ArtCtrl

Over the weekend I worked on a game for Asylum Jam.

I had signed up to a list of people that were looking for groups. A group emailed me asking for a 2d Artist and bonus if they had 3d modeling skills. I added them to Skype and joined the group.

Their idea was based on this video:

They sent me some 3d models to textures. These were machine like for the crushing machine. I had a go at texturing these. Problem I ran into was the fact that my tablet is broken and only responds if I draw with the eraser end. This works fine in GIMP where I bind it to paint - in Blender however I can’t seem to switch this to paint - only erase. This meant I had to export the texture pattern to GIMP to paint. I don’t usually worry so much about detailing textures - often just creating an abstract pattern for them. Animating this texture also gives good effects. I suggested the pattern animation for the group but it was never followed though.

The group was using Unity3d for the project. Sadly I still only have a Linux system so was unable to help with the game design - something that I usually really enjoy.

The group asked me to create ghost like shapes for the characters. It was their project and they were telling me how to paint. This seemed fine at the time but really I should have just painting my usual style as it was distracted and unproductive. I sent them many paintings to use in the project but only one of my paintings was used in the project. This was somewhat disappointing after the project was finished and handed in as they had used stock images to fill the space. This is why it’s best that I lead groups - similar to my setup with Melonie for Suburb Nightmare

Formatted my laptop yesterday, backed up majority of my files on the system but forgot to backup my GIMP 2.8 settings. I had to create new settings for getting a thin to thick pressure look and make new brushes (default GIMP brushes are quite terrible). My old brushes are on my desktop computer, an 8 hour drive from here. I plan on getting the computer back in the next few weeks - I love those brushes I’ve got on it! Here’s a portrait I did of my friend Angelique (went to TLC with her) because the format:

Line. Normally I go with a red color for the line - but mixed it up here and used the green. Working on a square format rather than the normal wide landscape. It felt restrictive and didn’t allow me to do the normal landscape effects I ususally use in my digital paintings.

Black and white tone. Simple, nothing special. But I like it.

Color. Usual color palette - yellow for a skin, red hair, and green for the background. No blue in this. I usually use blue for the sky/background and green for the ground. The square share is weird to work with.

Since moving to Hamilton I have gotten outside with my drawing and photography gear everyday. This is a great success because my art was really suffering and I had not found inspiration to draw for months.

I’ve been focusing on what I love - environments. Mixture of buildings and nature. There are plenty of seats around Hamilton that I can sit down at, relax and get a drawing done.

Drawn watching my brother play DOTA2. Creature portrait

University. Lake and trees separate me from the buildings.

Uni. Sitting on seat looking down at pond and area surrounding

Hamilton Council buildings. Captured three figures in order to fill the page.

Hamilton Intercity bus stop

Lorde is a New Zealand Musician Artist from Auckland, New Zealand. She’s taken the world by storm with her EP - The Love Club. If you have yet to here her music - check out her site.

Here’s a portrait I painted yesterday in GIMP -

Hello. I’ve setup my laptop to run GIMP the same way as my desktop. This frees up my desktop for other uses.

Here are several paintings I’ve done recently in GIMP (running Linux Mint). Focus has been on Python lately.

Trademe line drawing. Reference was trademe logo

Color trademe painting - my own colors

Here’s thress pencil sketches that I’ve done recently. 

This is the view from outside my home. I was racing around on my Fathers hand wheel chair and decided to draw the view. A fold up chair would be handy as I’m always having to draw scenes that involve a seat!

I have been using a 2h pencil. It’s a wonderful pencil and I could not go back to HB. No smudging, and takes awhile to blunt - shading still works alright with it.

This was drawn well walking down the road - starting sketching ideas for Ludum Dare - but ended up writing down ideas for a podcast I’d like to start with my friend Matt. I don’t know if it will go ahead because Matt is very unreliable - I might be better to just organize something myself.

Sitting outside the library. Again - another Ludum Dare logo, this time I sketched the lamppost and large pillar - adding in clouds, figure and tree.

wow, its been awhile since I’ve updated this site. I’ve been drawing a little, but most of the focus has been going into game development. Unity is going well, currently in the middle of 7 day first person shooter - 7DFPS. Mine went well at the start but hiot a wall now and need something fresh. Creating ew 3d models and texture, and rig is one of my best options. Something fun and different.

I’ve got a better setup in my room now for working on the computer. My energy has been low for a long time, this is why I haven’t been updating the site. I’ve been focusing mostly on making games.

I never got a replacement Tablet for the Wacom Intous 5. Instead, I’ve kept with the small one. It’s alright, and does the trick but doesn’t allow me to paint all day as a get a sore hand.

Here’s a zombie painting I did from RedditGetsDrawn. I would post the reference but I checked back on the listing and it seems it’s been deleted! Must always save the reference images.

Anyway, here you go:

Zombies are fun to draw. This one had somewhat of an Asian look. I rearranged the scene somewhat - sending the guy on the left towards the back and bringing the zombie forward. Moon/landscape in distance/water, and a fence to separate the zombie and guy.

Tone. Merged the guy into the background somewhat.  Pushed forward the guy out of the background with using the skin tones (yellow and red), these are the same as the skin tones I used on the zombie. For the water I used green, and landscape/sky blue. You can see all the tones of colors/gray-scale I used on the left.

I have a few pencil drawings that I need to either photograph with my phone and upload or buy a new SD card for camera.

I hope you enjoyed that digital painting and I’ll be sure to upload more in future - it’s important I keep slugging away with these digital painting :D