As you like it ... digital painting or 3D render???

I put it to you -- what's your preference? Pure digital painting, or 3D render, or a composite of both? I have to admit that lately I've begun to drift towards a preference for painting. I think ... I think ... I might have seen too much AI and CG in the last couple of years, and I'm starting to value the gift of an actual living, breathing, flesh and blood human being...

This one is a composite of two images, plus the sky from a third, plus Photoshop brushes, plus a lot, and I mean a LOT of painting. You see that hair? Painted. 

But I will admit to doing the sky the sneaky way:

Yeeees, that's a photo I took at the end of the driveway, almost in the street, about six years ago. And you can actually recognize it in the finished painting here:

The final version is the result of re-re-reapplied filters and a couple of blend modes, which turn a photo into a painting. Photoshop jiggery-pokery. From time to time, I might have to cut corner and save a bit of work ... a) I don't have much time to invest in painting these days; b) I have problems with my hands and spine. I actually don't see anything wrong with using my own resources ... it's my photo, when all's said and done! And the background is a reworking of a landscape I did last year --

-- you can also recognise that in the finished work. Soooo ... digital painting or rendering? 

Now, the CG work goes back to a render from about 2021: Tomas and the dragon called Trouble, who is now mostly grown up and desperately needs to be home, on the other side of those mountains, where the big dragons live (also elves and trolls -- delicious, isn't it?). I'd very much like to produce an illustrated story, and I've been asking myself in recent months which would look best -- a CG rendered world, or a world that is painted? For comparison --

I actually find the painting more compelling! If you have an opinion, you can find me on Facebook, and I wouldn't mind having some feedback on this.

More pretty things ... why is it always the day from hell?!

 

Why is it always the day from hell? Always! Things were fine till evening, and I thought, "Hey, we're going to get a good day." Then you hold your breath, because you're just "waiting for it to happen." And it did -- something always does; you can count on it. Argh.

So ... indulging myself in a little art, working on this blog some more, to take my mind off the sheer aggravation. Sigh. I wish I could tell you these are new renders, but they're not. I still don't have the time to invest in fresh art -- a quick sketch here and there is the best I can do lately, and to be honest, I'm too tired even for that, most of the time! These are old ones, but they've been touched up in subtle ways to make more, and better, of them. 

Still working on this blog! I though I had it in good shape, then I looked back at it, spot checking here and there. Nope. Lots of missing images, dead links, obsolete stuff ... lots more work to do, to get it right! Bear with me. I also haven't yet had the chance to finish my new gallery site. Life just keeps getting in the way. And there's soooo much to do in the next few days, it would be futile to say, "Tomorrow's another day, we'll start again," because that would be utterly impossible. 

We soldier on! 

Just a few pretty things to close out the official Day From Hell

 

Nothing much to talk about today. Am working to hard ... the whole body is telling me it's time to stop and rest, and I'll get the chance in a few days' time. Not yet. I have a dep longing to paint, but it's not going to happen any time soon! Well, not before Thursday, at least. These images haven't seen light of day in years, and they've just been spruced up, polished, given a new spin. The end result is about 50/50, rendering and painting. I think, maybe, there's actually a story hiding away in these images. Hmmm ... let me think ... 

Old favourites, new techniques ... nice!

 

Old favourite characters from soooo long ago, I'd actually forgotten about them. This was a nice little romantic fantasy back in 2010 (!) ... and I decided to use some old, old renders to test out some new theories. I've wanted to paint for a long time now. Not render. Paint. What you see here is 50% ancient raytrace, 50% painting -- and when you upscale an old, old render, boy, do you have to do some painting. They pixelize badly ... which gives you a project, and opens the door to a whole lot of painting. This was all done in Photoshop, for the sheer convenience of it. Not saying it couldn't have been done in Krita, but the truth is, it's rather a long time since I've played in Krita: the interface isn't as familiar as it used to be, and I'm way too tired to faff about. But -- yay -- everything worked! Now I can't wait to do more! Oh, yes. And speaking of painting --

That was an interesting project, and I'll leave it to you to figure out what was painted, what began as a transparent .png, which bit started life as a photograph, etc.. It's a combination of all three, and/but nothing was used in its original form -- which is why it looks seamless when it puzzled together.

This one, though, is a painting, pure and simple. From scratch. Started with a photo, which I took at Lyndoch Hill a couple of years ago ... did a sketch from it ... painted. Musk Lorikeet ... nice ... and this is the first time I have managed to hand-paint feathers that actually look like feathers! Every time I've tried, previously, I've got fur, not feathers, LOL. I knew I'd figure it out but -- dang, it took about five goes to get it. Ha!

So -- all experiments turned up positive results, and now I can't wait to paint!