It’s been another one of those busy weeks. At the end of last week I took a day off from my paying job so that I could continue working on things without worrying about the alarm clock going off the next morning. It was great and really successful. I got so much more done.
So what did I work on?
Well, I’ve been working on a re-do of the business card for my Mom’s publishing company. I made some good progress on that and may even have come up with a solution. There are a few minor adjustments to make or test and a secondary layout, with different information that I need to put together. It’s now a lot closer to being ready for her when she has the final details for me to put on it, like phone number and address.
I worked on the picture of Elsa some more. I got it part way there and then stepped back for a couple of days and worked on it again and think I finally have it. At least, I’m as close as I’m going to get with this piece.
I was able to work a bit more on the TKD Guy project. I have been working on refining the shapes and the proportions as well as height and I’m just about there. I have already worked on the head but realized, I need to go back and make a minor tweak or two so that I can tell front from back. I’ve still got the foot to work on in the leg stack and then the arm stack to work on.
If you’ve been following the progress of other projects you may notice that I have not had quite the pace with the TKD Guy as with the others. I had a revelation this week as to what might be holding things up. I seem to have conceived, and started a project with no real story. It has purpose but no real story. While you would think just having purpose would be enough, apparently, not. So I will have to work on the story of the project or shelve it for a while. I’m inclined to work on the story as I am not ready to work on the next project that I have in mind. And I am starting to formulate a story for the TKD Guy, however, it is likely that it will mean a bit of a shift in the project scope and focus. Stay tuned on that one.
I did a little more experimenting in Photoshop and with my lovely Cintiq. Ok, yes, I’m 
likely to rave about this for a while. I’ll stop drooling and mooning over it at some point.
Up to this point I have created my works on paper and then used my sketch as a background to trace and then create on. This is infinitely easier with the Cintiq. This week’s experiment was to try to create something entirely from the beginning in Photoshop. I used a reference picture to draw from but not trace and then
freehanded it in Photoshop. That’s right, I did the whole thing in Photoshop, no preliminary pencil sketch. This is a huge step for me. I think it’s looking pretty good so far.
Instead of getting back to the Crane in Zbrush I went with my urge to work on something different and started a dolphin. Many years ago, I spent a lot of time drawing dolphins just because I like them. It’s been a while since I created one so I thought it would be a good exercise in Zbrush. So I pulled out a sphere and got to work pushing and pulling at the sides and edges with the move brush and then using Zremesher to give me more to work with and pushing and pulling again. I also used the rotate and move tools successfully. I mention this because in the past when I 
have tried to use these, well, it hasn’t worked out very well. But I figured out what to mask and then inverted the mask and then I rotated or moved or both as needed. When I was done with that part I used the smooth tool to fix the hiccups in the surface. After about an hour maybe a bit more I have something that has the basic shape of a dolphin.
I did continue to work on the mannequin for the TKD project. I may need to address the story issue but I decided while I did that I could work on the model and finish up the refinements I was making so it is ready. I’ll be writing about that process soon. I’m about ready to rig it so it’s time to start learning about rigging.
I’ve watched more of the tutorials on rigging and they are interesting and will be helpful I’m sure. However, I find that I’m just ready to get to the meat of the situation. I know that’s probably not going to give me enough so I am being diligent and watching the entire tutorial instead of just the sections that I think will tell me what I need to know. Chances are, if I did it that way, I’d miss out on some key point that I need to know and I would mess it up and get really, really frustrated. So…tutorials.
A little progress has been made on the business side in that I’ve worked on the information I will post on the Patreon site when I convert it to a creator. I also worked on logo ideas. I want something that will be versatile so it’s taking some work.
And that’s been my week. I have a full slate for the weekend and the next week coming up.
Look for another post on the mannequin soon.