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Today is March 8th. I'm wondering when I'll actually get around to finishing this post.

Hmm.

March 20th, 2016.

I finished a sketchbook over the weekend and decided to post what I have. I'm trying to paint a  character in Blender but it's been an insane week. I got him all UV'd, I just have to finish the dang thing. But since I'm starting a new sketchbook I thought I'd post the completed character (FOR REALS) with my next collection of sketch pages. I will not post again until that point!

Also, Blender just updated from 2.76 to 2.77 and reset all my preferences. I don't like that.

Major Change: Complete! Also, Why the Slant?

Hi! This post is so long in coming because I got wrapped up in making a sword:

 I just snapped a screenshot because I deleted the camera and didn't have time how to figure out how to light it and render it properly. Modeled in Blender, 512 diffuse, painted in Photoshop. I don't know the rest of the information (polycount, etc). I don't even know where to look to find it, but I guess it could be solved with a quick Googling. Maybe next prop. Probably more bladed weapons until I'm more familiar with Blender.

So yeah, in the end I did change my major on Tuesday. I'll be getting a bachelor's in science with an emphasis in arts and visual communications and an associate's in associated sciences. I think. It's a huge mouthful and I'm still unclear. I'll graduate this Fall, but I'm being cautiously optimistic until it's over and done with. I was planning a pretty grueling Summer of training but I guess I have to take classes now. Hopefully, they too will gruel me.

Here's some recent sketchbook stuff. 

I've noticed I seem to be slanting the same angle every time. I think I have some excellent bad habits that enable me to lock angles into the same spot every time. I need to break this. Everything is slanting the same direction. And in this first sketch, one of the bald guys and the bottom-left person-monster appear to even have the same collar on their coat. Freaky!

This is a character turnaround  I hope to model in 3D sometime down the line. It's kind of stupid, based on a doodle I did in my notebook during a call at work.

Faces, etc.

I just don't have time to fart around, y'know?

I removed the Twitter and Instagram apps from my phone because I found myself sitting on the toilet for like 20 minutes. That's okay to do with a good book but not with social media. I'm concerned about all that stuff- It's weird that we feel like we're accomplishing something as we scroll and scroll and scroll down an unlimited wall of information. I don't think I'll be avoiding them forever because I think they can be great networking tools (and I'm not sure Twitter will survive the month!), but for now I feel like cold, hard practice is a commodity too valuable to surrender to a frivolity like endless internet perusal.

We may have found a way to complete school this fall. More on that when I know.

I just found out a local library is having an art contest. Maybe it would be fun to enter? I guess I'll go get started after I make this post! The deadline is the 29th, so I'd better get crackin'!

This first montage is sketchbook stuff. The pen was one of the last pages of that Moleskine sketchbook I've been jawin' about since early January. It held together pretty well. I'm still not sold on it, but my little sister bought me a nice hardcover one and I must say I'm liking it so far. It's bigger and hardbound and the paper fits perfectly into my scanner. I wouldn't say I'm a convert yet, but the paper is very nice to draw on. The blue pencil were from the busride home today. The first 5 or so pages in this new one are disastrous. I feel like I may be slumping somethin' fierce as far as that's concerned.

I doodled this next one out a bit before bedtime late last week. It was a nice decompression sketch and I thought it didn't turn out half bad. I didn't use reference, so I basically put shadows wherever I wanted. I need to work on that.

 

I lunch sketch from today. I did have a reference for the lights/shadows, but it wasn't very helpful. I was too lazy to find something that would have served me better.

Kaitlin is going on a business trip Thursday, I think this will be the longest we've been apart since we got married! Everyone knows when you're alone in your bedroom that's when all the monsters come for you. 

Short and Sweet

Hello! I'm here to post pictures I drew today. I really need to do some 3D but I'm moments away from finishing my sketchbook and I'm just trying to get rid of the last coupla pages!

I may try to continue adding visual interest to this first one, but I like how it looks right now! He's like a cyborg warrior guy. I used reference for this (my own arms and quadriceps). There's a picture of me at the bottom of this post, you can see for yourself.

I used reference for the guy on the right. His buff foldy arms were difficult otherwise.

I showed Kaitlin this guy as I was drawing him and she suggested I put him in an environment, a scene. So I did! Eheheheheh! I excel at being an obnoxious husband.

This is a picture Kaitlin took of me earlier this week when we were celebrating my birthday. We walked to the dollar theater to see The Good Dinosaur. I thought it was too sad for a birthday movie, but I like watching movies with my wife!

26/5000: Birthday Boy

Today I am 26 years old. It feels weird to type that. The title of this post has a 5000 in it because that's the goal I'm setting for myself. Years, you see. I figure I'll have gotten fairly good at art and played through all the games in my Steam library by then. Probably not all because some are not games I'd actually play, but I'd like to play a lot of 'em. Hopefully Kaitlin decides to live to be 5000 with me or I'll be lonely and sad. She is the best wife.

Here's some sketchbook stuff from the last couple days:

(I'm really pumped about the guy with the sword above his head in this next one. I think it's so freakin' cool! I want to do more on it)

I promised you an update on one of the pictures I posted last time. I'm terrified to work on the muscle knife guy (and I'm gonna be honest, I might not come back to it!), but here's an update on that ship (I love a chance to use the "Vehicular Mayhem tag):

I tried something a little different with this one and added a rusty texture I found on Google. I don't know who did it, so if that's your rust, let me know and I'll credit you!

Being 26 isn't that different from being 25. I wonder when I get older?

Don't Get Your Hopes Up (But Works in Progress)

Hey! I'm here posting again this week. I, uh, don't really have anything finished, but I'm planning on finishing at least one of these things. I'm posting to become accountable. I don't know if it will work, but it's worth a shot. 

I've been super busy lately. I'm working on a couple projects with friends and I'm also trying to work on personal stuff, too. I should probably direct my energy into those particular assignments (and perhaps homework even before that) but I'm not!

Also, I went back through some posts and they're full of typos. I'll probably go through and fix those or something sometime in the future. Hmm.

Here's some sketchbook stuff from the last couple days. Really it was just from Thursday, I won't lie to you.

This guy started from a hideous sketch (which I can't seem to find, maybe I'll go dig through the billion emails in my trash, hold on. Ah. Found it.) I've included the sketch beneath. Anyway, last post I included that one guy's head? It just flowed out in like half an hour. I thought it would be simple so I just picked a sketch I was feeling good about and started going to town on it. This is what I have so far, but I'm hating it, honestly. I get so clunky and stiff and lose the magic when I try and polish stuff up. I think this might have potential but it's going to take some serious willpower to try and figure out how to be loose and fun and hip and cool and still polish this off. This really doesn't feel like me right now. I think the bit that exemplifies this the most is the elbow of his right arm (our left). In the original, it's more stylized and pointy and fun. I seem to have lost that. I tend to drift too far towards "Serious and realistic" when trying to finish. Gotta find a workflow that allows me to avoid that.

I thing I doodled out a couple nights ago. I want to add some grunge and damage and stuff before I call it done. Also, it doesn't appear to have any weapons on it currently, which many (i.e. me) would view as inappropriate.

This is a screenshot from something I've finally picked back up. Sheesh! Remember this post? This guy sat on my desktop for awhile before being filed away in the appropriate location on my hard drive. But I  need a model for my rigging class so I thought I'd power through. This is the model after being ZRemeshed in Zbrush. I brought it into Maya because I was going to retopologize with the Quad Draw tool, but I may try something in Blender, instead. I think then I'll take that back into Zbrush and do a high detail pass and then I'll bake out a few maps or something. I think that's how it works, anyway. I've done parts of this process at different times using different tutorials, but I still feel like I'm a bit unclear on appropriate workflow. Also, before I remeshed this it was 1.6 million points and Maya had to think for like 15 seconds each time I clicked. It was really scary and I though it would crash and ruin my life (it didn't).

Okay, next time I post I have to have progress on at least one of these!

R.I.P blog? LOL.

No, I'll do it. I'll be back.

I AM ALIVE: Mild Confession

Here's what happened.

Kaitlin and I make goals for the new year and I take them ridiculously seriously. I come up with a strict and insane plan for what I want and set a couple goals to do that. I can't do more than 3 or 4 simple goals because my minimalist mind is immediately overwhelmed and I roll and weep in a puddle of tears, but I try to make those few goals goodins.

The moment Steam told me that Dragon's Dogma was available for pre-purchase on PC back in November, I bought it and anxiously awaited mid-January for its release. Videogames and I have a tumultuous history and for the last few years I've been extremely cautious with them so I can focus on art and more important things, but it's a game I knew a lot about and was keenly interested in experiencing.

I made an exception and put "Play Dragon's Dogma" on my list of goals for 2016 so I wouldn't feel guilty for gluttonously gorging my brains out on it. Kaitlin sagely pointed out that such a goal probably wouldn't stretch me too much and might actually be counter-productive, but allowed me to leave it on my list.

Dragon's Dogma came out and I've played a bit too much since then.

I realized over the weekend that I had wasted some serious time on something pretty trivial. With technology there to support us in everything we do, it's fascinating that we insist on using it to be lazy blobs. I haven't finished the game and I'd really like to, so I'll allow myself to play for a couple hours on Saturday mornings while Kaitlin sleeps in, since taking a break every once in awhile is important. But that's all.

It's interesting to see how a few weeks without strenuous exercise of my art muscles makes me cranky and unhappy. The moral of the story? Do more art? I don't know.

Here's a lunch doodle:

Then some recent sketchbook stuff.

Credit: I did a study on this by Sergio Toppi on this top one.

Credit: Evan Richards (sometimes NSFW) for his study of the cinematography of Birdman, which looks cool but I've never seen.

Special Anniversary Post: 3rd Year - Portfolio Site Is Live!

Whoa, it's hard to think that this blog has been part of my life for 3 years now. It's gone through several changes in that time, most notably the amount of posts per day/week/month. I can only hope the slightly different approach to posting has led to an increase in quality overall. Since I haven't posted in awhile, I'll treat this as a normal blog post and then proceed with the standard yearly review. 

First and foremost, I have to tell you the secret I've been whispering about for the last few posts. I decided to stop stalling and launch my portfolio site. I've been working on this for several months and will be switching the current images for more appropriate finished compositions as they happen, but I think it's time to stop messing around and let it go live! Click here to visit zachheckert.com.

Some of these are older pieces that will be getting some attention since I've learned some things since they were started. Those will be swapped out as they're improved upon. I have other works in progress that I'm trying to finish up. I've had kind of a rough start on doing artwork this year, despite my new year's resolutions. There should also be an increase in 3D work soon, too. I'll still post here, but I'll try to collect the best stuff I have over there.

I'm too lazy to go back and see if I talked about it last post, but my aunt and uncle gave me a card to Utrecht for Christmas. I bought some fancy Polychromos pencils (y'know, I'm thinking I talked about this last post after all, but just humor me) and a Moleskine notebook. They make some good drawings, but a downside I've found is that since it's not spiral-bound, it's difficult to scan stuff. I draw all over the page and am constantly getting into the spine, making that part horrible to scan. I really like the materials it's made of, but it's a bit too soon to tell if it will fall apart before I finish it like the cheap ones I normally draw on. Here's a handful of stuff from the first half or so.

This first one? There's a guy with that big gun that says C-42. I'm modeling that in 3D at the moment!
And the guy on the bottom with luscious hair is wayyyy stupid. What was I thinking and shame on me.

What the heck, this guy's stupid arm. It's even labeled "My stupid arm." What was I thinking and shame on me. Also, the guy on the furthest right only got into this image because I liked his hand.

My anatomy is disastrous. I've basically not been working from reference at all. It shows! The guy on the bottom left (who was also posted to Instagram) has noodle arms, and the guy above him has the opposite of noodle arms (big meaty meat arms). I don't know how it works. What was I thinking?! Shame on me!

I have no current issues with this one, except for the space scooter is facing to the right which I find irksome for some reason. I may become upset by these characters later.

That does it for recent stuff. Here's the year in review, with stats from last year in parentheses:

Total posts: 556 (510)

Total page views: 32,510 (24295)

Total comments: 1414 (1225)

Total followers: 30 (30) [Like last year, there's some weird numbers involved here. Google+ says I have 63 followers, but I don't think those people see or follow regularly.]

Total coolness improvement: 0%

JANUARY

I picked this because the faces looked good. They mostly even resembled the reference I was using, which I felt was a big step forward. Nice!

FEBRUARY

This one was competing against a sketchier sketch of the standard monster fare typically found on the blog. I picked this for diversity, to show that I'm capable of doing something more naturalistic. I also felt it showed growth over other faces I've attempted in the past.

MARCH

I like the guy in the upper right. His face and hair are what earned this image the right to be shown here. The guy with 3 eyes is cool too, I guess. His body doesn't really make any sense, but if you don't look down that far you'll be a-okay.

APRIL

I think that the armore is the reason I chose this one. I like it. I also like the fish chainsaw sword.

MAY

I chose this one because it was sorta-kinda-finished, even though some stuff needs work. That's fine. It's actually on a pile of stuff I need to improve.

JUNE

This was another contested spot. I chose this because I really like the drawing. I feel like this character could go somewhere. His design is simple, but I'm into it!

JULY

This was the final for my figure drawing class last summer. I put this one in to show, once again, that I'm capable of doing something outside of monsters blowing each other into gibs.

AUGUST

This was a study from a film still. I like it because I only spent an hour and it was a definite improvement over the preceding study I did. I have fond memories of this one, even if it's not totally representative of the source material.

SEPTEMBER

This one turned out pretty cool in general (in my opinion), but I like the guy with the ridiculously long arm and the sword and beard. His body is kind of funky but I feel like the musculature is believable-ish. I felt it showed progress over other stuff.

OCTOBER

Some 3D. I like this mostly because of the arms, though perhaps not the hands. That might be the only reason I like it, actually. This one goes on the growing pile of  "Tune up and get it onto the portfolio site" stuff.

NOVEMBER

The hands on these characters were good. That's why this is here.

DECEMBER


This one was picked because I like that I did it in an afternoon. It gives me hope that I can get stuff finished quickly. I'm hoping it means that there will be more, despite the relatively slow pace of January.

So there you have it. Another year, another dollar(s). I won't lie, this has been kind of a frustrating month. I've felt a bit slumpy and have lacked motivation. I've got some plans for how to reverse this, though, so you should hopefully be seeing nice junk soon. Thanks for coming to my blog and looking at the stuff I draw. Even though I only know a couple of you, it's cool that you can all come and visit. Hopefully all this posting is helping you in some way, too.

 To improvement. 2016 will be a good'n.

See you next time.

School Has Begun, Small Update, &c.

Hi, everyone! I'm a busy boy! School started, I've been sick and not going to class, and work has been fine. Christmas was great, and, uh, I can't remember the things I was going to mention. Oh yeah, here's something I learned Monday. There were hiccups in my school schedule and I'll be graduating with my bachelor's degree in Gaming and Animation in Spring 2018, a year later than I planned. That will mean that it took just shy of 8 years to get a bachelor's degree. I think that whole four year thing is a bit of a myth, unless you just bang your head against whatever you knew you wanted to be when you grew up when you were 17 years old and do 18 credits a semester.

Anyway, it is what it is! I'll try to be positive and make the most of it. Peradventure I may be an artistic power house prior to my graduation. Anyway, school is probably okay. I'm not sure since I've been sick and missed two classes because I was desperately trying to recover. I spoke with teacher (he mysteriously taught both classes I was absent from) and he just said to read the syllabus (which I diligently tried to do today but the classes don't apparently exist online yet). That's all, no more school talk in this post UNLESS YOU REMIND ME PLEASE DON'T

So! Some exiting stuff this post! Here are some sketches. These are from yesterday and today and maybe Monday, I can't quite recall through my feverish haze. Maybe they're from last month. And the two leftmost characters seem too similar. Whatever

And my current project! It's a demon I've built in 3D, based loosely on an idiotic little doodle I found completely hilarious at the time and knew, "I must model this!" but in reality it was kind of a weak reference. It's UV'd and ready to be painted! I'll probably get to work on during my breaks tomorrow. And if you think this is dumb, I included an earlier attempt I did last month for laughs (with facial geometry straight out of the late 90's) beneath. I may be posting less, as per this manifesto, but I've been working, honest!

Something else- My aunt and uncle gave me a gift card to Utrecht and I bought some really nice pencils (better than Prismacolor? Maybe. My pal Rod gave me one before and I used it until was a tiny nub) and a Moleskine sketchbook. Moleskine is all the rage, but when I can get as many pages for a third of price I'm hesitant. But I've always wanted 

Last thing- that secret thing I've been whispering about will be unleashed upon you all on the 28th of this month, which is this blog's 3rd anniversary. It's basically ready (I haven't worked on it much since my last mention of it) but I'm lollygagging around. 28th is the day, come heck or high water.