Meat House

[meat]

Since it's a weekend, I got to spend more time - way, way too much time - on finishing this up. You don't want to know just how small a percentage of total time was on actual painting, and how much more went into positioning, warping, and smoothing over the seams... but they're dragon scales, so they were fun. 

[VoodooMama]

The origami study is pretty cool! Love the lighting and texture!
Awesome creatures by the way!

[alexdanila]

Nice dragon scales texture. Did you use the offset option in Ps?

[meat]

Client work took over my life. Although I can't help but wonder if I should've taken a few hours off client work each day to maintain and build this daily habit I have always wanted to have, or is that not worth delaying a paying client's work even further...?

VoodooMama: Thank you!

alex: Yes I did use the Offset function in Photoshop for the scale tile. Are there other ways to make repeatable seamless tiles?



Countdown of 30/30 : flint rocks

[Fedodika]

Your creatures are pretty dang cool Yen, I think as time goes on you'll be a trend setter ;) your stuff is very... "you."

[meat]

29/30 - granite; granite is hard, and difficult, and stupid. This blur-thing took ... hours. There's really no other point in posting it, than keeping record. So, sorry you wasted time and bandwidth loading this page just to see this. It's a daily, I have to. POST-N-RUN

[meat]

28/30 - cobblestone; yup. What was this? 2 hours? Not including looking for ref photos? I had no idea how to go about this either, just like last night. I think I'm on the right track so far though. Now it's just get stones done, bring up what's between, and set the bevel. Just time, that very precious commodity in short supply because how easily it is squandered mindlessly every second of a day. Like pearls dropped by a vain sultan, rolling down long marble steps, and never to return again. Am I compensating for uploading this record-keeping-purpose-only crap with pretty poetry? Maybe?

[meat]

27/30 - this was... dolomite limestone tile. Jerusalem Stone. Supposedly quite white with many but slight tint variations, buuuuuut, I sort of deviated from that. A lot. So now it's just a colorful stone tile. Looks nice, if I do say so myself. Also took... 5 hours. At least. It's past 2am, and I started at least by 9pm. Definitely do not like how many hours this took, but one can only stand so many really bad looking ones, before one is driven to make something look nice to save ones soul. 

So now my soul is saved, but my sleep is not. Alas. One can't have everything. 

[meat]

26/30 - Staying up last night, when I already wasn't feeling good, just made me feel even worse all day today. Not worth it. So taking it easy today and counting daytime project as daily.

[Hozure]

Pretty nice creature designs, though I do wonder if you can integrate the variety of elements you have more...seamlessly(?). Personally I think the different parts of the skull flower creature (the moss versus the petals versus the skull itself, etc.) don't flow as well because the transition between each other is pretty sudden and out of nowhere. If there were moss hanging from its underside, I dont see the indication of that passage of time anywhere else on its body, especially not on its pristine skull.

But im just being nitpicky. Looking forward to seeing more, man.

[meat]

Hozure: I see what you mean… I’ll give the blending a try with some other creatures J
 
25/30 - I think I missed a daily, but this weekend is going to be rather busy, so I have to count day work as daily instead of making an extra, dedicated daily study/tile for the next few days: 

[meat]

24/30 - mossy rocks; Stayed up again to 2am to do a daily. Funny thing is I was about to give up and just do some smudges of green on top of several not-working ground base, then go to sleep. The ground layer wasn't working at all because I just didn't have enough brain power to comprehend how to make a shale flake ground. In the end I just made a generic ground, and focused, sort of, on rendering the mossy patches. It's kind of therapeutic while rendering the moss. This tile repeats only side ways, kind of like a path in a game where you play looking down directly from the top. 

 

[Bookend]

I'm greatly enjoying the texture working, very nice. You've really improved a lot since the last time I was here. :D Awesome man!

[meat]

Bookend: Thanks! Yeah when there's time to spare (or not) they get to be nicer... otherwise, they end up like stick figures like this, lol! 

23/30 - Birch tree. Initially I wanted to do planks, but birch planks are seriously boring and grain-less. Or at least my reference images looked like that. Besides, birch is most unique on the outside anyway, so I ditched the plank tile idea and went for the skin. Still can't get further than a basic base when I only spend an hour on these things, but I really can't stay up to 2am every night to do a daily and then not wake up until 10 to start my work day all zombie-like all the way until lunch/breakfast. That's flipping the proper priorities upside down! But still gotta put this spilled milk square here now for record purpose... and throw self in bed hopefully knocking my head on the bed post in the process for instant sleep to max that 6 hours. =_=+ ... I'll probably wake up at 10 again.

Also, after years and years of work place induced bad posture induced back pain, I finally went and bought a better - or at least new - chair. It's not those ergonomic chair that is _really_ good for you, but it feels nice to not have to shift my weight around every 30 minutes to juggle which body part to hurt now. 

[neopatogen]

Sounds tough, lack of sleep isn't easy to manage. And sacrificing important things to do other things as well.
Not sure if I could help so just good luck with what you do!
Btw what is your purpose with those textures? Apply them to creatures or props later? Are they just randon ones or you have some system in mind?
A good chair is a big deal, as for shifting weight, it's actually a good idea to move a bit at least for several seconds after each 30 mins or so of sitting, for the back and all the body, and it must not slow down your work if that's just several seconds, hopefully.

[meat]

Sounds tough, lack of sleep isn't easy to manage.  And sacrificing important things to do other things as well.
Not sure if I could help so just good luck with what you do!
Btw what is your purpose with those textures? Apply them to creatures or props later?  Are they just randon ones or you have some system in mind?
A good chair is a big deal, as for shifting weight, it's actually a good idea to move a bit at least for several seconds after each 30 mins or so of sitting, for the back and all the body, and it must not slow down your work if that's just several seconds, hopefully.

Hey neo! The purpose of these dailies is just digital painting practice, nothing more. I choose to do most of them in tile mostly for fun and maybe in the future recycle them for who knows what. I already broke my daily chain though for ... 4 days... . It sucks so much because I really want to become one of those people who can consistently do something - morning warm ups or going to the gym weekly or etc, and I choose to do it with daily digi paint practice.

[Jun]

 It sucks so much because I really want to become one of those people who can consistently do something - morning warm ups or going to the gym weekly or etc, and I choose to do it with daily digi paint practice.

It's just another skill, keep practicing. If you fuck up and manage to be consistent for 5 days, set your next goal to be at least 6 days. Keep doing that and you'll be fine.  
Also, two things that I've found help me personally are
1.) Forcing myself to do nothing.
This sounds dumb, but works. When I get the urge to mess around/play games/procrastinate instead of study/drawing, I just force myself away from the PC and sit down on the floor. Just..do nothing. It's easier for me to force myself to do nothing, than to do something. After a few minutes, I get bored and start drawing again.
2.) Draw a line.
Another thing that helps me a lot, is just drawing a line. I find I have trouble _starting_, but once I get going I can go for hours. So I just sit down and draw a few lines, that usually gets me going too.  

Just my two cents, keep up the work!

[meat]

It's been a while, and it's been a rough couple years. I want to keep an art blog/sketchbook thread again. So far everywhere else has been too un-straightforward and complicated by association with a bigger organization. In the end, this here is a better place to be than other forums I've been trying. 

###

Recently I sat in a talk by Goro Fujita, and his energy and story really inspired me to do something like him - namely the daily painting that aim to tell a story or a mood. For me, I think daily anything will do for now, but sure won't hurt to aim for an implied story/emotion.

[Shinkasuru]

These last few studies you posted are beautiful renderings. You talk about telling a story and I feel these paintings all have a story hidden within them. They are all wonderful, but I am especially struck by the middle one with the origami and the scribbled note. I have been thinking a lot lately about telling a story with my art. I'm reminded of Michael Hampton discussing how to tell a story through a gesture drawing. In the past that is something I have missed in my art work. My medium was sculpting and I would come up with these interesting creatures and characters, but aside from looking "cool," none of them had a back story. I think that is very important when creating anything, be it a sculpture, a still life painting, or a concept environment.

I like your simple use of primary colors. My only question (and not yet a criticism) is for the painting with the small table and two chairs, was it your intention to not develop the background? I don't think I mind it since the table and chairs is the focal point; however, after looking at the painting for a minute, it started to look to me like the table and chairs with the stone block beneath are floating in space. What that a look you were going for?

I really like the solitary pink flower in the small vase. It sets the mood and creates wonder in my mind. Who will be sitting down to enjoy these hot drinks? Two lovers? A husband and wife of 50 years? Or two friends about to bicker of who has achieved greater heights in life.

Your paintings are subtle but sharp with detail and overflowing with story. Nice studies!

[Fedodika]

glad youre back my curious friend, you might remember me... ;)