Another Daily/Five exercise, despite running at 60% normal system RAM (hooray video card RAM), and having regular ArtRage crashes when I do too much at once. All strictly ArtRage, all started without intentional subject matter.
45min.
1hr.
30min.
40min.
30ish min. No clue what the fuck this is. Don’t like it, but as stated previously, it’s good to show work we don’t like on occasion as well.
I’m having a not-so-stellar morning, so I’m keeping my words brief (you may all breathe a sigh of relief now).
Did something different yesterday. Decided to mash-up my “daily” piece with my old “fives” exercise. So, you get 5 pieces for the daily, but without the 5min restriction. All of the following were done strictly in ArtRage 3 Studio Pro, using just the fill, paint roller, palette knife, and eraser tools (the only exception being the sig with the ink pen). Past that, it was an exercise in layer work and manipulation. Not were started with any intended subject. Each piece can be clicked for the full-size version.
8 minutes.
15-17 minutes.
50 minutes.
20 minutes. Don’t really care for this one, but I think it’s as important to share the pieces that we don’t care for as it is to do so with the ones we do, on occasion.
25 minutes.
I’ll leave the commentary to you guys– having just aborted a piece of bad RAM from my system after troubleshooting why my computer was insta-crashing, my brain is fried. Trade off? Functional system, but I’ve gone from 2.5Gig to 1.5Gig of RAM. At least RAM is cheap… well, for a 5+yo motherboard, that is… LOL.
I started messing around with Alchemy back in October. Here are a little over a dozen pieces from my first stabs at working with it, with times ranging from 2-8 minutes a piece (most were under 4). All of the following can be clicked for much larger versions:
Just in those first few pieces, you can see where I’m starting get comfortable with it. Of those, everything was under 5 minutes. After that, I opted to work strictly in grayscale, rather than with color, to push the starkness more…
Obviously, I’m working with a lot of mirror mode here. Be forewarned– mirror mode isn’t exact, in that it will often do a stark color on one side, but a somewhat translucent reflection of it. At least, that’s been my experience with much of it. Then again, it forces some uniqueness to each side, which isn’t a bad thing.
If you haven’t figured out yet, I’m more comfortable with working entities than I am objects or scenery. I think that, when you’re learning something, sometimes the quickest way to get a starting grasp of it is to attempt to do the things you’re most comfortable with first.
At this point, I got comfortable enough to start working with asymmetry, and as such, I dropped the mirror. The following 3 pieces are more open-flow, with the intention of being quick thumbnailing:
None of these were drawn with starting intention. I didn’t go in saying, “hey, I’m going to draw this robot/person/whatever”. Rather, much like some of my speedpainting in ArtRage, I just let the shapes define themselves, and build upon what starts to form in my mind’s eye, so to speak.
For who are now curious to use it, you can find it here, and it’s FREE. This means you have no excuse not to at least download it and attempt to try it out.
Finally, watch the videos on the site. They’re a really good live demonstration of how to use the program, and also illustrate that the program is intended to foster creativity, starting drawings/ideas that can then be imported to other programs, not to create finished drawings.
Playing around with some new techniques in ArtRage 3. Roughly 2hrs. 5-6 minutes of touch ups in Photoshop CS4 afterwards (minor layer filtering, a bit of brush use for air contours and ambient cloud lighting).
What is it? I don’t know. Something mechanical, flying through the air. The rest is up to your imagination.
I think I’m finally getting to the point of being comfortable with ArtRage 3. Here’s today’s daily exercise:
Just fucking around with a wood/shrub sort of being, with a hint of fungi. A little over 2 hours, most of which was playing with layers to push-pull for popping depth and shadow.
The one thing I can think of off the top of my head that I wish AR3 had? Somewhat more advanced transformation options, rather than just the basic rotate/scale/skinny/squat/move.
Now I get to return to working on less ‘cute’/more serious apocalyptic cyberpunkian vampire stuff that’s on my freelance pile.
That’s right. I’m going to put you to good use. YOU CAN BE A PART OF MY ART.
As an artist, much of the time music is heavily played while I’m working on a piece of artwork. Different music can induce different moods, which in turn can be reflected in said artwork. I have a number of good Pandora stations for this, but there’s a certain type of music that I’m lacking.
Some of you may have seen this “trailer” recently uploaded to YouTube:
This is an example of exactly the kind of music I’m looking for.
Sure, there’s a list of a handful of the artists/songs (though the last may be a soundtrack?) that they sampled from the trailer:
AudioMachine – Akkadian Empire
Groove Addicts – Zero Hour
Audio Network – Mars
AudioMachine – Lachrimae (VadoskiN DNB mix)
Wild Rumpus Music – Blame It on the Falling Sky 2.0
John Murphy – The Last House On The Left SCORE
However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I want epic, energetic, combat music. Instrumental, with perhaps a splash of intense choral vocals. Something that, when you close your eyes, your imagination is ripped wide, your body starting to pulse with subtle waves of adrenaline. Again, the video above is a good reference for the type of music I’m looking for.
Here’s what I need from you:
Artist/Composer – Song
There is no limit to the amount of suggestions.
I’m going to take all of the info I’m given, and feed it into seeding a new Pandora station, for playing when working on certain pieces of artwork. Potentially, they may get played while gaming as well, but the art is the important part.
In turn, I’ll present this to you, via Pandora station URL. I’ll likely also list what songs work for me, versus what songs don’t, so as to further refine the station, and to give you a better, more expansive idea of what I’m looking for.
Go. Go forth and bring me your lists. Actively shape and contribute to my creativity.
(The first comment with a new account has to be moderator approved, but any comments after that are auto-approved. Just an anti-spam precaution.)
The last 5 days were put on hold to prioritize a charity piece for short notice. While I won’t be able to disclose the specific children’s charity that it’s for, I’ll at least be able post the picture and give a description once the intended recipient has it given to him. The Mysta Remake/Remodel got backburnered so that I could get that priority done, but I’ll probably finish it up later this week, and post it here with progression details.
Moving along…
I dove back into dailies yesterday. No progression with this one, I’ve got a different lengthy post I’m working on for later today. Without further ado, here’s yesterday’s daily:
Just under 3hrs. Initial background and creature painted loosely in ArtRage, without any base linework used. Then ‘ported it to Photoshop, working around a dozen or so layers of varied filter, opacity, and selective erasing on the creature. Brought in foreground and background cloudiness. Rendered in the wreckage in the background with a couple of my custom brushes. Gave the eyes a touch of bioluminescence. Signed the bugger and called it done.
