ArtCtrl

Spent most of my time this weekend at my Mums place - gave me a chance to scan in drawings that I’ve done recent around Levin.

These are all drawn in my Landscape journal - sticking with just pencil. I used a HB lead - and two different pencils - my normal clutch pencil and a new .5 mm Mecanical pencil. I’m very impressed with the tiny and delecate lines that can be produced with the mecanical pencil - Reminded me I need keep sharpaned the clutch pencil.

A view I’ve drawn several times - it’s the view of the mall carpark. I started with drawing the lamppost and continued from there. The building in the background is the new community center - it will be open at the end of September. I used a simple straight line for this building but decided to develop other areas further with tone - the lamp post and the view of the ranges in the far background. For the leaves in the trees I choose to use circles - great way to practice curved lines.

Second page of the drawing. The edge of the building, followed by the vew of ranges,  trees (to capture the leaves I just drew the overall shape). Branches are always the most fun. The closest lamp pole weaves amoungst these trees. Perspective!

Same view as the privious drawing - but focusing on a different area. The camera has been lowered and turned to the left. I had problems with guessing the perspective and scale This side is very minimal. Trees stop and the building continues. 

This was captured when sitting in the bus stop in Levin. Where the car is the exit and entry for the mall. A large tree sits on the corner with the cinema just fitting in on the right.The large street lights in the middle is one of my favorite objects I’ve captured. There is something about the looseness of the line that helps it stand out. Plenty of signs.  Focal Point Cinema. I changed the signs somewhat - which mucked up the measuring. The sign on the left should be only two lines - but I’ve made it four. I focused on the roof - capturing the square shapes that poke up. The line in the back are the coragated iron shape. 

View looking towards the swimming pool. I’m sitting on a chair with a CCTV camera hoovering overhead. It feels very invative being riabove the chair.

The pole with signs on is a major part of this - signs pointing off into various directions. Queen Street, <- P, and showing the direction of a nearby old folks home. The pillars along the bottom is an archway entry. Trees scale off into the background with a street light pole and part of the playgound.

Back of a sign in the forground. This was part of the roundabout. Several trees in the middle - towards the right is a street pole and behind that the swimming pool building.  

View is from a seat in Rose gardens. The view is looking out towards the town clock. I started with the clocktower then building the forground,  before finally including the tree in the forground. This certainly helps with scale. 

Trees. Building is here, but only minimal in the bottom left. The main focus here was the branches. I didn’t get everything correct - but just made it up and hoped it would look alright!

Here’s a quick digital painting I worked on tonight. I’ve finally got CamStudio working correctly - I want to record games and art. I own a decent microphone, it just needs a stand. Will pick one up sometime. The microphone on my old white headset is decent for now. For now there is no sound in the videos. Maybe put on some Pandora?

It had been a long time I had just painted in GIMP without tracing over an image. Helpful to start creating original paintings in GIMP using my drawings as a reference rather than just a tracing tool.

Enjoy

New colors, new approach. The reference I used for this was a sketch in Wellington - on Cuba Street. Instead of tracing over I used the sketch as visual reference. My tones are certainly stronger - It has a more painty feel!

In terms of colors - love how the green and yellow blend together beautiful. I will keep with these colors and work on a series.  This is my test palette for colors. I made this after to display the colors I used. I ended up mixing some new colors to work with as well. These may be used in a later painting.

Here are the videos:

The color test video.

Part one of Cuba Street painting. In this I work with just gray-scale.

And finally Part two of Cuba Street painting. In this I add color.

If you have not already - Humble Bundle 6 just came out.

Part two of my Wellington drawing. These have just been sitting on the server so about time to post and show.

All in pencil, drawn early September around Wellington.

Cuba Street. Including a tree that winds its way though the work. Trees are fun to draw. I especially like the one with just branches - much easier! When it comes to lots of leaves I’ve been just trying to capture the overall shape of the tree rather than focus on details.

Left side of the page. This is another Cuba Street work - looking out towards the end of the street (Op side of Hells Pizza). Behind the street poles and security cameras you can see the council buildings. The most successful areas in the are the poles.

The most successful areas is the bottom left Manners St sign. Cropping that area works.The right side - not so much. It’s a mess and the lines aren’t confident. I have nothing to work with.  Tree on Cuba Street. including some tone! These last few have been developed further to include some tonal areas - something I haven’t done for awhile with street pencil works. I like this one. It’s one of the few to include people. People always help scale - especially against that large tree. In the background to the right is an advertising stand  Someone commented that they liked the Cuba reversed. But that’s whats there. Here I’ve used some colored pencils that I picked up from the French Art Shop. I am have mixed views on these pencils - especially when it comes to the lack of detail in the line. It would be nice to have much finer detailed colored pencil that allowed me to create lines the same as HB pencil. I’m sure there is something out there. 

Shops on Cuba Street. This is a mess. Especially on the right and the bottom left is lacking information. Good that I managed to capture a figure.

I was sitting right in front of this sign. Takes up most of the page but helps scale from the shop front. In the background, a govt ‘NO’ sign.

I’ve been super busy in Blender. It’s been a blast. PolyCount has been a big inspration. I feel things are starting to move forward. This post shows a scene I worked on yesterday with building stairs and a hand rail - using Concept artwork I drew in Auckland. I want to model more of my works in Blender - my skills will improve!

The digital painting I used for inspration in the 3d work. I didn’t copy it excatly but instead took the essence of it - the stairs, hand rail and pillar shapes. The scene developed as I worked on it - adding items that were not in the original scene. Creative freedom allows this! 

Overall view of the scene - this was badly modeled and when it came to texturing it was a disastore. I used this as a first draft and remodeled the scene so I was able to texture it.

Same scene. This is the ground view. I wanted to hand paint the entire scene. I enjoy digital painting and UV painting is something I need to learn.  The remodeled scene. I basically split the scene up into areas, in the first scene it was all one big mesh - here it’s split into tiny meshes to work with - the floor - three walls - several cubes for the internal walls, and the stairs. I just re-added the power poles and made them a more interesting with tilting (notice right)

Ground view of the scene. On the right is the power pole - I added several more polys to it. I think a texture will be best though.

Animation of the scene. I wanted to give first person a go. It would be super cool to add limbs and such to the first person view. So you felt you were really there. I read a great post on Reddit the other day discussing Why do developers generally not like to implement feet and torso for 1st person view?. I’ll like to explore the first person view further.

Hello.

I want to start a new feature where I post features of others. Where this be a video game I’m playing, some artwork I’ve seen, or someone to interviews.

Ideas id like to do

Podcast - record skype

More digital recording. Getting other to do a communetery over it.

Get interviews with other. several of my favorite websites

Update on Blender works. I’ve started taking ideas from my sketches and modeling them in Blender. Since I so often draw street scenes it’s about time I work on creating them from my art. Real streets, drawn, then re-imagined in a 3d environment.

I wanted something simple that I could repeat - so I modeled a power pole and a light. Buildings were build later. I used alot of the same assest as previous works - such as the texture for the floor and continued to use the same red, yellow and blue in painting. I’ll like to keep these colors and develop a world.  As you can see I have added a little water mark to the bottom right. This is something I will continue to do in all my artwork - just something small to link it back to me. Seeing it now - I shouldd drop the opacity the logo. 

On the left you can see the buildings. These are not in the animated film as they were added a later point. I’ll work these into a future cut.

The video I made. I’ve already started expanding on ideas started in this. It needs more particle effects - rain and snow would be cool. Needs detail - more polygons to make up the scene. Story is important as well - something I often struggle with.

I enjoy low poly modeling, using my artwork as textures - both on characters/objects and the distance. Experimental lighting - especially colors and angles. Camera is major fun - learning how to use it to make the perfect shot. I render out the same scene many times - changing small elements each time. I want to create scenes that can be looped. These have reached 5 second clips but longer could also be helpful.

I’ve been spending the majority of my time in Blender. With a bit of GIMP and even character sketches. I wanted to do a challange over at PolyCount - Saturday Morning Cartoons. Since watching The Dark Knight: Rises I’ve wanted to create something with Batman characters. So plan is to model Batman characters in Blender. I’ll start with Bane. Wireframe view. For refernce images of Bane I used Google Images - taking inspiration mostly from the television show. Short, stocky.

Just an update on how the digital painting is going. I got my old tablet off my Sister so been using this in GIMP and Inkscape. I still have my new one, but nice to have a go with the older one.

I really haven’t done much Digital Painting this week. Everythings been done in Blender - though I have painting some UV maps in GIMP. I need to develop my UV maps so I can create more professional animation  Sketchbook work of Cuba Street taken into GIMP - painted over with minimal colors. Red, Yellow, Blue. Gray for the extra areas. For the line I decided to take it into Inkscape. This worked well. I’d like to use more vectors in my work without losing the loose, handmade feel that GIMP and other raster programs have.  I painted this for a sign I modeled in Blender. I want to model and create worlds out of my sketchbook works. Basically use my drawings as ConceptArtwork for a 3d world. Where this will go next, I’m not sure. But I’ll keep working away at it.

The sign did read Manners Street. But as I was painting I ran out of room, happy with it said I kept it.  UV map college for a character. The yellow leather texture is his head. The white cloth his shirt. This needs works on, but it was fine for a temp job.

The Cuba Street tree I modeled - this is the UV map. Numbers numbers. I created this to get a sense of where I will be painting in relation to the 3d model. Helpful reference.

That’s all for now. I’m still sick so don’t feel like posted much - I have plenty of content to upload though. The rest of Cuba Street drawings and update on Blender works are a must.

This is my pencil drawings from Wellington. I had only one sketchbook with me - the hardcover landscape shape. The first half is covered with pencil works of city street views.

These were all drawn over 4 days in Wellington. Cuba Street, Lambton Quay, and the railway station. This is part one of the posts

Cuba Street. All these drawings are backwards. I really enjoy drawing the trees in Cuba Street. It’s especially helpful if they don’t have leaves (or minimal) and just branches. The branches are getting easier to draw - it’s just observation and perspective. 

Waiting for the train to Levin. I ate crackers and humus as I drew the view. Plants were scattered about the area. I’ve got plant shapes that I’ve been developing. Basically applying the same techniques that I do to the figure and break it down into common shapes. This allows me to look at an object and capture it using my own drawing techniques.

Those security cameras are everywhere. I love to draw them watching me. I often use them as a starting point - measuring out from there.

I’m not a fan of text in artwork. You know those paintings where the artist has gone ahead and written angry text over an otherwise decent oil painting. Illustration like this is different - this is trying to convey a visual message or story. 

Cafe view on Cuba Street. The hardest challenge was working with perspective. I must be improving with it…. it’s certainly became a large interest for me.

Chairs are from a cafe, these help add scale to the image.

Night view of Cuba Street. The major change for these line drawings is the circle lights that  scale down into the horizon.

I could see myself taking elements from these scenes into Blender and modeling out the objects. Create my own version of Cuba St.

On Saturday I had Aunty Menas for lunch. It was a delicious meal - carrot mash, tofu, and green salad. I drank plenty of water with it! This is the view from my table - looking out onto Cuba Street. Shops were across the road - I focused on capturing the windows. Cars parked - these changed but I manged to capture the idea. In the foreground is the door to Aunty Menas. I focused on the frame, windows and handle.

This is one of my smaller drawings I did - ending it before the end of the first page. I covered the rest of the page with a drawing on Courtney Place. This idea came from none other than Robert from TLC. He mentioned to me on Friday I could use the idea of separation to create ‘other worlds’. 

The other side of Aunty Menas/Courtney Place. I’ve drawn this Courtney Place scene before. Reminds me I need to dig up the work and see how different I’ve captured it. I included some basic figures in the scene - helps with scale.

Part 2 later in the week. Digital paint overs also.

The place I was staying in Wellington didn’t have any internet. I spent my last night there working for several hours in GIMP - I modeled a new scene and worked with an older one. I want to take more of my sketchbook works into Blender.

I’ll start with the new scene I made. Inspration for this comes from the street drawings of powerpoles and trees. Digital paintings have been using to texture. I started with just basic color textures but found the paintings felt more complete.

Wireframe view. From left - camera, streetlight, spotlight, tree claw, and in the back the streetpole has been repeated several times. The ground and side are 2d planes with a painting projected onto the. I also used a standard area light to light the whole scene.

Solid view. The pole and tree are UV mapped with a santa digital work I did for SketchDaily. The background and floor are digital landscape painting

It was fun to create something completely new. I often recycle my models, without impoving on them. I’m very much interested in lighting and camera angles.  Wireframe of a recycled scene. The four leggef creature was created sometime ago in blender. Since then I have experimented with him in several scenes.I have also started using the model as part of the enviroments. Stone, frozen in time. The chairs and desk have been used before. They make helpful props.

Side is a recent digital painting of ChCh. These common street views have  become more and more of a major project for me. I am over half way full in my landscape sketchbook. I’m certainly a huge fan of rectangle shaped paper - I would use it commonly at TLC for life drawing.

Floor is a warm up digital painting - just scribble of lines to develop my strokes.

Another view of the scene.

Video of rendered footage. Plenty of experiments with lighting and cameras. Attempts to make seamless footage.