find yourself not knowing what to create, design, write, eat, type, say, draw, choose, etc?

Here’s a productivity tip for you. Document your ideas and thoughts, including the ones that might not apply. Here’s what will happen: you will naturally go about your days, weeks, and months and you will build up an arsenal of weapons for getting over mental slumps.

I use mini-notebooks (pictured), full-size notebooks, digital notebooks, calendars, and index cards. They all come in handy for different reasons.

Heck, you might even have your plan already mapped out completely, but as you go, you’ll find that you need another viewpoint angle to sharpen, refresh, or contrast.

So the next time you hit a slump, you can look back at the ideas and get a jolt of inspiration from your best proponent: YOU!

Do you have any special processes that you use to get you through any slumps in your creative work? Let me know. We can compare notes.

Flattening Your Prints

In the last post, I talked about framing your prints. What I forgot to mention is how to flatten them. The Trap Vector prints come rolled in damage-resistant kraft tubes for safe transit. This is a common practice, especially for larger prints. As your art arrives, you'll want to flatten them out before storing/displaying them.

Here are some recommended steps:

1. Find a flat table or surface to lay your print on. It should be dry and free from dust/debris.
2. Open the tube and slowly pull the protective tissue paper to slide out the enclosed prints.
3. While leaving the tissue paper in place to protect the print, carefully unroll them so that the curl s are going into the flat surface.
4. It is NOT recommended that you reverse-roll the print in the opposite direction unless you have experience doing so.  
5. Distribute a few books on each of the corners and in the center of the print. (If you don't have books, you can use some other flat-bottomed items that will keep your prints in place.)
6. Let your print sit for a while under the weight of the books. Usually, a day will be more than adequate, but you can probably get away with overnight or while you're off at a picnic.

Alternatively, if you get your prints professionally framed, you can just bring the rolled tube to your favorite framer, and they'll take care of everything for you.

- Benja -

A Case for Multi-Tasking (aka Creative Rollover)

In 2019, I am going to try running three projects simultaneously: The Trap Vector (art), The 8BitCubist (merch), and Transcendent Press (writing). Seems to be going well so far.

Let me know how this sounds, because I know the studies on focusing and multi-tasking. The common logic is that you go with one topic and stick with it. That's a simplified version, and it makes sense. But there's room for some experimentation. What I'm thinking about is the sort of balance people do naturally, but with a more productive intention. So I don't see it as multi-tasking, but more like a change of pace in order to keep the system humming. I'll call it Creative Rollover until I come up with a better term.

While working on large and small projects in the game industry, I noticed that it's almost impossible to stay hyper focused on one narrow slice for too long. After a few days or several days, attention needs to be turned to something else. If that doesn't happen, then people are just spinning their wheels without making significant movement forward. If they don't get a mental change of pace, then their productivity falls off and they start to wander.

So what if we could keep ourselves engaged by jumping to different aspects of a project? That sounds more productive than going into a complete state of disconnect. Completely shutting down means that you have to take significant energy to re-engage and do a cold boot all over again.

What I've done is started cutting off unnecessary feelings of fatigue by jumping from one creative/productive mind to another. This way, I can get into modes faster and get more net work done.

What tends to happen with me is that I get bored out mentally doing one thing over and over again without getting any new perspective. With different projects, I can relax one mind while the other one takes over. Maybe it's like cooking a complete meal.

Take games for example, after a few of plowing into the animation system, we'd go work on the combat system, then on to the pathfinding system, then on to the character backstories, etc. Rolling from one creative focus to another was the only way the large picture could be effectively realized. In fact, we got large gains when we pulled people out of their caves to get a little involved with what was going on with other parts of the project.

One reason I think this this worked was because creative rollover avoided the problem of people running out of fuel during a given task. When that happened, they became completely disengaged. When that happened everyone got thrown off. Another reason is that we let the environment adjust to the changes.

I've been playing around with this type of development for a couple months now, and I think I've found a way to cook up a marvelous meal of creativity.

I'll explore this more later.
And I need a better name than Creative Rollover.

Any thoughts?
Let me know in the comments.

The Most Dangerous Tool I Know Of

What follows is a test of my personal fortitude. If you don't want to read it all, jump to the END tag to see what the hell this post is really about.

------- BEGIN -------
The most dangerous writing tool.

Okay. This is a story about something called the most dangeouraous writing tool. I don' t know if you believe me, but it's the thing that has scared the shit out of me more times than I care to admit. You see, it works like this. You start typing. And then...you can't stop until the timer comples. Because if you stop? Well then the tprogress that you've made is erased...forever. That's a pretty good motivation for someone like me, because I like to stop, think, smell the roses, ponder the meaning of life, research on YouTube, check Facebook to see what my friends might be doing, going for a walk, making a ham sandwich, taking a nap to clear the minde...you know, anything that will help me actually write. Just kidding, those things never help me write. The most dangerous writing tool is what actually helps me write. Like most things, tits. Like most things that are actually good for me, it helps me to simply "do" withoout worrying about being good or being correct. It's pure output without the bullshit in my head forcing me to derail myself somehow.

In fact, this entire post was written in five minutes timer.

Check out the app. It's pretty good and will get you past whatever writer's block taht you need, because if it doesn't. Your idea is goign to be erased. And if that happened, well...that'd be a shame now wouldn't it.
a
at
a
fuck...those typose wrere there because my hand slipped and I got nervous. Point is, the thing was written and I've left this point in tact with minimal editing. I've only moved a few things around because I don't write in a perfectly linear form.

This is all an exercise in getting things done. Sometimes I wonder how people get so much done in a short amount of time. Then I apply the concept to do the most dangerous thing for mostpeople to do ...put things out into the world.

------- END -------

Whew. Okay. The timer ended, and I can stop typing now. What I have above was created with The Most Dangerous Writing Tool, which can be found at https://www.themostdangerouswritingapp.com.

If you've ever had writer's block, it will cure that. What you write might be shit, but since you have keep writing, the blockage will be out of you. I like the tool because basically follows the "just do it" mindset, and allows you to actually get things completed. I've put this methodology to use in other places as well with good results. And yeah, putting yourself out there freely and without pause to edit feels really fucking dangerous.

Try it. I really want to know what you think about it.

Note: I mentioned in the text above that there were minimal edits, but in reality, I left the text alone. I was only said that because my brain wanted something to fill the time.

I Have No Startup Momentum

Second blog post of December and I don't know what to talk about. I hate this problem. It's always this weird little period in the start up phase of any creative venture where the big picture feels clear as day, but the next logical step feels like a completely foreign action.

So now...this post. It's me thinking out loud. I figure I should do what I do when I'm creating a work of art: Look back at all my sketches and previous works and create something from that. I mean, if I want momentum, I suppose that's a good plan. It works for other things, why not for a blog? Huh...that should work. Maybe I'll start from my earlier post about sketching. That should help me write this post. Yeah...

P.S. Is there a name for this early speedbump? I want to get better at plowing through it.

Why Do I Have So Many Sketchbooks? So Many Ideas.

I buy numerous sketchbooks for my ideas. They're not very professional either. I tear out pages, cut out ideas and paste sketches from other places in them. They're very functional for me.

1. Different sketchbooks with different topics. This allows me to concentrate on a focused set of ideas. When I pick up my human studies sketchbook, I know I'm going to be drawing people. It helps me focus also to see where I've been in the past. 
2. I don't short-circuit any ideas. If an idea goes into a sketchbook that works better somewhere else, I will clip it out and put it into another sketchbook.
3. With a pen and a ruler, each sketchbook is divided into sections (usually nine segments). This was a breakthrough. Now I can create segments that are discrete and framed outputs. I don't have this huge page of paper to waste space adding random thoughts to. Each frame has a little border around it that I can write in if need be. Nine ideas, and then I move on.
4. If a sketch is found to be distracting, I clip it out and put it in a more appropriate sketchbook or I send it to the trash
5. I use different drawing utensils. For some reason, I found that I get different output when I use different pens, pencils, markers or simply colors. If my ideas need a jolt, I simply switch my utensil for a few pages.
6. Over time, when I go back and look at my sketchbooks, I'm taken back to the mindset I had when I created those sketches.