Project #2 - The Great Papyrus

As stated in the proposal for this project, I decided to create a piece of artwork over a character from a video game. In particular, I chose to do a character from the game Undertale. The reason I chose this game is because I feel like it had a lot of influence on me, and overall had an admirable amount of work put into its engine, story, and especially music. I did a lot of research regarding how to use Adobe Illustrator and how to properly apply techniques such as perspective, layering, and shading. I had a lot of trouble with perspective, so I looked up a few guides and did some life drawings as practice before I drew the basic frame of Papyrus. This ended up helping significantly, as I was able to create the desired perspective of a worms-eye like angle. The general process that I created it was making an initial form sketch, outlining the anatomy of the character, then drawing over it. After that I created all of the splices in order to properly convey where the light source will come from, and then I filled in the splices with the proper color to create the illusion of a shadow. After that, I placed some bones in the layer behind Papyrus, and then a more general background behind that in order to convey where Papyrus is.

Prior to creating this piece, I did a lot of research on how perspective and shading work, as well as some general skeletal anatomy. Of course, since this is a cartoon character, I didn't have to illustrate all 206 bones accurately. Over time I decided to switch from gradient shading to a more direct splice-shading technique to add to the cartoon-y effect of the drawing. In addition, I worked on drawing poses and practicing one-point perspective and researching how to properly draw a subject with proper perspective. I looked at some other drawings of Papyrus to get a good look at his expressions and demeanor, and eventually decided that a more heroic pose would help convey how he feels about himself.

In terms of both the project learning targets and my own goals, I feel like I did a good job hitting them both. I applied all of the techniques that I wanted to express in the drawing sufficiently (line, shading, perspective, proper color, expression, body position), and broke down these techniques into separate sections for myself to complete in order to add a level of organization to the project. My connection to popular culture is directly seen, as my subject is a character from a recently released video game. My personal goal of creating a good perspective and expressionate Papyrus were both met; I'm very proud of how I was able to draw his body and facial expressions in a way that properly represents him.

I personally felt like this is the one project where I have improved the most in sketching and drawing. It had been quite literally a few years since I had tried to draw anything seriously, and I am very happy with how nicely it ended up turning out (especially the lines and use of color). My ability to properly convey a light source through shading is better than it ever was, and after working on this project for so long and watching videos over art theory, I find it much easier to visualize objects in my head. Though I did improve significantly, I would still say that my weaknesses would definitely have to be shading and my ability to create an immersive background, as well as being able to illustrate a specularity/shininess to objects that are being directly hit by sunlight. I can't quite wrap my head around gradient shading, especially on a subject where I have no experience with seeing as a 3D subject.

Art Project Proposal #2

For my second project I would like to draw a character from a popular game using either vector-based drawing or simply a piece of paper with a pen/colored pencils. Though the character looks very simple in this image (This is how the character appears in-game), I plan on illustrating him with much more detail and color, along with non-diffusion shading for that cartoon-y look. The main goal of this project is to reproduce this character in a very different perspective, along with a background that fits the context of the game. If I decide to use Adobe Illustrator for this project, it will be a completely new program that I have almost no prior experience with. The main reason that I thought this would be a good project is because it would give the opportunity to convert a subject from one art style (pixel art) into a different style (cartoon/semi realistic). I plan on improving my work with making straight lines, and especially making artwork with a consistent perspective and proper proportions for the viewing angle.

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Project #1 - Vladimir Lenin Bust

It took me a while to decide who would be a good figure to model in history, but I finally decided on Vladimir Lenin. My major concern was the difficulty that would be presented when modelling the mesh with such a low amount of polygons, but also being able to create an identifiable face. Lenin seemed like a good option because I had just learned about the effects of communism in APUSH, and he seemed like a very influential figure in developing the communist doctrine. Additionally, Lenin has a very distinct complexion that could be easily expressed in the style I chose. The statue and environment can be broken down into three assets: mesh, material, and lighting. For the mesh, I started out with a cube and continuously subdivided it, manipulating the vertexes to form a body, an arm, and eventually a head. In total, I ended up using only 650 verts and about 210 triangles, which is very low. The next step was making an adequate material, which took a very long time. I had to create over 30 nodes and individually manipulate scatter density, occlusion, and reflection, among many other factors that go into creating a realistic material. I settled for a copper material because most communist dictators in Russia had their statues made with copper. This process of mixing to get just the right material took about 5 hours alone. Finally, lighting was put in place to create realistic reflection, ambiance, and shadows. I switched over to 'Cycles Render' and created a 'sun' object, and added ray casting to create a diffusing shadow. In all, it was much more specific than what I have described but this was the most simple explanation.

Prior to creating this piece, I did a lot of research on various historical figures from many time periods, stretching all the way back to the Bronze Age. Eventually I settled for Lenin because of the reasons stated in the preceding paragraph. Additionally, I did a massive amount of research on how to properly utilize the tools in Blender, and how to create a realistic material and atmosphere. I also researched various styles such as Neoclassical sculpting and low-poly designing, both of which were implemented in my bust to create an interesting contrast in art movements. I drew more influence from low-poly and minimalism because I felt like it would fit the medium of a 3D rendering program better, and it would create a greater contrast with the time period that Lenin was in.

I feel like I hit most, if not all of the learning targets stated on the rubric. I took my time to fully familiarize myself with Blender and get an understanding of the tools and nodes of the program. My use of the styles researched was adequate enough on all sides for each style to be seen as an influence in this project. I utilized organizational principles to create a structurally feasible and materialistically feasible bust; my work could most certainly be made in real life with the proper tools. My use of art history when choosing the styles and when selecting a proper figure to model was very comprehensive and thought-out. As far as personal goals, I feel like my skill level in Blender has raised dramatically, especially in modelling and creating materials; before I never had the knowledge in order to create metals or even leather, cloth, etc.

My strengths in this project would be my previous knowledge with using this medium, as well as a thorough understanding of many styles. Of course, my knowledge of Blender could also be considered a weakness, as I did not understand many facets of making a proper mesh. Additionally, I am not very good in general with creating realistic figures, so I took influence from low-poly so that I would be able to exaggerate features of the particular person I might have been modelling (i.e. Large forehead, extending chin in Lenin) whilst also making it look very good and stylistically appropriate.