Zombie time!

Well, after a month or so of other distractions, I am finally getting back here. I created a zombie head in the process of following a tutorial by Ryan Kingslien at zbrushworkshops.com.  I had gotten quite a bit done on the body as well, but at the end of the day just didn't like it so I am going to have another crack at the body when I get a chance. But here is my version of the head. And I learned a lot in the process which is really the whole point. I should add that I am particularly proud of the ears! They were the best I've done so far, I think.

Everything has to start somewhere...

I decided to create a few base meshes for starting points. ZBrush lets you use something it calls ZSpheres to create a base from which to sculpt. I have a few others I made, but this is the best, and it's also getting close to Halloween, so I figured it was fitting. These ZSpheres will eventually be given a surface and that is what will be sculpted to look more like a real spider, including the eyes, which are not in this model.

Not textured yet, but …

here is the latest practice piece. I spent a lot of time this weekend learning more about the program and I want to try texturing this fellow with a feature, called Spotlight, in the program that allows for easier texturing. But for now, here is the sculpt.

New sculpt

New head. I think for the next one I'm going to try to work on texture maps for a bit more realism. The eyes are done in the style of real world sculpture, but I want to eventually get to the point where I am doing photo realism with it.

Figure sculpting practice

Here are a few new views of a bust I made in ZBrush this morning. I fixed the contrast on them a bit in Photoshop afterward.

Really love the new version of ZBrush

Pixologic just came out with Revision 2 of ZBrush 4 the other day and it is better than before. It has some very nice features that help me overcome the issues I was having in the old one such as stretching of geometry.

Here is a new 3d sketch I did, in a few different views. I don't think I would want to have to whip this guy as he looks a little rough.

3D!

Here is a little head I created in ZBrush 4. It's more of a 3d sketch than any kind of finished piece. I'm hoping that my 3d work will help my drawing and that the drawing will help the 3d.  I am going to try to start putting up a mix of sketches that I've done on paper and things I've done in 3d in Zbrush and other programs.

Overdue!

This first is one that I created from a rough sketch I did awhile back. I retraced the sketch and added details and then color in Photoshop.

The next three are sketches I did from photos in a book on gunfighters.

Somewhere else ...

Did this one earlier this week and decided to add color. I'd like to do another of the same place, but with people.

 

Having fun!

New Logo!

I was looking at different artwork of other artists and noticed how this one guy had what I would almost consider a logo- it was his last name in a box- on each of his artworks.  So I sat down and played around with ideas and came up with the following:
 
I'm going to start putting that somewhere on my drawings, most likely at one of the bottom corners, though depending on the picture I may try to be sneaky and work it into the image itself.

Thoughts of the past and some new sketches

I was sitting at the full service station here in Hillsboro on Tuesday, filling up the vehicle I take on my afternoon route. It was some crazy temp over 100° and for some reason I kept thinking about a watermelon patch. This particular patch I drew here doesn't actually exist, but while sitting there, I kept picturing watermelons and thinking of people back home and of the past. It's strange how we appreciate, as adults, people and things which are gone, and which we didn't appreciate as much as kids, while they were still right there. So when I got a chance, I created the following color sketch of the patch in my mind.

The rest of these are selected from the many I've done in the evenings recently, as practice. I tend to draw what comes to mind, and also use reference at times (the insect pictures I've included, for example).