Making Progess with Magic Box

Here's the next step forward!

Chris gave us some tips via video paint over - very helpful since he used my last piece as an example!! So I went back and reworked it - as seen here - and am feeling even better about it.

I sat in my living room all day and painted my fireplace at different points - morning, mid afternoon, late afternoon and night time. Since my windows/doors face north the lighting didn't change as much as I had hoped. < / But it was still interesting to see the tiny changes in shadows and highlights - especially when that stupid cloud passed over my skylight. ><
Still more work to do!

I think the nighttime one is my favorite. Which one is your favorite? 

Magic Boxer WIP Post

                

I am a pair of mystical men's underwear. ^^

...So I joined Chris Oatley's Magic Box - probably one of the best things I've done since the first time I decided to go to CTNX back in 2011: )

I feel like I've already learned a lot and I've barely started. Evidence to the left...yeah it's digital! Didn't think I could do that, huh? And it's an Interior Study no less!! That is my fireplace! (With Raul's katana and Fu dogs and massive fan...all the pretty Asian things...no wonder I love this guy) There are no people! The lines are disappearing! It's almost dimensional! I didn't even get tired of it half an hour in! I just wanted to keep going! I want to do more of these. o.o WOW.

Chris is an AMAZING teacher. He is well paced for beginners and intermediates, super supportive and inspiring. Everyone else participating has been really great too. I am truly in awe of the fact that I am maybe one week in and I have hope again. Hope that I am not stuck after all. And I understand that I still have a long way to go...that progress may not always come this quick the whole 18 months or be as noticeable...but with hope I am hurdling forwards, not dragging my feet. It feels really good!!

Anyways, I'll have more to post in a little while since I'm focusing on practicing these techniques for the class. Probably more studies - but I'll try to squeeze in a few characters here and there, I need to scan my last Four Beauties piece and finish some Tudor Roses before I launch into research mode for the next set that I dreamed up during the boring commute to ze day job. AND WHO CAN FORGET DENVER COMIC CON COMING UP?? Super psyched for that since Chris will be there!! 8D

Quick Update!!

Sorry there's no art with this one - thus I'll make it brief. I now have a Behance Portfolio and will update whenever I can!! http://www.behance.net/gallery/Square-One/5821045  Hope to see you there! : D

Learning ALL The Things!

 So...I randomly decided to learn Trimble/Google SketchUp because why not...and this was my first attempt at an interior. Saori's Tea Room. It took me a couple afternoons, mostly because I fussed over that table which I already want to change for so long. The only things in there I didn't build from scratch were the tea set and the chairs because at that point I was ready to try different things. And the "paint" job was just the default swatches since I was just experimenting. I wanted to take it into DAZ to light it before truly painting it in Photoshop, but then found out that I needed the non-free version to have that feature...or find the plugin elsewhere. I have the plugin now, so maybe so I'll get around to finishing this...but WAIT I've already started a new model!!

So here it is in Top view with the perspective turned off. (One may or may not catch that this is more directly related to the project I'm working on now) I found saving out a quick flat allowed me to map it in Photoshop super easy. No graph paper involved! And I guess, as is, it is a rather boring layout to look at, very symmetrical and lots of straight lines. But that works for the inhabitants. They are very unimaginative, paranoid, unwavering people...sans the eldest son. Anyways, pulling this one into 3 dimensions has taken a couple days at least because of scale and detail. I started in the kitchens on that fireplace and went on from there, still periodically working on it since it's helpful in staging scenes more accurately, but am now back to what I really need to be getting done.

PS. SketchUp - You have taken much frustration and wasted resources/time out of my environments. Considering that I've only had you for about a week now...well, I just wanted to say Thank You. I'm sure our future together will be happy and productive. You're awesome. Cheers!

Agricultural Classroom

Here is a layout I did to better understand perspective and size/spacial relationships in an interior setting. It is a conservatory-type room where students would come to learn botany, etc. I drew most of my inspiration from Moorish Architecture.
The marginal notes were mostly cut off, but they detail and explain areas such as the entry room in the far back where students would change shoes and leave their bags; the practical demonstration table upstairs; the storage room below; the lecture area; the gated planter space that is irrigated by the fountain (which draws its water from an outside reserve) and channels that span the tiled floor; etc.
As a sketch it is still relatively loose and there is much more that I need to consider in regards to available technology and materials before I venture forth in rendering a scene in this location.

Spanning the *Imaginary* Globe

I've been struggling a bit for the last week or so to better understand and become more confident in certain artistic areas that I realized were sadly lacking. I wouldn't say I'm totally uncomfortable or purposefully avoid them...since I have found several earnest attempts when searching through past work that aren't too ghastly...I just don't feel like my skills there are as strong as in others. Plenty of time to fix that now since it will effect other working projects soon.

Anyways, pulled this from the game pitch I did as a supplement to the very last project in Comp. Illustration II. It's a manipulated photograph of a 3D map I did a while back, NOT for school, when I was really bored - made out of folded paper and LOTS of tissue paper/tape and careful application of acrylics...hmmm, now that I look at it, this was before I added the moss-tree/forests in the greener areas. The highest mountains are probably 1-2inches above the sea level which is the wood base.
As I was so bored when starting this map, there exists documents figuring out the plate tectonics that would cause such features, weather patterns for each region, political distinctions, general flora/fauna - though I didn't get to sketching out some of those creatures before the next semester started - and an outline for a Creation Myth/Pantheon. Yeah...I was really bored...I probably watched all three LOTR movies four times with each set of audio commentary in the process. Good times.

Primghar

Layout for the village of Primghar in AS:UBB. Small, quiet place that's tucked a little ways off the main road between Caza/Winzor and Adenbrooke (Aberdene). More history listed in the brief description included. I guess reminiscent of the idea I have of the small town I grew up in, though now when I pass through my small town - well, it's not so small anymore.

Diva's Chambers

Clarice's room, where the diva bounces around and probably sings silly pop songs all the time, out of key and at the top of her lungs, while trying to be all dramatically mopy because of the equally ridiculous behaviors of her boyfriend, Silvio. I feel like she should have more...I don't know...stuff, but at the time I was more concerned with getting the perspective right and the light patterns to make sense. Big leap forward I think considering where I started, but there's still a lot of room for growth - on that note, back to work!! : D