Speed Painting 39: Metal Gear Solid V Phantom Pain

With Metal Gear V coming out, I had to make this month's speed painting about the game.  Kojima's last Konami masterpiece.  I put some of the main characters in this piece and chose at the time the ones from the trailers.  I went on vacation for over two weeks and missed out on this game, but now I'm back and it's time to jump in and experience the greatness. 

Developing for Mobile, on Everyone's Website but Yours

I know it's not everyone ok?  Calm you normal developers that are scoffing at the idea, and rolling your eyes atop the high horse.  That insult was very unnecessary and a defensive mechanism.  I like many others have developed a website and left mobile on the to do later list.  However due to freelance and other projects I've been working on, I haven't prioritized and left it.  This is a bad look, especially if you are looking for some kind of development work and the client visits your website.  They don't know that every other website you work on is cellphone and tablet friendly.  They will look at your website and possibly you can't do it, or at least be skeptical about your capabilities.

This past year and a half in particular, I have been busier than any time in my life.  I will be coming back mid September from a 14 day vacation, and my time will free up significantly.  I will likely look to improve several other aspects of my website, in the last post listing another dumb mistake of leaving the website 720px wide.  So if you don't have the mobile version of your website, get on it.  Don't be me.  Many people use their cellphones and tablet to visit websites.  If the website looks like shit on those platforms, they will quickly move on to something else, making all your hard work of making a website fruitless.

Websites - 720px Width .. Don't Do It.

About 3-4 years ago, I did something really idiotic when making my website.  I made it 720px wide so even people using prehistoric computers wouldn't have issues once they visited my website.  I knew then that would be a small amount of people and that wouldn't last for long.  Now years later, I need to change that.  Either a full 100% width with some padding or a 1080px min width is a must.  It's going to take some time.  For the people who know they're doing something stupid but do it regardless like myself, don't be one of us.  Be better.  Don't fucking code with 720px width.  For the people who can't see it because they have such old computers, your grandma will be allright.  Code it right.

Speed Painting 38: True Detective

Last year, I was introduced to one of the best shows on TV in 2014, with Rust being one of the most interesting characters.  Season 2 brought an entire new cast, story and setting.  Very excited, and I decided to make a speed painting about it.

I focused mostly on Ray and Ani, my two favorite characters from season 2.  Even though I'm not quite good at it, I chose to use the same style that both s1 and s2 intros use for the character.  Weird abstract figures showing characters which I love.  I don't want to spoil the black background encompassing Ray, but you will know what it's about if you're far enough into the story.  Ani appears in the smoke and the town of Vinci is shown through her outline.  Enjoy. :)

Also, thanks HBO (or music corp) for taking down the intro songs of True Detective s1/2 openings from the original video, despite me never monetizing a single video.

I normally use real life pictures for nearly every speed painting but in this case, I used an illustration of an artist for ani's face only.  This is the reference due in a reddit link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueDetective/comments/3dhqka/fan_art_i_warm_up_for_work_days_by_digital/

European Trip: What do you need?

I know, I know. What does this have to do with my blog? No much (anything). I'm going to Europe at the end of September. I wanted to do a quick help guide for what I do in case any people from North America plan to go. It's not as expensive if you take some time to look. I'll make this post slightly different compared to previous ones. Now this is mostly off the top of my head and not planned, so I'm certain I'll miss several things.

Essentials:
- backpack for.. backpacking. Get a proper one you would use for hiking, preferably with some zippers for some decent organizing.
- storing cubes. I believe that's the name. They're small bags for organizing your things. Trust me, things get messy as I found out. My buddy had several of these in his bag, and all of his things were in order. My backpack looked like pigs lived inside after a few days.
- Towel is optional. You have to pay for it if you go to a hostel, but then do you really want a sweaty towel to carry with you so you can save 2 euros per hostel?
- 2-3 main clothes, and a few more socks, underwear, possibly a jacket depending on location/time of year, etc.
 - A bit of extra space in the bag because you're a tourist and you have to buy dumb shit you won't care about other than place it somewhere at the house to tell your neighbors/family members that you were there.
- Personally if you can, I'd recommend something simple you can wear Necklace, ring, bracelet, or something unique that doesn't look like they make for millions of tourists.

Hostels:
- I recommend you take them unless you're going as a couple. I still recommend it, just stay a couple of nights at a hostel and 1-2 nights per city/country in a private hotel if you need the privacy.
- Go to hostelbookers.com to find the right hostel. They will tell you the address, how far away it is from the center of the town, photos, cost and most importantly reviews to hear from other people's experiences. Picking a place where the people there are very helpful and knowledgeable is a huge plus in my opinion.
- Once you find the right hostel, do not book it at the website. They charge far too much. I'm going to Ireland and found their actual email and contacted them. Hostelbookers was selling it for 34$ I believe, and the pub was selling it for 25$ if you contact them directly.
- Be careful of taxi drivers trying to hustle you. Hostelbookers sometimes tells you how much taxi drivers should charge from the airport to hostel and you confront them if they bullshit you.

Other:
 - Be careful of robbers. Be wary of others and aware of your surroundings. Most people are really laid back and great to talk to, but always be on point when it comes to observing others. A German friend I met at Barcelona told me that he had his backpack there near a coffee shop being held by the chair. Someone went and stole the backpack while he was sitting down. He lost most of his things on the first day. Don't be like him. I have a feeling now that I gave this tip, someone is going to rob over a month from now...
- Use airplanes. They're cheap as hell provided you don't look last minute and saves a ton of time. In Europe, the prices are a joke.
- European Flights. Keep in mind a lot of them give good prices, but there is an extra charge for your bag that isn't put up for consideration unless you add. This further bumps up the price. Just something to keep in mind, not a big issue.
- Call your bank beforehand and let them know you're traveling international so they don't freeze our VISA/Mastercard.
- If you rent a car, I've been told to put a limit on the card you use to borrow the card with, once again talking to the bank. A friend of mine suggested this, as he said they can overcharge because you're a tourist and why not take advantage of that? Not with my amazing guidance, they're not.

It's not everything, but that's all I remember for now.

Speed Painting 37: Final Fantasy VII & XV

If you are a gamer and haven't been living under a rock far, far beneath the Earth, you know about Sony's E3 conference.  They announced that Square Enix is remaking the most popular jRPG of all time, Final Fantasy VII.  This time around, Shinji Hashimoto is not trolling us with a PC port as was shown half a year ago, but the real remake.

Now I have been waiting for Final Fantasy XV (known as Versus previously) since 2006, when initially revealed.  It's looking like a 2016 release, and there a chance the FFVII Remake might be a 2017 release coinciding with their 20th year anniversary.  FFVII ironically enough, is the only mainline Final Fantasy that I have not played (other than XI and XIV, but those are MMOs).  Somehow, this game has always alluded me.  I've always wanted this game to be remade rather than my favorite FF which is IX for this reason.  I also created both games in this illustration because I will very likely make them as their speed painting on their months of release.  

Work that You can't Show

I've been thinking about this lately.  This has yet to happen to me in terms of freelance, but in my current job I am unable to show any of my work to the public.  I generally upload some of my work to my website, which you can find on the top, right side where the information goes called My Personal Website.  No, I have 0 shame for that plug.  This is a bit frustrating for me, especially since I have some pieces I'd love to show others in terms of design.  I also have been working on two websites, one that consists of over 60,000 products and another that has over 100,000 products.  It's a little hard to explain to clients that I work on this but can't show them.

Now this hasn't happened to me yet, but I take the advice of someone who is far more accomplished in this business in terms of what to do in that regard when it comes to freelance work that you can't show to the public.  If this were to happen, it's been suggested to charge anywhere between 2 to 3 times the final amount that you would originally charge them.  Some of you might have spit your drink onto your computer and are trying to quickly wipe it off thinking I'm crazy.  Think about it.  The work you do becomes your portfolio.  This shows your accomplishments, and allows you to get better work from clients, more work from clients and gives credibility to your quality of work.