My duck is now employed

A couple of people on Renderosity have had a go at rigging my duck model and have put him in some pictures:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2604303&recent_upload&user_id=753108&member

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2607976&user_id=772567&member&np

It's a pleasure to see other people using him.  The guy who did the second picture has been in touch about possibly collaborating on a some figures to make available in the Renderosity Marketplace.  For a long time I've been wanting to find someone who do a good job of rigging my characters (I can't!) and he says he's been looking for someone who can model toon characters that he can rig, so it seems like a marriage made in Heaven.

Razorback chapter 2

The second chapter of my science fiction story is finally done!  You can download it from my website at: http://simonfaiers.wix.com/simonsbrain#!razorback/c9v2.
I'm currently enjoying my first proper week off work in quite a while (not counting sick leave, of which I have had quite a bit this year already!) and am determined to use the time to see some of my creative projects through to completion.

Destino

Years ago, I heard that Walt Disney and Salvador Dali had planned to collaborate on a film together, but nothing came of it but a bunch of sketches.  Decades later, the film finally got made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXa8s9R7-24

 
It's every bit as weird as you would expect.  There's a bit more information about it here (good old Wikipedia!):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destino

Progress report

Chapter 2 of Razorback is being knocked into shape at the moment.  It's coming together, although by no means finished - the main concern is that it needs to be consistent with the new plotline that I've grafted on to the story.  I'm already thinking ahead to illustrating the thing, however, and to this end I've downloaded DAZ Studio onto my computer to see how well it works as an artist's reference tool.  This is, predictably, throwing up the kind of technical issues that put me off 3D in the first place.  The latest version of DAZ Studio is too big to download.  I've installed an older version (4-point-something) but when I try to load Poser figures (my own or other people's) the program complains about not being able to find the correct geometry files and gives up.  When I try importing my own models as Wavefront files, the textures won't load properly.  Basically, I'm getting distracted.

WIP - Dinosaurs

This picture is meant to illustrate the verse "Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife" from Proverbs 17:1.  I've already illustrated this verse once using my little hairy bipedal characters (for which I still have to think of a name!) but have lately found myself producing multiple interpretations of the same Bible verse.

This probably wouldn't take long to colour in using Paint Shop, but I'm toying with the idea of using Bryce for the background, combining 2D and 3D.  The problem with that is that, while it looks quite nice, it requires a certain amount of fiddling about, which turns an hour's work into several hours' work.

WIP - Big Bad Wolf

This is one of those pictures that I've started and then got no further with.  It's meant to be illustrating the verse from 1 Corinthians: "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!"  However, I'm not sure the fan looks big enough to blow down that straw house, or whether the wolf should be holding a snow blower instead.  Then again, if I put a snow blower in there, would it be obvious to everyone that that is what it is?
This is a good case of overthinking the problem.

Random doodles

Over the past year I've been doing a lot of pencil drawing, using coloured pencils rather than traditional lead pencils (as coloured pencils put up more resistance on the paper and are therefore easier to control).  A lot of my pictures are figurative, portraits of work colleagues, family, friends, and anyone who will sit still for long enough.  I've also been going out a lot and drawing sculptures in public places such as museums (again, because sculptures stay still).  London is a great place for doing that sort of thing.
I've been using the same medium for drawing cartoons and putting silly ideas on paper.  Because coloured pencil doesn't rub out, I then have to trace the original drawing when producing an inked and coloured version.
The process of doing "finished" work remains as slow as ever.