New painting

Alex Jenyon · 6 Jan 2008, 11:33

Here's a new personal project of mine, finally got to knuckle down for an hour or two this weekend and get it finished.

[image link broken here: http://www.aj-concepts.net/skimmer_v10.jpg ]

Started off as a mesh in SU to get perspective, masses and shadows locked down, and then went into PainterX for 'rendering'.

I'll post the SU output when I get to my laptop, so that will follow shortly.

Comments welcome.

AJ

Alex Jenyon · 6 Jan 2008, 11:36

Here's the SU mesh I started with:

[Image link broken here: http://www.aj-concepts.net/skimmer_v5.jpg ]

Credit to the Soapskinbubble plugin for the organic surfaces, that plugin is genius!

RonS · 6 Jan 2008, 11:37

Alex,
That is outstanding. Very good work.

lewiswadsworth · 6 Jan 2008, 11:37

Beautiful work...I like the subject and the method of describing it...I tend to "render" items with a similar technique, using Photoshop CS3 XT and not Painterx (I don't quite know what that is).

P: Lewis Wadsworth

boofredlay · 6 Jan 2008, 11:38

Wow, that is fantastic.

If you are not already signed up you ought to go here:
http://www.cgsociety.org/

Sign up and post this. Definately worthy.

Alex Jenyon · 6 Jan 2008, 11:38

Thanks for your comments guys -

Lewis: PainterX is Corel's latest version of their natural media painting software (i.e. Painter Version 10)

Eric: I often look at cgtalk, but I have yet to post an image. I tried to sign up over the weekend, but it didn't seem to work - I'll try again, and get this image up there. Cheers!

AJ

lewiswadsworth · 6 Jan 2008, 11:39

I'm also fascinated that most of the surface detail on your hovership seems to be painted-in, as opposed to modeled. Is this your typical technique, Alex: the massing is done in SketchUp and most surface detail is indicated through post-processing/painting? I'm not sure I could make myself do that, but then my subject matter tends to be presumably build-able architecture.

P: Lewis Wadsworth

jeff jacobs · 6 Jan 2008, 11:40

Pretty cool, but I have to wonder why you need SketchUp. You're obviously a very capable artist. I guess SketchUp would be useful for determing the best POV. Anyway, very nice work.

Alex Jenyon · 6 Jan 2008, 11:40

Lewis: This is the technique with which I do almost all my pictures - it's the quickest, easiest and most versatile method I've found. Really helps to nail down the perspective lines straight off, and choose the camera's FOV without having to do endless thumbnails... There's a point where any smaller details would take longer to model than they would to paint, and that's the point I stop.

Modelhead: I've only ever seen Painter sold as a separate application, no idea whether it's in the Corel Suite or not. There's some more work like this on my website, if you're interested.

Jeff: No, I guess I don't NEED Sketchup - I could do all the drafting by hand, and lay out all of my vanishing points on a huge bit of paper like I used to do at college. But I figured if the architects could get away with not having to do this, then I could too It's just a tool in a bigger process, it get used as long as it remains useful in the workflow, and then I move on...

Thanks for your comments. If you think it's appropriate to this forum, anyone got any composition/subject/colour/lighting crits? I've been staring at the pic way to long to judge myself, so it would definitely be appreciated.

Take care

AJ

boofredlay · 6 Jan 2008, 11:41

I think the lighting is fantastic. If I had to crit. at all I would say there needs to be some definition in the cloud surface in the upper left, rather than just black. But I "get" the picture just as it is.

monsterzero · 6 Jan 2008, 11:41

Very cool, Alex!

I love the design forms for the ship! Great stuff!

If I had one crit; I would say that the top surfaces of your ship get lost and I have trouble seeing the silhouette. In the SU model you don't have the covering shapes on the main deck that you have in the painting. That shape blends in the upper deck and the rear wing structure. Get what I mean?

Not everything has to be obvious, but you created a cool silhouette for the ship, and you might want to show it off.

Gaieus · 6 Jan 2008, 11:42

Alex, that's beautiful, thanks for posting!
I have a colleague (he is sitting right opposit to me at the moment too) who does artwork (mainly drawing, painting and glass staining) and who was very interested in SU exactly for the same reason you have applied and integrated your model into your artwork.
Now I'll call him over and show the picture to him.

Alex Jenyon · 6 Jan 2008, 11:42

Great crits - exactly what I needed. Not sure when I'll have time to work on it a bit further, but I'll sort out some of the stuff that was raised. Cheers!
Colleague of mine at work suggested adding rain, which I'll try as well.

Take care all

AJ

mateo soletic · 6 Jan 2008, 11:43

Alex,
that is really amazing stuff,thanks for sharing.

rdluther · 6 Jan 2008, 11:43

absolutly beautiful. Wonderful use of SU for massing and beautiful "painting"

Great Work!