Welcome Back: An Update on My Seemingly Nonexistent Artistic Life

    Welcome back to my artist blog! If you're a returning reader, thank you for sticking with me through my extended hiatus. If you're new to my work, allow me to introduce myself: I am an artist specializing in digital art in Clip Studio and my work often explores themes of landscapes with wild, often fantastical themes, I'm also dabbling in 3D and exploring Blender as a means to expand my knowledge in making enticing and beautiful 3D images, and eventually animations.

Land of Mosaic

Dessert Rose

Misty Bog

    For the past five years, I've been working at a demanding job that has left me little time for my art. While I've still managed to create a few pieces here and there, my focus on art has understandably been somewhat limited. However, now that I'm in a place where I can prioritize my creative pursuits again, I'm excited to start this blog back up and share my journey with all of you. I know it's been a while, but I hope you'll join me as I re-dedicate myself to my art and explore new directions and techniques. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and I can't wait to connect with you through this blog and my work.

    I'm so excited to be starting this blog up again and sharing my artistic journey with all of you. While there have been many times when I've wanted to give up on my art, I've learned that it's important to persevere and trust the process. I hope that by documenting my experiences as an artist, I can offer some encouragement and inspiration to anyone who may be struggling with their own creative pursuits. Whether you're just starting out or have been at it for a while, I hope that my story can serve as a reminder that it's never too late to follow your passions and see where they take you.

    My most recent project has been a 3D project called the Ancient Laboratory, which I created using Blender. This project was inspired by my desire to explore new mediums and techniques. I was really excited to tackle this challenge and learn more about Blender, and I'm really proud of how the project turned out. The Ancient Laboratory is a fully-realized 3D environment that transports viewers to a mysterious and ancient research facility. It's full of intricate details, and I hope it will inspire others to explore their own creative possibilities. I'm always looking for new ways to challenge myself and push my art to the next level, and I'm excited to see where this project takes me next.

Ancient Laboratory Concept

    It started in Clip Studio, and I wanted to go for a cave setting, with some scientists in a hazmat suit of some kind, and looking around, and examining something. I was going for a portal, going by the concept, but I ended up drifting away from that specific idea, into a more, ancient technological artifact.

Sculpting cave walls in Blender

    In Blender, I started with a basic cube, which I selected various sides, and used the extrude tool in Blender. After I was satisfied with the basic shape, I then switched the layout over to sculpting, where I was better able to move around the cave mesh to achieve more detailed cave formations.

Sculpting process in Blender

    I found the sculpting process in Blender to be very intuitive and fun. The sculpting brush called "cloth" was particularly interesting to work with, as it allowed me to create wrinkles and flowing shapes that felt like I was working with a piece of fabric. I made sure to add enough vertices to the mesh so that the brush would work properly, and then I was able to use it to create some really nice details. I also used a plugin called Scatter5 to add some extra props like rocks and grass, which really helped to bring the scene to life.

Cave with rocks and grass scattered

Movin' Verts...

    Modeling the character was definitely one of the most challenging and time-consuming parts of this project. There were many times when I felt like I was getting nowhere, and I had to push through a lot of frustration and self-doubt to get to the final result. But in the end, it was all worth it. Seeing the character come to life and take shape was an incredible feeling, and I learned so much about 3D modeling and character design in the process. While it wasn't always easy, I'm grateful for the opportunity to challenge myself and improve my skills. I'm proud of the final result.

Sculpting Details

Putting it all together texturing and lighting the assets in the scene which was another challenging task but fun nonetheless.

Texturing in Substance Painter

Lighting Setup and Render

    Lighting the scene was tricky, especially since it was set in a cave. It was a balancing act between making the lighting too overpowering or too dark. After a few hours of tweaking settings and playing around with the various assets and camera view, I was able to get the lighting just right and create the impact I was looking for, err, at least somewhat. However, the final result was worth the effort, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I learned a lot about lighting during this project, and I'm excited to continue exploring new techniques and improving my skills.

Final Render

    Overall, I've learned so much through this project and my experience with Blender. From concept to final 3D image, I've been able to expand my pipeline and improve my skills. While I'm sure there is still much more for me to learn and improve upon, I'm excited to continue pushing myself and exploring new techniques. I hope this blog post has been enlightening for you in some way, and I hope to be able to share more detailed and visual updates in the future through videos and other multimedia content. Thank you for joining me on this journey, and I hope you'll continue to follow along and see what I have in store next.

If you've made it this far, once again, thank you for taking the time. I have a website where you may be able to see more of my recent works, over at DigitaLeon Art

Take care, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!