Latest project! Pandaren Classroom Diorama

 My concept art / lighting practice

Wanted to get some zbrush practice on this piece, so this is where I am at now. As for the stone floor, I plan to take advantage of the guild workshop and use this as practice for that. Things are coming along smoothly (zbrush crashing not being acknowledged), so I plan to get started on UVing and texturing real soon!

Successful Workshop Event

The turnout at the Handpainter's Guild for the 1st Guild Workshop went very well! Had a good number of participants, and quite a few who seemed to really improve since they started workshop. I don't dare take any credit for their improvement. I try to constantly remind people that the only way to get better is through practice..And practice they did!

Shelf Practice by Esther Love on Sketchfab

This was my finished product from the workshop.

What I re-learned from doing this workshop is that I often need to do studies first before jumping into texturing. So make studies I did. A great suggestion I got was to start with a value painting since color was only distracting me from what was truly important...understanding the form.

It was great to see all the different version of the same models from the other people! It was also a very refreshing project to work on. We’ve started a new workshop today focusing around Stone Bricks. Looking forward to starting that tomorrow!

A Workshop from The HandPainter's Guild

So something that I've been doing on my free time is helping the Handpainter's Guild grow as a community, and one of the things I've done to do that is start a Workshop! I am a firm believer that to learn how to make art, is by creating art. It's more often than not always going to be rough when starting, and I see that with a few of my guild members who are very new to hand painting. 

What I've learned thru personal experience is that doing studies really helps me understand a material. And I will be making that a focus on the next workshop. It can be difficult to know how to emulate a material/style just by looking at it. You really have to train your observation skills and art muscle by just painting what you see. Grow my art vocabulary by understanding the quirks and features of an item.

Fanny's Portfolio

Used Fanny Vergne's wood for reference on my study.

This is where I am at right now, and I plan to finish by tonight. I didn't want people to overwork their textures, because this is for practice, not for a portfolio piece or contest. So the workshop will end this weekend after going for 2 weeks. I already have plans for the next one, so I am excited to finish this and move on!

I am so glad for the HandPainter's Guild. Everybody in it, art vets and newbies alike, teach me something new. Whether it is by them giving me a new perspective on things, or challenging me by making me think of ways to breakdown techniques. I am pushing myself to get better so that I can be there for them! :)

P.S. Still working on 2 other projects on top of my Guild activities (on top of full time job). :P

It's National Puppy Day!

This is on Artstation too!

National Puppy (pirate) Day by Esther Love on Sketchfab

I couldn't pass today up! I've been sick for the last week, with some sort of lung related infection..

(boo my coworkers who got me sick!)

But I am slowly and surely getting better! And to top it off, this piece just got "Staff Picked" over at Sketchfab!

I just wanna end this by saying that I am glad this week of turmoil will soon be over. And I thank my doctor for being a great physician and knowing how to help me get better. ^^

New thing! New thing!!

Hello Readers!

I'm back with a thing! I've had the urge to model a whole building, instead of the individual props that I've been doing. A building is a prop, really. Multiple props.

I am using David Harrington's concept art for Heroes of the Storm to create my scene. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WleQX His work is great, please go check out the rest of his work on Artstation!

Finished modeling the blockout for the blacksmith building and did a quick AO using 3D Coat. I had initially intended to sculpt the detail onto the house, but then decided that the house would not be the best opportunity for using Zbrush. I really wanted to paint on this one. But if I really wanted sculpt, I found another concept art from him that would do nicely. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WPBly

My next step from here would be to UV the housing pieces. And then after that drop base colors on the building to start painting from.

Change of topic: I will be exercising during my lunch hours now. Because I truly believe that exercising my body is as important as exercising my art skills. I can't begin to describe how terrible I feel when I think about how much sit/eat, in contrast to how much I move around and be active. You won't see anything change, but I will be a better person and artist for doing this.

A finished lantern and good news!

Japanese Stone Lantern by Esther Love on Sketchfab

It's almost been 2 months now since my last post. Things have drastically changed for the better. I started a new job only a month after being let go. It was crazy. I hardly expected to find a job so soon! I am happy and blessed that I did not have to worry about unemployment for long. Now that I am back on the working side, I lost the time that I had intended for personal projects, but I am making up for that right now. Finally decided to upload my lantern to Sketchfab (https://skfb.ly/KNoF) and Artstation (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Zdo9N).

I am still figuring out / re-learning how to have energy at the end of the day. So far my plan is to prototype a game idea for the first real time, draw and model characters from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series, and create a model for 3D printing.

In summary to the whole roller coaster of emotions and employment status, I am now stronger and wiser. Hopefully that'll keep me in a good spot or better in the coming future.

The day that flipped everything

It's been 2 days. I am passed the initial shock and now just coping with the fact that I don't have a job anymore. It was no fault of mine. It is just how it sometimes goes in the world of startup studios. I will dearly miss my friends, who are also in the same position as me.

My morning routine is a little screwed up because of that lack of obligation, but my new routine is slow reforming. Had to call all of my loan lenders, file for unemployment, create a list of things to do, and collect job listings. I will soon be jumping into a routine of full-time game development on the project I've been working on (the Puppy Pirates), but for now.... I will be doing some important chores around the house and applying for jobs. I may even squeeze in a nice daily walk! (I say as it starts to rain here)

But my hopes are still high! Sorry if I sound otherwise, but I was just never the kind of person to enjoy idle moments. I have an extra 8 hours a day to do what I had been trying to squeeze in a 4 hour time frame after work. I aim to take advantage of that!

Last week before I realized this would happen, I bought a Cintiq. Not remorseful about my purchase, yet, but what impeccable timing on all this. hahah! I'm telling myself it's an investment. I'm not incredibly comfortable with it yet, but I plan to do more testing on it later. If I still don't like it, hopefully Amazon would allow me to return it.

Changing topics here: I was working on a Patreon page before all this, and now it's become more useful than ever before! I just launched the page, so if you are interested in following my adventures into Game Development, with some additional benefits, feel free to head over there and consider supporting me as a patron!

https://www.patreon.com/estherlove

Before I head out, I also wanted to update you all on another project I've been working on. I am collaborating with members from the Handpainters Guild, to create a diorama of a Torii gate.

Here is where the project is at currently:

And here is a close up of my part in the project:

I should sleep now, despite not really NEEDING to wake up early, but I do have my own schedule to keep! :P Goodnight!

Finished the Sword!

"This sword was forged for the most brutal puppy to ever sail the big wet pool of the world. This blade has seen many a battle, but no real puppies were harmed in the making of this story."

You can also find this on @sketchfab​ as an interactive 3D model https://skfb.ly/HFLW and at ArtStation https://www.artstation.com/artwork/stylized-pirate-sword!

As I neared the finish on the polish. I was looking at Pixelb's work for inspiration and color reference.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114659

Specifically:

http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h410/Bflybabe88/curly_sword_beauty-1_zps36bc6e33.png

And... http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h410/Bflybabe88/swords_beauty_zpsd8f2a956.png

Her stuff is truly amazing. I can already see that the blade was probably the weakest part of the image, but I finished it to a point right before it started to become overworked. It started with the blade, and as I continued to paint, my rendering skills were getting alot better. Happens all the time, right??

I also learned that projecting the model from 3D Coat into Photoshop to render out some of the part was REALLY helpful. Just press ctrl + alt + P while in 3D Coat, and you will see a screenshot of your view from 3D Coat. What is awesome about that is you can paint right on the picture, save it, and then the details get projected back onto your model in 3D Coat. Love it!

I've been streaming myself working on this model, and have truly had a positive experience where I got to talk about my thought process, work thru problems outloud and experiment with techniques, reflect on my process since I am verbally elaborating on my thoughts, and also get to share my knowledge with other people while getting to know them aswell.

You can find the stream at: http://www.twitch.tv/evolvyn

I also want to take a moment to say I've started a Slack Chat group for handpainted texture artists!

It's a small and personal community for enthusiasts and artists who do handpainted texture style. The purpose is to have a small tight nit community to chat with and hangout. It is asynchronous chatting, so you don't have be in the room all the time to chat. Just pop in, post, say a few words, and back to work!

To be invited to this community, fill out my form so I can get your email to send the invite to. http://goo.gl/forms/O8GMDLyr74

You do NOT have to download another client. Slack can be viewed on your web browser by simply logging on @ https://handpaintersguild.slack.com/

Sword Finish, kinda!

I might do some minor tweaks tomorrow, but for most part it is done!

What I learned:

• If I am having trouble painting...Bring the model into Photoshop (Ctrl+Alt+P) as a 2D picture to draw on. Because sometimes I just paint things better in Photoshop than in 3D Coat.

• Sword blade looks like stone still. Need to practice rendering metal again. Someone suggested looking at Tyson Murphy's Tutorial on 3D Motive. I've seen it before, but it is definitely a good idea to revisit it.

• Metal is hard. haha!

I am moving on to pirate ship stuff tomorrow too! Very excited about that!

Happy Inktober & Sword Progress!

Learning to get more comfortable with ink!

Here were my practices before I did the sword.

And painted up a sword! Next step is to polish the detail.

Progress for tonight!

Sword Prop for the Pup!

Did a live stream on Twitch while I was painting this!

If you are interested in seeing me make the rest of the sword options,

follow me on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/evolvyn

For reference on this sword, I looked closely at Rafael Zanchetin's model on Sketchfab!

Seal of Dawn by rafazanchetin on Sketchfab

My plan is to emulate an artist's style that I really like as best as possible. Learn from their work. Study their strokes and detail. And Rafael is one of the best in my book for painting and texture painting. (Blizzard hire him!!)

Updated textures for the puppy model next to the newly painted sword!

I am le tired~

And a paintsketch I did for the Handpainted Art Jam. Testing out my new photoshop plugin the "Magic Picker", practicing my color variation (tip from Faf @ link), and just wanting to do something fun.

Clothes!

Quick 1st draft of color and shapes. Sleeping early today for reasons of needing to be up at 4am tomorrow. XP

What I learned today while texturing this, is that don't mess with the UVsets for final stuff. I don't quite understand it yet, and I messed something up. Not sure if this is the cause, but I can't paint to the edges anymore on my clothing pieces. Also, the pup's body now has patches of invisible textures. 

Clothes for the puppy pirate!

Clothes!! Kinda! I will texture those tomorrow! Getting cloooooose...

More Puppy Progressss!

Getting closer, I think! Omg fur. I like how the ears turned out. Need more contrast in that chest fur.

Puppy Puppy Puppy Puppy

Puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy.... I dont need/want sleep.

Getting back into the flow of painting!

Here are some of the assets for the pirate game. And as a special treat! I put it into sketchfab to test out the service! :D

Island by evolvyn on Sketchfab

Cannon Color

Here's a progress update to the cannon!

Did a paintover where I pushed the shapes of the cannon.

Started at high contrast, then I zoomed out to view it at a distanced. Noticed that the lines were competing too much. So I toned it down.

And this is where I am now. :)

At the same time as the cannon, I am also creating island pieces! Tip to everybody: Be careful when googling "Beach Bush".

What I learned...

* These settings work the best for me in 3D Coat! (image was spliced to show the important settings)

* UV Layouts don't NEED to be connected at the edges, especially when working in 3D Coat.
* If you have flipped normals in 3D Coat, make sure the model isn't negative in scale!
* And, doing this workflow (shown below) really helps when trying to work on the model like a painting! Watching Kelvin Tan's tutorial on painting in 3D Coat has really helped me on this!

And I've been staring at this reference:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/draenei-small-props

Changed things up! 3D Coat and more!

So quite a few things have happened since my last post. I am now working with an amazing mentor, Kelvin Tan! I was very fortunate to notice that his Gumroad account was updated and that he was offering a month of mentorship. All because I kept the same 30 tabs open for the last month, and was finally going through them to close them out. Oh yeaaaaa....!!

So because of that, I've made some changes to my cannon model. Modified the body to make it less balanced. Which now that I think about it... When I animate the cannon shooting cannonballs, it will look alot more interesting since I can play with the weight of the cannon's rotation.

Updated the UVs since I realized that stacking the cannon's UVs was not very clever. I lost the ability to have Cannon belly shadows. Which I think would really contribute to the model's cohesion. So, I gave them their own unique spaces in the UV.

Also, I've moved out of working exclusively in Photoshop. I am back in 3D Coat per the suggestion of Kelvin and other 3D artists in the program! I had a rough start (cuz I was spoiled with Photoshop), but I am starting to get the hang of it. I am working on the value part of the cannon. I'm getting my muscle memory trained and re-learning the capabilities of 3D Coat. I can't wait to see this thing in Maya and make that giggle-worthy comparison to my previous texture blockout. :D

On the side of this, I will be creating blockout island models to help start populating the Unity scene for the ships to sail past! 

Last but not leeks...  

I've been studying these images:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/wod-garrison-alliance-soilder
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/wod-dungeon-plate
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/warcraft-weapons
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/fallen-angel-97b038e8-33ec-46bb-9dbb-f19322925838