I recently bought (at a discount) this neat sketchbook!
The Leda Odyssey Sketchbook provides quality paper in a soft covered notebook. I really like the design and texture of the cover and the beige color of the pages really compliments a wide variety of mediums such as pen, pencil, and colored pencil. This sketchbook is very nice and I would definitely recommend it to anyone seeking to express themselves with art.
Here is my first drawing in this sketchbook! š
In this book the reader follows the story ofĀ Monsieur Perdu, a bookshop owner who is burdened by the past and spends his days suggesting books to people. Monsieur Perdu’s life is static as he refuses to move past the loss of his love who abandoned him. Perdu is so stuck in the past that he refuses to open the letter that explains why she left.
The story revolves around the themes of loss, grief, and forming new relationships. Although I might have made the book sound sad and depressing, there i an uplifting feeling to it and of course like any good story there is always a shining light at the end of the tunnel.
Boredom is something that has plagued children since the beginning of time. Many times children just canāt seem to find anything better Ā to do other than watch TV. In her book, 1,001 Boredom Busting Play Ideas, Jean Oram attempts to combat boredom by providing ideas that are not only fun for children but also are beneficial to their health and well-being.
The book begins with an in depth analysis on why playing is so important to a child and which types of activities are more beneficial. It explains the importance to developing skills in a child such as problem solving and creativity. This idea of developing skills is the foundation of all the activities listed in this book.
I would recommend this book to a parent or a guardian that wishes to either play with their child or wants their children to simply not be bored anymore. This book contains many great ideas such as classic ones like tongue twisters, playing the floor is lava, and creating a secret handshake as well as some rather unique ones (no spoilers). If you wish to get this book you can get it here. š
Making lists is a fun and productive way to make life organized. In Go Ahead and Like It, Jacqueline Suskin attempts to display the beauty of lists in an artistic fashion. In this book, lists are shown in various ways, being written in different arrangements and containing different things people like. This book is filled with fully colored pictures of many lists that are meant to inspire and invigorate readers to make their own.
The book is a great reminder of how there is some greatness in the simple things of life such as in a grocery list. Lists are not just a means to remind ourselves of tasks but they are also a small representation of who we are as people.
I will say however, as a disclaimer, that this book is not a step by step guide to building better lists or to become more organized but instead it is intended to inspire people to make lists of things they like and to appreciate them.
This book is about the wisdom that can come with age and how unlikely friendships can sometimes be formed in the most unimaginable of places. In this book we follow John Schlimm as he delves into the lessons he learned from Sister Augustine whom he met in a ceramic shop.
This story shows how friendships can occur anywhere and between anyone and how everyone can learn something from each other.
Just Add Watercolor by Helen Birch is a book about exploring watercolors and the techniques that some artists use in order to achieve a desired effect. This book includes 189 bright paintings that will not only motivate you but also inspire you on your watercolor adventures.
This book does not try to teach you how to paint with watercolor, it has no step by step process, instead it shows you a painting and then a few paragraphs on the side commenting on a certain technique. For example one of the techniques that it presents is using secondary colors and on the side it has paintings showing a good use of secondary colors. I guess the best way it teaches you about the techniques is by explanation and then example.
If you ever want to experiment with various watercolor techniques or just want a neat book with a lot of pretty pictures, I would recommend Just Add Watercolor. It is a very unique book that contains a lot of value in how great the pictures look and how in depth the explanations are. You can get the book here.
The World Needs More Love Letters is a book containing colorful stationery that double as envelopes. The idea of the book, as the title suggests, is to share love letters with the world. I really like this book because I enjoy writing occasional love letters and it is nice to be able to write them on quality paper and be able to give them to someone with ease.
This book includes 40 tips on how to create the perfect love letter as well as 40 colorful patternedĀ pages and some stickers to keep the envelopes folded.Ā The pages in the book are perforated which means that they can be torn off easily. When foldedĀ these pages become envelopes with a place dedicated for postage stamps. Overall I would say that this book requires creativity as well as a love for writing letters. If you wish to pick it up, you can do so here!
In this book Evan Skolnick tries to explain the techniques which he believes are essential in video game storytelling. He uses his experiences in order to create an in depth analysis of these techniques. He aims this book towards developers working on a videogame, in the intro he states how it should serve as a substitute for one of his lectures he has presented as conventions like GDC.
I am not in no way planning to make a story for a video game or anything like that but my interest in video games makes me somewhat able to speak about when and how storytelling works in a game. In the book Evan Skolnick likes to compare video games to movies since it is an easier and more relatable thing. My criticism with this is that video games are very different from movies just like a tv show is different from a movie. You donāt tell the same kind of story in a tv show that you would in a two hour movie. In video games you donāt just have a story to tell, you have an experience. Games are interactive and are not sold just solely on their story. The story needs to work well with the gameplay as well as the overall aesthetic of the game as well as with the gameās mechanics. This basically goes back to what Evan Skolnick says in the beginning of the book on how you canāt make a game on your or at least you need to involve many things in order to make a game successful, especially a story driven game.
Overall I would say that this book is very good in sparking a conversation in how to tackle a story for a game and what it takes for a story to succeed in game form.
