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.

Hi, so this is a new blog that I will be dedicating to all my creative work from the recent past and for the foreseeable future. I have a feeling that I've spelled foreseeable wrong (it just looks wrong for some reason) - and that wasn't deliberate - but it does give me the opportunity to warn you that spelling mistakes will happen here, possibly quite often.

When I used to create blog posts on a regular basis I was in college - LSAD - and it was something that was encouraged, mainly so that a; you would have an online back-up of your work, and b; your contemporaries could view your work and offer some feedback/critique. Which made sense, to me at least. But I won't have any constraints here so it's very likely that I will occasionally stray off topic or sometimes rant and rave about something totally irrelevant. But you'll get used to it (if you persevere) and hopefully even get to enjoy my musings.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting regularly, at least once a week, so that I can keep things up to date. I also hope to get plenty of comments/ feedback/ critique from you as my intention for this site is to offer some sort of help or guide to anyone wanting to learn about making art. On my part I will be adding any tips/ tricks of the trade that I have learnt from my own experience, and also pointing out my mistakes (which are sometimes obvious after I've made them - see below) so that others may avoid them. So any tips etc from other artists can be added via comments as my personal experience - in painting at least - is rather limited.

Have you spotted the GLARING mistake?

 



 I started a series of 'Island fishermen' paintings which are meant as a humorous depiction of traditional fishermen who carry their "Currach" with them all the time. This was a provisional draft for one of them when the lads get rained off and so go to the local pub for the day. I've almost finished the revised version and will be adding it to the Gallery (which is currently a work in progress).

I'm going to start off with a look at what I've been doing over the past year, as this is when I really decided that I was going to try and become an artist to earn a living. Mainly because I found it almost impossible to get a regular job. Even when it came to doing work that I had several years experience at - must be my age or something. I had a studio set up in the loft space of our shed (yes, the same 'The Shed' studios where 'The Oldest Lion' was shot (no I didn't shoot a lion in our shed)). This gave me the idea to rename my old blog and start afresh with some of my current activity. Hence the name 'The Shed Studio3'. It wasn't supposed to have a 3 on the end but I also renamed my Etsy shop (feel free to have a look if you haven't already) and needed to add the 3 for that. Fortunately I like the number 3 - except for maybe when it's a crowd - or it's the amount of legs that second-hand table came with - but it does make the name seem a bit trendier.

 In the next post I'll probably have a look at some of the earlier paintings that I've made and gradually work my was up to what I'm doing now, until then - adios.