Week Summary

On Monday, I did not have any university sessions, so I stayed at home and prepared my second pitch for my project 1 (Sci-fi Roman character) for the next day. For this I put down some images of some parts of my work so far that I thought would be relevant. This was mainly concept pieces which are my earlier designs and my Z brush model so far. Also on Monday I decided to buy a full copy of ZBrush. I did this because I have had problems with files not opening in ZBrush core after using a full copy at university, this can be frustrating and worrisome and I feel it has put me behind a little. Also with the full copy I can now work at home if I am not able to go into university as recently I have been unwell with (suspected gallbladder problems) this can be a problem. Therefore I have decided to buy a full copy, still I have wanted to buy a full copy for some time. It will be beneficial over the Christmas term as well as I will not be able to use the facilities at university during this time.

On Tuesday, in the morning I had my anatomy wax workshop session. This session was slightly slow pace than previous sessions. It felt like we did not get so much done in this session but I did add the muscle to the leg and textured the muscle and the muscle on the pelvis area. 

https://blog.fitraq.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Leg-Muscle-Anatomy.jpg Leg muscle image shows the muscle added in the session. 

Also on Tuesday I had to present my pitch, this is the second pitch I have done since being in year three. In doing these pitches to the tutors and my group it builds confidence in talking about my work, it's also good to hear feedback ideas after the pitch has been completed. I have been told to look at roman sculptures in more depth with how they are posed and the materials used. I will need to do this as I do intend to pose my model when it is fully modelled. My pitch went well and it seems I am on track so far. My tutors seem to be happy so far in what I have produced and they hope that the rest of the model will be to the standard that the helmet is in. 

On Wednesday, I went into the university for my one-hour session with my specialist tutor. In this session, I went over the dissertation draft of a 1000 words. They gave me some guidance on how to write certain parts such as chapters and what should be added and where. We also went over the grammar as in some areas I did have some grammar errors. They went over my introduction part of this written piece and structured it a little differently with changing some words, as I have used the word ‘I’ too much. This is where my dyslexia show’s strongly. I am glad I'm getting some help/guidance with the written side of this course. I also added my bibliography to my written draft.

On Thursday, I had my concept art session in photoshop. We were told to analyse three images of our choosing from a select range of given images on the VLE. This session consisted of value study of an environment piece. With the three selected images, I had to change the image first to black and white. I then picked the different value of tone from the foreground, middle ground and background using the eye dropper tool and paint the chosen colour into a red box I created in the correct order (Dark to light). I then added yellow lines to show the direction (composition) of the viewer’s line of sight while looking at the image. When I had completed this task I then went into the program Alchemy to create some quick thumbnails of environments. This task had a set brief. The image below is showing what was needed in this task.

At first it took me quite some time to figure out what I wanted my final piece to be. This is where the alchemy thumbnails come in and work well for me to get a clear understanding of what I would like to create. I decided to go with a cave hideout scene that is themed from the Viking era (Matching the brief). I used mixed media for this piece, photo bashing and painted. I would like to think that I have got better in the short amount of time with photo bashing, as at first, I found that photo bashing was quite difficult, especially blending a photo into another photo. In this piece, I think that I have achieved the blending method more successfully in which I’m happy to see. In this piece, I drew in the torches to give a source of light I edited the lights using layer effects which gave the light more of a glow and realistic touch. I added water effects to parts of the piece such as the dripping effects coming off the cave walls. I also added a body into this piece to give the environment a tense atmosphere, this was part of the brief to give the viewer a feeling of tense emotion. I added details such as the blood running into the water and on the wooden platforms. The negative part of this piece that I’m not overly happy with and struggled with was painting the waves crashing against the rocks, I think I could have done this better if I had a more suited brush and knowledge for painting wave affects. Overall, I think this is one of the strongest tasks I have done so far in the concept art sessions. I am pleased that my photo bashing skills are developing and I look forward to practising the technique more broadly. 

On Friday, in the morning I went into University to see a tutor to go over my dissertation topic as this was suggested to me. I am very pleased that I did book a session as my tutor really helped with how to structure my dissertation in the right format through its chapters. They also gave me some sources and recommended a book from the library which I did manage to get hold of.