An experiment in controlled insanity. I thought some ribbons would be nice to help fill the negative space behind her hair, but it just didn’t work in practice.

Sketched on paper, painted with the GIMP, and easily too. It’s really amazing how far this software has come.

I originally drew the lineart for this while on vacation in Japan, and I thought she turned out kinda cute so this past week I took a little time to ink it and color it.

I think I’m officially on a hat kick now.

Finally got around to checking if there was a way to jitter brushes in GIMP, which, of course there is. One thing that has always annoyed me about using digital tools vs. analog ones is that I never really figured out how to get realistic sponge effects. I used to watch Bob Ross on TV and marvel at the ease with which he plastered relatively complex objects like leaves and dirt onto his canvas with nothing more than some simple sponge tapping.

The scene below was whipped up in about an hour. I originally called it “done” after about 20 mins, but then I started messing with the levels a bit, and adding a little detail here, a little detail there, and before you know it time was passing :).

I’ve been doing some modeling in Blender recently, trying to learn the ins and outs of creating real, well-crafted 3D models as opposed to the quick and dirty variety I have made for my 3D shooters. Of course, not having thousands of dollars lying around to throw at modeling software, I am so far simply using the Blender open source modeler. It is surprisingly robust at this point in time, and has come leaps and bounds from where it was the last time I tried to use it. The interface is still somewhat cumbersome, but once you get used to it, good heavens does this software rock.

My reasons for doing this are twofold. The first, and most important, is that it’s fun! I’ve always been awed by some of the simply unbelievably believable models that the more talented artists create. I would love to be able to match them, and while I’m fairly certain I’ll never be quite that good, with a little patience and work I think I could do very well.

The second reason is simply to expand my skillset a little bit. I’ve been putting off moving into full, engine-based 3D games for a long time now, mostly due to laziness and fear of the unknown, and this is one of the major components of making that shift.

The image at left is the model I am currently working on, just trying to learn the ins and outs of the Blender software. Obviously, there is still a bit to do, as the poor girl doesn’t even have hair, but it’s coming along. I’m still up in the air over whether or not I want to model a full body or call it good after creating the bust (in the artistic sense, which is the head, neck, and shoulders). A full body would take an insane amount of time and I suspect I’ll want to move on to new things after the shoulders, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Now if only I could get Blender to render correctly again. I upgraded my kernel today and for some reason her head turns out looking like a marble statue whenever I try to use the color texture.