Todays haul...

I decided to try painting hair, but did it a bit half heartedly, i haven't even done the alphas! but i shall leave at that now, and definitely start the new mesh tomorrow!

This is my entry for todays speed paint, the word was Augmentation, if you want to understand it check out the Speed paint blog! I really like the way the speed painting is turning out, so many people are getting into it now, it makes it more exciting seeing how other people have interpreted the word.


I wanted to get a final piece done for my mechanical character today, but i spent so long working on the environment that i didn't manage to do it all. I really pleased with this piece, i used lots of reference but the painting is all mine!!!!! The smoke could look at little smokier though. I don't know whether to use this as the background or do a new one, but i will wait and see how it looks with my character in it!

Tomorrows plan is to get the mesh roughed out for my next self portrait, and take new ref as i didn't get round to it today. Sketch out my final mechanical character to bring into photoshop. Then maybe try using the sculpey to model something for my organic project!

How much of the checklist will i get done?.........

Creativity, Activity and Happiness!...

I've nearly finished 'The Valley of Horses' by Jean M. Auel. Its taken me a while to read this, as Ive be devoting most of my time to the course. But in this past week i couldn't resist it. The next book in line is 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' by Scott Lynch which i am eagerly anticipating.

I've decided not to feel to guilty about taking time out to read. The reason is because it keeps me energized. We've been talking about Creativity for a number of weeks, and Ive also been thinking about the amount of time I need to devote to the course. I've realized that even so, i must keep doing other things i enjoy, otherwise I might become too dull!

I'm being serious when i say this though. I enjoy doing a variety of things, that keep my brain stimulated and keep ideas flowing. I think that part of being Creative is to do with personal life experiences, you have to exercise yourself in a variety of ways to keep being creative.

When I do 3D modeling or drawing, its doesn't really feel like work, it feels like something i enjoy and just want to do, and its a part of the collaboration of activities in my life that keep me creative, and more importantly, keep me happy.

Being able to express yourself with different outputs can keep you mentally healthy. With that health and that happiness, the activities become enhanced. More pleasure is gained and more skill is gained.

Personally, the standard of my work and the quantity are directly correlated to my mood. So I work hard at keeping myself happy, and my course work just gets pulled along with it.....

Todays work...
I've pretty much finished texturing my latest head today. I might finish the whole thing, but it was more about practicing really. I plan to take new ref tomorrow, for variation in clothing style, then begin building a new mesh.

This isn't the whole texture page, Ive cut the hair bit off, but it shows how its done! any crit is welcome.


The speed painting word today was Impact, i had a cool idea but a lame result...

goodnight!

Speed painting:

Omnipresent
30mins
I instantly thought of totem animals, the most powerful one is the Cave Bear, so i drew a baby one

Reef...
this is one of the pieces i didd today given the topic 'Reef'. I want to make a huge ancient turtle, thats laying dorment in the ocean, and loadsa stuff grows on its back and makes an ecosystem there.
I had a bit of a relaxing evening though, and have been sleeping for most of it, which caused me to miss the speed painting session. I'm tempted to just do it now... but i might just get my sleeping patterns back in order...

Speed painting:
Motion
30mins
Lame...

What I've been up to....

I've decided it's time to give up with this model, i know the texturing is lame(there is no skin texture on this model), but I'm fed up of looking at all the flaws in the mesh! I have no heart for it anymore. So my plan is to build and texture just my head with under 1000tris, then i will start the whole thing from scratch... again!

It's already looking a lot better,tho it's not complete. I've done my hair up for variation, not just cheating! I plan to do it curly on the next one.





I've been doing some digital painting too... I did this angler fish in a half hour speed paint against Dan, titled 'Ocean'.

I worked over a few of my sketches as well for the mechanical project...

I've been finding images that have the desired colour scheme and using them as a palette(influenced by Jolyon).


I ordered some Super Sculpey after the lecture on Thursday, its yet to arrive! i might use it more for my organic project.


Also... I have started to realize how every post is relevant to the creativity task, I'm not going to delete the red text bits though, they can stay there as a reminder of my changing brain!

Hair...

I decided to use alphas to do my hair....... this shows how not to do it, it was my first attempt. Its not textured, i was just trying to layout the alphas correctly... THIS IS BAD!

So i tried a new method of making the alphas and came up with this..........


....it looks much nicer, and a bit more realistic.



I finally finished it today, I'm pleased with the outcome. It was deffinatley worth the shocking amount of time I spent trying to get it right.... not that it couldn't be better........

(this Blog is relevant to the six week creativity task)
Opinions...

I found a Blog that I wrote after our first Creativity seminar, that I never posted. Its funny to look back after just a few weeks and see how much my opinions have changed.

"I found Foundation Art to be the biggest waste of a year I've ever had"

It wasn't, if I hadn't taken foundation art, I wouldn't have ended up here. My Art A2 had 7 people on it, the foundation had about 50. It exposed me to allot of different kinds of artist, developed my opinions more, and helped me realize how much of our grade can be based on opinions.

I worked hard, but only got a pass, I wasn't too happy about this. I think now, that the reason was because I didn't communicate enough with my tutors, even though I wrote down everything, and there was allot of thought process behind my work, this didn't matter. The teachers personal opinion of what I had done determined my grade.

At A-level however, our small class had allot of contact time with different tutors, and the entire grading system was different. I was also enjoying myself which makes all the difference.

The thing about taking an artistic course, is its heavily opinion based, but so is life, so its not such a bad thing. I have different priority's now. At the start of the first year, I was determined to get a first. But now it doesn't seem so important. What matters is my personal progression, and the production of a successful portfolio. My future isn't really resting on my grade, though a first would be nice. My future rests on my portfolio, and it also rests on my character.

"A random mish-mash of ideas and media is NOT CREATIVE. Something can only be considered truly creative if it has some value"

"I never thought about what I wanted to do, just to do what i was asked to be considered 'good' by the education systems standards. I only realized this when i went into Foundation Art, and discovered it was a pile of W***"

In some ways my opinions haven't changed, but maybe my mindset has. I have to consider my work in a more personal way, and not think about what I should do all the time, but maybe what I think is best...

I'm sure I will have more to say about this in the coming weeks........