Christian's Art Stuff

One beautiful October afternoon...

2009-10-25T18:48:00.001-07:00

Work in progress painting of the river by my parent's house recently.

One Warm Second And Suddenly Gone

2009-10-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

The Good Life

2009-10-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent watercolor I did of my mom's cat Sam, asleep on a chair cushion under the dining room table. (6"x9")

Spoiled cat!

Rainy day 'Shoppin

2009-09-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today was a little rainy and a good day to do some painting. I started this one in the morning and have been working on it off and on all day. I'll probably dive into color tomorrow.

A silver lining

2009-09-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life takes an unexpected turn, like a parting of the clouds on a stormy day. It can be beautiful and exciting, but there's also a comfort in knowing what the weather will do.

Rest of my Spring 09 Salon stuff

2009-05-30T16:23:00.001-07:00

Been busy at work the past couple months - really busy. But I still managed to get to salon quite a few times before it ended in May.

Here are a few more 2-5 minute poses, ball point pen on 18"x24" drawing paper. I took these with my phone's camera so the quality kinda sucks.

Another salon night...

2009-02-19T00:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight I warmed up and was having a decent drawing session, despite it being a male model (not my favorite, in case you couldn't tell from the rest of my entries). But I missed the last hour or so when I got an important phone call.

These are 5 minute poses in ball point pen.

This guy had some weird poses, and a lot of seated poses which are easy to screw up. I think my favorite one is the top-right one on the 2nd page here.

More to come! Thanks for viewing!

Sketchbook and Salon

2009-02-14T14:42:00.001-08:00

Here first is some stuff out of my sketchbook. Medium as always is ball point pen.

I'm trying to play with poses. These are all out of my head, which is probably obvious.

Next is some stuff from drawing salon last week. First are 2-minute poses, 2nd 2 are 5-minute poses, and the last one is more 2-minute poses.

It feels good to get back into the drawing habit after having such a lull. I'm feeling good about my progress but there is a lot of work to do still.

More to come. Thanks for checking out my blog. :)

Been a while, new figure stuff

2009-02-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

So I've gone to drawing salon a couple times in the past few weeks, and have been practicing the figure a bit more.

These were done in Photoshop. I have some okay stuff in a sketchbook too that I'll scan tomorrow.

The 2nd one was drawn without reference. I'm pretty happy with it.

More to come.

Site updated! finally...

2009-01-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to uploading my REAL website to my server tonight.

The reel still won't play properly - Quicktime is giving me grief. But it's a step in the right direction, at least.

www.keepthepenmoving.com

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

After seeing what my brother could do with Colors on Nintendo DS, I decided to give it a try and do some digital painting.

This one began its life on DS, then was brought to Photoshop to add detail. I painted it for my girlfriend Sabrina, who loves fairies, almost as much as chocolate.

Personal site goes live today!

2008-10-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

My personal website finally got up and running this morning. So far only my reel is there, but I have the site built (just have to update the content).

Should be all up and running this weekend!

I'll still update this blog, but my best stuff will go to my site probably.

www.keepthepenmoving.com

Finally done with my reel!

2008-10-13T16:16:00.001-07:00

The last turnaround is finishing up rendering as I type this. Then all I gotta do is throw all of these clips together and cross my fingers! :O

I can't believe it's really done. I actually played TWO Xbox games today!

Hopefully I will get my "real" website online soon and put my reel on that, I don't know if I can post it here.

Yay!

Dinged up

2008-10-06T20:05:00.001-07:00

I spent quite a while dialing in that plate mail texture and denting and dinging everything in Zbrush. Each piece of armor now has 2 image maps (one normal and one ambient occlusion) and an additional 6 procedural textures, for a total of 8 textures each piece, and some even more than that.

I'm pretty happy with the look now. It's not perfect, but short of doing my texturing in Maya I don't know how much closer I'm going to get.

Here is a close up of the armor. (Guess I should give those leather straps some attention...)

Revisiting Joan's armor...

2008-10-06T01:10:00.000-07:00

I've spent a few hours playing with procedurals, trying to dial in this armor. I'm getting close to where I want it now. Adding an image to the background definitely helped the effect. Now if only I could figure out how to keep it from rendering in the background...

Comments welcome of course.

Lit scene

2008-10-05T01:20:00.001-07:00

Here is the candle in the scene. Still tweaking the lighting a bit between crashes (this scene is killing this PC).

Update: Here is the completed scene as of now.

A candle

2008-10-05T00:51:00.001-07:00

This will go in front of the statue.

Stand for statue

2008-10-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

Did this in Zbrush today. I didn't want the statue to be floating.

"done"

2008-10-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well I could add tiny details forever but in the interest of time I had better call this one finished, at least for now.

Time to button things up and slap this reel together finally!

Just about done...

2008-09-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

Only a few final touches left now (like the texture for the flag).

Yay!

new render

2008-09-29T22:46:00.001-07:00

Armor is coming along.

Joan

2008-09-28T13:55:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a model of Joan of Arc based loosely on this painting. I spent a good amount of time yesterday working on a chain mail texture and I'm pretty happy with the results! Here's a render of my progress.

Lastly here is a close-up of the texture, per request.

Thanks for viewing!

Two steps forward, one step back

2008-09-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

Been having computer issues lately that is really hampering my progress.

Nevertheless, here's a "final" render of the devil statue. This render is a low(er) poly model with a high resolution (2K) normal map applied. I'm gonna make a stand for it and stick it next to the pinball table to jazz up the environment a bit.

Still working

2008-09-21T23:46:00.000-07:00

I probably shouldn't have spent this long working on this one model, but it's almost done. Here is the last work in progress shot before it will be.

So close to being finished! Why is the last 5% of the work taking so long?

3rd model coming along...

2008-09-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

This guy's coming along but I wish I were done by now.

I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the anticipation of finishing my game reel is making me impatient!

Drone 2 Update

2008-09-12T16:22:00.001-07:00

Well I'm calling the modeling about done on this guy so I'm moving ahead with the 3rd and final drone, which I will probably sculpt too. All of these guys will be getting a texture (which I will use to make his cape ragged around the edges - transparency alpha map) but I'll do that all at once.

2nd game character coming along...

2008-09-11T20:50:00.001-07:00

This guy is more than half way done now. He'll be finished tomorrow and then it's onto the last one.

From high poly to low poly...

2008-09-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on some low(er) poly game models to show that I actually know how to make models that games can use, not just pretty looking statues for renders.

This guy is based on a concept from the comic book Zecta; I don't know anything about the comic really, I just liked the art. He weighs in at only 3,866 triangles (not quads, actual triangles).

Next I'm gonna do a "medium" resolution game model somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 triangles, and then a "high" resolution one at around 20-25,000.

Thanks for reading, more to come!

Sculpting Touch-ups

2008-09-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

I've decided to revisit and polish up a bust I did in Zbrush a while back, now that I have some portrait sculpture under my belt.

Here's a close to done work in progress. I think I'll probably end up putting this guy on a pedestal next to the pinball table with some candles or something, I dunno. I'll probably slap on some procedural textures too.

3D Pinball Table Almost Done

2008-09-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well I have been working on this project off an on for quite a while now, and it's getting close to completion - finally!

This is a recreation of a classic video game pinball table called Devil's Crush; it's easily the best video pinball game ever made, even 20 or so years later.

Click HERE to see Images of Devil's Crush on Google

The following are my renders:

I have plenty of other stuff to move onto so I am looking forward to calling this one "done".

Looks like I haven't posted any stuff from my sketchbook in a while either - more soon!

More sketches!

2008-07-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

Here's some more stuff from my sketchbook. I've been drawing more lately than I have been in a long time, and I think it's starting to pay off. In only a month or so I've filled about two thirds of an entire book. All were done in ball point pen; in #6 I used a Prismacolor 10% gray, which I thought had a nice effect, but it bled through the paper and onto the next sheet, which sucks.

Hope you like them. More on the way!

Slow News Day

2008-07-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Been working on my portfolio some more lately so not a lot to share. But I did this sketch in Photoshop tonight so why not, eh chief?

Been Mackin

2008-07-08T16:16:00.001-07:00

Sabrina and I were recently turned onto comic artist and watercolor extraordinaire David Mack (google him!), and this is my attempt to copy a couple of his Kabuki paintings. I really love his style; it's a lot like my illustration instructor Thomas Applegate's style, really loose and colorful.

New sketches - Part 2

2008-07-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

And here we have some of my favorite pages from the same sketchbook, also in ball point pen. These were done within the past couple weeks.

Next up, some new watercolor stuff!

New sketches - Part 1

2008-07-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have made a post so I thought I'd start off posting some stuff from my sketch book.

These first pages are sketches I did at my girlfriend's college. I sat and drew people in a quad while she was taking a final. It's pretty funny how freaked out people seem to act when someone wearing dark sunglasses is sitting and drawing on a bench somewhere. Needless to say these were very fast drawings. Medium is ball point pen, my new favorite drawing tool.

Part 2 comin' up!

Still alive... again!

2008-06-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

So this summer I'm taking a figure sculpture class. The following is a work in progress of our final, a semi-nude figure. I wanted to do an approximately 1/6 scale model of a famous sci-fi or fantasy painting. I chose this Luis Royo painting because, well, it fit the criteria and it looks cool!

I have spent about 3 days on it so far. Kinda hard working at this scale but I am LOVING this Roma clay I am using. It's a work-in-progress, but feel free to let me know what you think. =)

Stuff from Life Drawing, Spring 08

2008-05-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

Finally time for a real update!

Here are some of my better drawings from my life drawing class this past term. These aren't the best photos but oh well. A few I have posted before, and then 3 of my best drawings are hanging at school, and I didn't get pics of those darn it! By the end of the term I had really taken to ball point pen of all things, and started to develop a hatching style that has carried over into my sketchbooks. I kinda like it. =)

The one above was the first day of the term in January. My instructor had me give her my best drawing of the day (the one above) so she could hang onto it and use it to compare it to my stuff towards the end of the term to see how far I'd come. I was actually pretty ticked 'cuz I felt that I had an unusually good drawing day and thought I might not improve that much in 4 months.

That's it for now, thanks for viewing!

Speed Sculpt

2008-05-09T00:22:00.000-07:00

I spent about an hour sculpting this in Zbrush, starting with a generic head I made in Modo. And the results... are pretty generic, but it was nice to get to do some Zbrushing again after so long at least!

Still alive!

2008-05-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

This term was such a nightmare I haven't had time to post anything... until now! Well, soon anyways. I have a lot of stuff to photograph/scan from the past couple months, so I'll try to do that this week. Thanks for checking back!

Never done, only due...

2008-03-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

Well I guess I felt a little too sure of how far along I was heading into this past weekend, which resulted in having to scramble all day yesterday (Sunday) trying to get this thing buttoned up. Needless to say I didn't *quite* get this piece to the level of refinement that I would have wanted to achieve, but I'm overall really happy with how it turned out. This is a definite contender for a portfolio piece if I spend a little more time tightening it up.

- insert big sigh of relief here -

Wow what a lot of work this was.

Who're you lookin at?

2008-03-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

Face is getting close to done, but I guess we got an extension 'til next Monday. Nice!

Face off!

2008-03-16T22:57:00.001-07:00

Well it occurred to me last night that my full size sculpture didn't have the same tilt in the face as the maquette, and it had lost a lot of the gesture because of it. So I worked up the nerve and took a large kitchen knife and cut the face off entirely and rotated it slightly - it looks much better now. =)

Here's what it looks like right now. Due in two days; I have a feeling Tuesday night is going to be a long night...

This is taking forever...

2008-03-15T17:46:00.001-07:00

Well I have the skeletal wings completed now. The wire screen is more or less sewn to the PVC "lower arm bone" with very thin metal wire, with a bead of glue along the edges of the screen to keep it from fraying too much. I also used thicker wire for the longer finger bones, which will not only add support but give me a guide to follow when I'm putting on clay.

Okay, back to work!

update

2008-03-13T23:37:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow's Friday already? Ugh.

Portrait midterm underway!

2008-03-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

Fire photon torpedoes!

Wow what a lot of work the full size version of my bat sculpture has turned out to be (and expensive!).

So far I have spent one day hunting for parts and then building my armature (mostly 1/2" PVC and styrofoam, which didn't go exactly as planned but it *should* work), and then most of yesterday blocking in the core form around it. I can't believe how much my hands hurt from working all this clay. =/

More pics tonight.

...and another one down

2008-03-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well I'm not totally satisfied calling this one "finished" but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, at least in profile. Our class won't meet again for about 2 weeks (Spring Break!), when our full size midterm is due. *gulp* At least my instructor likes my design.

Yet another portrait

2008-03-04T01:41:00.000-08:00

Today was our first of two sessions with yet another model in portrait sculpture. After 2 hours of blocking in the head and neck (and double checking all my angles and proportions) I was just starting to be able to add features, and without any drawings to work from there was no way I was going to be able to do much between now and Wednesday's session. Well lucky for me, the afternoon Figure 1 class I sat in on was learning the planes of the face, and they had the same model! So I was able to do some pretty helpful drawings in case I get any spare time to work on it before class on Wednesday, which probably won't happen anyhow really.

I'll post pics of the actual sculpture later in the week.

Just about done...

2008-03-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

Well the maquette is due tomorrow, and since the sun is sinking I thought I'd snap a pic while I still had some decent lighting. This is pretty close to what it'll look like tomorrow, maybe smoothed up a bit (and I'm still tweaking the cheeks). I wish I could spend the rest of tonight making it look even better but I have SO much other homework still to do. College sucks sometimes. =/

A quick digital painting

2008-03-01T01:28:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do a digital painting of a dark, wet and rainy scene. This photo was as good as any so I spent a few hours trying to paint it in Photoshop. So far so good, but I'm tired now.

Oh nevermind those dots in the upper-right, that's my palette; I forgot to hide that.

A pleasant surprise...

2008-02-29T20:19:00.000-08:00

When I got to school today around 1pm, there were some folding tables in the lobby. I didn't think much of them; it's not uncommon for the school to be hosting some sort of event where either pamphlets or food/drinks are served on these sorts of tables. As I was about to leave a few hours later, my brother called to me from down the hall to show me...

Wow! I was quite shocked to say the least (and my name is even spelled correctly!). Nobody told me this was going to happen at all. There are stacks and stacks of these to be handed out at Cogswell's open house tomorrow night, so naturally I stole a couple for myself.

Crazy! =)

More work on the maquette...

2008-02-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

I've added the second arm to my maquette so that the overall shape of the wrists/wings folding near the face reads like a high collar. I also tried to fix the expression but I'm not sure I like the changes now that I'm looking at the older pics. :P

Finished pics coming on Sunday.

Illustration (Fall '07)

2008-02-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

This is work produced in Thomas Applegate's 'Illustration' class at Cogswell. I had the choice of doing either acrylic or watercolor and opted for the latter (my personal favorite wet medium). It was a great class; I wish I had time to do more painting right now. =/

The following three pages were homework assignments while we spent a month or so working on skin tones. I painted from portraits I found in newspapers, magazines - whatever I could find lying around. They are all fast drawings with between 30 and 45 minutes of paint.

This next one was painted from a live model. 2 hours is way too much time to do a watercolor portrait...

These next scans are from a bigger assignment. We had to incorporate what we learned painting from life into our own design. With Christmas coming up I chose to do something that involved Santa Clause, patterned after the Coca Cola ads of the mid 20th century, but with a twist. ;)

sketch

photoshop comp

finished painting

This next painting is a Photoshop study of a life model. The idea was that I would put my practice working with real medium to the digital test, and I was pretty happy with the results! None of the colors used were sample from the photograph.

Lastly is my final project for the class, a "master copy". I chose to do a copy of one of John Howe's watercolor illustrations for Lord of the Rings (because I'm such a Tolkien nut). I estimate I spent about 16-20 hours painting it.

Next I'll be posting some stuff from my current life drawing class, but I'm all scanned out for the night. Thanks for viewing!

Getting caught up...

2008-02-27T20:43:00.000-08:00

Since I was a dummy and never started a blog until now, I thought I'd help kick things off by posting some stuff that I've done recently, starting with pages from my various sketchbooks. Most of these are super fast drawings (1-2 minutes); every once in a while I sit down and start drawing and the next thing I know hours have gone by and I have pages and pages of these. Lately I've been drawing lots of heads, and I mean LOTS of heads. Every spare square inch of every handout I get in class has some kind of face on it. I'm experimenting with different styles right now, trying to find my own.

Next I'll be posting stuff from my Illustration class that I took in the Fall of '07.

Yay clay!

2008-02-27T15:22:00.001-08:00

I thought I'd go ahead and take some better pics of the stuff I have done in my Portrait Sculpture class so far, while I had some decent afternoon lighting coming through the sliding door.

Here are a couple more shots of my work-in-progress maquette (due next Monday). Still has quite a bit of work left to do as well as some notes scribed into the surface to remind me to change things.

I think I captured my trademark pissed off look pretty well.

These heads were done from life, generally a 2-class session with the same model for a total of about 4 hours of total scupting time each (except for #3 which was one 2-hour session).

And finally my fillet head, which didn't quite get done. Cool skull though eh?

Tonight I'll be posting some of my drawings if I can get some decent lighting set up somewhere...

Heads!

2008-02-25T23:11:00.000-08:00

Today I sat in on the beginner figure drawing class so I could go home early. They were learning to draw crude heads quickly, so our model was doing dozens of one minute portrait poses. Rather than waste paper drawing lollipop heads, I decided to try to put more detail into key poses the model was taking over and over again... at least that was the idea. I never got quite the same pose twice so most of these drawings just took on a life of their own. Although the one in the center turned out ok.

2008-02-24T23:11:00.001-08:00

Well I've spent a good amount of time in the past week working on my Portrait Sculpture mid-term project: blending my face with an animal's face (in this case a bat).

Below are my original "thumbnails" and two work-in-progress pics of my maquette that I snapped today while I was working on it; I got a lot done but still have a bit to do...

That's it for now.

My own blog, yay.

2008-02-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

Well I guess with me graduating this year, it's about time I started a blog to post my latest works. Hmm. I'll try to update this as much as I can, so check back!