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Messages - jengy
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1
2D & 3D / Re: Physical pixel art
« on: December 04, 2015, 04:47:19 pm »
LOL.
Wanna know some cross stitching tips?

- If you use both hands (one poking through the front, the other catching the needle and poking through the back) the whole project goes twice as fast. You have to rest the hoop on your knee to get this to work. But your basically tossing the needle from hand to hand.

- Place a light either behind your project and you can see the needle through the fabric, and be able to poke the hole you're going for faster. Or place a light to your left or right, (you can use daylight for this) just enough to cast shadows across your cross stitch. When you are searching for your hole with the needle, you can more clearly see where the bump is. (Searching requires a ballpoint needle, which I mention in the next step).

- Don't use a sharp needle. Consider using a larger tapestry or ballpoint needle. Makes it so you never poke yourself and you're less likely to miss the hole you're going for and split the weave.

- Use beeswax or thread conditioner to make the thread less prone to clotting and knotting.

I can make some videos if anyone is interested, can't do it now because I'm on a bus, hehe).

Good luck!

2
2D & 3D / Re: Physical pixel art
« on: December 01, 2015, 04:08:13 pm »
Hey!
PixelPiledriver told me about this post and I'm exicted to see others doing this!

I make magnets with my pixel art works.
They are super sturdy (I use heavy magnets found at craft stores) and back them with felt.
They take forever to make, though.


Fever, Weird and Chill


Kirby flying away


The mole from Dig-N-Rig!


Whoosh!


Dr. Mario


Mario 3 x Plants VS. Zombies for a friend

If anyone is interested, I can do a video demo sometime of how I put them together.

Basic Steps:
  • Make your cross stitch.
  • Outline the cross stitch with a 1-pixel contrasting thread (makes the pixel pop from the BG).
  • Cut out a piece of felt big enough to cover the back of the cross stitch and then some.
  • Hot glue gun the felt to the back side, where all the nasty threads are. This locks the threads down and gives the magnet some weight/thickness.
  • Roughly cut out the cross stitch and felt. Leave lots of margin on the outside of the pixel art.
  • (Hardest step) Carefully cut out the cross stitch, one pixel outside of the thread border. Be careful! Stuff can fray and you have to take your time, sometimes doing only one pixel snip at a time. This is difficult to control because of the added thickness of the glue and felt, but it's better to do it once these are attached for maximum size match with felt BG.
  • Attach the magnet with glue gun.
  • Optional: Apply fray-locking glue on edges to prevent the cross stitch edges from flaking off.
  • You're done!

I also made a pixel art stocking for Christmas that Pixel will use year round (and where I'll hide little gifts and notes for him).




3
General Discussion / Re: Winning at pixel art
« on: March 24, 2015, 07:17:56 pm »
A short personal story: cell, I totally know that feels, and I have some thoughts about my own experience with black and white thinking.

I'm gunna start talking about it from my own point of view so don't feel like I'm trying to implicate who you are cell; these are just my thoughts, and all "yous" are hypothetical, me-based ones. :)

What you should know that what you experience is common, but that feeling of winning or losing is not helpful or necessary and you can get rid of it with time, practice, and mental exercise.

While seeing things in black and white terms can be useful in terms of motivation for propelling one forward, it creates a over-simplification mechanism that can be poisonous to thinking, and make you afraid to fail and experiment with many aspects in life, and limit your mental flexibility.

I have been an artist all my life and I've suffered from depression since age 11.

I wouldn't be depressed all the time, but more often than not my negative thoughts and events of failure or embarrassment would propel me into depression every so often. Equally, successes would put me into a manic state and I'd be riding on a cloud. I was a sore loser, and a bad winner.

When I was 25, I was listening to a radio show that featured my favorite comedian, Louis CK.
During the show, he mentioned that he was suffering from problems and sought help through therapy because he was struggling to figure out some issues we was experiencing in his marriage. If a rational-minded, thoroughly respectable person I looked up did it, then maybe I could?
There was a loss of shame when I learned that someone I thought of highly took up therapy for a while and I decided to look into it.

I also had the love and support of PixelPiledriver in my times of need to be there for me time after time, so I was also incredibly lucky there. Pixel was always incredibly patient and understanding during my lows and gave me so many positive affirmations and justice to my self confidence. But I wanted to start standing up on my own feet and going into counselling sessions on my own. He'd been there for me, but I needed to start relying on my own effort to get where I wanted to be mentally.

If you overwork yourself to be better based on either fail or lose, while you may excel your artistic journey forward, you often are leaving important cognitive and skills behind, and not addressing the defects with them. On a morale/quality of life level, you're also fucking yourself.

Black and white/winning losing thinking isn't sustainable and you can find so much pleasure in the process as well as the final product. Why trash 90% of the journey?

My advice is to look into CBT, a soft-core form of therapy that addresses thinking errors and can help you get over your polarizing thoughts. CBT for Dummies is great, and cheaper than having to see a counselor if one isn't available to you. The most important thing though is that you realize though your thoughts are perfectly OK to have, and know there are less painful and more healthy alternatives.

Best of luck and hugs all around.
Anyone can feel free to message me privately if they need any more references for therapy or behavioral health. :)


4
Challenges & Activities / Re: The Daily Sketch
« on: December 22, 2014, 05:16:42 am »


Working on a project for a friend.
I love tardigrades. :D For obvious reasons.

5
Portfolios / 3D Artist [Looking for Work]
« on: April 24, 2014, 05:59:47 pm »
Hi,
I am looking for paid work as a game artist.
I am available full or part time, remote or local.
I live in the Seattle area.



My professional experience has mostly been props, backgrounds, and simple characters.









I also enjoy illustration, concept work, and collaborating in game design.



I have worked mostly on low-to-medium spec art, but am knowledgeable in ZBrush and normal and spec maps.



Portfolio
LinkedIn
Resume

6
General Discussion / Re: Big boobed characters in video games
« on: January 21, 2013, 07:25:03 pm »
I find feminism, as a woman, very confusing.

There always attempts to neuter female sexuality when, if you are a sexually satisfied woman, you love sex and being sexy, you are comfortable with those two things, and can appreciate it.

Some people believe big-breasted women to be offensive. However, ALL of art and media (movies, books, and games) is skewed to be context sensitive.

Rarely do writers use main characters in books that are ugly, despite the fact that ugliness is just another variable of appearance, another shade to be chosen from a palette, and can be used to promote an idea or character identity. There are rarely cries against this practice.

I do agree that artists must do things intentionally. If ugly is your intention, if you have motivation for it, then that is great. Ugly things are incredibly interesting. But there always needs to be active thinking by both consumer and artist. It’s shallow thinking that leads to exploitation of any group.

One rarely hears complaints from feminists about extraordinarily pretty everyone in movies tends to be (men, women, and children alike). Attractiveness is apparently divorced from sexuality in this mindset. But sexualilty becomes vilified rather than shallowness. 

I believe what we should do is teach others to ignore media, and it for what is, and embrace all forms, and think intelligently about what we consume.

Porn is not inherently wrong, but in a negative light it can be seen as two people objectifying themselves. However, in the end it is a sexual aid that can be spun into a positive thing (jobs for porn stars, crews, directors, something for your poor old grandpa to watch).

And, if the actor is taught to be a strong minded person, s/he will empower themselves with their abilities and see their “art” for what it is, and continue to respect/empower themselves how they see fit. But it is true, they must be of a conscious and intentional mindset when they make this career their life.

It’s true that an artist that draws a sexy lady may become sexy-lady driven after a while. If that is their pleasure, then let them be. However, it can be said that drawing any other type of thing is probably also healthy for the artist. But telling people what the make their art of is ridiculous and cuts off the communication that art provides to the world. It stifles the artist from being able to illustrate what they are interested in (in this case, sexy ladies). Stopping conversations with rules and regulations is usually a lot less interesting that letting artists do what they’d like and hurts they way we express our ideas to each other.

When you start talking about limiting art, then you start talking about limiting yourself. The lesson that needs to be taught is not that making big-boobed people is wrong.

Art is context sensitive, and we must strive to cultivate intelligent people. Everyone has the right to enjoy sex, in all its forms. We should think about what we are looking at, rather than shun it or label it as wrong.

It is more empowering as a woman to decide that sex is great and to respect it among everyone, rather than be offended by another woman being portrayed as a sexual being. Because, we all are.

7
2D & 3D / Re: Official Anatomy Thread
« on: December 05, 2012, 07:38:28 pm »
These books are really pretty helpful with thinking about negative space/forms and wrestling proportions:

http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Drawing-Atelier-Traditional-ebook/dp/B007QPFERQ/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1354734101&sr=8-2-spell
http://www.amazon.com/dp/082300659X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

This is a image from the "Lessons" book preview that has the process:


When I tried this process a while ago I couldn't move past the "this thing is hard edged and blocky stage" but with Photoshop dimming the layer and drawing over would probably work much better. The equivalent if you're working on paper could just be a pass over with a kneaded eraser or a retrace of your image.

The main thing that also might help you is starting with proportions and then taking a break. It might help you come back to the image with a more clarity and objectiveness, which is helpful when you have to do the math of measuring everything out.

You could just start the drawing off with just a blocky, proportions only-sketch in the above image, leave the image, and come back and check your proportions.

When I was having trouble with copying, I also just tried tracing the image a few times, and then performing the copy. Sometimes your mind just can't handle all that information and your hands can't really replicate it, so tracing a few times and then discarding can really help clear that up as well.

The Ctrl Paint guy also discusses this technique for getting past certain observational barriers:

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/draw-100/

Proportions is something I need to work on too personally, and I've only recently been determined to beat down that very fundamental demon. It's boring as hell to check proportions, but it's also essential in drawing everything.

It usually takes 10,000 hours become a master of any skill, so just keep logging hours and you'll get there.   

Talking about this also really helpful for me, so thanks for the discussion. :)

How I usually feel when I have to do a photo study:


8
2D & 3D / Re: Official Anatomy Thread
« on: December 02, 2012, 04:33:57 am »
Working with a simple grid would be a big step backwards for Dennis because he is reproducing his knowledge in the third dimension.

It's definitely important to understand the underlying structure of the thing you are drawing. This technique specifically targets errors in proportion, which I think is very important when understanding the figure straight on, but doubly hard if you are trying to translate those proportions into space. I mostly want to recommend that it might be good to tackle one issue first (proportion), instead of two (proportion and perspective).

Proportion in itself is tricky, and using certain mechanics can help you build your eye for it (like drawing from life, photos, ect).

I do agree with a lot of your points Cyangmou, but I would only say that you should always try out a technique to see if it may help before not trying it at all.

We can say certain techniques are crutches, but anything can be used as a tool for learning if we can adapt past their limitations and integrate the technical abilities of exercises into our own workflow.

I’ll use myself as an example:



The drawing on the left is from April, and the drawing on the right is from June. These are drawn from life/observation.

I hated drawing from life or images. It bored me to tears. I never did it until this year, and now I see its worth.

After drawing from photos for a couple months, I found improvement even in my non-photo based drawings.

It may not work for everyone, but just trying out a technique can’t hurt. I’ve been doing an art challenge (one drawing a day) since April and doing a mixture of imagination, life and drawing from photos, and all three have shown me something worthwhile.

And yes, kudos for throwing down so many posts! I agree with Cyangmou that it's inspiring. :] I guess what I want to convey is--try everything! At least once! One drawing can convince you of something or tell you that something doesn't work for you. Perception of technique is one thing, but doing it is another. And good luck to you!

9
2D & 3D / Re: Official Anatomy Thread
« on: December 02, 2012, 01:14:11 am »
I would actually recommend taking the time to work from life or photographs right now, as I think you need to build up a mental library of how different features look in different angles so that you can inject that information into your imaginative studies

I would definitely agree with Ryumaru on this idea. Drawing something that exists in real life from the imagination is extremely hard, and there are plenty of online resources available to draw from. Most professional artists, if they are seeking realism, draw from resource. And if you are just practicing, then there is no reason to draw from imagination if you can get better faster drawing from life or photographs first.

This not only instills confidence in yourself, but it also teaches you to see something as it is--abstract, 2D shapes that represent 3D forms.

From what I'm seeing, you're trying to do battle with 1) perspective 2) proportion 3) imagination drawing 4) identifying enclosed shapes. Reducing these problem solving exercises to one challenge will may help you grow faster in that area and understand it more.

The main thing I would recommend trying to get better at is seeing abstract, 2D shapes that every drawing is made of. The book "Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain" has a lot of techniques for this, such as flipping the canvas and using a grid system to determine placement. I made a short gif with tips on how to draw from an image.

Here's a short gif with some tips (here's the png if you prefer: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oC4DXkd3uSo/ULqps1TrPvI/AAAAAAAAE0M/WTqmTMmjYJw/s1600/fordennis.png):


And good luck! :) Art is hard, but if you are open to trying new things, you can really grow your talents and technical skills. Try everything until something works for you!

10
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Adult Scootaloo + Cloudy Scene
« on: June 07, 2012, 08:06:18 am »
Hi there, I'm new to the forums, but my best friend frequents these forums and I saw your post and wanted to pass on some feedback that may be helpful.

Note: Non-pixel edit. Also, I removed the BG cloud for clarity.

One thing I noticed about her rear end is, though it appears to be accurate to the Pony style, it might be nice if she had more of a curvy rear end, in order to create a plane change that would help build perspective and visual interest.

Here I took the butt in Photoshop and warped it:



As it is now, you're getting some still-image "twinning" extending from the straight legs to the bottom, which can flatten the form.

Here's an image showing what I mean:



By breaking up that line, you can create some interesting negative shapes and heighten the aesthetic in this portion of the drawing, as well as create more visual rhythm throughout the body.

Here's an example of visual rhythm at work with a fuller bottom:



It also engenders a feeling of perspective, which is always exciting. :)

I hope that helps, and good luck!

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