This is an image for my new class: digital imaging. It is basicly a Photoshop/Illustrator class. The assignment is sort of like one I had at Luther last year but I really didn't do all to great at it this time I used a picture I found on the internet of Neuschwanstein Castle and a picture that I took last year at Wyalusing State Park in Wisconsin. I used a light filter on it to make it look like twilight and to help make the pictures blend a little better. The coolest thing I discovered is by using the magic selection tool which selects things sort of magically I was able to place the foreground trees from the background in front of the castle. It's pretty cool because most of the time I can only ever get it to grab impossibly small areas or the whole image but by playing with the tolarance back and forth I was able to make larger selections. I know what I just said doesn't make anysense to anyone even those savvy to Photoshop but that is why I will fall back on what I just said. It works sort of magically

Random Thoughts work

A year ago now I had an internship with Random Thoughts Entertainment, an online game company. Some of my work can be seen now in their latest release, Crossfire, Dungeons. Here is some of the images from that. I made a Pike-man, a Dwarf with a blunderbuss, and a dwarf with a huge axe. If you want to play this game or any of their games they are free and you can find them at: http://www.randomthoughts.net/home.html Anyway I should have some fresh stuff to put up with the Succubus model I am working on now. For some reason her top wont stay on and she's showing her goods off.

Dragon slaying 2

Just a few more images

Dragon slaying

It has been a while a guess. Some people have expressed longing for more of my work. Okay not really but I figured it was time I showed off this work that took up a few weeks of my life. My wife is a choir director and she has inherited a Madrigal dinner from her predecessor. She did a very good job and part of that was due to adding a play to the dinner. The play called for a Dead Dragon to be Dragged-in. This is my contribution to the dinner. The dinner was over a month ago but before I had a chance to take some photos it got stuck away in back stage to be used later for another project down the road. Here it is it is probably 8 feet long from end to end. It is made of foam liner for couch cushions. The tale is stuffed with cotton batting and the torso is framed with card board. The bottom has felt to make it silent when dragged. The Horns are made out of Paper mache. This was a fun project and I will have to do more prop work in the future. Anyway be sure to post on my blog what you think.

Final Life Drawing

Just a cropped image of my final drawing for Life drawing. I am quite proud of it and I am really happy to be done with classes. I think I am ready for a well deserved brake.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt did a lot of self portraits. I am not quite as vaine as him so I am not quite as well practiced. This is one I did for my life drawing class just tonight. The scanner kind of washed it out so I will probably resubmit this to my blog at the end of this week. It looks like I kind of turned my head a little while I was drawing. Either that or my face does look that funny (that was an invite to make comments on my blog, so do it there and not in email.) I also only did this in 20 minutes so I should think that I could do better with more time.

Life drawing my own extremities

I drew my own hands and feet for this assignment. The ten minute drawings are obviously more hastily done but I feel they turned out better.

A progression in Life Drawing

This assignment shows a progression in drawing. The assignment was to show 2 drawings in three of four steps and one of course shows all four steps to making a complete drawing. I limited my self to 15- 20 minutes for each drawing which meant I was allowed 5 minutes per drawing per step. Thus I think they look a little rougher than I could have other wise have made them.

Life drawing 15 and 30 minute drawings.

These are done using Virtual pose. It's a really helpful tool to have.

Color Theory Transparent colors

I, like most anyone else could have guessed what happens if you place one color transparency over another. I didn't realize before that the color that comes out is determind by which color you place on top. So have a look at this assignment. The label is telling which color is on top.

Demo Reel 2009 #2

I reworked my scene for my demo reel. I haven't had a chance to rerender the liche yet but the building I made longer so it didn't feel quite as zoomy. I also added a little atmosphere to make it a little bigger feeling. I am getting there slowly. I imagine in years to come I will be doing things that will just blow this stuff away. I hope so anyway.

Color Theory fun: the flip side

Here is another fun Color theory assignment. This one the colors in the center should look like they are the same though they are really different. I did well at this assignment I feel but lets see what you think.

Subscribe to this blog

So, your already following this blog and many of you get emails updating you on what the blog is doing. So what's the next step in dedication to my blog (or what's the next thing I'm going to demand of you.) Well now I have something new. It's called an RSS feed. RSS means Really Simple Syndication (maybe not but it works for me.) It's a form of publication that allows someone to get updates in their personal news source. You just click on the Icon found on the right side of the blog. Look at the image to the left and above to see where to find it. It will take you to a page that looks like the second image. Under "Subscribe Now " in the upper left hand corner. Just click on the news source you use and it will take you to a set up for your news source. I use iGoogle and I find it very helpful. Anyway thanks for supporting my blog. I hope you will subscribe to my syndication.

The Skull

the profile of the skull I had fun with Conte. Conte is a crayon for adults. The hard part is it doesn't have a sharp tip. As far as I know the only way to sharpen it on a piece of sand paper. So by the end of working on this drawing I was ready to do something else.

Color theory fun

Look at the colors at the center of each blotch are they the same or different. Color theory is fun for this reason. I am sadly enjoying this class more than life drawing although my strength is in drawing the human figure. Well come and leave some comments on my blog and hey lick at some of the adds and maybe click on something that interest you.

These are a few new drawing for my life drawing class.

Here is a charcoal and conte crayon I drew last night for my Life Drawing class. I used a drawing paper that was a blue gray and really added a new tone to my drawing.

The Torso

Not quite as proud of these two as I am of others. Here I used pencils, charcoal, and white conte crayon. Tell me what you think.

Figure study of the lower extremities.

Drew this with a set of pencils my father got me for Christmas years ago. I never used to use pencil sets. I would just draw with a #2 mechanical pencil. It's really a lot of fun to play around with. I look forward to doing more of this. Sunday I will have another assignment for the torso. After that I will work with the hand and feet. I wonder at what point in this class we will start drawing models?

This is not an art related post. As many of you know or could at lease guess, I am currently unemployed. I came to a decision recently to reenlist in the army National Guard for at least one more year and pursue a full time job as an administrator. I have enjoyed my time in the military, plus I just need a job, plus it pays really well for someone not trained in admin per say. My only real worry is that my schooling will be affected. My only real conflict is that I have to pass my PT test (ie. run.) I have always hated running. I could give you all sorts of scientific reasons why you shouldn't run. I could give you personal reasons why I shouldn't run. But it is a standard for the army and I must pass it.
So all of this week I have run. I found a program on the internet that is supposed to help you get trained in just 4 weeks. The first week you run a 1/2 mile and walk the rest of two miles and every week after you add one more half mile to the total run, subtracting a half from the walk. I walked from my front door to the track (exactly a 1/2 mile away) at the High School in my home town. Starting on Monday morning I ran 1/2 mile and walked 2 miles. Tuesday the same except it felt a little better. Wednesday I added an extra half a lap to my run. Thursday, I ran my 1/2 mile than ran the lengths of the track and walked the curves. This adds up to running 1 mile. This morning I ran my 1/2 mile ran my lengths and added one more full lap around the track. This adds up to a mile and 1/4. I am done for this week but I am going to keep on this program the week of Thanksgiving. If I can do it through Friday of next week than that will be a true test to my commitment.
I feel that the change I made to get better was nothing more than a new mantra to say to myself while I was running. It used to be "I hate running," or "this is torture" or "I can't breathe" now I tell myself "I love to run." I know that it's not true and in fact is sarcasm, but I hope that soon it might be true.
I hate to give up a hate of something. I am a pretty positive guy and so when I have something I detest it really becomes the focal point of all my aggression. I think that, that is a healthy way to be. So it's like giving up an old pare of shoes, giving up something you hate. Your familur with it you know all it's flaws. You are comfortable dispite that it is no longer good to hang onto it. In the case of the shoe, you should really get rid of the shoes once your big toe is hanging out of it. With the thing that you hate, you might realize that there is something to be gained by no longer hating it.
I still think there are healthier ways to exercise but as I said it is an army standard and thus I have to do it and I might even start to enjoy it.