 Hey everybody, welcome back to The Average. She's good, yeah. Of course. Hey everybody, welcome back to The Average. Today I'm gonna do my paint over book cover challenge. Is it a challenge? Is that word of the use now? I'm not sure, but yeah. I'm calling it a challenge, so sue me. What are you gonna do about it? Nothing, you're not gonna know anything. Yeah, and today we are painting over Ready Player One, which I recently finished and... Okay, I'm gonna be really honest guys, but I was very disappointed by this book, because it had been really hyped for me and I was... I want to see the movie now that I've read the book because I think that it will make a good movie. I won't give any spoilers, but it was very much just 80s references a lot. And I think he says let's just get the hell out of dodge about five times in a book. And okay, fine, yes, funny reference, ha ha. You've said it once, stop. But yeah, I didn't hate this book, it was fun. Just didn't hit, quite hit the mark for me, that's all. But I do want to paint over this book because it has that horrific cover where he has like just one really long, long leg, which isn't right. Why you got a long leg? Where you come from? One leg land? What? Worst joke ever. Yeah, so I think this will be fun to do because there's lots of 80s vibes in it, gaming and all that. So I've scribbled down some ideas in my sketchbook and I'm ready to go. Let's see how we do this. Also, I just realized Pesto has been licking herself the whole time during this. So thanks for that Pesto, giving everyone a little preview of your bath time. It's exactly what they want. See you in a minute. Okay, so voice over time. Here are some sketches that I did really roughly because in the beginning, I thought I was going to do this really complicated 80s motif of different characters stacked up against each other. You know that classic Stranger Things vibe. But then I think because I didn't like the book as much as I thought I would, I wanted to just keep it simple because it didn't, I don't know, I didn't feel particularly passionate about painting over this piece, if that makes sense. I wanted to try and just keep it quite plain, simple, but still effective because it's still going to be a book on my shelf. You know, I want it to look good. It's still a project that I'm undertaking. In the end, I just looked up a lot of sort of 80s texts, references, and game designs and sort of that Tron kind of vibe because I guess it's a similar story to Tron in the sense that they're in a game. I mean, I haven't seen Tron. So I'm just talking absolute rubbish, but I assume it's a similar vibe. So what I did is I just started painting over with gouache. I wanted that blue background and I started out with this diamond shape and it completely, it just didn't look right at all. And with this process, I just made so many mistakes because I think I went into it. I had sketched out ideas in my sketchbook that were bigger than this and then I had done this simple sketch and I just didn't feel prepared, but I was kind of just winging it this time because I felt that I didn't want to spend too much time on a project that I wasn't fully passionate about because I didn't like the book. Well, it was all right. It's a good story. It's entertaining. I'm kind of dragging it for no reason. I think I'm just a dragger. I'm just dragging it because I don't know. You know, when a book is really, really hyped and then it doesn't quite meet your expectations, maybe it was just so hyped to me, that's all. But like I said, I can really see it being a good film. I know that sounds a bit bizarre, me saying, like, oh, it's not a good book, but I can see it being a good film. Like, how does that correlate? Well, there's a lot of film references in the book. There's a lot of effects and things like that that I can see looking great and a lot of maybe, I don't know if they're going to do this in the movie, but a lot of actors coming in and things like that. And I can see it being a fun experience, a popcorn movie, nothing more serious than that. But yeah, that's where I'm at with this book. It wasn't a very deep book for me. It seemed a bit shallow to me, if that's fair to say, because when there's a few deaths in the book, or a death, I'm sorry, but there's, yeah, there's a few deaths in the book because it's this big war-type dystopian future, so there's going to be death. But it's never really acknowledged that well. It's just kind of like, oh, and this happened, oh well. I don't know, I don't know if anybody else who's read this feels the same way, but I think when a death happens in a book, it is a big deal. And I think it does affect your characters, and I think it would change you, for sure, in some way, but I think the main character is kind of like, okay, whatever, moving on. I'm in love with this girl, more importantly, and it's just a bit like, really? I don't know, very shallow, but a fun book, a popcorn movie, I can see it being that way, so I want to kind of replicate that as the cover. So I, like I said, I looked into 80s vibes, and I just wanted a simple 80s feel montage of text and color, and I struggled so much with this because I just wanted to get that shape right, and in the end, I eventually took a piece of paper and cut it out and used that as a template, and then I used a sponge to kind of get that 80s gradient vibe, which was something that I hadn't really done before, so, you know, each project, you kind of learn something, even if you weren't enjoying it, or, I mean, I like the outcome eventually. I just struggled so much, and I kept having to paint over parts because I kept making mistakes. The grid on the floor, for instance, in this bit is wrong, so I eventually paint over that and then redo it, and even when I redid it, I wasn't fully pleased with it, so it was just, it was very difficult because it's a very difficult medium to work on, like the shiny paper of the book, and then painting with gouache, and then trying different things to make it work. It's very difficult, but so I was trying to give it my all, and I just kept layering different gradients and trying to get the look and feel right that I wanted, so in the end, the final outcome is very, very simple, but behind that simplicity is just like hard brain ache of trying to get things to be symmetrical and line up, and yeah. So I thought instead of doing the typography straight on the book, I could have what sort of popping out feel because I did my papercraft fun video before, and I had a great time with that, so I was like, I want to put more papery elements into this, and why not? And it will be easier to paint on the paper anyway than onto the book, and then make a mistake and have to redo it all again. You know, both reasons are all good, I think, I hope. And yeah, I just painted out these letters, these letters? What am I saying? I just painted out these, the typography, and I wanted them in slightly different styles because I had previously messed around in my sketchbook the different styles that I wanted to do because as I said, I was going to make this a really intricate design, but when the story fell flat, I mean, then fall flat, it just wasn't what I expected. But in the book, I was really enjoying it up to about probably halfway, then it kind of slowed right down, and I think, I think, I don't know if it was just to stretch the story out a bit, but there was a bit in the middle where it was just like, okay, where's this going? And yeah, that is my review of the book. But let me know if you enjoyed the book, really, because I'm interested to know why it's so hyped, I think, just because everybody was so into the 80s vibe before. And it has a really good title, doesn't it, Ready Player One? That's pretty, I've always heard that title and been like, I want to read that. I really thought it was going to be a bit more like the hunger games because it's competition and it's dystopian, and there's a love interest and stuff like that. But I think it just didn't really have the weight to it that the hunger games had, because the hunger games, it was like, oh, someone's died. You feel, you really felt that, you felt the emotions of the character. It wasn't just like this shallow, okay, time to move on. I'm going to go play a game now and meet my girlfriend. And you know, it just didn't quite hit the mark. I'm being very negative. I don't know why, I think sometimes it's easier to be negative than positive, but it was a good, it wasn't a fun, entertaining story, and there were bits of it where I was actually riveted. So, I mean, three stars out of five, that's a pretty good rating, I would say. I don't know why I'm being like, meh, it's the worst when it was, it was all right. It just was different to what I expected. I think I was expecting a more boyish hunger games, which is a really bizarre term, so ignore me. Yeah, so I stuck all these together and I tried to use Posca's over the top of some of the lettering, but it wasn't really working. It wasn't as opaque as I wanted it to be. So I had to get some of the ink out and then paint it manually and it kind of went everywhere and it was just another mistake of the day, because it was just mistake or mistake or mistake making this book cover. But yeah, I stuck those down and simple as it was, it was quite complicated. I made a starry background and clouds floating up to the heavens and stuff because I think that's a very 80s vibe. And even though it's simple, I really kind of like it. I like the simplicity of it. It's funny because if you look at the sketches that I did, they're very different to what it turned out to be, but I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. So that's the final product. It's a few hours later and I am tired. Probably explained all the stuff that happened during this piece, so there's no need to go into that. What do you guys think? Let me know down below and yeah, that's it. Thanks for watching, guys. Please like and subscribe for more content and I will see you next time if you're still around.