This project we simple as I was tasked to go out and study Leicester once again.
I decided to take a different approach to my normal one, and instead I got out my watercolors and acrylics. Its unbelievable how rusty I felt when I started off, so this is my first study, which is very wonky buy I was more concentrated on gaining a grasp of the paints than anything.
I used white acrylic to add the water details on top of the sculptures and fountain. It sort of worked though I should imagine had I only used watercolors I would not have got away with that trick!
Pencil Study, Lion fountain
This was my last watercolor study, and this time I used only watercolors. I wanted to try and paint in a process that meant every brush stroke was permanent and I had to mean it.
"Graveyard"
This brief dabble into traditional paints was the first time id done it in years and it felt good. I'm definitely going to be doing more of this, and try to improve my accuracy with a brush, use of colour and line work.
For this visual design project I was asked to design an interior, more specifically a bar of some kind. As it followed on the footsteps of our group project, thought it was great timing as I could use this project as an opportunity to design and Interior for my Bear Tavern. Which was something I had not done but really wished I could have.
I immediately began doing a little bit of research and generated a mood board to start out with.
I then use my Tavern models size and scale as a guide to building a floor and wall plan for the ground floor where the Taproom would be. I then began sketching up some idea's for the layout of the room. Key features I needed to consider were things like the bar needing enough space, and there needing to be a staircase leading to the upper floors somewhere there.
I settled a idea and drew a more detailed version to use as a guide when building my interior.
From this I then generated a whitebox where I used lights inside of 3ds Max to get a feel for the lighting. I also re-used some elements from my tavern assets as it was pointless to redo work I'd already done to the same design. The rest I modeled and unwrapped fresh for texturing.
Whitebox
Final Image
As you can see there above, is the final renders and presentation shot. Some of the details in the scene were hand painted in, such as the painting over the bar, and the bears skull trophy. The overall interior layout makes sense to me, and If I were to make this an actual environment, I'm sure it would work well. In the end I'm quite pleased with it, and I wouldn't mind going for a drink there... looks cosey ;)
For this masters study I was keen to research and discover a old artist that would be new to me and hopefuly by studying their work I could learn something new.
I decided I wanted to look into classical fantasy paintings or self portraiture. Ive always found self portraits interesting because its intriguing to study how the artist chooses how to capture themselves on the canvas.
Naturally I got online, began sourcing images and collating them in mood boards about each particular artist.
I discovered Courbet's work when searching for classical self portraiture. I really liked the contrast of light and shadow in his paintings. Something about the held a certain drama and mystery that others I found simply lacked. So I decided to study his work by emulating one of his painting with my own self portrait.
At first I was keen on doing the top right painting, but I tried to emulate his pose and found it very un natural. Too much exaggerated twisting of the neck in relationship to his shoulders which I found very uncomfortable. So in the end I settled on the bottom right one, which was an earlier self portrait I believe. Im glad I chose this one because it had even more drama than the first and the pose was slightly more manageable though three times as complex!
I took a picture of myself and began in digital studying from it and Courbet's work to produce this:
As you can see I focused on gaining the values first the worked into detail. Lastly adding colour on a colour layer.
Final image- A self Portrait in the style of Gustave Courbet
I was quite pleased with the final Image, though I would have liked to give it more attention. Sadly I was out of time and needed to move on. As far as self portraits go for me, I think this is by far my best.
I think its fair to say for myself, that I haven't had the year I set out to have. I've learned a lot technically, with 3D and new software... however, during these three terms, I wouldn't say I'm pleased with the amount I've progressed in honing my skills artistically. Partly due to lack time invested in practice, and partly due to lack of motivation. Not willingly mind you.
Its hard to tell where exactly I am at because I feel like I'm still waiting for the second your to begin, and yet I'm going away soon to be returning on my third year. So what does that mean for me? What do I need to do in order to ensure next year will be the best year for me to learn and progress, to make the most of my university education and the time I'm paying for.
I need to treat this year like it was a bad dream I woke up from and forgot. Just a minor blip on the timeline.
What do I want to get out of my time here at university? I want to take everything I can from it, use the structure to teach myself routine and strict time management. Procure connections that I might otherwise never get. Make friends that I will carry with me into my career and who will prove invaluable allies for artistic guidance and career support. Ultimately I want to use this soon to be rare time, to see who I can push myself to become as fast as I can do it.
How am I going to up my game and show everyone and myself what I'm really capable of? Those are the easy questions ill be asking myself and answering over the next few weeks. Because I plan to make use of this summer in a way that Ive never done before. Ive always treated holidays as an escape, a time to relax and avoid the drudgery of work. But by doing this I usually lose sight of my enjoyment in art and forget about it...
That cant happen this summer. If there is one positive thing to carry forth with me from this years experiences, is this. I never want to do it like this again! Somewhere along the line I lost sight of me, and I became something else. Now its time to find the old me back, and that means finding some strict discipline. Shit gets real next year, so really this summer is my last chance to prepare for for it. If I want to prove myself then I am going to have to work harder to ensure that.
That is what I'm excited for, because I feel like up until now I've been stuck in a mental traffic jam, unable to free myself and speed on ahead. My ambition was somehow lost along side my sense of self being. That's what happens if you neglect yourself and you fall prey to worries and stress.
I don't really know now where it is I want to go, but that's because I'm still pulling the pieces of me back together. Pretty soon ill be back working and ill know where I'm headed.
So for me this year was James performing at 20% I cant wait till next year, a second chance to redeem myself and hopefully secure my future in this industry. If everyone has to have a bad year, a really bad year... well I'm gad I had mine now and not later. Now I can bring it when it matters most and that's a promise I'm making to myself and those who've supported and believed in me along the way! No more Mr "that" guy.
Back to Mortal Engines, I wanted to cover the transition progress I made from a high poly digital sculpt to the re modeled low poly version. Again this process was new to me so I knew it might take some time but at least I would learn a lot from it. I Took my 45M poly sculpt of the character and "decimated" it to a 4.5 million poly version so I could bring it into 3ds Max without it exploding! lol
Luckily that part worked and I was able to start building the low poly topology over the surface of the high poly mesh. The whole time I needed to be very aware of the density of my topology because If I went over budget ( 9k) then I would be in trouble and need to cut out geometry. polygon by polygon eventually I finished the whole mesh and I was quite pleased with the overall density of specific zones and the cleanness of it.
Here are some screenshots to show the under 9k model
Front
Side
Back
So my next step was baking the high poly details onto a the low poly model. This is done with a Normal Map, and all i needed to do was create a cage that covered all the high poly details and the low poly geometry, then the rendered did its thing. What you can see here is a direct comparison of the high poly and the low poly using the normal map It generated. I learned a great deal during this process because it took many repeats to get it as close to perfect as I could
At this final stage, I needed to paint the texture maps for my character and give him some colour details. unfortunately this stage was not fully completed so what you see here is a WIP of the texture. I used 3D coat to paint directly only the model, sort of like painting a warhammer model. I really hope to finish this as soon as I have time.
This project was my first proper character project and thanks to all the complex processes involved I learned a great deal and look forward to doing more character art! ;)
