Figure Drawing Class quick sculpts

Check it out, another post! And it hasn't even been a geological epoch. It's like I'm a responsible blogger or something.

 It's been a while since I've gotten to do real figure drawing. Over the last couple of years I've been doing lots of figurative stuff from imagination and reference, but nothing beats a live model. This spring term I've been taking Michael Parker's advanced figure drawing at BYU; it's been a blast and a revelation; I'm learning a ton. 

Traditional figure drawing uses traditional media, usually a waxy conté crayon or a chalky NuPastel. However, Mike has encouraged us to experiment with different media and has been very supportive of doing some of my work digitally. Here are a couple of Zbrush sculpts done live in class these last few days:

60 Minute head sculpt from sphere. Lighting matched to model.

20 Minute hand sculpts (+10 minute zsphere armature).

Loosening Up

Today in class Chris Thornock had us do an exercise inspired by the thoughts of Jillian Tamaki, who believes that one of the best ways to improve professional work is to use personal time to experiment with art. She believes sketchbooks and personal work should be a safe place to experiment and make mistakes. If you don't worry about who's going to see your work, your mind is freed up to try out ideas and take risks it wouldn't under pressure.  Now every week we have an hour to experiment and just make what we will, with no expectations to meet.  Afterward, we can apply the new ideas we found through experimentation to higher pressure projects.

The image above was my experiment for today.  I forgot my paints so instead I played in photoshop lol :)   For our last assignment I had scanned some paintstrokes and textures, so I mixed those in new ways and pulled in some old reference photography I had shot for intro to 3d Animation a couple of years ago.  It was kind of fun, so I spent some time afterward as well.  I'm excited to see what future sessions bring, though I may or may not post them here.

Twu Wuv

I can't think of a better way to do a 100th post . . . :)

On the 27th of December my sweetheart and I were married, sealed for eternity in the Manti, Utah LDS Temple! I feel so blessed to know I will be spending this life and the next with my very best friend.  It's been a blast so far— meeting each others' families, creating our new home, Power Rangers and Avatar marathons, sugar, sugar, sugar, and it turns out she has more Strongbad memorized than I do :)  I love you Emily <3

An olde experiment

This was a piece from last . . . fall?  2d Design Class.  Methinks . . .

The subject is James Goldberg, a BYU professor who is highly active in the local and Mormon art communities.  His other credentials include alsoplus being a way cool guy :)  He has the best gestures, I was sketching him all the time in class lol.  He was a good sport, and very kind to allow me to do the painting.  Thanks again James!

An Announcement :)

Most people never even get to see an angel, but this Saturday one agreed to marry me :)

Nerdy jokes aside, I am so absolutely blessed :)  Emily is my best friend in the whole world, and I am so psyched to spend all eternity with her :)

So here's the story:  We hiked Bridal Veil Falls with some of our best friends, who were of course all in on the plot :}  At the top, near the falls, we found an abandoned guitar and proceeded to "search" for the owner.  Of course, no one claimed it, as the guitar had been provided by my sister and planted by our cousin Joseph lol :)  Finding a dry spot, we opened up the case to look for some kind of identification.  We found a capo, a tuning pipe, a guitar stand, and my roomate Garrett Parker "found" a camera.  Supposedly fiddling with it, he began filming :)

(sorry about the noise, waterfalls tend to . . . make it. lol :) My buddy Jameson and I did our best to tone it down)

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Lol afterwards, as we were both totally soaked, Emily's roommate Jayne presented emily with a change of clothes she had smuggled on the hike and the two of us completed the evening alone together at The Roof restaurant in Salt Lake City, then with a walk around Temple square.

Next to our table in the roof restaurant (image re-composited from 2 photos
in the same spot to compensate for flash lighting on window.  sometimes
it's convenient to be a nerd lol)

Dichotomy

Otherwise Entitled "The Great and Spaceship Building" lol

Ok, I got a wild hair and thought I might do a "sci-fi/futuristic" interpretation of a Book of Mormon story :) This is "Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life" (which the curios reader may find online for free here), if it had been written in a parallel universe by Isaac Asimov.

This was my final for 2d Design last semester, which is ironic because the piece includes some decidedly 3d elements.  The faces, rod, and arm are Nextengine 3d scans of my face, arm, and a dowel, then incorporated into the final image.  The Spaceship in the background (representing the great and spacious building) is partially painted, but mainly cobbled together from pictures I've taken of Las Vegas Casinos and LaVelle Edwards Stadium at BYU (the Vegas pictures were from a Dinosaur conference for work, I wasn't there gambling lol).  Since the Great and Spacious Building represents wickedness in the vision, I thought it would be appropriate for them to have an open Colosseum on the ship's deck for futuristic sci-fi gladiator matches. Hence the football stadium.  No offense, BYU ;)

Helaman 5

Prismacolor and sharpie pen, embellished in photoshop :)