Inching Forward

Hi guys! Welcome back to another blog post! In previous posts you've seen many photos that I've taken. They've been edited and manipulated in a variety of ways, and so at the barest minimum, these count as CG. They're significance in regards to CG comes more from style, presentation, direction of the eye, and of course, they can be used as textures! Textures, of course, are in high demand among the CG community, and are a significant part of why I started taking pictures. I have some that I have kept just for textures, but the others, I played around and manipulated.

I have found that I can take pictures of landscapes and natural elements pretty well. At least in my opinion. But the best way to keep your skills sharp is to test yourself with new things, or things that you know are a challenge. So this week I tried a couple of new things.

I have found that taking pictures of animals or people is particularly difficult. I haven't yet figured out why, but I just can't find the pop factor with them. Below you can see one of my attempts in this. It's a better quality picture now than the original photo, but I can't really say it's something that I want to keep looking at. It's a cute dog, but really it's a "pass the eyes over, and keep on going" picture...

Branching out into a different form of digital manipulation, I decided to try out the Oilify technique. I'm quite pleased with these results, but they're still just nature scenes.

Into the Veil

Cloud Walk

Path to the Bright Side

Andrew at BlenderGuru put himself on a mission to improve his skills, and seems to regularly rekindle this mission. I have to give him credit for inspiring me to do the same. I can legitimately say that I wouldn't be the artist I am today if it hadn't been for him. So, while I sincerely thank him for this gift, I also call all of you to action. Look at your skills, whether it's art or otherwise. Are you the best in the world? Not likely...There's always room to grow and improve. So find the skills that are truly a passion of yours and work with them. Amplify them. Bring yourself to new heights. It's well worth the investment.

-- Charlie Griffin
                       for CGWise
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"To learn and not to do, is really not to learn. To know and not to do, is really not to know."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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