EDIT: THE INFORMATION HERE IS WRONG, BECAUSE THE SIMS WIKI HAS FALSE INFORMATION. SKETCHES DO NOT GET MORE VALUE THE MORE YOU DRAW THEM.
I've never liked paintbrushes myself. Too messy. But what I did like is making money with painting in Sims, and I also liked sketching. When I found University Life had a sketchbook, I thought I struck gold. I made my sim sketch after having painting level 10 and all challenges completed, only to find that a brilliant painting nets me a whole *drum roll* 20 simoleons.
Up came the browser and research, and I came to this site:
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/PaintingThere it is written that while the beginning value may be ridiculously low compared to others(10, compared to 280 of small painting, and 1000 of large painting), you will get +3 to the value every time you complete a sketch. A large gets +6, a medium gets +4.
Still doesn't look that good?
It takes 8 hours to paint a large.
It takes 5 hours to paint a medium.
It takes 45 minutes to sketch.
Completing the challenge will cut the time in half, but they're still relatively the same.
Now, MATH TIME!
1000 is the beginning value of a large painting. How long would it take for a sketch to reach that base value?
So, we start at the value of 10.
Each sketch gives +3.
We need to reach 1000.
We need 1000-10=990 to be added to the start value.
990/3=330 sketches.
That's a lot of sketches. But how long would it take?
Each sketch takes 45 minutes, which is 3/4 of an hour.
(330*3)/4=247.5 hours of sketching
That's 10 days, plus 7.5 hours in a row.
But in that time, how far would you have gotten with large paintings?
It takes 8 hours for one big painting. In 247.5 hours you could have painted painted 30 painting and be almost finished with your 31st. Let's be generous and give it that well-deserved 31st.
Each painting adds 6, so 31*6=186 extra value.
In the time you got +990 to the value of your sketches, you only got +186 to your large scale paintings.
Looks like sketching catches up fast. How long until the two are equal in value?
Now I'm going to use a bit more advanced math. Arithmetic sequences, to be exact
First, we need to calculate how much the price rises per hour for each.
Sketchbook gets +3 for 3/4 of an hour. That's +4 per hour(3/(3/4)).
Large painting gets +6 for 8 hours. That's +0.75 per hour(6/8).
Now, the arithmetic formulas for the two, per hour gain
Sketchbook: a
n=10+(n-1)4
Large painting: a
n=1000+(n-1)0.75
Now, a
n is the value we need to become equal on the two, and find at what
n(marks the hour) they meet.
10+(n-1)4=1000+(n-1)0.75
10+4n-4=1000+0.75n-0.75
4n-0.75n=1000-0.75-10+4
3.25n=993.25
n=~305.615
Now we find that when you have sketched for 305 hours, a single 45 minute sketch would be worth as much as an 8 hour painting.
BUT WAIT!
That is comparing a 45 minute sketch to an EIGHT HOUR painting. At what point does the pay-per-hour balance out?
This is a bit trickier. First we find out the base per-hour gain.
10 per sketch in 45 minutes.
That's 13.(3) per hour.
Each time he paints, the value per hour rises by 4, as we calculated earlier.
1000 per large in 8 hours.
That's 125 per hour.
Each time he paints, the value per hour rises by 0.75, as we calculated earlier.
The followup is same as earlier
Sketchbook: a
n=13.(3)+(n-1)4
Large: a
n=125+(n-1)0.75
13.(3)+(n-1)4=125+(n-1)0.75
13.(3)+4n-4=125+0.75n-0.75
4n-0.75n=125-0.75-13.(3)+4
3.25n=114.91(6)
n=~35.359
That's a whole different number. Instead of 305 hours, you need to sketch only a bit over 35 hours for sketching to be better than painting large just as long!
The only negative is that you can't continue a sketch you didn't finish. It'll just disappear. But the plus is that it's portable and personal, and you can just keep the sketches in your inventory to gain value.
In case you're wondering, here is the list of what is best in the long run in a "gain by the hour" comparison:
Sketchbook +4
Small +1.5
Medium +0.8
Large +0.75
Draft +0.5
Long story short: While sketchbook values may start low, the short time it takes to draw them and the nice bonus you get per sketch, it will be the best in mere 35 hours.
Whoosh, that's one long first post.
EDIT:
More information on painting:
Artistic only boosts the speed you gain the skill
Perfectionist adds 15 minutes to the painting time, but doesn't increase painting value. It only gives higher chance of brilliant and masterpiece, but that is overwritten by Extra Creative LTR, and Proficient Painted challenge(the last one being the only one you'll need, as only the best one is used, they do not stack)
