BONUS: I Did It?

I told you I'd polish the guy from last time,

and I DID!

Also, two posts in a week? Sink me!

Now I have to go do homework until Kaitlin gets home! She's at a baby shower.

EDIT @ 5:40 PM: I just realized that his big punchy right arm doesn't seem to connect to his body properly. I didn't notice it until now! Also, his head design is kind of silly and I think lost the magic of the original sketch. I may have to revisit this one!

POSTING

Oops. I was gonna post this tomorrow. Too late!

I Turn 25 Today

Your prize is some things I drew.

I went to a lecture by Sam Nielson on Friday, these were some People I Saw Today (and no, he wasn't smoking).

And then a couple guys I doodled in class today. I'd like to take them further, but we'll see:

School continues to keep me verrrrrrrrry busy. I was talking to classmates today about how I never really draw for myself right now- It's all homework. It was nice to doodle out the above two guys [Even though you were in class? - Ed.] and relax a bit. My goal is to get another planner (I've lost 4 in the last 4 or 5 months) and write out my life so I have time for all the things I need to do.

So yeah. I survived 24 years. Now I'm 25.

I'm a Thief (and I'm Slightly Sorry)

Oops! 

Last night UVU's Illustration Club met to discuss portfolio stuff to apply for the BFA program. It was whatever. Anyway, the club has been doing a new activity where members draw on printer paper with the eventual goal of compiling all the drawings into a sketchbook we can sell. I never really participate since I have to run to class soon after club starts, but last night, with maybe 5 minutes left before I had to bail I looked in front of me and saw a blank paper and a chunk of 2mm red pencil lead and thought, "What the heck, I'll throw something together" and this is what I scribbled out:

I thought it was way cool! But I realized that I couldn't give up this sketch without scanning it to show you all, so I looked around guiltily and stuck it into my backpack. Zoom!

I was sitting in class and feeling really good and remembered it was because I had drawrn a cool drawnrwning. I opened my bag and removed the sketch and found that I hadn't just stolen my sketch, but I had also stolen Dylan's sketch, too! The blank piece of paper I had drawn on? It was blank on one side. Dylan's sketch was on the other side! Sorry, Dylan! I'll bring the paper back to school and return it to the Illustration Club. Ha!

Then some drawings from the last week I didn't totally hate:

(This model? I drew her head too small for her body. Blast!)

Special Anniversary Post: 2nd Year, Sometimes Awkward, etc.

Another day, another dollar. It’s been another year! I like to think I learned a few things. I didn't post as much, and that was due to that one time back in that one month (Was it September?). I always felt pressure to get something up every day and because of that I felt like I had to be perfect all the time so you’d keep following me. And by the way, that post was August. The one I was talking about. Just barely. ANYWAY. All I was saying is that I wanted to wait until good things happened naturally so that I could just upload stuff for fun without feeling the need to impress the entire internet. I think it worked out for the better, although sometimes my posting habits got away with me and I insisted on posting tons of stuff just the same. I hit my goal of 500 total blog posts, which is nice. What else happened this year? Oh yeah. Kaitlin and I finally got engaged, then married. That is nice. Pretty much nothing else happened. Look, guys, it’s the 25^th and this isn't due for a coupla days but I won’t have time this week cuz school is consuming my soul and my life. So I’m doing it now. But I was up til midnight (which is unheard of for me!) last night working on Global Game Jam 2015 and I’m tired. It’s 10:05 PM right now.

Images. Oh, I guess I could do some updated stats (with the stats from last year in parenthesis):

Total posts: 510 (286)

Total pageviews: 24295 (11724)

Total comments: 1225 (484)

Total followers: 30 (24) [This one is also hard to measure because it says I have 45 people following via Google+, I'm not sure what that means]

Total coolness improvement: ±#yolo % [I'm not sure what this means, either]

Two years of this madness. Maybe someone will hire me and then we can all move over to my Tumblr page, which I've been keeping secret from y’all. But NOT YET! The time for the Great Migration is not yet upon us.

Thanks again to everyone for supporting me and coming and looking. Frequently I post puke, but you come to play with me anyway. HOW PLEASANT.

As far as what I picked, there were some where it was hard for me to decide now! I picked things for varying reasons, but constrained myself to one per month.

January

I picked this just cuz I thought it showed growth when compared to now. So there’s not a big complicated reason. But I think I’m better than this now. I hope so, anyway.

February

Gah. This is kind of embarrassing. Again, I picked this one to show growth. I think I was using reference for these people from the internet. It’s kind of shocking. I don’t know if my improvement in this area came from a trillion hours of practice or just teaching myself to slow down and put more time into things, but this is pretty hideous. That frog man getting blasted down at the bottom is also kinda funny (but don't ask me what Urethram Panoosi is, I have no idea what that means).

March

It’s ScarlettJohansson. I think? There’s not really a likeness, which is embarrassing, but I think this touches on February’s issue. I had a class with Richard, and the work he had us do really forced me to spend more time on things. Did I really improve or just force myself to pay attention to details for once? I’m not sure but it sure looks quite a bit different than what normally happens on this blog.

April

Some scribbles, basically. What’s weird is that I can see some pencil under drawings happening down there. I was pretty stiff. If I had loosened up I might have been able to let things move a little better. I figured that out later, but in the meantime I struggled to throw lines over a loose pencil sketch.

May

This is kinda fun. It’s riddled with problems, but sometimes I lose some of this spontaneity- it’s something I think I have to consistently focus and work on. The Slurpee Guy appears to have two elbows in his left arm, but the characters have a surprising amount of personality. So I guess I learn multiple things from this: I had some artistic weaknesses that I’ve worked on, but I also had some good ideas I still need to work on.

June

Junes? There’s some nice foreshortening happening here. I knew it was something I struggled with at the time so I made a conscious effort to work on it. I think that mentality led to what happened in July…

July

Ah, yes. This guy. It’s funny- I see it now and there are things I want to fix and tweak… His quadriceps especially. But this piece, for me, cemented even more in my mind that my personal destination (should it be possible to even arrive) should be “Artist”. I had the idea and asked a friend for some help with some of the painting, and things just clicked. I remember just sitting on my bed, looking at the finished image. That’s the first time that I've ever felt so much satisfaction from something I created. It was a good feeling, and pushes me forward to create more. For me, this is my picture of the year- a new beginning with endless potential. That being said, I'm gonna be going through and fixing those darn legs of his.

August

This guy was mostly picked because he has a cool right hand (his right!). He also has a wide assortment of Liefield-style utility pouches. Too many, in other words. (Parenthetical thought: It's kind of terrible how this guy and the post from July have like the exact same post minus hand position. What in blazes?!)

September

I picked this because it was an important shift for me- forcing myself to pick 3D back up. I’m taking a class now that should act as an excellent refresher, but I like that despite not remembering everything well I still managed to throw together something cool. I think it’s cool, anyway.

October

I feel like I learned a lot the last half of 2014. I feel like here the importance of a nice, loose under drawings underneath some well-defined shapes finally started to click in my brain. I think this character is better for it. All I remember is I had an outrageous fever while I drew this. Hmm. Maybe the trick is to inflict illness upon yourself? Does that make you good?

November

A continuation of the previous idea, I really liked this character. He had a nice face and sword and belt. It’s nice realizing that sketching a bit before committing to lines is a healthy and effective way to do things.

December

Again, workflow and commitment. I started with a basic sketch, took it into Photoshop, and worked it until I was done. His hands are cool, the sword is cool. I wish I had better and more consistent results, though. It’s like sometimes when I’m painting things just click and I power through it like it’s no big deal, while others (like that bearzerker I’m currently lolly-gagging around) just don’t work. I wonder if it’s a comfort zone thing? Like I do tons of armor-wearing guys, maybe I’m more familiar so it goes easier? I don’t like that. I want to push myself more.

January

Back around. There weren't a lot of posts this month, but I picked some drawings I did from life to contrast against the ones I posted earlier. I think I've learned something there.

It’s a comforting feeling knowing that perhaps some growth took place. 

I’m just letting you know that I’m not content to stop here, though: I’m pushing myself further! This month I joined the online art community Polycount and I’ll be working there (especially when I get going in 3D) to really improve and take my game to the next level. Hopefully by this time next year I've really grown, it would be nice to apply for sweet internships for the summer of 2016! Questions? Comments? Good advice? Bad advice? Leave a comment, we’ll have a chat.

Five Hundred

Sheesh.

I like to think I've grown in 500 posts and almost 2 years? 

I'll save all the reminiscing for the 2nd Annual post on the 28th of January. In the meantime, you can see the first here, in preparation for the next.

Thanks for all the love (and hate?) over the last 500 posts.

Gotta figure out some background/environment stuff now.

I worked on this from a few days back...

Yurr-An: INTERNET, etc.

I think Yur-An is a silly word.

Anyway, I just got the internet up, so here's a buncha stuff:

Just shooting a gat

A dinosaur creature brandishing a fearsome knife that probably won't fit into the sheath at his waist

This guy is a demon king! He has a crown of flames which I totally stole from Egyptian artwork like this. Hopefully that link works. It does, I just checked it.

Just an attempt at taking something a little bit further towards completion.

Some cranky people. The guy on the right holding the case with the warning sticker? That was inspired by my silhouette. I was standing at the train station holding all of my junk and I looked down at my shadow and it was really cool so I tried to remember it as best I could and recreate it when I sat down on the train.

A guy whose arms can attach, it's magnets or something. He'd be cool with knives cuz he could shoot his arms out and cut you. For some reason, I gave him pistols. Then there's a guy with a weird head and hand who's about to cut you open and some demon guy with a crazy sword.

Then some more stuff. Okay!

So yeah, that's all I have going on right now.

OH.

SHOOT.

I just remembered I still forgot to post that one guy I promised you I'd post a couple posts back. I'll have that up later today, I hope. I gotta go finish a final now, take care of finances and do the rest of the stupid stuff on my list.

Oh, and I don't know if I've shared this song with you before, but it came up on my old iPod. It's a fav from a fav band, and it's not even too scary. Gekkou, by MUCC. That chorus!

Here! This Is from the 3rd and 4th.

Today is the 5th, and I've drawn some cool things today I'll show you tomorrow. I came back down to Orem today for a few reasons. I got a call last night from the parents explaining that the router came yesterday. So soon after leaving my actual router (not a cookbook!) came in the mail. Blast! So I came to retrieve my router. The next reason is that some classmates of mine are doing a homework marathon over at school. I'm hoping to finish one of my final projects so that I can sleep better at night. Lastly, I came to update my blog. So here you go. It would also appear that I forgot to bring one image I was particularly fond of. I suppose you'll see that tomorrow!

Up first we have this guy doing a systems diagnostic check on his hover bike. There are couple things wrong here... the symmetry isn't quite working, I should have been more careful when I mirrored the planes. But hey. This is the price I pay for not using any sort of reference. Sorry, I know I promised I'd work on thattttt

Just a guy. I had more to him but another [hideous] character was overlapping him so I just cropped it all out.

Just some weirdos

The only reason this guy got in is because of his shoes and his hat. I really don't care much for the rest of this thing.

Til tomorrow! Fingers crossed that the internet is super quick and painless to set up. I need to pay bills!

Good Morning!

Just kidding, it's 4:10 on a Saturday. I want to render some of these further, but it's kind of scary, so I'm going to wait til I have more time. I don't now, cuz my fiance and I are going to a barbecue. I'm super excited to see her!!!

I guess I should just post when it's done? I don't know, it will never be finished. 

Hmm, I think I'm avoiding it cuz it's hard. I really like how these sketches turned out and I don't want to ruin it with a bad rendering/painting over the top.

Fear.

Hmmm.

I'm gonna keep working this and see what I can do.

...

But still look at them right now:

Some warrior guys. 

An alien with a big alien laser rifle. You will be proud to hear I used some reference for the scope. 

A disgusting mutant. This is the sort of thing you blow into gibs in Quake.

So this week I was sitting on the ground while I waited for the bus... And I drew what was there. Kinda reminded me of Ryan Ottley's POV stuff. I looked up and saw the bus and almost fell over cuz my leg had fallen asleep. 

Some random tough guys

Red? Ask Me When I'm Not Asleep

Oh me, oh my.

It's gonna be a busy week. I have some homework to do, and it's kind of getting jammed into the little corners so I can try other things. Things like this:

Original Sketch:

MOM! I know you're peeved about his feet, cuz they're all little and tiny, but I was thinking he's like a crab guy, y'know? He has red armor and crab feet. So that's how I justify away the need to draw detailed feet. I feel like I lost some visual interest in the leg area from the sketch to the final (is it done? I have too much to do!), but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

A little update on the guy from last time, I think I might call it good unless I wake up tomorrow and absolutely have to fix something when I see it again (I'm looking away right now to make sure it doesn't happen):

A little thing. I drew a ton of stuff this weekend, and have so many ideas I'd like to push a little further lying all over my desktop. I tell myself I'm going to paint everything, but really, none of it's homework and I don't have time. So here's a pen n ink thing, but not Inktober. Just normal. So some brawler is going to brawl an opponent into submission and the ghost of his dead master hath appeared to guide him toward certain victory:

I have to finish my Gallery of Terror piece. My Flash assignments are killing me. I'm going in early tomorrow to sink three or four hours into my midterm, but I'd really like to work on some 3D stuff. I look at objects and take them apart in my mind, using Maya to reconstruct them into shapes. What tool would I use to get the curved edges? Where would I extrude? Would this work better to build from a single polygonal primitive, or should I start with several and combine them further down the line? I need to do that tomorrow night. I also need to re-teach myself how to UV a model. The default tools just aren't utilizing space effectively. Maybe I'll skip art history? Ugh!

I don't have much to share today...

Sorry. 

Homework:

Others: