Friday, December 08, 2006
Learning to Draw
Thursday night, my company provided employees with a very unusual but cool perk...
Company-sponsored drawing sessions. Not classes, but they hired a model to pose for us. Principally, it was for the artists in the company to get some more practice drawing the human figure. But everyone was invited, and the invitation was also extended to friends and family members. There were a couple of us programmer-types taking a stab at it, as well as a designer and a 3D modeler. Naturally, the actual 2D artists in the company blew the rest of us away.
It wasn't nude drawing - the model was wearing a bathing suit. More of a "Brigham Young University" standard (as our company is located just "up the road" a few miles from BYU). This was advantageous, as this time the model was a coworker - one of the designers. At first, I thought we'd all be self-conscious about it. And at first, I think some of us were. I mean, this is a woman we have to work with every day, and we were going to be spending three hours studying and drawing her body!
Those who have done this sort of thing before in art class can now chuckle to yourselves. The truth is, within minutes we were all focused on what we were doing, and it was no big deal at all. As one might expect, my own efforts were about the worst of the group, but you have to start somewhere. I can keep it as one of my "before" sketches to show how much progress I have made one day. My sketch's face (if you can call it that) was far more masculine in appearance than the model's. I apologized to her when she got a peek at it later, and said it must be because I consider her to be "just one o' the guys."
However, I do have to admit my results were much better than they'd have been a year ago. I can see some definite progress, although I really haven't put as much practice time into drawing as I should have. But it is comforting to know that there is some real progress, and at the very least my "programmer art" may one day progress to a less eye-searing level.
(Vaguely) related barge-garb:
* An Amateur Artist Is Me
* Sucking Slightly Less
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:49 AM (Permalink)
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Sounds like fun to me, but I don't quite get it. The company hired a model, but she's a coworker...so she already works for the company? How is that a perk?
The company is hiring models to do this on a regular basis. A couple of people who work here signed up to be models. Extra money and all that.
For employees, it's a free figure-drwaing class. Except it's not so much of a "class," though the senior artists were happy to give advice.
For employees, it's a free figure-drwaing class. Except it's not so much of a "class," though the senior artists were happy to give advice.
It wasn't nude drawing
If you weren't nude while you were drawing, it surely couldn't have been nude drawing. Thank you; my mental age is fixed at 12.
Thursday night, my company provided employees with a very unusual but cool perk...
This is a brilliant thing to do for your employees! It sounds like an inexpensive way to provide them with a new experience. How many people have this as part of their development job? Nobody I know.
By comparison, some of my friends (especially during the early '00s) had the free coffee and tea pulled from their lunchrooms.
As another example, the cost of providing an employee with a delicious lunch (include dessert with this) on Mondays can be negligible compared to the morale boost it provides. "Tomorrow's Monday, and I'm ordering the Swordfish and the Molten Chocolate Souffle. And it's free! Yeah, baby!" Compare this with the amount of money you're spending on said employee's salary plus benefits. Would splitting that amount across salary and benefits have the same cheering effect? (Since I'm writing this paragraph, I'm going to say: no.)
You can also carry this philosophy into game design: what if mundane tasks had outside-the-box perks associated with them? In Galaxy Rage, we play a piece of a children's rhyme whenever you remap a key:
A is for AZAD, your living spacecraft.
B is for BAGA, a planet that's daft.
C is for COMITREL, icy and cold.
D is for DRIFTSPACE, go through if you're bold.
Etc.
So, you'd hear the line about Driftspace if you remapped a key to "D." Reason to purchase the game? Maybe not. But I think if we produce a solid title, it'll be elements like this that will keep people coming back for more.
If you weren't nude while you were drawing, it surely couldn't have been nude drawing. Thank you; my mental age is fixed at 12.
Thursday night, my company provided employees with a very unusual but cool perk...
This is a brilliant thing to do for your employees! It sounds like an inexpensive way to provide them with a new experience. How many people have this as part of their development job? Nobody I know.
By comparison, some of my friends (especially during the early '00s) had the free coffee and tea pulled from their lunchrooms.
As another example, the cost of providing an employee with a delicious lunch (include dessert with this) on Mondays can be negligible compared to the morale boost it provides. "Tomorrow's Monday, and I'm ordering the Swordfish and the Molten Chocolate Souffle. And it's free! Yeah, baby!" Compare this with the amount of money you're spending on said employee's salary plus benefits. Would splitting that amount across salary and benefits have the same cheering effect? (Since I'm writing this paragraph, I'm going to say: no.)
You can also carry this philosophy into game design: what if mundane tasks had outside-the-box perks associated with them? In Galaxy Rage, we play a piece of a children's rhyme whenever you remap a key:
A is for AZAD, your living spacecraft.
B is for BAGA, a planet that's daft.
C is for COMITREL, icy and cold.
D is for DRIFTSPACE, go through if you're bold.
Etc.
So, you'd hear the line about Driftspace if you remapped a key to "D." Reason to purchase the game? Maybe not. But I think if we produce a solid title, it'll be elements like this that will keep people coming back for more.
I'm just sorry it took us this long to finally get it set up. The drawing session was a hit and we're quickly scheduling a followup in December and more in the future.
Hooray for inexpensive perks!
Dejobaan: I completely agree. I was expressing my dismay to an old boss/mentor of mine (Hal Rushton) about how expensive it was to buy saturday lunches for people working extra hours on a project, and he made me stop and think about what it really cost, in comparison to the overall cost of the project and the value of that extra push being made by the team. It's a pretty valuable lesson, in my opinion.
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Hooray for inexpensive perks!
Dejobaan: I completely agree. I was expressing my dismay to an old boss/mentor of mine (Hal Rushton) about how expensive it was to buy saturday lunches for people working extra hours on a project, and he made me stop and think about what it really cost, in comparison to the overall cost of the project and the value of that extra push being made by the team. It's a pretty valuable lesson, in my opinion.
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