My fiance is crazy.

We found a neat little switch in our bedroom that will turn the lights by motion activation.  It's nice, you can sit in bed and not worry about the light turning off before you go to bed.  We've also noticed that we have to wave our hands in the air to get the light to turn on again.  Well last night, well past our bed time, the light flickers on, I look at Jackie and she has her arm in the air.  "What are you doing?" I ask.  "I'm Stretching."  So I roll back over and go to bed, as best as I can when the bedroom light is like a spotlight in your eyeballs at that time of day.  Hours later, I roll over and see her reaching for the ceiling again.   "Stop that!" I nagged, hoping she wouldn't trip the light off again.  She didn't, and I adjusted myself slowly as to not trip the light myself.  Later the next day, I asked her what the deal was and she said she had the craziest dream about robbing stores, specifically McDonalds.  She said she was in the middle of a beat down on her accomplice.  I think she was trying to get away with the loot.   Good thing I don't make a whole lot of money.

Nice Hiccup.

My educational version of modo ended a week or so ago so I havn't had a chance to work on any more castle walls.  I have, however, picked up pixilogic's free sculpting program Sculptris.  It looks like a lot of fun and I'm trying to get a very good friend of mine to try it out, since he's absolutely amazing when it comes to clay and sculpty.  I myself am horrible and find the controls for rotating the object unnatural to me, it's hard to adjust to an angle to work from.  I also noticed that Zbrush is about half as expensive as Luxology's Modo, so that might change the game plan up a bit too. 

Work:  Work has been good, last week I started my own landscape set that will include a firepit /fireplace, a bench, counter top and planters.  If all goes well and I get a lot of the smaller projects out of the way, I should be converting my SketchUp drawings to CAD instructions later this week.  The set will hopefully debut in September.   Work has me going hard during the week that I find it hard to sit down and focus on my own work to polish up some resumes for a few dream jobs.  (I'm still looking around for jobs elsewhere, west-coast particularly ;)  The job I hold currently is helping me speed up my creative process while I practice sketching skills and I'm constantly searching for new things to inspire my creativity.  I've been using up a lot of creative brain juice lately....espresso and some good tunes has been helping.

Working with replicators to construct this wall of block.  I would like to continue this to make some old castle walls and parapets.  One thing I had problems with is the sheen of the stone.  I imagine that the castle wall would be old and smooth in some places where it would have a very slight glare, but I couldn't get that look without the walls looking plastic. I think I'll hafta make other variations of the block layout so it's not so obvious that the wall is full of replicators.

Flickr Link and Final thoughts.

Well despite finishing the skeleton to the level I wanted I'm still quite pleased with it.  Looking back to the very first Life Drawing Class I took last year, I think I've grown in leaps and bounds as an artist, but I still have a long ways to go.  I've finally became comfortable with my artwork, I find my self doodling more often, drawing in my various sketch books, which in turn helps me be more creative in design and ideation. 


Here's a link to my flickr account with the various work I've done this year.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24927913@N08/

The Skelton Cont. IV

Before I know it everyone is finished up their own skeletons and I for some reason half maybe half done.  Some are amazing!  Others are good, but many of them didn’t hear the call of the challenge to draw the entire spine.  Maybe I should have done something much more generalized, I would have completed it the skeleton had I not taken the time to draw every nook, cranny and undulation of the vertebrae.  I also would not have learned more intimately of how exactly the spine works the way it does.  It’s absolutely fascinating to see how this most perfect design, this infinitely complicated vehicle is with us every day and we take it for granted.   To see how the vertebrae slowly change from the very top of the spine all the way to the bottom blows my mind away, from a distance I tried to draw each vertebrae as best as I could,  I thought I understood how they’re constructed, how they interact, but upon closer inspection, I was blown away.  They seem to hinge together near the back, but also overlay each other and at the same time accommodate just enough room to fit each rib in it’s own specific location.   I would need another semester to accurately draw this spine the way I wanted it, something is going to have to give, and it did, as was evident in the lower half of the spine, the lumbar got too confusing, became so condensed I had too much spine left, so they became much more generalized, to my disappointment.    I also had to very little time to complete the left half the body, which I guess was fine to me, since I thought it would be a neat gesture to see the right half shaded with so much contrast, then to see the left half fade into a general outline.  Besides, I was happy with the progress that I had made on the ribs, bone shading and spine shading.

The Skeleton Cont. III

After some slight modifications from Amy (the angle of the femur, which I’m so thankful she corrected, as it gave the drawing so much more emotion and flow)

I began on the spine, carefully numbering each as I completed them, squinting, finding the necessary line to draw, looking to my easel, forgetting what the line looked like, looking back at the skeleton, counting down from the top vertebrae to find the line in question, then placing the line on the page.  This became pain stakingly slow, as I was quite a distance from the model.  A voice in my head started to grow louder and louder (maybe it’s best you come in on your own time and then you can draw from a closer perspective)  bad news, as I commute about an hour every day to school.  Mondays and Wednesdays are out of the question, print lab duties, and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays my Fiancés would love to see her lesser half.  So I avoided finishing the spine, noticing the days left to work on this drawing were dwindling fast, I had to focus on other parts of the body, hips, arms, ribs, femur, scapula (one that I was particularly proud of) and foot.  If I could just draw the lines, I could begin the shading process that I wanted to use to make that skeleton fall right off the paper with.

The Skeleton Cont. II

            After finally getting my board setup and the paper bought I stared at the skeleton for some time thinking about the best way to begin this adventure.   I decided that I will have to roughly map out all the key body parts, head, torso, spine, hips and legs to make sure that it all fits within the paper and doesn’t come too close to the edges, the last thing I want is this six foot skeleton to appear to be crowded within the confines of his own existence, especially with his cocked leg, and his right arm dropping as if he wad his own swagger, he looked confident, he looked comfortable.  I reflected back to my past drawings and what had worked and what hadn’t.  Sometimes I start drawing, and get so involved I don’t take a step back to see how it looks, and what’s worse is that if it doesn’t look right, I won’t change it, I’ll try to sketch or draw around it, as if telling a lie and trying to make myself believe in it, pushing and drawing, sketching, scratching, getting deeper and deeper as I go, with no way out.  What do they say the difference in good art and bad art is?  Good art is finished and well thought out, bad art is hastily thrown together.  Might have been Duchamp or maybe even Grant Wood.  At any rate, I came to the conclusion that I need to start this drawing strong, from the foundation.  The curve of the spine must be exact; the angle of his shoulders must replicate the same heaviness that is on the skeleton’s arm, as it comes towards the viewer.  This will be the first thing I want the viewer to see.   His stance should be matter of fact, his legged lifted as if he was a walking advertisement for Captain Morgan’s Rum.  With the foundation of this awesome structure in place, I could now focus on the biggest challenge of this drawing, erecting the column of this vessel, the spine.