Scratch Coding: A Simple Dress-Up

Using Scratch can be fairly complicated at first, which is why I've decided to start a sort of post series, for members of the site. This is the first of the series, though the post detailing the Dragonet Maker does fall into it, and technically, before it. We'll call it a prequel.

Anyways, as you can tell from the title, this first post in the Scratch Coding series, will be how to make a simple Dress-Up.  I'll be using a game I made some time ago for a reference. If you would like to play the game, you can find it here

Alright, the first thing you're going to want to do after opening up the platform you'll be using, either the online or offline version, is to create a base sprite. This will be your dress-up person,  so go as fancy as you want. Just make sure there is no hair, you want your players to be able to add hats and wigs as they please, or even leave them bald. You want to be able to give your players lots of options!

Once you have the sprite made, drag it to where you want it and into the code area add the When Green Flag Clicked, and under it attach a go to X: Y: piece, putting in the coordinates of where you have the sprite.

Once you have that done, copy the sprite. Go into the costumes tab, and  draw your first outfit over the base sprite. Once you have it completed, erase any parts of the base sprite left over. Repeat this step until you have all the costumes you want, and then do it again for hair, shoes, and accessories.

Once you have all the costumes you want, drag them all into the places you want them in, and edit the code that should be there. Then click the little blue circle with a white i in it, and click on the box by 'Can drag in player'

Congratulations! You're done.
If you want to add a background and special effects, that's up to you.

What kind of dress-ups have you made in Scratch? Care to share a link? I'll do my best to comment on them should you link them

How to Deal with Artist's Block

Have you ever heard of Writer's Block?

If you have, then you probably have a good idea about what this post is about. If not, let me take a moment to explain.

Writer's Block is when an author is simply stuck in a rut about moving on with their book.

So looking at the title which says Artist's Block, you can probably guess what it is. Artist's Block is when you are an artist and are just completely stuck in a rut about what to draw.

From experience, I can tell you that Artist's Block is a pain. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've sat for hours on end, staring at paper with my pencil in hand.

But when you get Artist's Block, I've actually found several ways to push past it.

1) Take out all your old pictures...

...and laugh about how horrible you used to be, before proving you've gotten better.

Alright, that kind of sums it up, but really, that's one of the things that's knocked me out of Artist's Block before.

Go through all your old pictures you've saved, find one you were so proud of when you drew it, laugh about how horrible it really is, get paper, and draw it again, but much better.

2) Just let your brain wander

This one is the one I turn to most often. I simply sit with a piece of paper in front of me and a pencil in hand, and I just let my hand draw whatever it wanted. Last time I did this, I ended up with various pictures of characters from a show I like to watch!

And finally,

3) Take a break

Sometimes, Artist's Block comes from trying to hard. So, just stop trying. Simply take a break, a day or two or three to clear your head. Then go back to your paper, and I think you'll find yourself having a bit of better luck than you had been having before.


Do you have any other tricks for dealing with Artist's Block? Could you share them with me?

A Week at Camp

I promised to write this post, I'm sorry it took so long though, I've been a bit busy.

While I was at Family Camp with my friend, from July 23d - July 28th, I had so much fun!

We went up on Sunday afternoon, and it's a three hour drive from where we started, so by the time we got there, there was barely time to unpack before it was time to eat.

After dinner, me and my friend started work on the puzzles I had brought.

On Monday, we mostly worked on puzzles, though we did do a bit of exploration as well.

Tuesday we climbed up a mountain, that though it isn't changing, feels like it grows larger every time you climb it. Supposedly there's wifi at the top, but I never got a connection. Ah well.

When we got back from that, me, my friend, and a kid we met there, took a ten minute break for lunch, got changed, and ran out to the lake.

Needless to say, the next day my muscles were sore!

On Wednesday we drove out to a ghost town, combined with a non-ghost town. I got a lot of cool pictures, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet, so unfortunately I can't show them off.
When we got back, we once again went swimming!

On Thursday, we went Fossil Digging in one of the semi-nearby towns. Me and my friend mostly found mineral stains, but we did get a few leaves.

When we got back, once again we went swimming, and during this swim, we saw some sort of military plane, when the pilot saw us, they looped back and did a barrel roll! Well, supposedly. I'm nearsighted, and water + glasses doesn't usually turn out well, so I wasn't able to see it.

And Thursday night we roasted marshmallows and made S'mores!

Sadly, on Friday we had to pack up, clean camp, and leave.

But it was a great week.

Have you gone camping before? What did you do?

Paper Towers

A while ago, I think maybe two years perhaps? The church I go to did a Construction themed vacation bible school.

I was able to assist as a helper for the crafts, and one of the projects we did, my sister recently re-created, so I thought I would share it with you.

This project...is Paper Towers! And before you ask, no; I did not misspell paper towels.

Paper Towers are towers, drawn and scrap-booked out of giant pieces of paper.

What you do is you take a piece of paper, about three to four times long as it is wide. Then gather some colored paper, and lots of crayons, as well as some scissors, glue, and a pencil.

Start by deciding the theme of your tower. Is it a tower in outer space? Maybe a tower in the desert, or even underground!

Once you have your themed decided, take a pencil, and outline the basics of your tower. Include multiple floors, with windows, doors at the bottom, and anything else you might want! Then take the paper, and cut it into the shapes you need. Then glue them on, and use your crayons for detail work.

And finally, or perhaps first, depending on your preference, use a black crayon/marker to write the name of your tower at the top.

What sort of tower did you make? Back when I did it, I made a Lego Ninjago themed tower, with one floor for each elemental master. I don't have any pictures, and sadly the tower got accidentally ripped up quite some time ago, but I'd love to see pictures of yours!

 After you make it on paper, try to re-create it out of toys, Legos, or even cardboard boxes.

Coding Games in Scratch Book Review

I'm sorry about the lack of posts, but I must admit it's been a rather crazy time.

For Independence Day weekend, me and my family went on a trip, and when we got back, well...me and my father, plus possibly two, though I'm pretty sure it's only one, of my siblings are the only ones not sick.

But anyways, while I've been gone, I've gotten a book from the library, that I'd like to share a review of with you.

The book is called Coding Games in Scratch, and it was written by Jon Woodcock in 2016, so it's a fairly recent book, and as a result, everything in book is up-to-date, concerning the images and options in Scratch, and so far I've found it very helpful, as it explained the New Block section, which I had never before been able to figure out.

The book has many step-by-step instructions for games, ranging from quite simple, to surprisingly complicated coding.

A lot of these games, you play, and don't really think about what code went into the making of the game, until you open up the project and peek inside, but even then, you don't think about the effort, and time the game took to make, until you actually try doing it yourself.

But while the book does have rather detailed explanations for what you need to do, there are some places where you need to stop, stare at the words for a second, look over the images nearby, and figure out what sprite the code is going into, or where in the code the addition needs to go.

But all-in-all I found the book quite useful, and decided to post all of the games I've made so far using it; my favorite so far is Dog's Dinner, but I am working on a racing game now that looks quite promising.

If you have a Scratch account, I suggest you get this book, whether you buy it, or find it at your library; it is quite the guidebook for Scratchers of all experience levels.

How Reading can Inspire Drawing

Alright, so if you’re starting to notice a common theme on my blog, you might notice its inspiration. Well, that's probably because that's the thing I know most about art at this time, and because I think everybody could always use some.

But this post is a little different than my previous inspirational posts. Instead of telling you to look at your surroundings, I want you to find the nearest book, and just start reading.

When you get to a part that inspires you, stop reading, put in a bookmark, grab some paper and a pencil, or a pen if that's what you prefer, and just start drawing whatever you just read. Not only is it a good way to practice drawing characters in action, it can also help with your backgrounds, which is something I must admit I need to work on.

I'll try to edit this post at some point, with a picture from a book, but at the moment I don't really have any saved on my computer, I'll have to work on that!

I know this is a rather short post, but that's because I think I've run out of inspirational things to say.

 So one last thing, if you do draw something based on a book, and I do hope you do, as it is great practice, could you maybe take a picture and post it in the comments below?

I'd love to see your guys' art, and feel free to put in your email in the subscribe thing, if you want some more. I'm currently posting on Saturdays, usually weekly, but sometimes I miss a week, but I usually try to catch up ASAP, or sometimes I post early, because I really just want to get the post out.

See you guys next week!

More Insparation Ideas

Alright, so you remember this post? If not, I suggest you go and read it. It talks about taking inspiration from places that you might not expect. In this post, I'll be talking about more places to gain inspiration for your images, and hopefully by the time I'm done, you'll be taking in inspiration from everything you look at!

Alright, so first off, take a look around you. Are you sitting in your room? Pay close attention to the designs on your blankets, and study any toys that might be lying around, could you take some of those designs and put them into your drawings? Are you sitting at a desk? Well, are there any paintings around? Or some books with elaborately drawn covers are sitting nearby. Or maybe you are outside, or perhaps in the car. Look at your surroundings; are there any funky looking trees? Or maybe a cloud shaped like a mermaid princess!

Another good place to look for inspiration, is by watching a movie, but instead of watching the main character, the person the screen is focusing on, focus your gaze at the background stuff, and see what inspires you from there!

Take in all the little details, and pause the movie at random scenes to see what's going on.

Or if you like Legos, try designing a build, and then making it, or perhaps do it the other way around, do the build, and then make a drawing based on your build!

I sure hope these tips have helped you.

Do you have any tips to share? I'd love to hear them!