My new project

To show you, how I´m tackling new challenges I´m going to show you my new project step by step.

Okay, here we go.
Background: I have a pen and paper rpg that I have been working on since my teenager days. It´s always been with me and underwent multiple overhauls. And finally Idecided to give the damn thing some nice pictures. The background is roughly laid out and needs some optical lovin´.

But anyway here comes Step 1.
I need a trooper wearing a powerarmor. It is an imperial soldier from a special forces unit carrying a rapid fire gauss-rifle. Later versions will sport a heavy man-portable gauss-canon but I´ll stick to the rifle for now. The picture is intended to be a still you probably know from the various games out there. Like from a equipment catalogue. The soldier himself will be highly detailed and the background rather wishy-washy.

Step 2. This doodle will give you a feeling what I´m looking for.

This will be our hardhitting man-at-arms in his fullbody battlearmor. In my gamesetting limbs can be regrown, but the head and the torso are something completely different.

And here you see the peashooter. Its a rapid fire gauss-rifle. The handguard houses the powerpack and the mag holds the pea sized, teardrop, ferromagnetic projectiles. There is no shoulderstock, because the weapon is mainly used by soldiers wearing powerarmor or high performance cyborgs.










So anyway, these are the basics. I just haven´t decide on what medium to use. 2d drawings or 3d scenes. Maybe next time I will show you some test with both variants.

Coloring what you created

Like so many other hobby-artists, I´m suffering from problems coloring the stuff I created.
I bet there many others out there that share the same problem. How do I tackle this problem? Check out this video on Vimeo. Link
Another usefull link I found was the one leading to the forum of Gutterzombie. Here you can find everything you need to know about coloring your beautifull artwork.
Having quite a hard time at work I´m currently trying to escape my hardship by drawing and coloring. It´s giving me a degree of peace of mind.
If I get something presentable done in the next few days, my next post will most likely be about a project I´m currently working on.

So, until we meet again I wish you all a beautifull life.

Cheers,

Chris

Problem solved

I finally found a way around my artist-block. As funny as it may sound and as unartistic as it may be, be structured. Use productionsteps. Write everything down and refer to your notes as often as possible and nescessary. My structure is as follows, but aries from project to project.

1. Write down the rough idea

2. Refine the idea and start making first very rough sketches and doodles.

3. Further refine the theme of your project and make first arrangement-sketches, like setup drawings for movies. Use geometric objects until it fit your liking. At this stage do reference drawings for the various parts of the scene. Characters take up the most time for me, I´m better at drawing mechanics.

4. Try to bring it together. Still a very rough stage, but I´m still trying to get a good fit. So there is no reason to waste good effort on an drawing that will eventually get rejected. Okay the drawing will have more detail, but that is just for getting a better feel for the atmosphere.

5. You like the feel of your scene? Start adding detail and even more details. I´m mainly working with computers. With little kids in the house leaving your drawing stuff attended can be quite a hassle. So at this stage I´m usually getting my linearts and finals.

6. Now you can do final changes and touchups. Make sure to save a copy of your work at a place with little chance of loosing it. Usually I start doing the first colorsketches using the work-copies.
Again very rough stuff, but it is only for getting a feel for the atmosphere. Remember those references from Step 2 and 3? Read them again.

7. Finally we are getting near the end. We have gotten the color in all the right places and achieved the desired results.

That´s whats working for me. Change the steps, add new ones or modify the ones I´m using.
Other minds need other structures in their work or other stimuli for good ideas. While working I try to listen to matching music, read comics, watch movies with a similar themes. Everything that helps is welcome.

Hope that helped.

Cheers and good lovin´ to you all.

Chris

Artists block

Help.

I'm currently experiencing something I like to call artist-block.
I have thousands of ideas floating around in my head, but as soon as I try to get them down to paper, be it written or drawn, they just vanish. Gone. No matter how hard I try to hold on to them, they just keep slipping away. Taking a break and thinking about something else usually brings it all back again. But trying to work again proves almost impossible. I also tried using voice-notes to memorize my ideas, but to no avail. The recorder starts and my mind goes blank.
Help me. Send me ideas, hints or anything that could get me out of this misery.
It can be pretty frustrating having an imagination gone wild and no chance to visualize the stuff. Most of the stuff is sick shit, but fun none the less :). But with enough ideas in your brain and no way to get it out, sometimes it feels like your head is going to explode.

Cheers and good lovin' to you all,

Chris

Webcomcis rule!

After a very long time I decided to post something again. Usually giving good thought about what I write I decided to do some promotion for a really good webcomic. Click the banner above and you´ll be taken on a journey to the twin cities. Paul Taylor has composed a story that has a little bit of everything. Psychology, humor, love and best of all great arts. All characters are well defined and have their own quirks, making them all unique. Each of the episodes keeps you going further, waiting for the next update.

Go ahed and give it a try, you will not be disappointed. I´m quite picky with comics and I definitely like Wapsisqare.

Cheers and love to you all,

Chris

Check this out. I bought this bracelett and the matching ring for my wife. The price is absolutely justified and the shipping costs are included. If I should need anything else as a present, this will be the my first address to look. As a bonus, you get a very friendly person to answer you mails and conversations. Give it a try. You will not be disappointed . To water your mouth, here is the link to his blog.

Playing around with the GIMP

This is just a test to make some appealing counters. In the process I used multiple layers and filters. I would say, that after getting used to the slighty different way to handle things, the GIMP is a really powerful alternative to other, way more expensive graphic-programms on the market.

The support community is just fantastic. There are thousands of tutorials in all kinds of languages. Millions of brushes round it up.

From the link above you get a really good start with links, documentation and tutorials.

Cheers,


Chris

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I wish you beautifull people a happy new year and prosperous 2009. Stay healthy and be the best that you can be.

Chris

A change of direction

Boy what a month. The amount of work was almost to much to bear, so it´s no wonder I didn´t have the nerve to waste my precious free time on doing something equally stressing.
For quite some time I thought about quitting blogging, but instead of leaving the community I decided to take a new approach. I´m leaving the stressy part to others. Go ruin your health while hunting for the riches most of us will never acquire. After reading a nice article about the ancient school of stoics I decides to want what I have, and not what I don´t have. And all of a sudden life seems brighter. I still appreciate if some green comes rolling in, but it will not be the main reason why I´m doing all this. In the future you will see all kinds of topic, ranging from arts, food, technology, movies....ah whatever I find interesting. Maybe I´ll even show you some of my own arts.

Ahhh, free at last.


Cheers,

Chris

And the new president is....

OBAMA!

Congratulations to the first black president in the history of the United States of America.
May he bring peace and change to this great country.

Amen.

Ebay bans ivory sales

It´s about time. Finally Ebay banned the sale of ivory. A hurray for the endangered species of the world. Okay, alot of people sell items made of ivory inherited elsewhere, but there is always the danger of illegal goods beeing sold. If you want to sell you old family jewelery, there are always other ways to do that. In my opinion Ebay has taken a step in the right direktion.
I am pro selling stuff over the internet, but when this could lead to the extinction of an endangered species, the fun really stops. Wanna read more about it? Look here.

And the winner is....

It´s a rubberball from my little bee. Highly bouncy but not a addult toy.

Here is the proof.




And to be fair, Andrew Green is a very close runner up, so if he don´t mind I would give him 1000 EC-Credits for the second place.
Send me an E-Mail for the transactions guys and congratulations.
Thanks to all for taking part.

On to new things.

Cheers,

Schubsta

Big Contest

Attention!

The person, that can tell me exactly what has been fotographed here, will win 10$.
The winner will be announced on Oktober 17th.



Until then,

Happy guessing

The rest of the promised pictures

Here are the rest of the pictures I promised you. Had alot of work to do, so I simply forgot.



The sun can be nasty to your brain :)



Keeping it clean.



Wild animals.



Majestic scenery...



and culture. What more can you ask for?
Can´t wait ´till next year.

Making money by surfing adds

Hi folks.

Added some new stuff to my getting rich plot. You never stop learning.
Tried something new and relly like the idea of clicking adds, reading the content and getting paid.
I´m registered with following two sites and quite satisfied.

1.) Famous Clickers

2.)



Give it a try, its worth it.

Wedding Anniversary

Today I´m celebrating the 8th wedding anniversary. So nothing special will be coming today. But stay tuned I found some nice new gadgets to wring money from others by simply clicking some buttons.


Cheers,


Schubsta

Back from the holiday

Hi folks.
Tha Schubsta is back from his well deserved holiday.



The days in croatia where wonderful and the weather fantastic. The house of my mother is located in the little town named Duce. For a closer look visit here. Unlike most of the rest of the croatian coast, the beach close to our house is black riversand. Small enough to build castles and large enough to get it out off nasty places. As a little teaser I´ll show you the very first shot I made after our arrival.


Just the sight makes my heart heavy.

The water had an average temperature of 26° C, air 34° C. Just right for lots and lots of fun on the beach.


But we didn´t just waste away out time chillin on the beach or eating icecream. No, the area surrounding Omis has so much more to offer. Fantastic panorama views from the bordering mountainrange.







But best of all.



The joy of healthy living.



But enough of that for now. More pics will follow tomorrow.


`till the, cheers...

Chris

On vacation

For the next three weeks, I´ll be warming my belly in the croatian sun. See you soon.


Cheers :)

Chris

Ten new ways to earn money online

For those of you, that are new to the buisness and don´t know how and where to start, this article is a good overview. It gives you examples and discriptions that can guide you the way.
The money is where the power is at, and this article shows you how to get there.

Cheers and keep blogging,


Chris

Something funny

This old man in his eighties got up and was putting on his coat.
His wife said, "Where are you going ?"
He said, "I'm going to the doctor."
And she said, "Why? Are you sick?"
"No," he said. "I'm going to get me some of those new Viagra pills."
So his wife got up out of her rocker and was putting on her sweater
and he said, "Where are you going?"
She said, "I'm going to the doctor too."
He said, "Why?"
She said, "If you're going to start using that rusty old thing
again, I'm  going to get a tetanus shot."