Sketchbook Noodling 1: Props and trees

Hi friend! (:

Sketches from my sketchbook from last month. Still not as much as I would have liked but…let’s focus on the present. Did some sketching in an attempt to get some environment props happening; a struggle for me to get into as I keep thinking of stopping but it is an area of weakness for me, as well as due to my lack of perspective practice.

Drew random simple environment assets to make

Drew a lot of birdcages randomly picked from Google Images and some science lab objects; in need of getting the proportions right here

Microscopes and Leaves studies

More leaves, a badly drawn toy truck, assorted kitchen weapons and a girl.

Just finished Hana Samurai (a Nintendo 3DS eShop game) and it was a relief to finally beat the final boss (a Zelda Twilight Princess Zant like boss) shown in the long pigtails. Reminds me so much of Okami in terms of music as well as Mystical Ninja.

About posting only your best work online
I am not too proud of the things I post here so far, this is in spite of how people say that you should only put your best work online. Yet “your best work” is also subjective. Knowing how I am like, I don’t feel like I have any “best” work as I always find much room for improvement (which keeps me going), it’s just that some things I do are a bit better executed than others.
Back in 2005, when I first posted my art online as a hobbyist, I figured I should get started anyway so that any progress can be documented (hopefully) otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten any useful feedback at all if I didn’t post anything online because I always didn’t feel like I did enough. Obviously almost everything here won’t be used as part of my portfolio as I have many years of hard work to go, but my point of this blog is to keep me drawing and accountable (as said a few times before). As I am absentminded in the way that I usually live in the moment and forget about what happened immediately before (which is why I’m the infamous notetaker), I do get distracted sometimes when I have no focused goal & commitment to stick to.

Which is why I keep feeling like I don’t draw enough as I don’t draw everyday. I keep telling myself to change this, hasn’t worked yet but I’ll figure it out somehow. When I manage to make it happen, you’d see more posts from me. Talk is cheap as they say; reality is harsh but great towards improvement. I don’t want to spread myself too thin as I post on other sketchbook threads, so I’ll probably select a few to post for feedback (which is why I’m not posting as much in other places anymore). And I really need to get more active whenever I finally organise myself, whenever that may be; as during December I still didn’t make the time. Hopefully within these coming months.

What am I doing? Help?
Anyway at the moment, I’m busy working on putting together a folio of Environment Assets and as mentioned, it’s not my forte, I’m struggling to keep motivated in doing something I don’t enjoy relative to character design, concept art and sequential art. As negative as it sounds, I don’t think I’ll get far with what I’ve made and I do feel somewhat terrible about it. Should I be stressed? I know many people who do this really well and love doing it in comparison to me. Should I just move on and focus on anatomy? But shouldn’t I get on with making the most of this? Am I really doing the best I can here? How many polys should this be? Do I have to make it incredibly realistic when I tend towards the stylised and simplistic route? How do I render things for games? Why doesn’t this render work? Do I have to sculpt everything? Am I in trouble for making things really low poly thus not really high end looking, realistic “cool factor” material? I am quite stuck at the moment to the point that I find other things to do in the meantime. I don’t want to make what I think they want as it probably won’t look good as a portfolio piece–generic and not something I’m into.

I will post what (little) I’ve done eventually but note that I’m still a beginner at it and I’m making assets all over the place with my originally planned themes thrown out the window. I’m frustrated but I’m learning…I think? The fact that I’m struggling and wanting to quit means…I need to keep going. Time isn’t unlimited however and I don’t know what the deadline for this is.

Thanks for reading and hope your 2013 started well!
Connecting with me, commenting and/or constructive feedback would be welcomed and appreciated! Until next time,
UUUinfinity aka Triple U infinity
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