A Worldbuilding Sketchbook Tour

I started a world building project a couple years ago called Figure Eight.

Most of it has just been sketches.

I've done a few paintings, but for the most part, I've just been focusing on sketches.

I have multiple sketchbooks.

I have like four main ones, and then I have, you know, loose papers and journals, but it's mostly these four sketchbooks.

And one of them, this one, this is my main sketchbook.

It did not start out very focused.

It started out with me doing studies and really just procrastinating on coming up with my own ideas because that's terrifying.

So I copied photographs.

I copied 1920s, 1930s photos and told myself that that was productive.

I was trying to come up with a style

and a feel, and I love the way these look, and I'd love to get back to painting like this, but stuff like this doesn't work very well for exploratory sketches and figuring out ideas.

So this is the drawing that really started everything.

I started it out like a study, just copying a photograph, thinking that I'm being really productive.

And then about halfway through, I started adding some of my own ideas.

How do I explain this?

I started being creative, and I started adding my own ideas into this.

And I thought it was cool when I was doing it, and then I stepped back and I looked at it, and I talked myself out of it.

I just...

thought this is a stupid idea.

What is the girl and these rabbits?

What do they mean?

It's stupid.

Like it doesn't make any sense.

And so I erased it all.

I got upset and I erased it.

I just felt embarrassed coming up with my own ideas.

And then I started showing people

I showed people both versions, this version and the other version, and everyone pointed to the other version as being superior, as being the more interesting one.

And looking back now, it's like, of course it's more interesting, because I had an actual idea in there.

And this one is extremely boring.

It's just a drawing of some trees.

And that's when I started to realize that my own ideas are worth exploring.

So this is me still trying to figure out a style.

Like I had done, you know, pencil drawing and then I tried to paint on top of it.

I like this, but it's not one of my favorites.

This was in 2023, so this was quite a while ago.

I did a bunch of stuff, a bunch of life happened, and I started moving to other sketchbooks and sort of left this one.

This is a page that doesn't make any sense.

and then this is about two years from the previous pages and this is when if you've seen my other videos you'll know I made like all of these thumbnail sketches kind of with the plan that I would do the finished versions in this book so a lot happened between

in these pages.

So here's the thumbnail I did.

Here's the finished drawing.

And then I really just kind of followed the same system for the rest of the book.

This is sort of, I started playing around with memories and sort of fantasy ideas.

So you have these kind of glowing fish sea creatures and then these two kids on the dock.

And so this is kind of a memory of mine mixed with a feeling.

And I don't know, I really, I really like this one.

It makes me feel something.

And I just, I like this one.

Same with this one.

This was another thumbnail that I had, and then this became my main character, Leonard Norman.

This tree is a tree that I walk by just about every day.

I don't know, I try to mix my real life into the drawings, and when I was thinking about where he is, I just think about him

running away and being on the other side of the fence of the property, which is something I used to do in my parents' house.

Hop the fence and go to the other side of the property and just explore over there.

And so that's where I picture him at.

We also had a lot of bunnies growing up.

I talk about him in a different video.

This one

i thought i was on a roll with these two and then this one kind of threw me off it didn't quite turn out the way that i wanted it to so i actually try it again right here but this one also did not turn out the way that i wanted it to so i kind of abandoned it and i think i started posting these but i didn't really i don't share these very much because i i don't know i don't think they really got finished correctly um

this one i really like this one and i really like the style i started using different pencils i started using a mechanical pencil for this and started to try to come up with a method of drawing whereas the others were kind of just i kept experimenting but this was the first time i felt like kind of confident in in the drawing and i really started to lean into imagination

and not being afraid to just make things up as I go.

And so that was, this was a lot of fun.

I really enjoyed doing that one.

And then same with this one.

I relied very heavily on

memory and imagination as I was drawing this and wasn't afraid to draw stuff without reference and and Yeah, I really like This one.

I also love the sort of double page with these the bleed it's more of a bleed than a double page I guess but

This one.

This was probably the most frustrating time.

Because every time I start to feel confident, it's immediately followed by epic failures.

So this one, I don't even like to hold it there because I don't want to show you.

And I never finished it.

I never finished it.

And then this one.

This one, I remember doing this and getting so frustrated that I just wanted to stab the...

the paper and like rip it out and just quit everything i got so mad at this and one of the reasons why looking back now i understand why i got so mad is because i fell completely in love with the story that this is this was one of the first times i really started to write

And I haven't really shared this at all.

I haven't shared the story of this, but this is called Chloe and the Glow World.

I don't have like a concrete written thing, but the idea, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to share it, but for me, the way that I felt when I was coming up with this story was the first time that I really felt immersed into my own stories that I've written.

And it was...

I liked it so much that when I went to do the drawings, nothing I did felt good enough.

And so it's like I had raised the...

There was way too much pressure to get a good drawing.

And so I had two epic failures.

And, you know, flipping through, it's like, oh, you scribbled and it doesn't look good.

Well, who cares?

But for me at the time, it was like, it was such a big deal.

I got so upset with it.

And then, you know, I did it and it looked okay.

And then that's fine, you know?

And then this one, I also got really into the story for this one.

I made a video on her, Sleepwalker.

Also fell in love with this story.

She's really, this is part of the main story.

Sleepwalker is connected to Leonard Norton.

And I really want to explore that more later.

And this one was really just two weeks ago, I think.

I haven't told the story about this one yet.

Here's the bridge.

But that's Leonard Norman, and that's his best friend.

And there's a whole story behind this one.

This style, I really, there's something about, like, just the little bit of bleed onto the other page.

This one, I just, I don't think I could be happier with this.

I really like how this one turned out.

And then I also really like how this one turned out.

Same story.

And this one I just finished a couple days ago.

But that is, that's it.

I'm not even, I'm not even halfway through.

Let me know if you like this type of video.

More laid back, I guess.

What is it?

What is it?

There's nothing here.

I started a world building project a couple years ago called Figure Eight.

Most of it has just been sketches.