ArtCtrl

This is a selection of work from my Christchurch Sketchbook. I uploaded these works sometime ago but never posted all of them. It’s helpful to have the images just sit in my server, wait for the day when I will use them in a post.

These works are created with imagination and one from photo reference.

My e-ticket. Copyed from my plane ticket for the flight from ChCh to Palmerston North. The rest of the page is figures and shapes created from imagination. The ideas were low-poly, cartoon characters.

This was drawn on the flight from ChCh to Palmy. The reference were fashion models from the Air New Zealand magazine. Sadly I didn’t have a sharpener for my pencil and had to use colored pencil. With pencil I would of been able to focus on the detail, and tonal elements of the work.

Testing my new colored pencils I got from the Drawing room. I’m not partially happy with these pencils - I’d rather something less grainy. The shoe on the left is mine.

Shapes of character. Breaking it down into blocks. There are also some quick sketches of Brooke cooking dinner.

Doodle everyday.

I’m currently sitting at a desk in Wellington library. There is drips of water on the glass in front of me. It was raining, but it’s calmed now.

The internet at the place I’m staying has been cut off but I can access free wifi at the library. It’s rather great.

Here are my drawings from Vincents on Thursday night. I had basic materials - clutch pencil (HB), and several colored pencils - all Derwent. Yellow Oche, Red, and two blues.

It had been several months since I’d been into Vincents. The model was an older Female. I never caught her name - I’ve drawn her before though. She’s an excellent model - stays still and gives a range of interesting poses.

I didn’t experiment or change my approach with these drawings. Starting with the HB pencil and creating the figure out of lines. If I had time I would go in with some basic tone - looking for those darks. Vincents isn’t the best for lighting.  More works. I didn’t enjoy the final pose so worked though some of these earlier poses during the time - shading in areas of interest - attempting to separate the figures from the background.

10 min pose. This was my favorite pose of the night. Having a large amount of information to work from is handy, especially as I work with longer poses. I focused on the background as well - capturing the boxes and chair around her. This is a carry on of the street drawings I’ve been working towards.

Someone said to me it looks like stars and a moon in the background - and the model is looking out a window into the night sky. These were 10 min poses - focusing mostly on the portrait and upper body.

I’m not sure if I’ll return to Levin on Monday or wait stay for longer - I would love to make it to Vincents again on Tuesday. Reminds me - must sign up to Roger Figure block week next term.

I’m currently in Wellington for the weekend. My plan is to get lots of drawing done, and once I’m back in Levin scan and paint over. So far I have drawon on Cuba St and attended a life drawing class at Vincents.

Here’s a selection of works  that I uploaded some time ago but never posted. These are all work from around my ChCh trip. P ortraits. Gorillas and such. This in Wellingtonduring my last trip here. Good old Wellington Library. E xploring shapes. This journal is full of studies of breaking objects down to basic shapes. Portrait studies. These were all from imagination, taking the same image and repeating it - evolving. Animal studies. These are done via reference thanks to the websie PixelLovely Colored pencil portraits.

I don’t think Imuch updates will be happening this weekend. I’d like to get the life drawing works I did tonight uploaded, and written about since they are fresh in my brain.

Another Blender update. It’s addicting, what can I say. I worked with a model I had previously made - I just reanimated and textured. I added two walking stick objects - they turned into a weapon object.

Heres a shot of the scene. I repeated the throwing and walk cycle three times. With the 2nd model I animated it to blink around the scene.

Another view of the scene. Nothing special with lighting - just a basic sun light to light the overall scene and a spot focusing on the character walking. You can see these two lights and the direction in these two screenshots.

Finally, here’s the video of the animation. One thing I forgot to mention - I’ve been working towards creating a seamless shot that starts in the same place it leaves. Basically creating a walk cycle with the whole scene - Making the background move forward was an attempt of this. I’ll keep working on creating this.

Over the past several days I havn’t drawn or painting. I needed a break from it. Instead I’ve been working with Source FIlmmaker (and a bit of blender) and playing Guild Wars 2.

Source Filmmaker is the most helpful. Guild Wars being so damn fun.

It’s important that I keep exploring new programs. I find learning a new program really helps in learning. I believe people should have the option to learn video/animation/game programs from any age. This is why I like Open Source. Now, Source FIlmmaker isn’t open source but it is free.

When I first used the Source Filmmaker I used these Valve Tutorials - they helped but it was best when I just played with the program myself.  I’ve done this a couple of times - with on Wednesday having the most success. Everything was coming together.

This is where I really started getting into quick camera cuts - using a range of different angles. The jump is repeated 3 times - I’ve just done a different camera cut each time. The camera is certainly fun to play with.

This is split into two parts - rag doll animation/lighting and a Scout battle. I used rag roll characters from Half Life 2 and Left For Dead 2. I really want the models for Counter-Strike: GO. I’ve been watching my brother play it - graphics are looking hot.

With the Rag dolls I animated the scene with some simple movement - head and arm movement. I also added lights in and animated them to move. This gave some interesting lighting effects - especially with added colors.

Scout battle. I recored all these Scouts fighting then worked though the scene placing the camera in areas I thought looked good. It was alot of cutting, but I’m happy with it. All it needs is a story/sound/music.

Here I’ve explored the moving camera. Now I know how to animate using the Motion Editor I can apply this to all - like cameras. Twists and turns. This video started with some very quick camera follow shots - followed by slower aerial movements. I’d like to develop some cool 3rd person views.

Here' an example of some of the camera tests I’m working on.  Up the stairs and looking out. This view changes when the character moves forward on the stairs on the right.

Here’s the other side of the stairs. As you can see I’ve figured out how to remove the line that was going from the top right hand to the bottom left. Nice.

Stairs on the right here. The view here is zoomed further - the character can move without having to switch camera so quick!

I’ve done a little digital painting tonight so will get some uploaded. It’s good to do a range of projects - but still aiming for a larger overall idea.

I decided to get back into some 3d - taking a break from the digital painting for now. It’s been a couple of days since I’ve painted. I’ve wanted for awhile to get back into 3d. Working in Blender and Source Filmmaker.

I’ll start with Blender. I opened some of my .blend files and retextured the works. The textures used are digital paintings - mostly environments. It’s refeshing to see this series of works come alive in a animated world.

All the models had been used before - I simply retextured and rearanged the scene. I used the character as part of the set - creating two large stationly characters. This helps give the scene more depth - often these blending in with the background. 

On the right is a character that moves forward during the sequence. This model has a different texture to everything else - helps with contrast..

And finally the video of the animation. I’ll make another post later highlighting some of my learning in Source Filmmaker.

In the meantime, keep doing what you’re doing.

I spend the majority of my digital painting time in GIMP. I love it, I always will. I’ve tried other Raster programs out there - and will continue to use - DeviantArt Muro, Manga Studio, MyPaint, Alchemy, Photoshop.

There is another set of programs I can paint with.. Vector. During Highschool I spent time learning Freehand. It was a favorite program. I enjoyed this more than Photoshop. Having a tablet back then would of been great - even if it was a tiny 2x2 screen size.

Anyway, I learnt Freehand, then moved onto Illustrater. In 2007 I did the majority of my digital work in Illustrater. Later I moved to Inkscape - cos it’s not Adobe.

Here are two logo/header displays and a paint over of a sketch: This is a paint over as well. I used a figure from GIMP and painted over in Inkscape. I used my mouse for it. I’ve been using the tablet lots - it needs a new nib and I can’t find the packet. I think the mouse does a decent job at painting.  Clearly the model is James. Who else could look like this? One of the advantages of having these files as Vector objects is the freedom. I can scale, and mix without losing any detail.  Paint over of Lynn Mall sketch. Color used is inspired by my other works. I think I’ll keep working in Inkscape. It’s something different that allows me to create works digitally.

I think the site needs a paint. Heres some icons to get started.

RSS Gif image. I had planned to use these for for the sidebar, but thinking about it - flashy annoying GIFs like this are annoying. I’ll keep with a static image for side bar. 

Rss Feed. subscribe with Google Reader, or your own choice. You can also subscribe to a daily email digest of blog posts .I aim to post 3 times a Week.

Stumbleupon GIF image.

S stumbupon. Andrew was using this lots. I should get back into it. I like to save my links on delicious and videos to you tube likes

I have always had an enjoyable experience on Reddit.  Reddit. I visit Reddit daily. With mostly browsing I post sometimes. Mostly in sketch daily

It is Sunday morning. I havn’t done anything today. But here’s a blog post to get started. The place is tidy. It needs to be tidier though.

Yesterday I tidied. Though I went though some older posts and turned the drawings into digital works.   It’s been a long time since I’ve done life drawing. I use to do it often. There are several life drawing classes I’m interested in doing next term - including Rogers week one block class. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are all 6 hours of life drawing. Dan and Catherine also have a life drawing class during the term - as a weekend class.

The JPG file. Quality is better than GIF but GIF has the advantage of creating animation. It would be nice to create GIF with JPG quality stills.

These drawings were all quick gestural works - breaking the figure down to cubes and basic shapes. I’ve explored these shapes and developed them further over several months. 

Gary Johnson. This was a warmup work - just wanted to get looser with the tablet. It’s been a long time since I’ve drawn/painted political figures. I would take my sketchbook into BackBenches and Sketch people.

Several digital paintings. Pencil sketch to GIMP paintings.  Airport sketch thanks to Netscrolling. Exploring areas of color further - what shapes can I make?  Do the buildings and people need color. Maybe I could try a silver or grey on it. I’ve used grey somewhat in my other works - especially at the beginning stages of building a painting up.

Westfield. I want to take the majority of my pencil sketches into GIMP and develop these paintings. This can only help my knowledge of compossion and environments…. The final painting. I guess I shouldn’t really call it a final though. Because anyone is free to take my work and develop it on a new path. Just let me know :)  A digital painting from several months ago. Decided to take it into GIMP and work over top using the same colors.  I’ve been having a look over my older blog posts and noticed lots of life drawings that I could take though the digital stage. There is likely lots of life drawing work not uploaded - I should work on getting these uploaded as I can then turn them into digital paintings and such.