Another week. I never seem to get as much done as I plan on. There is always so much to do. I keep running out of day.
I got to spend some time working on that crane in Zbrush. Still using the move brush along with the clay build up brush with the smoothing brush to get the shape down and start to add details. I really wanted to get the face and beak figured out. I figured if I could 
get that part done then I would start to work on the rest of the bird. I did have to do a little more fiddling around the eyes as well. It took a little work for me to get some good definition there. For the eyeball part I used the clay build up brush but to get the definition around it I used the dam standard brush. I also used the standard brush to get the nostril parts of the beak.
Once I had the face detailed better I started working on the rest of the body. I used the move brush to better shape the body and the neck. I discovered as I was working on the model that it was a little on the skinny side so using the move brush I fleshed it all out a bit better. Then I used the clay build up to start to get some feather definition on the neck and body. I found using the clay build up to get a good streaky like look and then going back over it all with a light weight smoothing brush got me a nice look like feathers.
Just looking at the model from the side view doesn’t really do it justice so far so I took an image of it from a bit of an angle. As you can see, I’m starting to get some detail on the body and even a little on the legs. I think the next part I will be working on will be the legs. I haven’t really touched them yet.
So that was what I got done at the weekend.
I got started working on the refinement of the shapes for the mannequin in the TKD Guy project. That’s coming along well. I found that my height wasn’t quite right so I’m making adjustments to that as I work on refining it. I’ll have something about that up soon. Hopefully sooner than I got the info about working on the hand posted.
I got started on reviewing some tutorials on rigging in 3DS Max so that when I have the mannequin ready I should be able to get started on at least adding the bones.
I’ve been thinking I might need or want to stretch some of my artistic muscles and try some new subjects as well as styles. I know it will help a lot with the modeling. It could also be fun. So, since the movie Frozen has been on cable TV a few times recently, and I finally opened the Blue-Ray I got of it not long after it was available, I got intrigued with the idea of trying to draw some animated characters. I found a small picture of Elsa on a disc in my movie box and decided to give it a try. It’s a pose of her with a mischievous look on her face. Typically when drawing people I draw pretty straight on portraits. So there
is a bit of a challenge in the angle of her face. I also don’t usually draw much below the collar bone. But to create a render of this and just stop at the collar would really leave out so much of the story. The pose along with her expression are what make it a fun shot. So I got out my sketchbook and a pencil and gave it a try.
I think I did ok with the pose. But the eyes gave me some trouble. Which is a little unusual because when I draw regular portraits, that’s the part that I tend to nail. Still I was a happy an surprised at how it turned out. Of course when something’s not right it will bug me and I will work on it in my head and keep poking at it to get it right. That happened with this. But I got tired of erasing parts of the eye and redrawing because it seemed like the pencil kept falling into the same ruts on the paper. So I decided to see what would happen when I put it in Photoshop.
I opened the pencil sketch in Photoshop and set it as a bottom layer. I dropped another layer on top of it and started drawing on that. I sketched the eyes in as they were. And then started to get the outline of the rest of the image. I have to say, I’m not sure I would have been so brave to try it if I didn’t have my Cintiq. It makes it so much easier to get my cursor exactly where I want it. I’m still getting the feel for it. But working on this image of Elsa from Frozen has given me a lot of opportunity to get more comfortable with it. I’m still struggling with getting the blending just right. It’s not at all like smudging the graphite of a pencil. Not the smudge tool really doesn’t work the same. I think it should but it doesn’t. Still, I did use the smudge tool along with the blend brush.
As you can see. I didn’t solve the problem with the eyes with the Photoshop drawing. In spite of that, I’m still pleased with how it turned out, at least most of it. I’m not sure I expected it to be as successful an endeavor as it is. I really like what I was able to do with finishing up the hand and the hair. I like the way that looks.
But the eyes still bug me. So I made a copy and tried again. I adjusted the angle of the eyes. This is the cool thing about Photoshop. I didn’t have to erase the eyes and redraw them. I marquee selected first one and rotated it a little and then the other and rotated it a little, and moved it over a little. Then I just had to go back and touch up around it. It’s getting closer. I’m not sure it’s quite there yet. But it’s closer.
I have a few other things I think I’m ready to start working on so hopefully I’ll have more pictures for you next week.