Work in Progress - Zbrush digital sculpt and 3D Print

This year I bought the digital sculpting application Zbrush and have put quite a lot of time into learning the basics.

This is a sculpture I began in the free version of Zbrush "Sculptris" and then developed in Zbrush as I learned the software.

The title is "Singularity Koan".  Singularity here refers to the "Technological Singularity" that has been well discussed in the media.  Koan is a type unsolvable riddle or paradoxical saying used in Zen Buddhism to promote a shift in consciousness.     Contemplation of the apparent inevitability and concomitant uncertainty of the technological singularity had (and continues to have) a similarly disruptive effect on me - a jolt out of a customary, day-to-day dreary way of seeing the world and my life, into seeing our place in the broad sweep of history, and has caused me to question what is meaningful in my life and human life in general.  I have found this to be a refreshing, if startling, effect - much as a near death experience can be.   I will say no more and let you, dear viewer, investigate the symbols in the composition for yourself.

I am still working on this piece but it gives an idea of the composition at this stage.

Digital renders in Zbrush:

3D print:



Orpheus Digital sculpture

 

Digital sculpture done as a reference for developing an earlier composition about the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice. Sculpted, painted, rendered and animated as a turntable in zBrush 4R7

Learning to sculpt digitally

I have recently begun to learn to sculpt digitally.  Though I find it useful to sculpt in clay to develop my figures in the round, I am pursuing digital sculpture as well in order to have greater freedom to play with the arrangement of figures in space.  This is inspired by such things as the sculptures of Bernini (see the next blog entry for some drawings of his "Apollo and Daphne", a magical spiralling orchestration of human figures, fabric, tree branches and the earth base) and my time studying with Nicola Verlato in Los Angeles, whose use of both physical and digital modeling techniques inform his wild symphonies of form.  

So here are my first efforts with Sculptris (a free program made by the makers of ZBrush).  The figures are based on reference from www.posespace.com, which provides artists with pictures of poses at 15 degree intervals all the way around.

Starting from a sphere, the forms of the head are gradually pulled and pushed out.Details can be added to the general forms

Again, starting with a sphere, I developed a symmetrical torso, posed it and added arms and legs, continuously rotating the piece to try to mentally integrate the forms from the flat screen as you would when working from life.a different view

"Journeys West" Group Exhibition, Orange Regional Gallery

These paintings are currently at the Orange Regional Gallery for the Journeys West Exhibition , a group show opening 3rd October and on until the 14th of November 2014. With each picture is an explanation of how I see them relating to the theme "Journeys West".

"Light Fading: Jimmy and Ethel Governor at "the Drip" Gorge"

1m x 745mm, Oil on aluminium panel, $1500 

Jimmy Governor was a part aboriginal man who became one of Australia's last bushrangers, Ethel was the white woman he married. It is a very dark story of racial discrimination and very terrible choices, and it captured my imagination with its mythic quality and horrific outcome. Despite growing up in Australia, I had never heard of this story before coming to the area for research for the show. Much of the story occurred near the town of Ulan, a couple of hours drive north of Orange. Also near Ulan, is "the Drip" Gorge, the setting for this picture, which is an extraordinarily beautiful area, that is now threatened by the expansion of a nearby coal mine. Kay Kane and I travelled to this gorge during May to work from this landscape, I was struck by the sense of impending tragedy contained in both "the Drip" Gorge's current predicament and the painful days that must have led up to Jimmy Governor's first homicide.

 

 

"Rehearsal Space #7" 

1.5m x 925mm, Oil on aluminium panel, $3300

This painting is connected to the theme of the show in a more abstract way. "Jouney's West" evokes for me a journey into the wild or the unknown. This painting is more about an introspective moment and the untamed, animal intensity that can be seen inside, pulling us in multiple directions, shaping our behaviour, if we are prepared to look.

 

"River Stone to Gibber Stone"

 
1m x 745mm, Oil on linen, $1500 

This still life contains a river stone from the farm I grew up on in the Sunshine coast hinterland, and a gibber stone from the gibber plains out near Innamincka, which is near the border of Queensland and South Australia. I travelled there with my father on a couple of occasions. These trips held particular significance for me because he had worked near there as a stockman and yard builder before I was born, and I had grown up with the stories from his time working there. The old stock saddle evokes for me my childhood (as I rode in a similar one at the time) and also the early explorers and surveyors integral to Australian folk lore.

Work in the Brisbane Grammar annual art show 2014

These three pieces will be available for sale at the Brisbane Grammar School annual art show "Sapphire".  The opening will be Friday the 22nd August (ticketed event) and the show will be open to the public on Saturday the 23rd of August, coinciding with the school open day.

Prices and further details are available through the online catologue, my pieces are items 34, 35, and 36:

https://www.brisbanegrammar.com/NewsandEvents/Events/Documents/BGS%20Sapphire%20Catalogue%202014_double%20sided.pdf

 

   
 
           

 

Works in progress - models needed

Here are three studies for compositions that I have been working on.  I am currently finding appropriate models to give the figures greater authenticity. Each will require both a male and female model

 

  Subject is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.  This study was done using Photoshop.

 

 

Charcoal sketch for a sickeningly romantic composition :)

 

 

       Acrylic grissaile (=tonal underpainting), based on studies done at "The Drip" Gorge near Ulan, NSW in preparation for a group show at the Orange, NSW regional gallery.  The working title is "The tragedy of Ethel and Jimmy Governor".

 

Digital study of the figures for the composition above.

 

Getting my head around digital sketching

Here are some sketches I have been doing to get the hang of painting/ sketching in photoshop on a tablet.  I feel like I am starting to get some control... still a lot to learn though.  www.ctrlpaint.com has been really helpful for understanding the basics for a noob like me.

Digital Painting Palette for Gamut mapping

I have been investigating digital painting lately, and was trying to do some colour studies.

Painting in oils I have my main palette plus a palette of mixers arranged approximately around the colour wheel (biased towards the orange side as this is the area I have been working in, with one or two tints of each for easier mixing.  I occured to me to do the same for digital studies so that I am developing greater clarity about the colours I am observing.

This is from the middle (more neutral) field of a colour wheel.  I am using the photoshop terms of saturation rather than chroma and brightness rather than value as I believe these are technically a bit different, and also for clarity for anyone who wants to use it for digital painting using the HSB colour picker.

The background is a 50% brightness 0% saturation grey.

 

3d design in some old masters paintings

I have been meaning to play with diagrams of the big 3d sweeps of form in certain old masters figure groups, as this feels to me like a recurring theme in what I am drawn to.

I am also playing with digital painting as a design tool and maybe in the future even a tool for finished work.

So here are some digital analyses of figure groups by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rubens and Gericault.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New composition in development

This is a graphite compositional drawing I have been working on post returning from my travel and study overseas.

The working title is "An Australian Mythology"

I am interested in my visitors' reaction and interpretation, so please feel free to leave your comments below!

Back in Australia - a few sketches from the road

If you've been following my blog, you might have spotted that my plan to document my Bale scholarship study trip to my blog didn't exactly happen.  I decided to post my studies to my facebook artist page since it was easier to do it in one place, so you can check some of them out there: www.facebook.com/scottbretonartist

Here are some of my sketches from the road:

Rodin's Orpheus and Eurydice that I drew at the Met in New York.

H Shrady, Cavalry Charge, Grant Memorial, Washington DC

Rodin's Walking Man

my sketch of a painted head study by Rubens

and the head from Bastien Lepage's Joan of Arc

both at the Met, NY