Week 4 - Sci-Fi Crate & Life Drawing

Sci-Fi Crate

Firstly I created reference planes, these were spaced out to allow enough room to make my basic cube between them. I then applied the concept images of the crate to them and used the x-ray mode to make my object transparent, allowing me to see my reference planes (with the concept graphic) through it, this made it easier to accurately model the crate. I have done most of the modeling using vertex selection and the move/uniform scale tools. 

I made most of my texture in Photoshop CC, mainly by using magic wand and the stamp tool to extract details/textures from reference images, such as scratches or dirt stains (above pictures shows the UVW unwrap and the texture I created for it). Additionally I later noticed how my texture seemed slightly empty, so I decided to add additional detail, such as bolts and gray stickers on all sides.

I was really interested in modelling a Sci-Fi themed object like a crate, as I am strongly interested in futuristic designs. I think I managed to model the crate very well, most areas were easy to build from the concept and the unwrapping seemed fairly simple since there was no complex geometry in this shape apart from the cylinders.

 

I still have encountered a couple of problems in the process. The most difficult problem to solve was not the unwrapping, but actually having to make the texture align and join on the corners of each side. I need to work more on making sure that marks such as scratches, align to the other side without deforming. Additionally I found it difficult to create various surface finishes such as polished or scratched metal. I eventually came up with a few solutions, but I still think I could have done this better. I must experiment with colours more next time, as I couldn’t come up with a unique colour scheme to match the theme well. The yellow and grey colour scheme seemed best for the Sci-Fi design so I kept it.

Life Drawing

A small change occurred that week, as instead of drawing a model, I drew other students from my course. Each person came up to the centre of the room, to pose for others. We have done this in turns and all poses lasted for around 5 minutes. This time I tried to focus more on the overall shape of poses, but this caused me to spend less time on measuring and so I ended up with a couple of mistakes with proportions. I tried to make up for that and made sure I measure correctly in the following drawings. 

Certain poses involved 2 people and were too tricky to draw in just 5 minutes. This was why they seemed to be drawn aggressively as I was drawing too quickly to focus on the darkness of my pencil marks. Eventually the last drawing worked out better.  It was not complete, as I still didn't have enough time then, but in this study I kept the proportions accurate for both of the students posing.

Week 3 - 2 Point Perspective Studies & Life Drawing

During the third week I began drawing studies in 2 point perspective. I tried to focus on a small local area, where I drew small structures and parts of a building, a local Tesco Express. Eventually I decided to make this building my main subject to study. Since this particular building had a simple brick surface, which was also very similar on all sides; I decided to not spend time on drawing these details, it was something I wanted to add when working on my final drawing. Instead I looked more into its structure, tonal differences and the various objects such as lights or cameras, which were attached to it. 

Something that really interested me as well, was the surrounding buildings and how they blended together with this one. Even some trolleys and containers behind the Tesco Espress fitted its scenery so well (shown on the 5th thumbnail above). This was because they had a purpose to be there, they were used to contain torn apart and broken down cardboard boxes. There even was a balcony on the other side of the buidling, filled with interesting details in its supporting pillars, but it didn't seem to be in use what prevented me from getting there. The tower section, which is used as an entrance, had these tall, thin windows, reaching all the way up to the top. Their unique shape was like a form of a focus point of the building to me. They drew my attention the most when looking from distance.

Drawing these windows was a challenge, since in 2 point perspective I had to make sure they are even on both sides, they needed to align correctly too. It was important in order to strengthen the impression of scale, of this building and more importantly its tower. I decided to also include a nearby tree in my final drawing, this tree was part of the scene after all and it supported my focus on the tower well. It gave our eyes something to compare the tower to, to realise its strong and tall structure. Something I felt, needed to be left out of this drawing, was the Bede Island building in the background. Focusing too much detail on it would steer our eyes away from the subject of this drawing, the tower. Additionally, since the brick texture of this Tesco building was so small, it seemed impossible to draw, so I tried to create an impression of it by shading horizontally on the walls. This way my drawing wasn't too busy with detail and remained clear to view.

Life Drawing

Similarly to my previous week, I attempted the quick continuous-line drawings. Similarly to the last week, I managed to draw more accurately with my left hand, as seen on the left 2 drawings. This time though my right-handed drawings weren't that far behind with their accuracy, I must say these were very similar to each other.

Next I moved onto 2 drawings, each drawn within 5 minutes. I still lacked timing at this stage, as I didn't manage to move onto actually drawing the model, I only marked a few sections of the models body this time.

On the following positions, the model sat in a very difficult position on a sofa chair, the angle at which she sat from me, created a strong foreshortening. I was very careful to correctly measure each area and I managed to progress quite a lot with these final drawings. In the first one, I made a few marks to suggest the size and angle of the sofa chair. Then I moved onto marking out the body, while comparing it's proportions against the chair. This technique worked for both of the drawings but in the first one I wasn't a fast efficient with my mark making, what resulted in drawing only a half of the models body. The last drawing progressed slightly better as I additionally drew a section of the legs, as well as some facial details.

Week 2 - Leicester Archway, Texturing Models & Life Drawing

The Archway in Leicester

This week I spent my time visiting an old archway in Leicester. An older, partly preserved area of the city. Just like before, I have done numerous thumbnail sketches here to help me decide on the most interesting composition, to use for my final drawing.

The first 6 sketches seemed fairly detailed which was a good thing, but I found this to be a slight problem as I was spending too much time on drawing so much detail, so accurately. I aimed at marking down as many interesting compositions, as possible but such a long drawing time held me back. I decided to spend less time on my next sketches, to focus more on planning and drawing the actual composition.

The sketches I drew afterwards, were much different. The perspective was more accurate, as I could more easily tell, towards which direction all the walls were disappearing. Also my rendering here seemed to have defined the shapes of surfaces better, what made sense as I focused on it more. Now all walls and corners had more volume, and shape with much less detail. More importantly I drew the next 6 sketches faster, leaving me more time for my final drawing. 

I aimed for a lower eye level on my final drawing. One mistake I'd point out is the thick, dark lines which I used too often, they made the drawing look a bit dull and flat. At least I'm satisfied with the perspective which I think I managed to draw accurately, it was a great  challenge to draw, since most of the bricks in the archways walls are not in line, but randomly spread out.
To help me improve my process of drawing my thumbnail sketches, I want to challenge myself next time. My target will be to produce roughly 15-20 thumbnail sketches and this time 2 or more final drawings.


The Development of 3DS Max experiments

This week I have started texturing my previously made models such as, the machete, battle axe, as well as the table and chair set. The most successful texture work turned out to be the machete, what I found more interesting is that I have spent the least time on this model. It was a basic, model wih few segments, as I planned it to be easier to texture later. It was my fault for not planning the other models as well as the machete, making their texturing process more complex and time consuming. 

I will try to move onto something new, during the next week, maybe a different kind of weapon or a different house object. This time I'll make sure I model it properly and at the same time, plan how it should  be textured. Running into problems like this is a very helpful process to me, I really learn from my mistakes and now it's becoming more obvious to me.

Life Drawing

In the second week of life drawing, I began with quick 2 minute, continuous-line drawings, shown on the first image. The left 2 were drawn with my left hand, while the other, with my right hand.

I was surprised by my results, since I was right-handed, I expected this hand to draw better. It turned out the other way around, as that my left-handed drawings were surprisingly neater and more readable than the right-handed ones. This exercise proved to me that, challenging my brain to use the opposite hand, to draw something so difficult, made me think more about my subject and so I ended up drawing more accurately with this hand.

Also I realised how much more I enjoy drawing with continuous-line. I found it to be a much more interesting way of drawing as I often ended up with very unique and distinctive drawings.

I continued with this way of thinking and in my following drawings I managed to draw much more efficiently. I've spent just as much time on planning as before, but this time I was confident enough to lay down my final marks earlier. These drawings on the second image, described the whole body better and had depth without any tonal marks.

As I moved onto the final drawings I was given more time, roughly 10 minutes for the first and 5 minutes for the second. In the first one I was very satisfied with my outcome, even as it wasn't fully drawn, the shape of the body was clearly visible. My opinion was similar with the last drawing, it wasn't as developed as the previous though due to my time limit being shorter. An area for improvement, for me, would be to work on my timing, to make sure I define more of my subjects shape and proportions, before I start making any darker marks.