Inspiration

I'm going to try and not flood this blog with as much yappity yap. I'm trying to become more concise, or maybe precise, with what I say when I type.

Anyway, I've been really inspired by my friends over at the League of Creation blog and recently by some videos on youtube by Bobby Chui. I really miss talking with him while subway sketching. I might start going to them again as a way of gaining even more inspiration. Plus, I haven't really done much in the way of life drawing for a while.

Here's an asian guy I painted. Hope you enjoy it :D

P.S. For those of you who have been here before, I felt that the look of the blog needed some updating, hence the wider template and new logo :D

Sketches

Haven't posted for a while, thought I'd throw up some sketches. I hope you enjoy them :)

More League of Creation stuff...

Ilmegrath -- Eldest Magium of the Nagrathey Clan

This is my final submission for the inaugrial challenge over at the League of Creation blog. I mentioned a 'Shaman leader' in one of my posts over there and someone chimed in that they wanted to see what he looks like. I wouldn't mind exploring the shaman character more as it's actually pretty fun and interesting. Also, I think I could make it even better by checking out some reference, as this version was just straight out of my noggin'. I'd like to know what people think of him so far! The black and white version went up on the League blog, and the other one was just for kicks.

Be on the lookout for more work soon!

P.S. The red patterned background and paper were not my doing. I nabbed them from a tutorial at PSHERO just 'cause I was too lazy to make my own paper/background. Visit PSHERO!

The Order of the League of Creation

I've been jonesing for some group blog action and since Line it up! is no longer breathing, I figured I'd start up a new group blog! With that said I present you: The Order of the League of Creation!

It's all about monthly and bi-weekly art challenges, both 2d and 3d, that will hopefully help to motivate and inspire members to be creative! Check out the first post on the blog for a slightly more detailed 'mission statement'. If you know me personally and I haven't contacted you yet about joining (sorry!), or if you are a friend of a friend and would like to join the league, please email me or leave a comment and we'll get you involved! So far we have video game artists, graphic designers, animators, and film artists participating!

In the spirit of fast approaching Samhain '08, the first League topic is Vampires. Above are my first two submissions. I'm going to be posting the work from the League blog here as well, with a slight delay. I'll probably post my submissions here once the current topics have changed on the League blog. We'll see how it goes.

Have a Horrid Halloween, you ghosts and ghouls you!

Brain holder

I got the notion to draw a skull when I was playing Pirates: Duels on the High Seas on my DS yesterday. The visual styling of the game is really cool, and I was going to attempt to emulate it, but I ended up getting carried away instead. I'm going to have another crack at doing a more cartoony skull soon and try to paint like Ryan Wood, which is no small task.

As a cool/interesting note, this piece was created entirely in photoshop, start to finish. I was inspired to try sketching digitally again after seeing Seamas Gallagher's work again recently, and since I really want to get better at painting digitally, I figured I'd give it another try! It was a lot of fun and I'm definately going to do it more often. All I need now is a bigger, better tablet as my little 4x5 Graphire is starting to cramp my style ;)

Old & New Horizons

Here's a couple of oldies but goodies that were posted on a group blog sometime last winter. The first was for a post called "Gorillaz" where we had to re-design ourselves in the style of Jamie Hewlett's Gorillaz characters. I really had a lot of fun doing it and was just starting to get into learning how to use Illustrator. The second image was for the topic "winter woes" where we had to illustrate some aspect of winter that we find less than enjoyable. Can you guess what I don't like about winter? ;)

I really enjoyed posting on a group blog and since the one that I was posting on isn't active anymore, I think I might start one of my own! It was great fun seeing how others interperated the same topics and was usually good for a laugh. If anyone reading is interested in participating in a creative illustration blog, please leave a comment!

If you are a returning guest to this blog then you may well know that in the past I've promised to post more work more often and haven't always followed through. Since I have a bunch of stuff scanned that's just waiting to be painted, I'm going to challenge myself to keep posting work regularly. I'm also planning on doing some essay style posts about what I like to call the "Entertainment Art Industry"; I.E. the video game, film, and animation industries combined. Expect my opinions about old and new films and games that have inspired me over the years.

Uh-oh

I submit this little sketch that I did a while ago (while in line at the super market) as an illustration of my current mental state: blissfully unaware. Actually, it's more like "brain-dead".

I'm having an artistic crisis of confidence. Having been out of school for a while now and having not landed the job that I want yet has started to take it's toll. Fear not though! I am taking steps to stay on track! It's really tough but I have some great help. It's been suggested that I show more of my work more often so that I can get different perspectives on what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right. I have never been very comfortable showing work that I feel isn't a good representation of my abilties, which is a bad way to learn. School totally helped me get over that and to realize that not every day is a great drawing day, and not every single drawing that I make is going to be the best one ever. Having not had as much contact with artistic friends since school, I feel like I'm in a bit of a creative void. It's been tough to push myself lately and I'm finding that I've begun to fall back on old and very bad ways of thinking and doing things, like only showing drawings that I think are good. Crappy drawings have their merits too!

Recently when I sit down to draw just for the sake of drawing, I feel kind of guilty. It's like the act of sitting quietly in front of a computer or a piece of paper is counter-productive. Now that finding a job is my "full-time" job any time spent not looking for work is not good. The strangest part about it all is that in order to create new work I need to spend time to create it and get better because I'm still a newb. However, it usually takes more time than I would like because I'm a newb. Since I'm working part-time and looking for work full-time, it's difficult to make the necessary time, and since that time isn't being spent looking for work the idea that I'm doing something bad or falling behind is often at the front of my mind, which doesn't help my confidence.

This is a very weird time for me...stranger than any other I can think of. Even though that's the case, I am not going to stop continuing forward, and I won't let anything stand in my way. Not even me. As bad as things might seem I have a lot to be thankful for and I need to keep that firmly in mind and take advantage of the advantages that I have right now because they might not always be there. I also need to stop second guessing everything I do (like actually submitting this post)!

UPDATE:

Just knocked this out. The line work is by Joe Olson, who works at Avalanche Studios (who is owned by Disney). The line work was posted on the Avalanche art blog and after seeing all the different ways that other people had coloured it, I decided that I wanted to have a go at it as well. Some parts are better than others, but I'm still a newb when it comes to digital painting. I'm going to step away from it for a while and then when I have a fresh perspective of it I'll go ahead and fix up the stuff that needs fixing. I'm definately going to be reworking the background, but for now I'm just glad that the guy isn't floating in a white void.

New website AGAIN

Holy heck! I think I see cobwebs in the corner! I need to update more :D

So I've gone and finished the demo that I mentioned in the last post, and you, you lucky readers, can check it out RIGHT NOW at www.davedind.com! Can I get a hearty 'booya' from everyone? Ahthankyou. The site is still being worked on by my team of skilled web designers (...okay, my wonderfully talented girlfriend is doing it all...ain't she the best?!) to ensure that it will work with as many browsers as possible and be stable throughout. It will look exactly the same as it does now, but the code will be a neat and tidy behind the scenes.

In other news, I have a bunch of drawings that have been scanned and need to be cleaned up so that they can...be made into a book! I want to paint some of them and I still have to clean them all up, so don't hold your breath just yet. I'll definately be posting about it when it's ready though. The book is more for my own enjoyment, but the idea of other people having a collection of my stuff in their house is really cool. Plus, it's another way to get my name out there! Yay for self-promotion!

OH OH OH! Did you know that Robert Downey Jr. has a CD out?! It's really, really not my thing, but I mean...it's RDJ man! Ha! If nothing else it's good for a laugh, especially if you like RDJ to begin with.

Okay! I gots stuff to do, so I'm off!

The one where Dave asks for help

Night falls on the first scene of my new demo reel
(click image for larger version)

For the past several weeks I've been working on the beginning of a new demo reel! It will consist of 3-4 environment shots that will be as close to photoreal as I can make them. My goal this time around is to land some kind of environmental or general 3D artist position at either an animation, Special Effects, or video game studio.

So, I'm big on the idea of having my own library one day, and I figured that that would be a good choice to do for the first scene. It was a blast to make and I learned new stuff along the way too! I can't wait to move on to the next scene! Hopefully my library won't be so messy and will have a better view ;)

Everything was done in Maya 8 (rendered with Mental Ray) except for the textures, which were done in Photoshop. I'm not the best when it comes to rendering, but I was really, honestly surprised when I saw how the render turned out! Now I just have to figure out how to make it even better :D

That's where you come in, my happy-go-lucky readers! I would really, really, really, REALLY like to know what you think could be improved or tweaked in the scene! I'm going to be uploading 2 more images soon of the room lit at different times of the day, so you'll be able to see a bit more detail. I would especially appreciate it if you have knowledge of 3D and notice any mistakes that I might have glazed over. If you DO leave constructive criticism, I would like to send you a sketch/doodle on any subject that you'd like as my way of saying thanks for helping me out! Just make sure that I have some way to contact you if you'd like a sketch :) An email adderss is probably best. Extra points for funny topics! I'm a funny guy, so expect a funny image :D

Cheers!

Wink SMASH! Johann...evaporate?!

When you get a figure in just the right pose, they hold it for hours!
Unlike those puny "human" models...sheesh.

These two pictures were taken on Sunday night after I saw Hellboy II. My girlfriend and I were in Silver Snail after the movie and we were surprised to find that Wink and Johann were the best figures in the current series of Hellboy figures. I really, really hope that they do a second series that is made up of ALL of the cool monsters that are scattered throughout the film. To tell the truth, I wasn't really all that impressed with the Wink character in the film, but his figure is BOSS. The thing is like 8 inches tall! Johann was awesome in the film, and his figure is equally kickass. Just look at that ectoplasm!

I've been working 4 days a week full-time for the past while now, which hasn't left me very much time to work on stuff, hence the currently minimalistic demo mode that my website is in. I am working on a new demo though, and once it's finished the site is going to get a slick overhaul. I've got a really fun and (hopefully) engaging way to present this latest iteration to people. I'm really putting some thought into the presentation, but it's all hush-hush at the moment. I'm taking my time creating this demo so that I can really showcase ALL of my current abilities with Maya, as opposed to my current demo, which is very focused. I wanted to get the current demo out the door and into the hands/minds of people in the industry, so that at least they might remember my name come next time round. Although it was a bit rushed, I learned a lot about modeling from my last demo that I'm applying to my new demo. I'm going to get it right this time around and really show off what I can offer.

Aside from that, I've been really fortunate to have been trained on how to use a motion capture system, and also how to clean up captured data. Cleaning data is actually more fun than it might sound, as it's like a puzzle that changes all the time. And capturing the data is a laugh riot! I can't really say much more than that at the moment, but with any luck there will be developments in the near future.

There is other stuff that I'd like to chat about, but I've already made this post far too wordy. I think I need another blog to fill up with all of the goofy details of my life. At least that way people who just want to see cool art or pictures won't be bothered by all of this text! I'm hoping to get a laptop in the next few months and if that happens, I might end up writing more. We'll see!

Adios and arrivederci!

Video Games Live 2008

Holy crap! It's been nearly 2 months since my last post?! Yipes. Well, I have a couple of things that I have to post here soon, but first some pictures from the 2008 Video Games Live show!

I mentioned VGL to my girlfriend a couple of weeks before the show, and since my birthday was coming up shortly, she ended up buying 2 tickets for us. It was one of the cooler birthday presents that I can recall. The show itself was great...lots of laughs and familiar songs! It was a treat hearing Tommy Tallarico speak between songs, and possibly funnier than it should have been watching him play guitar. Apparently, he looks like I do when I play Guitar Hero at home.

The three guys in the third picture above are (left to right): Jack Wall, Tommy Tallarico, and Michael Salvatori, one of the composers of the Halo soundtrack. I was most excited to watch Jack Wall conduct, as I'm a big fan of the soundtrack to Myst III: Exile (still have to actually buy the Myst IV soundtrack). During the intermission they displayed a 'loading' screen, which you can see in the last picture above. It was a nice touch.

Anyway, I'll post some art up soon and try to get some video of the VGL show on here too.

P.S. It was my first time at Massey Hall. I'm in love with Massey Hall...Don't tell my girlfriend.