An Update for March, 2018

Allos! I’ve been a little busy lately on several art-related things and wanted to update you guys on them before the end of the month. I’m hoping to improve my weekly habits so that I can post more frequently. I have also considered starting a YouTube channel for my various projects. As it stands, I would like to create some music for the inevitable timelapse portions before I begin. Regardless, onto what I have been working on as of late!

First, I have continued work on assets for a 3D computer game. As I wrote in the previous post, the idea for the game is far from settled, and the subject matter of my work is variable. To make the most of my work, I have been practicing new skills that can complement any kind of project!

Isabelle

This dog might look a tiny bit familiar if you have spend some time crawling the older posts on this blog. This is my parents’ dog, Isabelle, in a 3D cartoon form. I was trying to create a character that would work in a 3D platform game, and I feel that the result is passable. I enjoy working with a limited palette and using lighting that “steps” down sharply; it provides a very crunchy, Nintendo DS-like style.

But modeling characters is hardly a new process for me — I’ve worked with Blender for several years. I wanted to practice animation with this model. Isabelle, being a quadruped, is difficult to animate. Here is the result of what I was able to come up with in GIF format:

Yeah, it’s a little odd. I still have to work out more natural movement and practice animation more often.

Cat Drawing (Work in Progress)

I’ve been working on another drawing — this time, for a couple of friends. They saw the drawing of my pet snake and wanted to know if I could try drawing their cat. The picture above shows the initial pencil work. Drawing from a photograph is a fairly easy process for me, so I wanted to work a bit of challenge into the drawing. I chose to fully render the chevron pattern on the right pillow as a result. However, I was unhappy with how messy it appeared in initial pencil layout, so I reworked it before starting on the ink. I used a similar process to the one used for the bricks in this post, if you are curious.

The Scream (Adaptation)

Can be found on my DeviantArt Account, here.

And, finally, this is my completed adaptation of Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Similar to the cat picture, I drew this for a coworker who wanted “something with skulls.” I thought this image would be a neat twist on the original idea using my “surreal morbid” themes from Sepulchre and Knight.

I’m alright with how the picture came out, though I had a few hiccups along the way that impacted the final quality of the image. For instance, in the original works (there were four versions, I believe), Munch had the fjord in the background while mine originally treated the walkway like a dock — with the water in the foreground. I fixed this, but ultimately sacrificed the fidelity of the water as a result. Also, doing this left a lot of unused space in the foreground. With the major overhaul of the surrounding tones, I also lost the gnarled look of the figure’s hands — which are bent and broken like dried twigs. It comes across a little better in real life, but I think it really emphasizes my need to cease my HB-Only obsession.

Otherwise, my satisfaction with the piece comes mainly from three aspects — the figure is pale (while most of my other figures in this theme are “ashen”), the background is complete (I’ve been challenging myself to do this as of late), and the sky is actually smooth (quite a feat, given the grit of the cheap sketchbook paper).

I gave the original to my coworker shortly after its completion. This will probably end up being my final “morbid” piece — at least for a while. There is definitely more to explore in the subject, but I want to practice other, more marketable things as I attempt to begin my career in art.

I still have a few ideas for posts in the future and am currently working on another subject I’ve been meaning to tackle for a long time. I’ll update you guys when that is ready!