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.

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.

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!

Finally, the Pig (SUMMER '15 #8)

I've spent like the last 2 and half weeks on this blasted pig! It's terribly amateur, but I learned a lot. My current lessons are on mesh creation techniques and then it's on to hard surface modeling. I think one thing that was ultra valuable from this pig course was learning about maps. I figured out about low and high poly models and how you bake visual information from the high poly down to the low poly using normal maps, displacement maps, etc to maintain detail. I always tried to draw or paint detail in manually with my brain, which is basically impossible! So with this knowledge I'm now armed to take my sword to the next level. That's my report on 3D so far.

I drew this at the bus stop. The monster was waiting for the bus, too.

I've been doodling on this guy between lessons. I think I may try to paint and finish him up as I go. We'll see.

[SECRET 7/22/15 UPDATE: I changed the gradient and cleaned some stuff up. It was too sloppy! Back to the future I go!]

Okay, I'm out. Til next time!

I Was Thinking (Has This Been a Title Before?)

I'm coming up with some clever Summer goals and I think you'll be pleased with me!

I was going to color these but it's Easter and I have stuff to do! Maybe I'll get around to it?

AH! You think I'm a liar, do you? Well here's the thing: I did color (sort of) some things from last week:

Maybe I'll actually finish coloring these in and turn them into finished pieces? LOL

I've been really struggling in my head drawing class for the last couple weeks. It felt like I was unable to see things right and get them down on paper correctly. But this week I did a couple drawings I didn't despise:

Also, some sketches I didn't hate from this week:

And then for one class we went to the museum and drew some animals. I did hate some of these, but for variety's sake they're in here:

Also, this week: SHUFFLE MADNESS! I like when improbable things happen as I shuffle through all the songs on my mp3 player. I heard Stains of Time from Metal Gear Rising and then the instrumental version, one right after the other? What are the odds of that?!!? Very slim, my friends. Very slim. Metal Gear Rising has a completely silly soundtrack, but the game succeeds perfectly at what it's trying to do (i.e. be silly). I was reading somewhere and the writer was joking about how the game's mechanics let you chop a guy's head in half after chopping it off. It's preposterous. 

Repetition.

I was accepted into UVU's BFA program this week and now I need to map out classes for the Fall. 

I seem to have some bad habits. A lot of the stuff I've been doing ends up using the same shapes. I need to push myself and get out of my comfort zone a little bit.

...

After the semester is over and I don't have projects looming over my head.

I was going to color these but I have to go finish my FAFSA right now.

I still need to fix the tags on this blog, too. Hrrmm.

EmBEARassing

Hey, school is busy, keeping me busy, busy, so I'm not posting a finished painting right now or anything, just some stuff I drew yesterday.

For my Drawing for Animation class, we had to design a character based on a prompt. We could do a spaceman, a bear, or a schoolgirl. I figured that the spaceman would be too obvious for me (based on what I'm always doing) and the girl would be stretching myself too much. So I did a bear. These are some of my concepts. Well, the first couple are. Ha. Things got out of control later on and I drew some other bears that were barely bears. I left those in cuz some were kinda cool. When I get my final draft back I'll upload it so you can see what I ended up with and submitted.

This was my final concept before I finished it up:

Things were getting wild.

Bearzerker? I'd like to render this out and turn it into a cool 3D model or somefink.

A tank bear and a...

Yeah, I don't know. I do know that I should get some reference so next time I draw a tank it looks more tanky.

Stuff from today

Planning on adding a background to this when I get home from work tonight... My lack of environment/background is kind of an issue, I'd wager.

These were from my sketchbook today, I might try taking these further if I get some time. I have a bunch of stuff to try to finish before Fall semester starts again (Sharkman, Wizzard, Dome-i-cile, and one where I'm placing the Wizzard in an environment [that you haven't seen yet! Nyah, nyah nyah nyah!{There's no need to be such a clown, don't taunt our audience! - Ed.}]) and I don't want to overwhelm my feeble mind.

More Fish

Coloring a fish I drew yesterdee

I Will Be Good This Week

But not today... Ha! I should have used one of my books to set up perspective here, it looks kinda funky:

Notes from class today...