I haven't been doing a lot lately with regards making art. I've had a few ideas for new paintings that I've composed in sketch form, but I haven't got around to getting started on anything yet. I have had a few Ideas for animation shorts which I will probably work on in the next few months. Having tried a bit of 3D modelling and animating before - mostly using 3ds max - I have since began learning to work in Blender (because it's free). It seems that most modelling software packages can only be rented now, which is fine for a profit making company, but its a bit expensive if your not earning from its use. There are some student versions of these software packages - which is good for learning them - but they have limited functions and cannot be used in a commercial application. So my reasoning, for switching to Blender, is that freelance video/animation producers may start using Blender more and consequently require the services of skilled Blender artists. 

Luckily a lot of the modelling techniques are similar across all the software packages so having had some experience is an advantage. In fact only having a small amount of previous experience may be better than being skilled in another program as there is probably less confusion when trying to transfer over. So far I have only done a little polygonal modelling and trying out materials etc. I'm staying clear of line modelling for now as I want to try and create a few environments to begin with. I have done a bit of animating on the 'suzanne' base  mesh (a monkey-head) that comes with the package. I was just experimenting and used shape tweens to create mouth movements for vowels, 

I didn't spend much time on the mesh appearance for this clip - I just added a basic colour material and attempted to add eyes (unsuccessfully) as the texture maps for the eyeballs failed to render. I think the shape tweens worked fairly well though, which was the objective on this occasion.

Since then I have added some improved materials in the form of textured eyeballs, a more realistic skin colour, and some hair (applying hair is new to me and quite a steep learning curve).

I think that having eyes makes a big difference although they could do with being a bit more reflective, or maybe its the light shining on them, I'm not sure so I'll have to experiment a bit more as eyes are so important in animation.

I was toying with the idea of widening the mouth opening and adding teeth. I will definitely be doing this on another project - which involves a gorillas head - and having the 'suzanne'

base mesh to practice on was a helpful coincidence. I have the basic gorilla head shape constructed but i still have to add an internal chamber for the mouth and add textures, hair and set up the lighting. I won't be updating on that though until it is finished, but I could add a breakdown of how I made it after I publish the final clip/short.