Where art comes to life!
Posts tagged cool
Custom Drawings for Free
053 days
Recently I have been creating custom drawings for friends on Facebook for free, and it’s been a wonderful experience! People are happy to see fun, creative artwork being created almost daily and it gives me tons of practice.
The first person I created artwork for was Tiara Brown, since she’s been on me for a few months to create a drawing of her. Here is the final artwork, made with Staedtler drawing pencils.
"Domonique" - graphite pencil sketch of Tiara Brown
And here is a comparison of the final portrait piece alongside the photo of Tiara I grabbed from her Facebook albums.
Comparison of final portrait sketch to the original reference photo
As a special offer to those who read my blog, I’m extending this free, custom artwork offer to you. Just leave a comment on this post with your request and I will add it to my “free artwork for friends” queue.
I will be updating this blog more faithfully, bringing you more news and artwork than before. It’s time to turn over a new leaf. It is a new year, after all. So be expecting awesomeness in the days to follow.
Have a wonderful New Year and may 2012 give you joy and success, bring prosperity to the heart and mind of all people, and not let the world be destroyed this year. Darn you, ancient Mayans!
My Life Continues: Sheetz, Illustration, and 3D
0314 days
I suppose I should write a new post, so I will. I realize how lame the intro I just wrote is, but I will continue nonetheless. 
I’ve been working at Sheetz for the past, well, over a month now. Recently I’ve been pulling full time, but as the new store quiets down I expect life will also open up more as I shift into part-time.
But on another note…
The Castle from "The Isle of Wight"
I still have those illustrations for The Book of Sylvari: An Anthology of Elves to finish. I’m in the digital cleanup stage for the rest of the drawings featured in the The Isle of Wight short story, and I may even take a stab at illustrating another story.
I’m also getting back into Blender. Recently I worked on a low-poly model for Freezing Moon‘s game Ancient Beast. Some topology redirection and getting rid of manifolds should bring it close to completion.
Granted, his topology flow needs fixing. But after the fixes, I'm onto texturing him!
I also had a pleasant time yesterday evening helping dream up (and make one of the dishes) for a lovely meal at home. And this evening was enjoyable as well, when my father took us out to eat and then tonight while I was absorbed into watching a lengthy amount of the sequel to Anne of Green Gables. 
Well, there’s work tomorrow at 6am again. Good evening, and the best of wishes upon your life! May you find inner peace in all your pursue.
Keep in touch! I have a lot ahead of me.
God bless!
Literally 6 More
0344 days
Yes, I have six more college credits. This morning my sister and I went to Mountain State University testing center, and we both took the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP – a college-level exam. I’m proud to say that I passed with a 78! (Scoring is from 20, being the lowest, to 80, being the highest.)
The victor 
I’m hoping to apply to a number of different colleges soon, as well for my passport. And oh, there’s that package I need to send to the Sunshine state… anyway, please be in prayer for me concerning my life: finding the right college, the right career, et al.
Now time to write a BlenderNation.com post, work a lot on those illustrations for The Book of Sylvari: An Anthology of Elves, and watch more episodes of 24 and perhaps try and old movie like Dial M For Murder.
Peace!
Video Tutorial: Converting Image File Types in GIMP
0377 days
I’ve been making video tutorials on basic GIMP usage recently, and this one is about how to convert image file types quickly and easily. Enjoy!
And oh, it’s my first day on the new job tomorrow! Will be doing 5 hours of training at Sheetz.
Lit From Within
1410 days
After a late-night talk via Skype, I ended up doing a photoshoot until about 4am, involving a desk lamp, incense, a knife, a lighter, and me. Finally, I threw a few of the images together and created this composite piece.
Driving Test… Again!
1I”m off to take my driving test for the second time. Yes, I failed on my first go-around. During the parallel parking portion of the test, which the administrator had me do right away, I backed up into the rear barrel, scraping against the plastic-orange obstacle and getting an instant fail. Oh well, better luck next time, right?
So I get three tries at passing the driving test. A no brainer, right? “You’ll do fine!” all my friends say. “It’s not that hard.” Then after I fail, they reveal that “Actually, the police officer may fail you because he broke a toenail that morning.” Seriously, what a great thing to know. Thanks.
Anyhow, tomorrow mornings the day for my second (and last,) shot at this endeavor, unless I want to renew my driving permit that expires on the 25 of May, which is Tuesday. So even though I am supposed to get three tries, I’ll only have two, due to the timing of things, having a to wait a week after each failure and all.
So toodles, I need some sleep. I’m uploading a flaming Suzanne mesh right now, off of the excellent fire tutorial by Miika. Check it out!
The flaming death... beware angry monkeys, my friend.
I sent in my messed-up .blend file to this teacher, and viola! I get an excellent, quick reply that fixes my issue. Thanks!
What I was doing wrong was resizing the domain cube in edit mode, causing the texture space to stay the same size. This caused the volume texture to repeat across the texture space.
A legion of flaming demon monkeys
And since that’s fixed now, I’m onto the start of fire making, and soon I’ll be a happy-go-lucky CG pyromaniac and proud of it.
Cheers! Off to beddy-bye.
P.S. I’m working on some other Blender stuff, but it’s Top Secret, so you’ll have to wait till I draw away the cloak an reveal some awesome upcoming classes with Kurv Studios!
Boids and Birds
0Check it out! My new video that previews my progress on using boid particles in Blender 2.5 to simulate a flock of birds!
Boids and Birds from Benjamin Bailey on Vimeo.
I am going to teach how to use boid particles in a webinar with Kurv Studios sometime in the near future. No dates have been set yet, and I still have a lot more to learn with boids, but be prepared, a class is on the way!
Cheers on the journey!
