Sculptris Test

I haven't really done much with 3d software. Strike that, I've done a whole lot with 3d software, notably Simply 3d 2 for Windows 98 when I was a kid. But it wasn't a very powerful software, but I did manage to use it far, far past its designed boundaries. Apart from that one, I hardly touched 3d programs.

When it finally stopped working with Windows XP being unable to run it, I tried to look for an alternative. I did try Bryce 3d during the same time but it wasn't even as useful as Simply 3d 2. I tried 3d Studio Max and Lightwave but they were really difficult and alien. I was amused that it took me literally 30 minutes to figure out how to input a cube into Lightwave. There was another software, an indie one that my dad bought me for way too much money. I forgot what it was called, it was specifically designed for amateur animators. I think it was called Hash 3d. I made a couple of small things, but I couldn't really animate very well. It was a whole lot of work.

Later on when open source software was a thing, I tried Blender and was old and patient enough to follow tutorials and make a few things. It also included some sculpting options, but the version I tried way back when, the sculpting only effected the parallax occlusion on the bumpmap. Maybe not? Trying to build things in mesh was terribly difficult and time consuming.

So now software has advanced so they are much more understandable to an artist. We didn't got to art school to learn how to use complicated scientific tools like Lightwave. I found this new program called Sculptris, a free one from the Zbrush people. I think Zbrush's sculpting is similar too. But this type of 3d sculpting program is much much more intuitive. They do have their limitations. (It's impossible to make a hole for example.) It's very easy to make something that will break the software. You can make a lumpy claggy mess in 2 seconds that will crash the software. But anyway, I had a go and made these things!

Some sort of scull, a green frog and some sort of spiky red frog. They all took an hour or two, without any references.

Minenhåndværk Slot

This is a building I made on a non-cheat vanilla multipayer Minecraft server. I'm using client-side shaders mods to take nice pictures. I took inspiration from Danish castles and palaces, although I couldn't really replicate the colors due to resources. The inside is mostly hollow though. This is something artistic right? Should I be too embarrassed to put it on my art-blog? Maybe.

East of the Girl West of the Bear 3

This is more images from the same book. I've gone for fully rectangle images without paper showing through. The other ones had different shaped edges, because illuminated manuscripts would often just be ornimentation without any backing color or image. But it is difficult erasing pencil instead of painting over it; it just gets gummed up in the sandier paint.

Diver & Mermaid

I started this painting in 2013. I left it unfinished for a long while. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it is because I was using a large watercolor paper pad cover as a backing board, and when I painted it the board went all bobbly. After that I bought a proper panel board for painting and this one was left there. I noticed it and thought I could finish it in a day so I did! It's a painting based on a sketch, found earlier in this blog, where a guy in an old timey diving suit is improbably jamming music with a mermaid under the water. She does have one tit showing, but I don't think it's too risqué. Although, she is enjoying playing that old timey woodwind very much. Anyhow, enjoy.

New Fonts!

I created two fonts for the book. I couldn't find a font that was quite right. Usually the spacing in each font, even ones based on illuminated manuscripts, are too large and modern to look similar to originated illuminated manuscripts. The kerning and spacing is particularly hard to get correct, and there are probably a few errors still remaining. But the result is still pretty good. I made this by writing on paper with a calligraphy pen. Then I scanned them in. Once in digital form, I used Inkscape to trace the bitmap image and turn them into vector shapes. Then I used Birdfont to turn the vector shapes into a font! Voila! C'est me font neveaux! I don't know how to speak French.

East of the Girl West of the Bear 2

Here are more images I made for the East of the Moon West of the Sun book. On the Heron image, something strange happened. I was using a neon-orange paint in the sky and water to mix and the scanner was unable to pick up the color! It just came out as off-white. The Heron's sky should look a little more like dusk. I might be able to adjust the image digitally to look more like the original.

Wedding Invitation

I made this image as a wedding invitation to my own wedding earlier this year. The different flowers represent our genetic heritage. With Hymen in rabbit form.

Gothic Batmobile

So a new Batman game was released recently and I was watching some videos of it. It has a lot of driving around in another new batmobile. Since the Christian Bale Batman films, the Batmobile looks really weird to me. Dumb even. It suffers from lazy CG concept design-itis, like the Michael Bay Transformers did. You look right at it, a still photograph even, and you can't see anything. I made a simulation of what I see when I look at the new Batmobiles to demonstrate. (1st image)
I took it upon myself to design something truly Gothic for Batman. (Neo-gothic Revival to be exact) A Gothic Batmobile. (2nd image)

The Artiſan

This is designed to look a bit like an old etching. This is a kitsch reference of something you see fleetingly in a Studio Ghibli film. Can you guess which one?

East of the Girl West of the Bear

  I've decided to pick up the East of the Moon West of the Sun again, or was it West of the Moon East of the Sun, or something else. I've changed all the birds and kept it to strictly a 13th century Scandinavia theme. Each bird represents the four winds (East, West, South & North) which the girl has to go and talk to to find the troll castle. I've also surrounded each bird with seasonal dietary things that with which I'd think a 13th century Scandinavian might be familiar. These images are going to be compiled together to be used in a book. The title of this post is sort of a working-title, maybe it'll be changed into something different or the traditional title.