Helleaux

Hello.

Here's some stuff from this week (and why is everyone wearing scarves now!?):

Also, I started a new 3D project. I wish I could show you more, but he has no hands and feet or eyes or ears and looks silly. So you get beard. Next weekend I'll hopefully have more to share.

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!

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!

School Starts on Monday? (SUMMER '15 #15)

Sorry... It seems like everything I need to do has been jammed into the last few days. Paying for school, fixing the car, whatever, etc. I've been struggling with some 3D stuff (that infernal sword!!!) and just drawing and doing digital studies and whatever.

I booted up Dota 2 for the first time to see what it was like, as I want to make assets for it. I also watched some footage from The International. Umm. What else? 

Yeah, I don't know. I'm going to start modeling a character tomorrow or something. I just want to blah.

Blah.

Oh yeah. Due to some cool stuff happening we were able to get me a smartphone again (I haven't had a smartphone since late 2012!) so I jumped on the Instagram bandwagon. You can follow me here: @zachheckert.

I've just been posting lots of bus doodles there.

Well, not lots. 

You're still my first love, blog friends. And we also got that missing follower back! Back up to 30!

Cranquee (SUMMER '15 #9)

Well, uh...

Well.

I'm feeling a bit burned out. I haven't done Zbrush for a couple days because I jumped gung-ho into modeling my sword from a few days ago... I ran into a problem because midway through, I realized that the version of Maya I'm running is the student version and I'm not supposed to make anything commercial with it. So I have to learn Blender now. I really just need to add some edge loops to the dang thing so when I move it to Zbrush and subdivide it up to ten bazillion polygons it maintains the sharpness along the blade, but apparently Blender has a completely different interface and control system (I read somewhere that anybody who thinks Blender is "Maya for Free" is setting themselves up to be disappointed). I will learn it. I must. But that sets things back and confuses things. I haven't posted for a while, so I'll just post what I have for you today (It took me half an hour to figure out how to properly render out what I've uploaded here). There's nothing in color, unfortunately, but I hope I can make that up to you with a post full of love, instead.

The story behind the text at the top of this one is as follows.

Kaitlin and I were sitting in church and her young niece Amelia was sitting with us. Kaitlin is very supportive of my artistic endeavors (you'll notice she's basically the only human who comments on these posts) but doesn't quite understand my fascination with monsters and chaos and gibs. She asked Amelia, "Are those scary monsters?" to which Amelia gave the hilarious reply "I think he's just a really good artist!" So there you have it. I get to keep drawing hideous aberrations in church.

And my sword so far. 

"Buttth of July?" What on Earth (SUMMER '15 #6)

I took the title from one of the images here, where I'd labeled the date as something that's not even real, exactly.

Hi! Sorry about the lack of posts. I finished a sketchbook, and am working on my 3D stuff! A lot of it is kinda boring but necessary stuff about  the interface, etc. I'm hoping that things pick up here, because...

I didn't buy a new sketchbook.

That means I don't have anything to draw on except loose sheets of printer paper! I'm doing this because I always get distracted by sketching new sketches and I don't finish anything! So yeah.

I tried to polish a thing I showed y'all last time (you can click here if you're too lazy to scroll to the preceding post[also, I like the sword arm in the original sketch more, hmm. Might try to fix]). I fulfilled on of my summer goals by trying to use reference for some of the drapery and the shinies on his armor:

Obviously, it's not super colored or rendered and some of the areas are a bit hot, but it's something, right? I took a sketch and pushed it a bit further. I'm also concerned his bottom half is way too boring and junk. My wife made the pattern for his drapery, by the way.

I've also modified my goals slightly. I want to build some assets for games RIGHT NOW (portfolio, etc) so I think I'm going to build some weapons or sets for DOTA. While I don't know that my 3D is strong enough to do all that that entails right now, I sketched out a prop and painted it (I want to start putting it together this week):

The sketch:

Here's the last bits of my sketchbook:

I did these next three clowns on printer paper during church today (I was listening, I swear). Yes, my congregation looks like this.

This guy has a cool pump-action shotgun:

So there. Sorry for the lack of updates. The nature of the 3D stuff I'm doing right now means I'm learning a lot of essential skills, but I haven't quite figure out how to apply those in a way I can show you. I do have a pig I'm putting together as I go, maybe you'll get to see it soon.

Okay, it's time for bed! I'd love to post again soon. Have a good week, everyone.

Every Other Week? (SUMMER '15 #2)

Yeah, it's shameful. This figure drawing class I've been in has been keeping me busy. I haven't done any 3D this week, despite having a chair in my brain that I'd really like to get started on. I finished one of my sketchbooks, so we can check one of those boxes for my Summer Goals, but I should be working on my figure drawing sketchbook and every time I work on other things I feel guilty. There's just too much to do! But yes, that was my big accomplishment for the week. Freakin' sketchbooks.

Jeez. Colors look WAY too hot on this first one. Were they that bright before I uploaded them? 

(Sketch)

(Colored)

This last one made it in cuz Thomas gave it his stamp of approval. 

Yeah. Still working on not failing all my goals. REALLY REALLY need to use referenceeeee

Moving On (BONUS)

I really am coloring something. My wife is helping me pick colors for all the dapper threads the character is wearing. It's just kinda time consuming. BUT!

Here's some sketches from the week so far. Maybe I'll have something colored by Sunday?

I also have my Summer Goals set up, I'll probably fill y'all in on those Sunday as well.

I tried to be a little more detailed and thought out this week.

First up I've got a nude freakish guy, a guy with dumb hair but a cool knife, a floating head, and a lovable brute.

Then I've got a guy wearing a battle exoskeleton with a spike he uses for combat, a guy with a fish chainsaw sword, a robot with a floating head, a guy with a pointy hat and a stack of faces.

Feet Dragger

I'm still planning my fantastic Summer, and even managed to get some artwork done this week despite some major setbacks (text warning: vomit everywhere/tmi, but Kaitlin describes it pretty well). School is very much cramping my style right now and I'm glad the only class I'm taking over the Summer break is figure drawing. Here's what I got for ya. Still want to color stuff, but because I took a sick day I'm behind on everything and didn't have time to color these guys in.

I Can't Decide

It's funny.
I've been building websites now for a few weeks and my thoughts on many things have changed. I want to go through and fix all my labels, make them not be so utterly useless. I don't know how I'd do that, but I'm sure it would just be a quick Google search away. In fact, I'll go look right now...

Yeah, maybe it will take some time. Anyway, I feel comfortable fine-tuning a post in the HTML editor and other weird things now.

As far as the title of this post is concerned, I couldn't decide if it was worth it to throw color over this. I don't really have time to do that, but I think that it can be a simple thing. I'll try to do that next week. This week has been hectic. Anyway, here you go.

Also, Feed the Birds, from Mary Poppins. I know it's silly, but I really,really like this song. It's quite different from my normal musical choices, but there's just something about it.

Quick Stuff

Just letting you know, I'm alive and thinking of you, you silly bloggers!

While I was out and about sketching yesterday or today, I saw all of these things.

...

ALL. Of them.

Paladin

Just a paladin I'm working on. Started with this sketch from a few days ago:

Blowout: Cool edition

Except my friends and I use "Blowout" when we describe Ryan's dog Mac's explosive diarrhea. 

ANYWAY.

It's been 4 days since my last update! Sorry! I've been busy drawing you things. A lot of it is stupid, and  I don't upload it! Although you're in for a treat today. I uploaded one of my stupid things, it's down on the bottom. 

Finals are almost done. Like 50%! And the cops found our stolen car, too. It was full of evidence like a partially smoked cigarette, a crack pipe, and pieces of mail with names on them, but the cops seemed to care less about that. I was perturbed, but glad they found our car. Whoever stole it put it through the ringer- when I drove it back to my parent's house it felt like it had been taken through too many laps of Rainbow Road. I had something else to say, but can't rememberrrrrrrrrr

OH yeah, I was going to tell you lies about how I'll polish some of these and finish em. Ha! I will, though. Just you watch!

First up! Zombie decapitation. I think zombies are lame, but decapitations are cool.

Then some guys from the last 4 days. The top guy has a kusarigama, which is cool.

A goblin next to his inventory. Cool sword, cool knives. And I don't endorse recreational drug use of any sort, but I think that weed culture is kinda funny.

A guy with a sword. Sometimes I wonder if all the drapery gets in the way. A decorative loincloth thing? A scarf? Uncool. But that sword is cool. And the scarf is falling in kind of a cool way, too, impracticality aside.

A scary monster chef and a guy. So there's this album art by Roots Manuva I see on Pandora sometimes, and I thought it was him walking down the road with a guitar on his back. It turns out that it isn't! It's him jumping in the air. But the image on the left was inspired by that artwork. Here's a link to that song. It's cool, but it does have a bad word towards the end. Also, that chef hat? I was on the train and had no reference so it's kinda ugly. I was going to look online but I forgot. Whoops!

Just a guy excited for the new Unreal Tournament. We do long for gibs. Gibs are cool.

A guy doing a cool pose with his sword.

A guy drawing his sword because he has a cool backpack and you're about to take it. "Nuh-uh, I'll cut you open!"

This guy has cool fingers, cool abs, cool legs and feet. But smoking is not cool, so do not do it. It'll kill you!

This is a pen and ink drawing, which doesn't happen around here much anymore. That's cool.

This last one is ABSOLUTELY not cool. I don't know what's going on, but you can see why I don't upload everything I draw. A lot of it is nonsensical mind dump like this.