All posts tagged Art

Digital Sketching

 Martin · 2 years

I've been using a Surface Book for my digital sketching since the device launched, back in 2015/2016, and it's served me well. For a first-generation device, it's a great machine. Were it not for its waning battery life and increasingly slow feel, I'd probably keep using it.

So I've been eyeing an upgrade for a while now, following the release of the Surface Book 2 and then the Surface Book 3, but noting several issues with each iteration of the hardware: pen input jitter, battery volatility, specs that aren't even close to cutting edge, etc. It's been disappointing watching the Book line be relegated to the back of the pack.

I'd hoped this year we'd see a refresh that made an upgrade worth it - even at a premium cost - but I don't see any updates on the horizon, especially with the global chip shortage looking like it'll continue on into next year.

Where does that put me? Well, if you remember some of my really old blog posts, I'm eating crow. I'm trying out an iPad Pro as a replacement.

It's Microsoft's loss, honestly. I've been an evangelist for the Surface Book since I've owned one, and I still like the device. But it just doesn't make sense for me to wait another 6-12 months for a half-step upgrade. Especially when it might still have the same issues people are facing now. Especially with the less accurate pen input. Especially when it will likely cost more.

I might come back to the Surface Book in the future, but for now, I'm going with an iPad Pro for digital drawing. Let's see where that takes me.

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Claymation Cat

 Martin · 5 years

This cat character was meant to be used for an animation I was thinking about working on, but never got around to finishing. It's almost fully rigged - it only needs more face controls - and the materials I used to shade it were meant to make it look like a posed claymation figure.

It's meant to look a little retro, and a little goofy. The idea was that it would undergo the typical slapstick antics a cartoon from the older days of animation might (think mallets, anvils, etc.). And he'd have kind of a bad attitude about it, so you wouldn't mind watching him get clobbered.

Maybe someday I'll pick it up and start working on it again!

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Piranha Plant render

 Martin · 8 years
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As a practice exercise for modeling/creating materials in Blender, I decided to work on a model inspired by the famous pipe-infesting Piranha Plant enemy from Super Mario Bros.

The model was created as a very simple low-resolution mesh with a SubSurf modifier to add detail, and all the textures were created using Blender's internal texture nodes, in Cycles.

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New Xbox Themes for NXOE

 Martin · 8 years

With the New Xbox One Experience right around the corner, I decided to update my collection of "theme" images (basically home screen wallpapers) to work better with the new UI layout. I don't have any of these posted on this site yet, but since it already exists on imgur, I wanted to at least put the link out there for anyone who might happen to be visiting.

So, check out my new set of NXOE Themes here.

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Dust Bowl Disciples

 Martin · 8 years

If you've ever looked through my album of drawings for the Year of Art 2011 project, you might recognize one of the illustrations used in the Los Angeles Coalition for Water Conservation (LACWC)'s new campaign, Dustbowl Disciples.

46 seconds into the video they produced, you'll see this:

And that should look pretty familiar - here's drawing #150 from the Year of Art 2011, appropriately titled 'Dry Mouth':

Some of the people who worked on the Dustbowl Disciples project were kind enough to reach out to me about using the artwork, and I was happy to help. I re-drew this illustration for them, providing a much cleaner vector version!

I wrote this post with the intent of highlighting the use of one of my illustrations, but I'll close it by saying that if you've got a project which requires illustrations (new or existing), do get in touch with me using my contact form. I'm almost always up for work like this!

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Abstract Landscapes

 Martin · 9 years

After reading through a post by a fellow Blender artist, I decided I'd try my hand at making some abstract landscapes in a similar style. I used similar texture images sourced from Bing's image search for cauliflower, cauliflower fractal, and pomegranates. These images weren't terribly difficult to make, but it was enjoyable and educational, nonetheless. I'll be making more of these in the future, I think. It's fun to see what sorts of alien landscapes images can create when you use them to generate particles and geometry displacement.

Maybe someone out there might like to use them for their desktop wallpaper!

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Abstract Exploding Geometry

 Martin · 9 years

A friend of mine wanted a background for his new phone, and after way too much time spent thinking about what I wanted to make for him, I had a revelation while working on a similar project for an Xbox One theme. This image was created in blender using a basic cube and a bunch of modifiers to add geometry, displace it, and make it explode.

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No Love for Rats

 Martin · 14 years

Lately I've been working with Andrew Gelber, a buddy of mine, to help get his skateboarding company off the ground. So far this has included creating a logo, re-skinning a WordPress theme, and doing lots of other various graphic projects. It's not a lot of work, and it's been fun and challenging to see how creative we can get.

The above rat image was created to be screened onto the bottom of a line of skateboards Andrew will be putting out soon. I sent it off to him yesterday, and I'm excited to see the final product. It's a remake of the lino-print below, that I made in college for one of my art classes:

The no Love website can be found here. it's still pretty basic, and definitely a work in progress, but it's getting better all the time. If you're in the Denver, CO area and are interested in this sort of thing, give it a look.

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