Roots? 2D? Anyone? (CLOSED) (CLOSED)

(Sorry for the title word salad ... I couldn't come up with a concise sentence)

Sometimes something 2D flickers up in the forum, in the WIP section or in the gallery - be it as preparation or as older paintings that appear as background in 3D objects. I always find this interesting and exciting - especially when comparisons and references can be made to the work of a creative person.

As I am very curious, I would like to see more of your 2D stuff



I use the word ROOT in 3 meanings:

ROOTS I
By this I mean scribbles with pen on paper that you make as templates for clothes, models or other 3D objects.

ROOTS II
How would you describe the origins of your creativity? Do you still have old paintings or drawings that were created manually (canvas, paper, etc.)?

ROOTS III
What touches you or triggers your inspiration? Do you have photos or manual works (drawings, paintings) that say something about you?


I would be very happy about your contributions

Of course I'll post something too. If I can't make it today, then at the latest during the weekend.

Quote:How would you describe the origins of your creativity? Do you still have old paintings or drawings that were created manually (canvas, paper, etc.)?

I originally began with shaded pencil drawings
in art class as child
later on in adulthood I did many Acrylic paintings with all but two of them not having been lost to the ages.
(although they are in the possession of my ex wife so kind of still lost to me).




I recently discovered that one of my old toshiba satellite touchscreen laptops can be used as 17 inch drawing tablet in windows "tablet mode."

So I installed Clip studio paint on the laptop
but Alas I did not have a suitable stylus and to my surprise it seems the once popular phone stylus's have fallen completely out of fashion and literally disappeared from the urban landscape of endless phone stores here in the New York 
tri-state area

Anyway I happened upon a thrift store, while down in New North Jersey where my son lives, and saw an entire bin of stylus's at 10 for a dollar.



With my  last excuse for my near criminal levels of procrastination now gone 
I still have lacked the discipline to get started drawing anything beyond some test scribbles getting to know Clip studio


But perhaps, this thread of yours, will be the catalyst I need to get started on some new cartoon art this weekend

so 

Thank you!! 

I started drawng horses as a child because I wanted to ride so badly. I was able to draw lovely horses from my imagination. Then I finally got to ride, so I stopped drawing, lol. 

I also sketched horses and landscapes as a kid.  I did do a "paint by numbers"  Black Beauty horse scene that's still hangin on the wall of my mom's place.  In those days it was real oil paint you would wash clean with turpentine.

I loved to draw as a child and yes, for me it were horses as well

But I was told, I can't draw, too many times and I stopped, I just gave up.
So please, if you have a child, never ever tell it, that it can't, never!

Then we got perspective drawing in school and I understood, what my father was doing and he let me "work" at his board and I was happy.

Now I was in rehab and I found back to pencils and colors.
The first I made was a butterfly, I don't have this painting anymore, I had to sign it, cause another patient wanted to have it.
This was the second, it maybe look very simple, but it means the world to me.  I removed the words I wrote beside, they are just for me.

I guess I could start with this. I don't talk to the guy anymore, but he used to stream on Twitch and back when I was a channel mod for him I kept bugging him about his lack of custom emotes. He talked about them for years, something about waiting on an artist who was going to draw something for him. One night I sat down and practiced drawing his Twitch avatar, then did it in CSP and made some emotes. This is the practice page.
And finished emotes.



He never used them. He's an asshole and I'm glad I left his channel (I left because of some trouble he kept stirring up in an online pinball forum).

I'm not an amazing illustrator by any means, but I can draw some things here and there.
    

I consider myself to be a better colorist than illustrator. Yes that is a thing. These are examples of printouts that I have colored using alcohol markers, colored pencils, and blending.
    

Also as far as 2D is concerned, I used to take photos. A friend of mine who did pro work back in the days, once asked me what I shot with. My answer was, "A cheap 70 dollar camera, the Kodak Easyshare C433". He unfriended me on Facebook. I am quite humbled that the photo I took of a rose in my garden, which I printed for my best friend around the time he married in the mid-2000s, still hangs on his living room wall to this day. It's not bragging; knowing that my art hangs on walls other than my own is surreal to me.

I always took my camera with me on trips, and I would sometimes take pictures that most people would consider "weird" because sometimes I just wanted to capture a texture that fascinated me. Now, my current phone can take HDR photos and panoramics at the same resolution. A few friends have told me over the years, that I should "be a pro photographer" but I don't have enough interest in pursuing it as a career. Maybe later on, if I decide to buy some good equipment. But honestly I don't like "working" for "clients". Not when it comes to something creative. Because it's more about what the customer wants to see.
    
     

Roots I:
Normally I don't sketch anything for pre-vis or concepting, unless it's complicated enough that I need to work out some things before I work in 3D. And in general I don't keep any of that stuff. It's just a tool for me. I used to draw out complicated poses, for example.

Roots II:
Not really sure how to answer this. But I do have drawings and colorings that I have done for about the last 15-20 years. I hung a few of them but have since taken them down, to make room for my 3D renderings and artwork from other people. Paintings, prints, illustrations.

Origins of creativity? I assume you mean where it all began. Star Wars was out and I was fascinated with all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Also fascinated with the concept art. Sci-Fi was in a great period when I was a kid. Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Close Encounters, and a ton more in the mid-70s all the way up to the early 90s. I was 5 years old when it all began for me. I was making animation flip books, drawing, coloring, writing stories. Me and my mom made a Stormtrooper costume by sewing black fabric onto a pair of long johns. By the time high school came around I was drawing anime mecha on my book covers, and tracking down (then) obscure Japanese plastic models of anime stuff so I could build them. The short answer is when I was very young, sci-fi because a part of my DNA, and my love of color started when I discovered anime at around the same time (Space Battleship Yamato for example, which was adapted for the U.S. as Star Blazers).

Roots III:
Literally anything can trigger inspiration. Could be a word, or maybe a book or movie quote. It could be a specific color. Maybe a memory from 30 years ago. One time I walked by an orange ladder at work and by the time I got home I was working on a 3D render of a race girl using the same color orange as the ladder. My brain literally said, "that would be cool, how about a race girl in an orange and white uniform". Another time I was on a plane heading home from a vacation trip, a certain song came up on my player and I looked out the window. Soon I was sketching out a concept on a napkin.

I wish I could share a picture of a piece that pretty much represented me, but what I made has been gone for a while. I can tell a story about it though. Back in 1991 a movie came out, called Backdraft. I was unemployed then, and had been out of high school for a year. But for some reason I *needed* to recreate Chicago Engine 17 in plastic model form. I spent about a year on it. In '92 I was doing odd jobs under the table, and I had built several plastic models and was showing them at regional model shows. One of them was Chicago 17. My best models were kept on display at a local hobby store. I didn't have much room then and I didn't want any of my pieces to become damaged. Someone at the store offered to buy Chicago 17 for $100. I was very prideful then and I refused to sell it. One day I take a trip with my best friend to that local hobby store. It was no longer there. Six of my best pieces, which I displayed in model contests at shows, they were all GONE.

Sounds morbid but that says everything about me in a nutshell.

I took this model:

And gave it CFD livery, right down to custom decals and hand-stenciling the number 17 on the doors. Had a custom lightbar and I even made lengths of hose to be carried in the back. It's gone now

Here's the thing though. When I built Engine 17, I had no desk, no table. No craft space. it was all done on MY BED. The only flat surface I had. Most everything had to be painted by hand. The larger areas were done with spray cans outside, on the driveway. I stencilled that big 17 kneeling on the floor, with my bed as the surface to work off of. Point is, I developed the mentality that ain't nothin' gonna stop me from making something. Even if all that hard work is destroyed sometime down the road. That's why I say I am dangerous when I am focused, determined, and pissed off. And I haven't been good and pissed in a very long time now.

1996 I was asked to art direct a short 15 min war film.   The director of photography was Roni Mars (spelling?). He was a camera man on things like Italian Job and The Guns of Navarone from what I can remember.

The director was an unknown like myself but he was trying to direct and act in the same film and It was not going to well .  I was then asked to step into the lead role .

By the end of the production about 9 months later I had art directed and done 80 percent of the  storyboards,  built the set a world war one trench ,  designed and made the explosive special effects including designing a new ignition system to set of the explosives. Acted as the lead and did my own stunts.  I did it all for the experience and never received a penny.  

I love putting my 2D pictures inside my 3D pictures.

I was gonna make a free versatile 3D model of a picture frame for Daz Studio so that other folks could easily put their own 2D pictures into their 3D pictures as well.

I fantasized that, after releasing the frame model, I would subsequently release batches of my own 2D pictures as presets for the frame. And I fantasized that other 2D artists would also release batches of their 2D pictures as presets for the frame.

But, as so often happens with me, I got bogged down in perfectionism and abandoned the project.

But here's a gallery post that even includes some proposed promotional pictures for the product release: https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/50908/just-preset-images

@Pushee-Ri

Thanks for showing an interest, I dug up a few screen shots for ya, that's me about a quarter of a century ago  lol..

This one time, I scanned a 2D picture of mine before I finished it. Later, I used that scan in a 3D picture, which is here: https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/42334/i-dont-have-the-discepline-to-make-great-art

Something completely different that I am known for is doctoring signs.  This no smoking sign looked like Micheal Cain.....  lol

2D to 3D translation # 01: The Shape Tree

The first time I made a 2D to 3D translation was in 2018, with the shape tree.

I used a web-accessable program called "Smoothie": https://www.smoothie-3d.com/site/page_index.php

Well I still have alot to learn about the advanced features os clip studio paint but I think I have sorted out a procedure for the type of comic toon art I would like to create when I am in the mood to go old school 

Drawn in CSP and imported into a full page panel in comiclife for the caption.


May start a more refined piece on sunday
Maybe a GUNDAM!!! 

2D to 3D translation # 01: Veleo Type 1

First drawn in 1970, as part of a student anthology of stories for the Santa Cruz Community School, I drew it several times during later years.



My story was about the future on planet Earth. I imagined future creatures called "Veleos". They came in two types. Type 1 is on the right, above.
(Type 2 was basically inspired by yr typical vegetable steaming basket.)

Here's a picture of Type 1 from 1992:



In 2008 it gave me a hint that it wanted to be a 3D thing, by possessing my sister to make an embroidering of it, giving it the thickness of felt and embroidering thread - but also in getting affixed to a pillow. 3D puffiness!



So in 2015 I tried my hand at makin' it in Blender. I barely had any idea how to complete a rigged figure, or even what the word "rigged" even meant. But here's my attempt at the shape:



At least I UV mapped it and tried a few renders, like this:



I think I used a free eyeball from 3DHaupt. The above picture also features two of my other 2D-3D conversions; the shape tree (conversion #06) and an obelisk from a 2D picture I called "My Graveyard" (conversion #05).

Anyway, I never did try to rig it. Soft body rigging still seems way beyond my skill level.

I have long since resigned myself to using it as a statue, like this:



And that's it for conversion #01.

Here you go. Been a long time since I picked up 2d ngl.

2D to 3D translation # 02: Spirals the Piston

I got fascinated with pistons in the late 1960's 'cause they look like they have faces. Got 2 from a junkyard and named them "Spirals" and "Paul".

I painted a surrealistic picture of them in 1971, posing under a chair.



Spirals is the taller one in the picture, but the shorter one in real life. On the chair rung is also a HotWheels Volkswagen bug that I called "Loudy". These were the dolls I played with. I lost Paul around 1991. But I still got Spirals.

In 2003/4 I made a zine featuring a sentient piston that I called "Everything All At Once", who was basically inspired by Spirals. The Zine was called "The Incoherent Adventures of Everything All At Once".



In 2017 I wanted to work on the zine again, but with the help of 3D modelling. So I made a 3D model of Spirals in TinkerCad:





It came out distorted - I mean look at the wavy surface that was supposed to be tubular. Gosh, TinkerCad sucks. But I did have some fun putting it into some of my renders, like this one:

https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/50260/cherique-sings-to-everything-all-at-once

Notice the polka-dots. This is because I painted the real Spirals that way. It is now an "art piston" sitting in my living room, upside-down, with artsy paper flowers inserted in the bolt holes.

Anyway, in 2019 I re-modled Spirals/Everything All At Once in Blender 'cause I wanted to have a decent 3D piston model to make storyboard renders for a short movie version of "The Incoherent Adventures of Everything All At Once". And here's what came out:



I never made the movie. But this is one of the few storyboard renders I made:

https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/50259/agent-conrad-finds-everything-all-at-once

Over the years Spirals has appeared in about 10 of my renders.

2D to 3D translation # 03: T.O.A.C.R.

First drawn in 1979, a TOACER is a Terainian Observer And Chronological Recorder - a sentient robot. Two TOACER's are characters in a story I never finished writing. One is named Shantlon and the other Theelclydor. Here they are:



In 2016 I updadted my other close-up sketch from 1979, coloring it in, in PhotoShop.



In 2017 I tried to make a 3D model of it in TinkerCad.



But I was disappointed in how it was going. So I abandoned the project.

One from KuraiKya, linked here with their permission:

https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/70980/star-wars-art-evolution-2017-drawing-vs-2025-3d-render

2D to 3D translation # 04: Botlir Higaskeevoo

First sketched in 1975, a Botlir Higaskeevoo is a big van that I used to daydream about building and driving as a kid in middle school for several years prior to drawing a sketch of it. This is the only known sketch, about 1.5 inches long:




In 2017 I tried to make a 3D model of it in TinkerCad.





Here I put someone else's wheels on it for this test render.





Again, I so was disappointed in the quality that I abandoned the project.

I started with 2D as a toddler who picked up a pencil, and I count this because I've always taken my work seriously. I still mostly do 2D art because my computers have always been too weak for handling 3D apps, with the exception of DAZ. As a result, my creativity always feel limited by 3D. However, since the beginning of discovering DAZ (back in 2012), I used the models and assets as drawing references. So despite its limits, it helps my 2D, and I owe its improvement over the years to 3D. I mostly tend to upload my drawings on my regular deviantART. (My RenderHub profile links to the other account where I post my DAZ renders.)

Currently, I am trying to draw reference pics for some OCs I'm writing about. But I use a combo of hand-drawn and DAZ to create the final results. I sketched this OC on scratch printer paper. Then, I recreated him in DAZ and posed him to how I wanted. Then, I added both the sketch and the render in a .PSD file and created the [traced] lineart, which I later flat-colored. Because this is a recent pic, I haven't deleted any of the components, so I'll share them as evidence of my process.


Interestingly, I have an easier time recreating my OCs with Genesis 9 than all the other Genesis figures. (I started with Genesis 1, after all.) But, the G8 wardrobe has lots of assets that my OCs would wear, so I sometimes want backwards compatibility just for the clothes. And yes, I am always on the hunt for assets that I can use as base for my OCs' clothes. (They can wear from different eras. Like, I'm currently contemplating redrawing this guy with a 2010's emo look.)

2D to 3D translation # 05: Obelisks, My Graveyard

Drawn in 2012, this oblique projection of cutout shapes harkens back to a similar picture I drew in the early 1970's.



Here's the picture from the early 1970's, with blue woman-headed snake added in PhotoShop in the 1990's.



In 2017 I made a 3D model of just the one on the left, for personal use. Here is Thelma in a 2017 render, featuring the picture plastered on her outfit.



In 2024 I wanted to include the set of obelisks in a release of a model of a house. I never did release the house model. But I did release the 3 obelisks on their own.
These next 4 pictures show how I was proposing to use the obelisks in the house.









( My forum post about the house: https://www.renderhub.com/forum/9502/crazy-big-house-called-the-jiqpaad-house )

You can see (and download for free) the obelisks here: https://www.renderhub.com/lukon/sculptures-obelisk-my-graveyard-v1