Update

 So I've not been updating as much as I should with stresses of house moving and whatnot. Here's just a quick update to show the current status of the conservatory model and the drawing. The conservatory is pretty much finished inside. Now I'm thinking about how the outside will look. I've planned for a garden enclosure of some sort complete with a revolving light source.

Nearly finished. Next, I plan to source some glass panels for the windows.

Nearly finished apart from the tower block. This will be textured similar to the 3D models.

Back to drawing

Started purely as an antidote to the fiddly cutting and sticking of the sculpture projects, this drawing will be the first in a series of hand drawn/digital print images inspired by landscapes passed on the train journey between my two homes.  The image is a recollected amalgamation of these landscapes and the composition is very spontaneous- a welcome change from the laborious stiffness of model making. I've documented its development with my phone and I apologise in advance for my shadow obscuring some of the image.

First sketches

With added tower block

Worked into sky and placed a rock to contrast the tower block

Detail of rock

Detail of smoke cloud and house/barn

Further worked sky. At this stage I decided to show the light source

Shadow of building complete

Conservatory update

It's been about a month since I last posted and the end of my first sculpture project is in sight. I love how it's looking inside my conservatory and the plans to take it into installation are very exciting. I shan't reveal any more on this until I have drawings made up to clarify, but I will say it's looking more and more feasible by the day. The biggest development here is the window frames that have been put into place- I also plan on sourcing some real glass from a local framer to give the windows some added realism.

No added lighting

"Daylight"- with lighting from my desk lamp. 

First complete frame

2nd May '12

New images of the conservatory room with most of the interior textures in place. I now feel I'm in a position to start considering exterior backdrops, objects and lighting. It's also important to consider which medium will be used. At the moment I'm leaning toward a live video feed of some kind complete with my own lighting rig. Admittedly at this stage I'm unsure of the technicalities but I'm pretty sure what I have in mind is feasible...

New Texture

Just a quick post to quickly show my latest texture creation for the floorboards in the conservatory. It'll be a little while before I attach it as it's easier to work on without the floor in place, but this is the texture sheet so far- based upon the original capture of the floor from the actual conservatory.

Another new project

On top of the tree and conservatory model constructions, I'm working collaboratively with Brighton based artist Tom Beal to produce an exhibition which showcases our individual practices as well as a collaborative piece to bring it together. Shown here are the beginnings of a building facade to be used as a set piece.

Back to the conservatory

The making of the model tree was the incentive to start this blog since it was very new at the time and would allow me to show the progression of a piece from birth to completion, however it wasn't the first of my efforts to construct a 3D model in card. The idea for this has been developing since mid last year, but it's only recently I have given myself the confidence that it may amount to something. The first project was a scaled replica of my conservatory at my last house. I'm not entirely sure why I chose the conservatory- I think there was something enchanting about the space which was completely offset by a mirror ball in the centre, and I spent a lot of quiet time in there due to the enormous amount of light in the summer.

So that's the initial inspiration for this piece. I've already had an image of the construction up on the Sculpture page for a while but I've not really mentioned it before. The intent is not just to make architectural style models- that's always just been a means of having and object to "virtualise." By this I mean I want to use a process known as texture mapping used in the rendering of virtual objects/environments and apply it to a tangible, physically interactive object. To do this has required a lot of trial and error especially on the part of how I'd go about having flat, seamless textures that would still look authentic. Below is the first printing and attaching of a surface texture, revealing the first glimpses of the overall aesthetic.

 This is the old texture sheet, which didn't quite work. It is as true a capture of the actual surface which I'm replicating i.e as opposed to constructing a flat repeated texture as in the later version, this is a flat photo of the wall. Unfortunately using this process, the detail is lost and the image is sloppy. I do like the idea of adding in little embellishments though, such as the small hook in the middle.

Return

My first post in 2 months! What's happened since the dawn of the new year? Quite a lot- cutting (my finger amongst other things), gluing, digital editing, drawing, reading and a couple of visits to London. 
 Since there's a few different projects, I'll break it down into separate posts.  First I'll put the new tree development images up.  The new inner network structure is taking a form and I can envisage the final piece much more easily- it's looking sufficiently polygonal. I'm very pleased with the potential this piece has either on its own, or as part of a bigger installation.

Integral to both concept and aesthetic is the texturing of the models. For the first time after much tweaking I'm revealing a first draft of the potential texture sheet for this piece. I've got other samples to work into textures so I'll post some comparisons at a later stage when the model's nearing completion. The second one below is the same texture just blurred slightly. This isn't solely to cover up any seams (although it does)- it harks back to the N64/Playstation generation of videogames and virtual rendering- reflected also in the polygonal nature of the tree. I figured using a slightly lower definition would be more true to this aesthetic.