STYLUS: Found! SKETCHBOOK 2: Complete!

My stylus was deep within the couch, where we had checked a million times. I finished my second sketchbook this week (Yesterday afternoon on the bus). I started it on the 1st, so to finish on the 30th is one month and spiffy! 

Here's a sword:

I think there are a few things I still want to do, like generate maps and sculpt a bit more and paint some more.

These first two were back when I still had a blue pencil. I don't know what happened to it. It's probably floating around in my backpack. I'm really trying to add more personality to all my stuff. The turtle has graffiti on his shell, and it says YOLO. And what's in that parcel? I think it's a PSG-1, personally.

Since I lost my blue pencil, I started using a red one. Disclosure: On the bottom right guy, I used this reference from Creaturebox.

So there ya go. Expect more 3D this week, now that I have a stylus things should move right along? Also, aside from the huge sword in the first image, I'm perturbed by the lack of weapons in this post. We have a cane and perhaps we have a sniper rifle hidden away. More weapons next time.

Also, for Inktober 31, Thomas re-envisioned a previous drawing. It's freakin' sweet! Check it out here.

Misery: I've Lost My Stylus

Woe is me! 

I don't even know how this happened, but it has absolutely cramped my style this week. 

I've mentioned here that I've been trying to use my phone effectively? I downloaded the Pluralsight app and have been watching a sweet video on generating assets in Zbrush. I've been learning tons. 

Thursday evening I finally got some free time and was going to start applying what I learned. But my stylus was gone.

...That's about it. Still unable to find it today after tearing our domicile apart looking for it, I bought a new one which will arrive Tuesday. Because of that, this is all I can show you (and it took me like 3 horrendous hours).

Also, this morning I was helping a lady in my neighborhood move and there was this buff guy there. I was staring at his arms trying to memorize what the muscles did as he moved around, (hoping he didn't get the wrong idea) so I could draw way cooler arms. That is all.

Some dudes:

Some more dudes (and thumbnails/environmental practice [which can be hard to see. Right click and open in a new window for easier viewing]):

POSEUR!

I spent the better part of an hour figuring out how to pose Zbrush tools today. It was covered in part of my grueling 3D summer boot camp I put myself through, but naturally the process is cloudy  since I did it a few months back. I was trying to put the new poses on layers and couldn't get them to stick around after recording them. I'll keep working on it. I had him posed in a cool way, but since it didn't stick all you get is this (and it's huge! Sorry, slow internet connections!):

So, my week was fine. I did a couple drawings that didn't make me want to rip out  my own gibs. That's all I want to say.

This robot is a little more finished looking than some of my normal posts. I really like his right arm (OUR LEFT!).

Interesting. Here's a more developed scene. I used this image by Moebius as reference. 

Here's another one I tried to push a bit more. Don't think I'm not trying over here! I used this picture, seemingly of Moebius creation Arzach, as reference. I really think it was drawn by James Harren, though. He's pretty good too.

This guy is based on my teacher, Pete. Not his face (Pete isn't a goblin). I just used Pete's jacket and shirt as reference. Also, erudite. What a great word!

Some other shmuck. I'm outta here! (I'm quite fond of the nose, lips, and chin of the guy on the left).

Today, I Was Naughty.

Well...  This was a doozy of a week. I did some terrible drawings. These ones were from just after my last blog post and after this I drew a lot of puke. I've been trying to keep up on homework but I'm not really interested. People are saying that I need to "Make assignments my own" but the classes I'm in are not conducive towards that. I woke up at 6 this morning and while Kaitlin was sleeping in (Saturday is the only day of the week we sleep in. I try to sleep in but my body demands I get up around 6 so I get up and get to work) I did some art and started a couple things. Once I get them a bit further along I'll show them to you. But about the title for this post. We randomly ended up with some time where we weren't doing anything this afternoon. I should I worked more on projects, but I played videogames for a while instead. It was only a couple hours but I felt guilty afterwards. That's the sort of thing that gets in the way of getting better at art, right? UGH! What was I thinking? Hopefully it doesn't happen again. I did some work on the 3D character this week, but it wasn't substantial enough to show you. I did work on this guy some more:

Still got a long way to go, I really need to get the blacks out of the shadows. Next, I've got some sketchbook stuff. There's like a pig alien guy standing on the hill. He's going back to his spaceship after an uneventful trip.

I was walking to work from the bus stop this week. I saw 3 different varieties of mushroom, so I snapped some pics with  my phone. I drew a weird mushroom man. And a robot named Frank, but it's pronounced "Frahnk."

A dragon and a will-o'-the-wisp.

Then some doods. The text for the grouchy guy all balled up (which I seem to have removed at some point) said "Clothed Cannonball!!" The space marine at bottom middle is a victory because I attempted some perspective on his firearm. I should have used reference. If I ever want to finish it, I'll need to. There are no legs because I couldn't get them to look right. Urgh.

Yeah, that's all I got. I don't play videogames, really, but I think I have to get better and managing my time. I need to be completing work when I'm at home but homework and stuff gets in my way and is too darn distracting. I don't think it's worth it to wait for big 6 hour chunks of time, because those don't happen. I need to cram work into the 15 and 20 minute blocks so at least I'm taking baby steps. I'll figure it out. Have a good week!

Finished the First Sketchbook of the Semester

Hey! I finished a sketchbook on Thursday. Since I started it on August 27th, and finished on October 1st, it was just short of a month. But it's alright! I'm haulin' through this new one. Maybe I'll do this current one in a month?

Here are some views snapped out of Zbrush with the monster. I changed his face and added some more detail to his hands and posture. This week I want to go over his outfit (the mesh has some tiny holes in it) and figure out some poses. Oh, I also thought of a way to build him a weapon or two. Hopefully I can throw that stuff together. Y'know? I'm also looking at his feet and they're pretty weak right now, I need to work on those, too.

Here's some sketchbook stuff from the week. This first guy has a silly outfit and goatee.

You can see I tried to add some more details into some of the faces on the next one. 

Here are the stragglers for the week. The big guy with long arms was drawn a couple weeks back but I either keep forgetting to upload. Actually, one time I scanned him but I chopped it in half and by the time I noticed I had already packed up the scanner wires. Anyway, here it is.

Lastly, I posted this sketch on Instagram last week and told my buddy Eden I'd color it in. I'm watching this video by Johannes Helgeson (Sometimes NSFW), trying a different process. Here's the progress so far. 

I have some pretty nifty stuff to show you next weekend, and hopefully I'll have polished up my 3D guy a bit more. Have a good one and thank you for stopping by!

Heya! This Is What My Dad Looks Like.

Hey, people! What? You think this monster is what my dad looks like?

Nah, that's just an update of the character I posted last week.

My dad used to have a handlebar mustache. He looks like the guy in the bottom right. His arms may or not look like that. As a sidenote, Kaitlin and I were going through some old photos this week and we saw these guys in a parade with bells on their pants. I thought to myself, "What if there was a warrior who was so tough that he wore bells to announce his arrival- he has no fear of anyone, so why hide?" You can kind of see the bells around the character's waist, but I evidently forgot to flesh them out more. (Also, that weird fake Iron Man in the bottom left. That's pretty freakish)

The guy with the long arms? His arms really are FAR TOO LONG. But it's endearing in a freaky way, isn't it? Also, if you can't read what the wizard in the bottom left is saying, he's saying "Magic is a very magical thing. Very nice."

Yeah I'm outta here. BUT FIRST: A cool thing happened this week. The game "Towerclimb" by Davioware finally release! I was overjoyed to find a cd key in my inbox. They successfully completed the game! I purchased a beta key way back in 2012. I played for 43 minutes today, and want to play more, but school is far too busy. So I'm going to leave it up to all of you to go check it out and pick up a copy. If you like brutally difficult procedurally-generated roguelike-esque platformers with permadeath (a la Spelunky, Vagante, or Catacomb Kids [Vagante and Catacomb Kids are still in development, just a heads up]), give it a shot. It's wicked hard, and super intense! I basically need you to play it in my honor since I have way too much going on. 

Okay, I'm outta here. Have a great week, everyone!

Much Better!

Hi! I'm really tired. It's 10:25 here. Kaitlin went to a concert with her sister and since I finished  (sort of) my homework, I've just been doing some art things. Here's a 3D thing I've just been noodling with. I should have snapped another view, his arms are really impressive. Maybe you'll get to see them later.

The guy on the left with the sword was a personal victory for the week. He just turned out really well, and I love his hands.

Here are those faces we drew last week:

I posted the guy on the left on Instagram this week, but the central character? I pumped a lot of time into him. Unfortunately, there was already a previous scribble on the page (the guy on the right) so I didn't have space to do him justice. Digital magic will allow me to remedy this, so I want to take this sketch to a finished state. We'll see. Sheesh.

Just some guys. The guy on the right's coat and pose was referenced from a TOMORROW KINGS photo I saw. Let me go find it...

...

...

Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Maybe it was on Pinterest? There's no way I'll be able to track down the source image. Sorry.

I like a character's hand in the next one. I circled it so you'd see. It turned out so dern well.

Apparently I didn't really have anything else to say. I'm just glad I got some good drawings in. School is exhausting, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. Have a great week.

SLOW

You guys, school is cramping my style.

I'm trying to figure out ways to work on pushing paintings and 3D while maintaining my heavy school load. We haven't even really started doing any actual animation in my drawing class- The class that's killing me is a design basics for digital media class. It's not particularly hard, but teacher assigns a lot of work and I'm having a hard time trying to make the assignments work for me (i.e. so they are more in line with my stuff and what I want to do). I'll keep working on that. This week I've been working on making my smartphone into a tool for time management. I don't play games or do the Facebook thing on it, so it's already a good tool, but I'm trying to get organized so I can do the things I need to do.

I don't have a lot this week, but I got together with some friends yesterday and drew some people at Costco. Why aren't those drawings in here? I must have forgotten to scan them. Maybe you'll see them later.

P.S. - It might be updates once a week until I figure out a way to effectively do everything that needs to be done. So that's kinda the plan.

School...

School has been too busy. 

Since school began I haven't had time to do any art. I've just been filling sketchbooks while in class. I guess that's not entirely true. I've found time for a single 1-hour study.

...But that's all!

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and did homework til about an hour ago. Then I cobbled together as much of the stuff I don't hate that I can and am sharing it with you.

It's kind of depressing, but I hope it will be worth my while someday.

I'm terrified that since I'm not flexing my 3D muscles at all (I'm busy doing things like drawing primitives in Illustrator), I'll forget everything I learned over the summer. What a waste! Urgh! I hope school gets to teaching me cool stuff sometime soon so I don't feel guilty for forsaking the important art stuff I was doing.

Here's the single study I've been able to do. She looks quite sickly. I'm pretty sure it's because of that nauseating background color getting into everything.

This next one has a cool thing. That monster on the left was done from this reference monster on Pascal's Pinterest. Just like the last post, I've been trying to spend some time there cuz he's got some really cool stuff. I know my monster is nothing like the photo, but that's cuz I made it better ;)

As an aside, that "EAT MEAT WHALES" note has been on my mind a lot. When I think of big monsters like Godzilla I ask myself what the heck a monster like that would eat!? Something that size would need a lot of calories to take a step, let alone destroy everything. My solution? They eat whales like candy. Whales are big and full of meat.

 Okay, gotta go. I hope my updates don't become this infrequent. I hope I get time to do 3D. Someone give me a Timeturner so I can do some freakin' 3D!!!

Hello! 29,998 Views!

It's not quite 30,000 [Update: Soon after this post, we did actually pass 30,000 views- Ed], but I was too impatient to wait! I had to do a post.

Today is Tuesday. I've been to all my new classes. I have an animation class that will be fun. The rest will be... School.

Here are some things I did.

I wasn't going to post this (it's last night's 1 hour study) but Kaitlin saw it and said, "Is that Jake Gyllenhaal?" I was flattered she knew who it was!

I have a break between my first class and work today. I did some studies from Pascal's Pinterest stuff. He posts such cool junk!

I did these yesterday.

I DID THIS TODAY. Why is it important? It's because of the foot. Look at the awesome foot. Our right, his left (I drew an arrow so you could find it easily, but it's kinda aimed right in the middle)! It's just one of my favorite feet. And look at the cute little mushrooms!

Lastly, there's this song (Hail from the Past) from Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. In my opinion, it was a mediocre game. It was fun, but mediocre. But the desert song? I haven't played it since I was 16, but this song is CONSTANTLY going through my head! I know I'm sidetracked now, so it won't hurt if keep talking. Alucard's running animation in Symphony of the Night is one of my all time favs. Jonathan's running animation is pretty weak in comparison. I can't find one for you to see, sorry. But anyway, my only real recollection of Portrait of Ruin is Jonathan's running animation syncing up to that desert song. Anyway, my whole point with this dumb story is that I go running multiple times a week to keep from going insane and sometimes when I go running I sing that song in my head in time to my running. It's pretty stupid. 

THE END: Debriefing (SUMMER '15 #16)

Before I talk about my summer goals, I want to talk about this!

I've been doing these studies from film stills lately. James Gurney posted about this one place and I've been taking cool pics from there to work on painting and lighting. Anyway, I try to keep it to an hour or less. Just trying to see big shapes and color and how they wrap around forms and other nerdy junk like that.

Here's one I did yesterday:

You can see that I got into little details on his lapels and basically got distracted and wasted time instead of blocking in important things. I also didn't get stuff like his face in there.

Here's one (from the same movie as the first, actually) I did tonight:

Yesterday I was expressing my complete failure to paint well to Kaitlin and what I was going to do differently. Basically prioritize shapes, pay attention, and try not to noodle around with tiny initially inconsequential details. I tried and look! It's way better. Next time I'd really like to nail the actor's face more better. But yeah, that's a thing.

School starts Monday. Bleh. I just have 2 years left! Or so they tell me. 

School makes me cranky, don't talk to me about it right now!

How did my goals go this summer? Way better than last year.

Copying and pasting my goals from the briefing post:

1. Finish the two remaining sketchbooks [from Spring 2015 semester], (one per month tentative): 

Did that. Whatever!

2. Finish 3 (or more) pieces (color/painted): 

I think maybe yes? Let's see... This one, this one (even though his legs are dumb and I want to fix them), and this one. You even have some other options, if you hate the ones I picked.

3. Render 3 Characters, one per month:

I think that this was a close one. I'm not totally proud of what I made, but I did end up with 3 characters: This one, this one, this one.

4. Make some props in 3D (Chair, table, sword):

This one was hilariously vague. It says "Some" props, which I did. I made a coupla swords. You can see them here and here. I'm still working on the second sword. It's actually changed quite a bit to fit better into Dota. Now I'm just trying to figure out maps and texture painting. And Valve has all these mask things that use all the channels and whatever. Urgh. I'll get it.

5. Be a good husband:

I just asked Kaitlin and she said, "Yes! You were a good husband. You win."

6. Make sure it doesn't say "Student" anywhere online:

Done! Go ahead and check anywhere you want. LinkedIn, Twitter, whatever.

7. Try to incorporate more environmental aspects into work (architecture, plants, etc):

There were a couple instances of this, but I'm comfortable saying that I totally failed at this one. I'll keep trying.

8. No more B+W posts UNLESS there's also somefink [sic] colored:

I blew it a couple times here, but I really make a good effort to work on my colors now.

9. Use reference for everything and stop drawing out of your mind.

I tried. I'm getting better! Remember all the faces I've been painting!?

So there you have it. Another summer gone. I tried so hard. Maybe I'll try putting a little portfolioid together? Hmm. I hope school gives me a chance to draw tons and paint tons and model tons of cool 3D junk. Wish me luck! I'll keep you all posted with posts post-haste!