Unobtanium Anniversary!!

One year ago today I started the Unobtanium project in an effort to make myself a better, more well-rounded artist and to help me find a job. Today I can safely say that I am a better artist and I currently work for SuckerPunch as a Technical Director, so I am calling this one mission accomplished.

I felt a little rushed last night when I posted the final Unobtanium piece and I don’t feel like I gave the occasion as much pomp and circumstance as it deserved. Now, I don’t mean that I need some kind of special recognition or my ego stroked, what I mean is that I didn’t get a chance to properly thank everyone who has supported me during the last year.

First of all I want to thank my wonderful, loving wife Lisa. She has supported me every step of the way during this adventure with unwavering dedication and never let me lose faith in myself or the project. She repeatedly bent over backwards to make sure I was able to work on the project every single day.

Second, I want to thank everyone who has ever commented, given advice, feedback or even just an “attaboy” in passing. I was privileged enough to get advice from some amazing friends, artists and industry veterans.  Every kind word of encouragement and friendly piece of advice meant more than I can say. They kept me going every time I felt like quitting and made the whole experience even more amazing.

Last, but not least, I want to thank everyone who ever clicked one of my links or just cruised on by my blog to look at my work. Every hit felt like a validation that proved that the project was worthwhile. To everyone who took a moment out of their day to look at my latest creation or delve into the archives I thank you.

It has been one hell of a ride and I wouldn’t trade a single late night, early morning, sore shoulder or bruised ego for anything in the world. Thank you everyone for taking this journey with me!

 

++End Transmission++

Day 365 Art Post (Grand Finale)

For my grand finale I decided to paint a portrait of my new baby boy, Korben. I worked for about three hours on it throughout the day and I really like how it turned out. Given more time it could be better of course, but I am definitely going to work on it some more after a little art break.

 

++End Transmission++

++Mission Complete++

Day 364 Art Post

I put a solid hour of sculpting in today working on trying to integrate the various pieces of the cold suit and give it a good flow underneath the trenchcoat. I am thinking about adding the bandages as separate pieces over the cold suit so I can do a cleaner sculpt on the cold suit. Decisions decisions, lol.

 

++End Transmission++

Day 363 Art Post

Spent an hour working on the trenchcoat’s major forms to try to get a better vertical flow. I also made him a hair taller. I don’t know why it was bugging me so much, but I like it better now, lol.

 

++End Transmission++

Day 362 Art Post

Worked for another hour today on some of the cold-suit rough details. I like how it is coming along. I am having a lot of fun working on this! Now I just need more time, lol.

 

++End Transmission++

Day 361 Art Post

Worked for an hour today on roughing in some of  the shapes I want for the undersuit in the pants and the transition to the boots. I also did some subtle work on the lower half of the trench coat to help sell that it is actually draping. Baby steps, lol.

 

++End Transmission++

Day 360 Art Post

I got to spend about an hour sculpting today. I was working on the torso for the most part, although I ended up smoothing out some of it. I tried working off of some ref I found on the internet, but I really do need to find some time to shoot some custom reference.

 

++End Transmission++

Day 359 Art Post

I worked for an hour or so doing a lot of overall sculpting work and little adjustments. I evened out a lot of the surfaces and did a lot of cleanup. I decided to do a chrome render to give me a better idea of the lines and flow. VERY informative!

 

++End Transmission++

Day 358 Art Post

Got the new and improved family  home today, so I got to spend an hour of my day sculpting from the comfort of my own chair. Huge improvement. I would rather sit on thumb tacks than some of the chairs at the hospital. I worked on the back where the mechanical parts come through the trench coat (the tank holders and more to come). I haven’t quite decided how to handle it yet. I was thinking either relatively precise (mostly clean cuts for the parts) or more like Catwoman from Batman Returns (over-cut and resewn together). I am leaning towards the latter because I think it will add some nice visual contrast.

 

++End Transmission++

Day 357 Art Post

Today’s post is brought to you by new baby smell: you will never smell this good again.

I squeezed in an hour of work today. Some in maya, but mostly in ZBrush. I made some changes to the lower trench coat to improve the sense of drapery, but it still needs a lot of love. Once we get home from the hospital I plan on finally getting that reference that I wanted shot.

 

++End Transmission++