CTNX!

I went on a brief hiatus this past week because I flew to California to attend the CTN Expo! It was my first year attending the expo and my first time on the west coast, so even though I was still getting work done I stuck to Instagram and Facebook for my updates while traveling. I got to meet a bunch of fantastic artists and was lucky enough to get a few incredibly useful portfolio reviews. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time while waiting around the airport (got some fun sketches below), had some spare time to go see Griffith Observatory. And Thursday before the convention we visited Blizzard's Irvine campus!

The best part for me was getting to be around a lot of people who clearly love what they do. I didn't take many pictures of the actual convention because as it turns out, I'm terrible at taking pictures of events I go to. But it was bigger than I anticipated and I managed to come home with some pretty great prints that I may be doing some practice environments with. 

I tried to do some work in between being at the convention and boarding various planes. Most of it was some more wood sculpts and finally getting my normal maps working properly. I did a hi-res sculpt of my landscape and put it in Unreal just to see what it was looking like, here's the results: 

I won't be able to get into the labs to work on foliage until at least Monday night, so I'm also working on my cabin and getting all the details fixed up for that. Then I can start moving fully into Unreal and putting it all together. I'm excited for how it's coming along though, but deadlines are looming and I'm hoping to have some more filled out screenshots coming in the next few days. 

 

German Village Sketching!

On Tuesday afternoon I wandered around German Village and the Short North with my sketchbook and a few markers, aiming to draw some interesting looking buildings. My goals were to a) draw completely in ink, b) work on my line confidence, and c) try not to look creepy while doing it. My professor gave us a deadline of 15 minutes per building and it would have been easy to just stay around CCAD for this. But I had a great time walking around Schiller Park and sketching these houses. 

Fun fact, if you happen to be in Schiller Park between 2-5pm, there are dogs being walked EVERYWHERE. Good things to know for gesture drawing. 

Those last two houses aren't from German Village. The top one is by Goodale Park and the bottom is an abandoned house by my apartment. I ended up driving around Columbus for 5 hours sketching. What a great way to spend a Tuesday. 

A Break

Time for some good news: I finished my demo reel! It's now on the main page of my site as Environment Reel: Oct 2016. I got some good critique for it and rearranged a few things, and have submitted it for a few possible opportunities. 

Now it's the last day of my Fall Break (and likely the last day I'll have to do absolutely nothing for awhile). Yesterday I tried to step away from the computer for awhile and did some sketching. Not quite my Inktober schedule or prompts, but it was relaxing to just sit and draw what was around me for awhile. 

Sketches of Mr. Otis, the black lab that I was dogsitting this week! 

Unfortunately with my school schedule I've been totally wrapped up in making games but not so much in playing them. Today I dust off my PS3 and spend a few hours as a pirate in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag! 

Inktober Day 5: Sad

And once again I forgot to post on here last night, but here was yesterday's Inktober. I was supposed to use the prompt "Sad" and based on the fact that it was October I started thinking about ghosts. So I did a little doodle on what would happen if Pacman stopped being afraid of his ghosts. 

Tonight I'll be starting to work on my cabin environment, so some sketches and beginning models will be posted on here soon. 

Inktober Day 4: Hungry

I forgot to post my Inktober from yesterday on here, but I did post on time on my Instagram! The prompt was Hungry, and I had no problem relating. Yesterday was a late night and I ate dinner around 11pm before having to do some more work. Sometimes when you're feeling a little unmotivated you just need a nice bowl of mac n cheese to help you along, so that's what I did! I sketched this out really quick before proceeding to consume the entire bowl. Excellent prompt. 

Inktober Day 3: Collect

The theme was collect today and I was stuck for awhile on what to draw. When I was younger I used to collect all sorts of things but none of that has really stuck with me as an adult. What I have noticed is that as my level of work increases throughout the semester, I have an impromptu collection of cups that start to surround my desk. Eventually plates or bowls start to get added to it. The quantity increases as I move closer to deadlines. 

It's only day 3 and I've already started using my sketchbook more frequently, which means the challenge is working the way it's supposed to! This sketch was posted at 10pm instead of 3am so there's definitely been an improvement in my timing. I don't really sketch in ink too often- being able to challenge myself and work on these quick little sketches without second guessing my lines or perspective and just doing it to do it is reminding me how easy it should be to just put marks on the paper. 

Stay tuned for Day 4! 

Inktober Day 1: Fast

Anyone who's met me knows that I've had trouble keeping sketchbooks for years. For whatever reason I just couldn't get out of that "IT HAS TO BE PERFECT!" headspace. I think every artist goes through that, where they want their sketchbook to be beautiful. I'm slowly starting to realize that mine is a tool and that the beauty comes from the process. So I started a new sketchbook today and to break it in, I've decided to participate in Inktober! 

If you don't know what Inktober is, every day of October you sketch something in ink and then post it online. It's meant to promote good drawing artistic habits and in the past I've never realized it was going on until about halfway through the month. But today that changes! 

Today's prompt was Fast. When I think about Fast I think gesture drawing, so I got on Pixelovely and pulled up the practice tools. I gave myself 30 seconds to draw each hand that came up on the screen, and tried not to stop moving or retrace my lines as much as possible. Here's the results: 

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This went by very quickly but I had a lot of fun doing it and I might start using it as warmups. I'll be choosing the most appealing interpretation of the prompt each day, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes up next! 

Character Design: Flamingo Grump

This week I finished my first character design project for class! I don't usually do a lot of work with characters so this class has been a bit of a challenge. We had to choose an animal and then give it a profession. Whenever we visit the Columbus Zoo, I always stop by the Flamingo enclosure and watch the group interact. If you stand there long enough you start to realize that they are always starting fights with each other and generally look either angry or paranoid. I thought it was hilarious, so I decided to design a Flamingo Lawyer. 

Here are some of the preliminary sketches I did while working on my character design. It started with anatomical studies and went on to playing with shapes and poses, and possible professions.

I'm really focusing on my drawing skills this semester- I have a tendency to fall into the world of 3D and stay there for awhile. Finding the time to sketch these last few weeks has made a huge difference, and I am working on moving away from gesture sketching and into some more detailed concepts. More to come! 

Abby