Emulations

So I'm on a real kick for studying by emulating. Ryan gave us an assignment to emulate various types of artwork as well as artists. Above is my classical cartoon emulation. I went for clean sleek and happy. Unfortunately, most of my artistic buddies can't figure out what she's doing, even after I added the Pennzoil and labeled the stick "oil."



This is a Claire Wendling attempt. I did it because Ryan said he thought it was the hardest of the bunch. I spent about 8-12 hours (not sure...time is nebulus...maybe more than 12...??) on this one. I think I did ok. We'll see what Ryan says. None of my friends seem to think I did a very good job, and I hope that in a few weeks I'll be able to see how to be more like Claire.

In order to get this one done I skipped class all day. It was rather invigorating to actually PRODUCE instead of constantly being worried about classes. It is extremely difficult for me to focus multiple things throughout the day.

Designing the Caveman's world

Here are the steps taken in designing the Caveman's world. Most drawings done by Steve, paintings by me. We have a lot more drawings than this, now that I think about it. Maybe we'll post them someday.

Evolution of a Caveman

Steve and I went through many iterations before we settled on a design for our caveman. Here are a few of the major changes. Most of the nice drawings are by Steve. All the painting is by me. You can see how I improved. Steve, did, too.







Too much like Fred Flintstone.



Chin too large. Also, it looks like a beard. Not appealing enough.




Too wide. Arms too big. Too innocent looking.






Too realistic and sausagey.




Final Caveman.

Learning Animation and 3D

So I painted in my free time in 2006, but what then did I do with the REST of my time? Easy. January-April I tried to get into the Animation program by drawing and animating a lot. Here are some of my anims from Intro class:

In April I weaseled my way into an Animation position at my work. I had previously been working as a design assistant which meant I did a lot of editing and gopher tasks. The animation position had me working with Maya and After Effects. These jobs were at BYU Independent Study. I still work at Independent Study today and will continue to work there until we have completed the Caveman commericial.

I cannot say enough good things about IS or about my boss, Glenn Anderson, who has provided me countless hours of freedom to learn on the job, direction, guidance, TONS of flexibility (as much as any man could want), and of course money necessary to pay for my daily needs. Glenn said yes when I pitched the idea of hiring another animator, and Steve Glauser started working there in January 2007. We spent about 6 months getting used to each other and the software and then in the summer we decided to pitch a commercial idea to keep us busy. It was approved, surprisingly.

About the time Steve was hired I completed the following animations which are introduction "tags" (titles) for various videos that had been created for a high school foods course. I thought the idea of a foods course was fantastic. Who wouldn't want to learn about food?

So I created Molly the Minicow. She gets abused, but no one seemed to mind the abuse, I guess because she's just a cartoon. Or is it because she's just a cow?

I think these animations show some dormant feelings from my high school days when I was vegan for a month and vegetarian for 8 or 9. I am now ominvorous again but sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't see a psychologist because I always seem to side with the vegetarians in conversations. But in the Philippines, where they would literally starve to death without animal meat, I definitely side with my Filipino friends and declare that even eating my own dog is appropriate if it means myself and my family will live another day.

For those interested (which probably none of your are), I had zero guidance at IS. I was THE only 3D animator there so everything I learned I learned on my own. I was on the internet forums a lot and I spent about $500 on tutorial DVDs and books to get me through it.

PS - Sound NOT done by me.

An honest painting history

I feel it important, since I feel on the threshold of crossing into the professional realm of art, that I give a brief and honest history of my painting experience, since it is not located on my other blog, Art History As It Should Be.

I worked at an art supply store when I was 18-19. I bought paints, including oils, watercolors, and acrylics, at this time in my life. I tried them out on my own. No success, except with oils. I painted a beach scene for my grandmother, which was the first and only painting I completed prior to BYU. I painted only one other canvas--a half-finished portrait of a young woman from India. This was all in winter of 2000-2001. I wanted to paint so much at this time in my life that my father helped me clear out the freezing garage and I painted there. (The cold was one of the reasons why I didn't paint much). The local studio wouldn't let me come to their life drawings sessions because they were nude and I was so young. I had contact with Debbie Kepes, an honorable mentioned painter in the Portrait Society of America, and I tried a lesson from her twice, but it never worked out. She wasn't a master painter and I knew it.

And I only wanted to learn from a master.

During that winter is when I finally settled my mind on a mission, and once that was settled, I set aside the art. I wouldn't touch painting again for almost five years.

My next painting endeavor was digital painting from a tutorial by Linda Bergkvist on her site, Furiae. I think my sister got me into digital painting. Not really sure. But she definitely introduced me to Linda's work, which blew me away. Here was my first digital painting, a blending practice in Photoshop:

This was in Fall/winter 2004, I think. Not really sure. I also painted these prior to coming to BYU on January 1, 2006:

My technique was pretty sloppy. I sampled colors from the photograph, and I used a scanned image of one of my drawings as a template for the color. My sizes were really large--at least 4000 x 6000 pixels. Way too big to be effecient or effective in the early block in stages of a painting.

These images lacked luster and I knew it but didn't know how to fix it. So I moved on to other things.

While at BYU I painted off and on during my weekends and summers. During 2006 I painted the following:

A role-playing character from my childhood named Vezuxi Peabottom. For those interested he is a halfling rogue/acrobat that my brother Aaron wanted to use in his campaign. I went home in August to visit and roleplayed D&D for the first time since high school. Vezuxi, although always a bit selfish, died a noble and heroic death fighting some kind of water troll berserker. It was a legendary battle, if I do say so myself.

You can see I'm beginning to learn how to blend effectively, but my edges are all fuzzy. This is due to an overusing of soft brushes.

I was actually wrong in the previous post. This was my first "completed" painting. But the truck was so bad and the composition so poor that I really don't consider this a "real" painting. Nevertheless, it was the best thing to date by far. I was actually able to get a little detail in the cop. This should match us up with the following post that begins with January 2007, when I exempted my 3D classes and took oil painting and digital painting classes instead.

Going to 11...

I couldn't help myself. I'm at my brother's house taking care of his dogs while he's away and I've already posted a ton and I figured...what the heck. Blokes stop at 10.

The following constitutes my random digital paintings of worth from January 2007 until the present (November 2007). Most were never finished and probably never will be.



Character idea for the caveman commericial.



I just liked the idea of a woman wearing gems for clothing. They look plasticky.



Concept painting for my book. That's a city in those waterfalls. I have a much better painting now but it is composed using a kiped Dusso sky that needs to be replaced with one of my own. No cheating on this blog! (Don't know who Dusso is? Tsk tsk. His website.)



I wanted to get an intership at Avalanche but for some reason I never even tried for it. I can't remember now my reasoning for not applying. This was a painting I did to show I could do vehicles. May 2007



Redo of Lady of the Lake (previous post--see archives).







Dancers are cool. This one was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's story "Of Beren and Luthien."




Women can be really inspirational. I consider this painting my first NICE painting COMPLETED and it was all because I was inspired by a woman. Thanks, woman! It was unfortunately the first and last painting that came from her. April 2007







The Tree of Life, a symbol of goodness in a world of darkness. Someday I'll finish it and make posters so kids can have it on their wall!









I like dragons. I also like guys that are brave enough to go out in their underwear in the middle of the night and fight them. Started in February 2007, reworked sometime over the summer.








Concept painting for Vern, a 3D monster I modeled and textured. Painted in '06, reworked in Summer '07.

Way Behind!

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to post for people that look at my blog. I just cranked out 7 posts of stuff that I was behind on, and guess what? That's not even half of all the posts I still have to do just to get caught up with what I've done (much less what I'm working on this week). I've got more than 30 head paintings to post as well as a bunch of philosophical ideas to spread. I saw Wyatt's blog and was inspired by some of the stuff he posted which WASN'T art. Imagine that...actually posting words? And people read them? Yep. It's true. At least, I read Wyatt's anyway.

And seeing as this blog is NOT an official BYU anything (unlike the club which I run at BYU) I feel totally ok with being as bold and blatant with my beliefs about art, life, and anything else that might come to mind (including the inefficiency of chainmail bikinis) as I want to.

Right now only about 10 people a week visit my blog, so I guess I'll just write down my thoughts for them. Maybe in the future we'll have greater visits to Getting Fancy.

Summer update on my tough women philosophies

Yes, I'm so far behind on my posts that I'm posting things from summertime. This was a personal project where I wanted to make a girl that was tough enough to look intimidating while maintaining her feminine charms. I gave myself the task of making the armor functional

This meant no bikini-plate-mail. *Sigh* I know, I know. I'm so backwards to society. I can't help it, however, if they want to design trash. All I can do is tell them it's trash and not make it myself.

I consider the human body, male and female, a very sacred thing, and I don't feel that it should be costumed in a way that diminishes that sanctity. Things are holy for one reason only--because we treat them that way. Everyone has the choice to decide what they consider holy and why. After that, it's simply a matter of treating those things as if they "holy."





Started with a peacock for inspiration.




Liked the seashell breastplate.



The shoulder pads are light but you can see the basic shape of them, too.

Alien Jelly Lincoln

The final has him in a top hat, too. Will post soon.

Other Animal Designs for Ryan

I was supposed to have a bird and a reptile, too, but if I don't think it's good wall material I don't submit it. I'd rather just fail the class. I've been getting a lot pickier lately with my designs. I know the principles, I just don't seem to be able to use them very well...

Dogs for Ryan - about 4 hours of my time

So I'm still working with design. I was thinking this was ok because Wyatt laughed at it but it got on the medium wall--and only AFTER things were reorganized according to personality and not design quality. It's not good wall material due to its poor draftsmanship, unbalanced design, and lack of appeal.





I didn't care for this one much but it came out quick. I don't like it because it's profile. I could have been a lot more creative. It was bad wall material.