Riley

Well, i'm not sure where this came along, this evening I had no drive to draw, no real ambition to tackle anything, and then I just started scribbling, and along came Riley.

What's interesting, to me at least, is that for the years that I was drawing, I never really enjoyed myself, I was always worried about how good the picture would look in the eyes of my peers (Both real and imaginary). I was never happy with the shading, proportion or anatomy, while this drive to become better isn't a bad thing in itself, the fixation of perfection eventually strangled anything creative I could muster, I fear this is also the trap i've fallen in to with my 3D modelling, unwilling to start and experiment for fear of making a mistake. 

It's almost poetically tragic how in my fear of doing something wrong, I did nothing and stagnated. 

In a long-winded way, here we come to Riley, a picture I didn't care about, and started scribbling, and two hours later, I feel that here i've made more progress developing my own style and joy in drawing than years of copying portraits and photographs. 

Here's the images of where I started and where I left off. 

Regards

Francis

P.S. as an afterthought, this particular picture isn't good in technical ability nor anything really, but, in my own way, i'm learning to stop caring and start enjoying what i'm doing. Sooner or later i'll get back to anatomy studies and 3d design visualization, but for now. I'm content.

Bob

Well, in an unexpected turn of events, I've started drawing again after a long absence and a sinking feeling that i'd never pick up a pencil again.

Mostly because I have no faith in myself and feel that I have no ability after years of practice, partly because i'm just too tired these days.

But my friend Mathias Damegaeardegd, asked me to illustrate a character for a Dungeons and Dragons session named Bob.

Bob is a Kobold whose head was chopped off, and his soul was trapped into a glass jar, which was put on his head, followed by a smiley face being put on the jar.

I used a picture that I was given to take the pose. so the pose is not mine, but I did the inking with help and advice from my long term friend and mentor in Finland, Jizhou Yang. I'm still convincing him to start a blog, but hey. who knows what'll happen.


Don't really have an opinion on the image, it served it's purpose and it may have got me back into the swing of drawing, I actually really like this comic-type style, really fun to do. so, without further delay, here's the image.

If you lack the patience to listen to my rambling, just look at the picture.


Regards

Francis

Citation Needed

Welp, good evening.

Once upon a time I was supposed to do daily/ nightly updates on my progress. but unfortunately circumstances arose, and my grandfather passed away and i've had to travel for the memorial service and the rest, luckily i've managed to jump head first into some sculpting during the nights i've stayed here.

I'm not claiming any of these to be good at all, as i'm still learning muscle groups and deformations and skeletal structure, but i'd like to show where i've come from 2 days ago, to where I am now.

I'd also like to send a thank you to my friend Cobus, this guy, has no reason to help me with improving my ability, but he patiently bares with me and even shares his screen to show me where I went wrong, at 2 in the morning. So cheers, Cobus, thanks for helping me become a better artist, bro.

And for now, I go onwards and upwards. Strangely enough I don't feel as frustrated as I normally do, I've come to accept the fact that these wips are not good, and that failure is a part of the learning process, and I can't wait to see where I go from here.

Tell me what ya think, and feel free to drop a crit!

Regards

Francis

Night 1 (Creating a female bust in Zbrush)

Good evening,

I caved in and decided to buy a tutorial from gnomon, as organic sculpting with busts has always been a trouble for me, So I got my hands on Creating a female bust in Zbrush for 30 dollars, can be found here:

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/848/sculpting-a-female-bust-in-zbrush

So far i'm having difficulty following it, in the videos he goes slowly, and then speeds up, which leaves me lost at some points, so i'm watching through then attempting to do what I learnt about, here's an update on where I started, and where I'm leaving it off, The biggest problem I have at the  moment is studying muscle groups, I can't really name the muscles that are important, I can't place them, I have experience in traditional drawing, so I have a rough idea of where things are supposed to go, but I can't tell you what muscles form the shape.

So I'll be posting as regularly as I can, and hoping to learn as much as possible this week, though I can't say it will look anything like the end product of the tutorial, but here goes nothing

Regards

Francis

1, 2, Skip a few we're done.

Alright, ended up going back on the dvds, and going step for step with what Mike Jensen did, Wasn't in my initial plan to render it out, but after awhile I missed Vray, so I went ahead, did a similar 2 light setup , pretty much the same as what he did, with the exception of using a different HDRI in the override, all in all, it was an awesome week of learning, and I would definitely recommend anyone interested in learning hard surface sculpting to pick up the Dvd,

Zbrush Hard Surface Techniques, Available for purchase here:  http://eat3d.com/zbrush_hardsurface




And here's my final render, just for fun, looking forward to hopefully purchasing the second dvd (conveniently labelled Hard Surface Techniques 2) in the near future.

Regards

Francis

Day 5 (Where did we go wrong?)

Good evening,

welp, kinda lost track on the dvds, learnt the tools at the beginning, copied the base mesh....and then it all fell apart as im going on my own tangent somewhere, i'm sure when i'm done playing around i'll take it into max and render and composite, but for now, i'm just having fun and learning, ah well, hope ya like it.

None of my stuff really looks hard surfaced, very messy, but I kinda like it even though it potentially destroys the design, I suppose that's where the skill difference is, still trying to get my brush strokes under control.

Anyway, feel free to drop a crit if ya want, any and all help is welcome, just try not to be too soul crushing, will ya?

Regards

Francis

Day 4 (Concepting Mesh and Fun Errors)

Good Evening,


Feeling much better today, spent most of the day working on the dvds, learnt some really nifty new tricks, majority of the day was spent watching the same segements over and over again, seeing how he concepted the mesh and mimicking how he did it, I've changed a few things here and there, like the "Horn" on the helmet, I didn't quite like it, so decided just not to add it in, as well as a few cosmetic changes, but i'm happy to get round about in the ballpark where he was, and i'm looking forward to continuing the dvds tomorrow night.


Here's a screengrab of the character where I am now.

Regards

Francis

P.S. had a bunch of fun getting random errors, and im not sure if they're on my side or on pixologic's side, but it was hilarious indeed.