A month long composition study of historic art. Each Image was done in 30 minutes, the left is the original and the right is the rough reproduction. As a challenge these images were done without the use of measurement tools, layers, masks or other special aids.
Every artist loves to have inspiring artwork and thankfully there are some great resources to find such work. Best of all we can find new art that isn’t well known across the globe.
Introducing…
The tenants of the environment artist. As a child I practiced as part of a Tae Kwon Do team for six years and one thing every martial artist will learn are the tenants of their art. These tenants apply to everything in life and are in a way the ‘keys to success’. The Chinese philosophy of martial arts (Kung Fu) is especially profound with the view that everything is Kung Fu. Like Tao or Yin and Yang the foundation of an arts tenants are the recipe for life.
Last week I was frustrated trying to paint a rock texture on a sculpture, so this weekend I tried some relaxing 2D painting in Photoshop to practice. Ever since discovering concept art a year and some ago in college I have wanted to bring the painted look into 3D. Something that stopped me for a long time was that I didn’t believe it was possible. A lack of competency stalled my efforts too recreate the beauty of gesture and inaccuracy.
Its still a long ways off but after making images like these and looking back a year there is no doubt that it can be achieved. With this we unlock a tenant of artistry, Persistence. The artist must acquire a taste to move forward with confidence even when overwhelming or inadequate.
For the next five days I will have persistence and complete painting the rock sculptures. Next week the results will be posted on TheEnvironmentGuy.com 🙂
Part of persistence is too share the results no matter what. I know my work still isn’t to the professional level that must be achieved however I will risk its judgement here even if its being weighed by my future employers because doing so will bring the feedback that fuels the persistence machine.
-The Environment Guy
Last week was getting hands dirty finishing off sculptures and painting on textures that have laid around for a few months. It was also the first time in a while painting textures as well as the first time painting concrete. The rock for the terrain was a significant improvement over past work as well. There is so much to improved but  schedules must be met.
I have found schedules work well for getting work done. For these images I take a blocked in scene and for one day I sculpt, retopologize and unwrap the surface. The second day is making some fine edits and painting a texture. Right now painting takes about 4-5 hours per object using either Photoshop or Mudbox. These were all Photoshop but next week there will be some rock sculptures painted with Mudbox.
Something to work on in the future is to speed up the process using different brushes.
-The Environment Guy
As an environment designer part of my unofficial job is to take photos of interesting spaces such as architecture, geography, objects and so on. So to kick off the new website TheEnvironmentGuy.com well start by sharing some of those photos. It is fascinating how there are so many little details in something as simple as a few pipes suspended from a ceiling.
The Environment Guy 
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