Thread by @SheepOfBlackInc, [Thread - a 365-day-long thread]I have a goal-- given the timing, I [...]

[Thread - a 365-day-long thread]

I have a goal-- given the timing, I suppose we can consider it a new year's resolution. The goal is to work on BOTH my 2D and 3D art every day starting tomorrow. (1)

As it stands, I do usually work on one or the other most days, and sometimes both, so by committing to working on both skillsets each day, I am stepping it up, but it's really just a baby step. That's the whole idea though; to continuously step it up by small increments... (2)

...throughout the year, starting with a simple commitment to set some time aside each day to working on BOTH 2D and 3D art-- even if it's only a small amount on some days. Hopefully, by the end of 2020, I'll be a better artist, and as a secondary goal, hopefully, I'm also... (3)

...a faster artist.

I plan to update this thread daily throughout the year, and I'm making the first tweet in it my pinned tweet until at least New Year's Eve 2020.

I have some ideas about what I'll be updating this thread with, but more on that later. (4)

For the time being, I'll first post my primary 2D and 3D projects I'm working on right now. The main 2D project I'm working on is some DC Comics fan art of Catwoman-- more specifically it is Milla Jovovich as Catwoman because I always thought she'd be great in that role; (5)

I have been working on that concept art for WAY too long at this point, it's time I finally finished this particular digital painting. There will be quite a bit more DC fan art coming, including more designs for Catwoman's suit-- ones that don't make her look as though... (6)

...she belongs in some type of BDSM club or something. Those of you who are familiar with the comics will *probably know why I went in that direction for this first design.

The main 3D project I'm working on at the moment (not counting tutorials) is this dagger; (7)

The dagger is still very much a WIP-- I have only started sculpting in the finer details at this point.

both of these serve as a baseline starting point for me to judge my improvement by the end of the year. (8/last for now)

[To be continued 1/1/20]

[1/1/20]

Alright, I didn't get much of a chance to work on anything before work today because I had to be there fairly early, so I'm starting now that I'm home. I'll probably do some sculpting work on the dagger, but I don't think I'll post anything for that today. (9)

I'm working my way through this tutorial by CG Boost; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3UWN2F2M2C8-zUjbFlbgtWPQa0NXBsp0

I'm on part 7 of 15, and this pic is what I have done at the moment; (10)

I'll work on this for a bit and post an update when I'm done. it is 6:20 pm in my time zone. (11)

I managed to finish part 7 of the tutorial series, and that completes the textures for the knife and apple... It took a while because I hit a snag... basically, the short story is Blender's texture painting tools suck! It is 8:20pm so I worked on my 3D art for 2 hours today! (12)

I guess I can technically check that box, but I think I'm going to at least watch the next video in the series. I would render another image, but it'd be pointless because the textures won't render yet, so I'll just link the PNGs. (13)

Alright... 9:00 pm, I'm still going to work on my 2D skills today, but I'm just going to something quick and easy-- I want to work my way through the linked book, right in the beginning there is an exercise that involves drawing straight lines. (14) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933492732/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

How to Draw: drawing and sketching objects and environments from your imagination

How to Draw is for artists, architects and designers. It is useful to the novice, the student and the professional. You will learn how to draw any object or environment from your imagination,...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933492732/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The point in working through this book (including the simple exercises) is essentially that I never had any formal education in terms of art, I'm self-taught, and along the way, I unintentionally taught myself some bad habits. As such, I'm trying to correct those. (15)

I won't post any additional pics-- if I did, it would be a picture of lines. That makes this the last tweet in this thread for tonight. (16/last for now)

[To be continued 1/2/20]

[1/2/20]

So I spent a fair chunk of this morning watching tutorials and doing some research to tackle this assignment;

and I did some sketches, but I think I can do better. (17)

Unfortunately, I have to go to work now, so I won't be able to pick this back up until much later tonight. (18)

OK, I didn't get home until 10:30/45 pm or so, but I still managed to get some 3D work done today, so I can check that box. I did the 9th video in the tutorial series which was getting the textures hooked up to the objects for renders. Here is the result; (19)

I don't have it in me to do any more artwork tonight, so that's going to be it for today. Tomorrow is my day off so I should be able to get a lot more done than I have these past two days. (20/last for now)

[To be continued 1/3/20]

[1/3/20]

I wasn't planning on posting this when I rendered it, just wanted to get an idea of how it's looking so far. There are no textures on the cloth, but it almost kinda works. (21)

Welp, today didn't go quite as expected and I wasn't able to do as much as I was hoping for, but these things happen I suppose. I did some more drawing exercises from the book though, and I did some research on the bones of the ankle and foot to be ready to give the... (22)

...assignment I tried the other day another shot tomorrow. I have the day off tomorrow as well, so this time I definitely should be able to get more done. (23)

I think what I'll do today is define my goals for tomorrow in advance, so, that being said, tomorrow I'd like to;
-finish the 3D tutorial series I'm working on
-continue doing the drawing exercises from the book I linked
-reattempt the 'foot bones' assignment (24)

Also, that 'foot bones' assignment is directly applicable to the Catwoman drawing I'm working on, so, ideally, I'd like to finish that portion of that drawing as well. If I get all of that done, I'll go from there. (25/last for now)

[To be continued 1/4/20]

[1/7/20]

Just in case anyone is wondering-- 'No', I haven't given up on working on my 2D and 3D art every day. I came down with a gnarley fever a couple of days ago, so I did take a couple of days off. I'll be back in the swing of things soon. (26/last for now)

I hit a bit of a snag with this tutorial, and it took a couple of days to figure out what the issue was. I'm still not totally happy with the result of the cloth though... It looks distinctly CGI... more specifically, it looks like a 3D asset in a game.

Here is a link to a thread I wrote earlier, it'll provide some context for the following tweet. (28) https://twitter.com/SheepOfBlackInc/status/1216860799387357185

https://twitter.com/SheepOfBlackInc/status/1216860799387357185

Well, I'm still not totally thrilled with it, but it is leaps and bounds better than my last attempt. So, I present my second attempt at the ankle joint assignment from the Proko anatomy course linked earlier in this thread. (29)

The lines are nowhere near as clean as I'd like, but that is why I quite literally work on drawing straight lines as an exercise, which I discussed earlier in the thread. I think I want to try and make this in 3D as well. (30)

Well, only about four more drawings like this are needed to finish the assignment. (31/Last for now)

OK, it has been a REALLY long couple of weeks and I haven't had much time for my artwork due to how many hours I've been putting in at work, so I figure it's time for an update. Unfortunately, things aren't going well, as you can probably tell. (32)

These are supposed to be water droplets on the apples... That's some dirty water! I tried changing the color, no luck. Not sure what's causing the problem... (33/Last for now)

I have finally finished @cgboost's beginner blender tutorial series, and I feel like I have climbed a mountain!

I was able to fix the issue I was having with the water droplets before, and the final result is much better!

Here is the Eevee render; (34)

And here is the Cycle's render; (35)

For those of you interested in taking the course, I highly recommend it! Here is a link; (36) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3UWN2F2M2C8-zUjbFlbgtWPQa0NXBsp0

Blender 2.8 Beginner Tutorial Series by CG Boost - YouTube

Learn the fundamentals of Blender 2.8 while creating a beautiful 3d scene from scratch.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3UWN2F2M2C8-zUjbFlbgtWPQa0NXBsp0

Sooo...
What next? I've already paid for the sculpting and Substance Painter launchpad courses, so maybe one of those... (37/Last for now)

I've decided not to post in this thread every day because doing so was tedious and somewhat pointless. I'm going to stick with posting updates from time to time. Today I'm going to post this line drawing worksheet as a benchmark. I'm going to try and do one of these... (38)

...every day, and maybe post another in a week, or month, or however long seems appropriate. Learning to draw on a tablet takes a hell of a lot of practice; I am a life-long self-taught sketch artist, and learning to use a tablet is almost like having to relearn... (39)

...how to draw all over again. Or, like learning to draw left-handed.

Also, from here on out, my aim is to have something finished to post on my Art Station page. This week, my project is Catwoman, because I have been working on that fan art for far too long. (40)

That means Sunday the 9th is it. That's the deadline-- no excuses!

I will, of course, post my finished work here too. (41/Last for now)

Welp... I didn't make the 11:59pm deadline this week, but I am at least continuing to work on my artwork regularly. I think tomorrow I'll start working on something else so as to make the deadline for next Sunday (16th) and I'll make the new deadline for Catwoman the 14th. (42)

Valentine's Day being the new deadline for Catwoman character concept artwork seems appropriate somehow, lol! (43/Last for now)

Since it been quite a while since I updated this thread, I am still working on things every day, but most of what I'm doing right now is working through very long, multi-part tutorials with hours and hours of video tutorials before the final project. (44)

Those are definitely helpful, I'm learning a lot, I just don't have much to show right now. I will post my results in this thread when I am done, though. (45)

I did (kinda) finish the Catwoman art I was working on, although about two or three weeks past the deadline I set. I say I 'kinda' finished the artwork because I didn't do any lighting or shading, but that is in part because I already want to change the design of a... (46)

...couple of parts of the costume. This is because I didn't properly concept the character-- meaning I didn't draw some basic sketches and get ideas out before I tried to do the 'finished' piece. These 3 pictures are the 'first draft', let's call it. (47)

The design isn't going to change so radically that I can't use these, which is why I decided to hold off on the lighting and shading-- I'm waiting to redesign it first. Also, here is a link to an unlisted video I made showing the process. (48/last for now)

I've done a LOT of tutorials for 3D art, and there certainly isn't anything wrong with doing tutorials, but I also need to 'fly solo' so to speak and see what I can do without a tutorial to guide me. So, I've started work on a '3D asset library'. (49)

Basically, the idea is to make a lot of 3D assets that can be imported and used in larger projects. I decided to start reasonably simple with some beer glasses and I suppose I'll steadily work my way toward more challenging things. (50)

I did create a very simple glass texture as well, but I'll be creating a more complex material in Substance Painter later. (51/Last for now)

Well, it has been quite a while since I've posted anything in this thread, but until recently, I was working A LOT of hours... now I have much more time. Here is another Proko assignment in @StanProkopenko's 'Anatomy for Artists' course. (52/Last for now)

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