This is an update to a project I'm working on at the moment...
Recently we managed to get my lovely girlfriend Karen's record player working and because I'm a big fat old hipster I now love records. The vinyl record is back in full force and even my recalcitrant brother David is into it. He has this band, an art project really, called "VIGILANTS OF ASTRAGOTH." Listening to VofA is kind of like looking into the Arc of the covenant. It will melt your face off.
I asked him if I could make a cover for his first record and he said yes. So I'm off to work on it.
Maybe you don't know this but I work as a video game artist. They call me an art director, I draw a lot. But I also use 3D applications and I've always wanted to improve my Zbrush skills. If you don't know Zbrush is a 3D sculpting program. It's mighty powerful and my aptitude in it is not up to the level of my digital painting. So I want to improve. VofA will help me get there.
I've done a bunch of drawings to see what I want to achieve with this thing and I made an image of what Bump Fugget, VofA's front man, looks like. Bump Fugget is half goblin. As in he's the by-product of a human and a goblin bumping (f)uglies in the night. My brother is fucking weird, but he's more interesting than almost everyone.
I don't intend for the final image to be all in 3D but I think I have a cool compostition in the making and use the 3D sculpt in two ways. For lighting and positioning. I'll do the rest of the work in Photoshop. I remember Todd McFarlane said that when he started making comics he used good design as a way to mask his short comings as a draftsman. So I don't mind using the same technique to get better at Zbrush.
I managed to get a rough sculpt out of Zbrush that I don't totally hate. I don't think the details will hold up to the close scrutiny of a close-up camera, so I'm going to push him back into space and use the design to my advantage. I think I can do more of the heavy lifting in the digital painting. I'll improve on the Zbrush skills in the next project. You know... baby steps.