HobbyHorse's 2D, 3D, sketches and Wips

A beautiful and intricate piece. I have no idea how people do carvings especially when the end result is so detailed and delicate.

I must say that is impressive work! I remember carving and painting a ducks head from a block of wood in grade 8 for shop class that I sadly lost. I really wish I held on to it as it was one of my favorite things I ever created, I also managed to create a couple of stain glass pieces, one was a collie and other one a deer, but those also have ' disappeared ' I like how you managed to include more then one design in there, the seal looks really well detailed, and I agree about the rings, it really looks like it was done on purpose, nice job Hobby, client should be real happy

Wow wish I could do stuff like that. I never could get the hang of carving or sculpting. That came out really nice.

Charlotte-Sadly most of the wood rings will be lost under the paint job, even if I use washes of color but perhaps the customer will like it just as it is and tell me not to paint it. The paint would bring out the warmth of the woman within the grays and gray-greens of the seal and the water though.

Valence- It starts with a sketch...as all art does and a bit of research. I was going to make a clay maquette but instead just jumped right in. After cutting the finalized profile I started carving away, concentrating on the thing I knew, the seal, leaving extra wood where I wanted the woman. I wasn't sure I could pull off the woman so took my time. Must have procrastinated long enough to have figured it out subconsciously, for it went quickly. Had it roughed in at 6 hours then finished the water the next day in 2.

microscopi- I feel your loss. I have lost a few pieces as well. I wish I had them back but who knows where they got to.

evilrobot- Thank you, I wish I could get the hang of digital art...but I will keep working at it.

Don't you do any digital work?
(EDIT: I only ask because I always tend to assume that work here is digital unless it's obviously not or stated otherwise, and I remember assuming your previous challenge pics were digital. Also these days it gets more difficult to tell with both 2d and 3d software.)

I could quite easily give up all traditional stuff in an instant. In fact, that's exactly what I think during my frequent and inevitable frustrations. Plus all that preparation and mess and brush-washing, not to mention having to repaint mistakes instead of a simple undo.

But at least you have a tangible object at the end of it all (and one that you can physically hold in your hand with this carving) rather than just a file on a hard drive that no-one ever sees.

Valence- I'm trying to learn to do digital, but learning the interface has been a challenge. I have done the challenges digitally and the unicorn piece was digital and it came out OK.

I like the idea of the flexibility of working digitally, with no material preparation and the clean up needed and I have learned quite a bit, though I'm not completely happy with the finish results, I'm missing something, not sure what.

Carving is my default, it's already in 3D so I don't have to put in shadows, bounced light, and highlights, but you don't get atmosphere and background with a carving.

I would like to be able to print some of digital pieces I've done but I've been having problems getting the colors to read as vibrant as seen on the monitor. Will have to waste some more ink and paper because most of the info I can find on printing art is not very helpful.

Then there is the time.The carvings come easily and working digitally is slow for me. I just don't find the time to do both. I have a couple more carvings to do, luckily none are due for Christmas.

Oh and Charlotte the customer likes the piece, but with no paint, just a bit of glazing to accent the details...so the grain WILL show

hobbyhorse wrote: I have done the challenges digitally and the unicorn piece was digital and it came out OK.

That's good then. I remembered having conversations with you about resolution and colour balance and I suddenly thought: if those pics weren't digital then I was wasting your time with irrelevant nonsense.

I gave up on printing almost immediately due to grubby colours and extortionate ink costs. Of course you can get it done professionally but it's always seemed a little odd. It's okay paying for a canvas print of a famous artist but paying a company to give you a print of your own work always feels absurd, unless someone else is buying it, of course.

I've never tried carving. I did have a go at clay sculpting once resulting in a couple of odd-looking heads and one half-decent dinosaur that sadly collapsed due to my ignorance of armatures!

Have you tried 3d work on computer?
It's common for artists to go from oils/acrylics to photoshop but it's much rarer to see people go from clay/wood to 3d software. Perhaps it's due to the extra baffling hassle of polygons, topology and UV texture but there's still some more intuitive software around like Sculptris (if it's still available.) And these days you can have your models 3d-printed too!

Glad to hear it Hobby

and for Val:

Charlotte - that is great...is it something you found or do you have a hidden talent?

Valence- With the challenge of getting to know Photoshop I haven't even looked at getting into 3D modeling. Maybe because by the time I figured out how to get something decent on screen I could have done it in wood.

Oh well...Have a Happy New Year