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Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I like to use processes to create art. A while ago now, I came up with a method of creating a certain type of stylized art. It involves a set of layers interacting with each other in specific ways, but beneath all of that sits a regular old layer of pixels that you (or more specifically, I) paint onto to create the final look.

That isn’t all that surprising. What is surprising is that this is pretty much the same way that I have been making different styles for a long time, and I only recognized it now.

If you have dealt with photoshop or similar graphics programs any time in the last few decades, you will have come across very rapid fire tutorials designed around creating some effect or other. Usually they require a very specific set of steps to create a certain look. Occasionally the tutorial will have you punching specific numbers into a filter or adjustment layer. You will get the look, but only in a tightly prescribed way.

I tend to think that is bunk.

If the effect relies on certain magic numbers or sets of steps that you have to match exactly, well, that ain’t cooking. Cooking requires some looseness, some improvisation. You have to be able to substitute ingredients or swap spices.

The method I created is the same as most of the methods I create. It relies on passing the pixels through sets of operations, but at the lowest level, the artist has all the control. You get to paint or draw what you want.

I won’t share this method just yet, but maybe in a few months when I have the art all readied I will post some. Until then, this is just a weird, vague, jab at unhelpful tutorials.

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Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When I’m creating new 3D models, I like to start with extremely sparse meshes and build them up gradually. The upside to working that way is that it is sort of like filling out a sketch or building simple forms first in a sculpture, and then only adding detail and refinement when you feel like the shapes are right.

The downside is that you end up spending a lot of time looking at very simple shapes and sometimes it seems like they will never look more complex or interesting.

It’s times like those that you have to trust the process. I know that I work simple at the start for a reason, and I have to trust that I will eventually turn those simple shapes into something slightly better to look at. I have plenty of evidence that this is how I have done it in the past and it’s worked out well so far, but every single time, I reach a point in creating new models where I think they will never look better than a few boxes and cylinders.

If you haven’t already guessed, I have reached that point now. I know way back somewhere in the dark parts of my mind, that I have just set up these models for texturing and detail work, but since I haven’t done that work yet the models still look a little bland.

So now I have to trust the process. Know that I will eventually take those simple shapes and make them into something I won’t hate looking at.

It’s happening though, so maybe with some luck, I will have better looking models on my screen later this week.

Art on Eturnip.com

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