#a photo of a building is still art even if the photographer didn't design the building. etc etc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

marinersubmariner · 3 days

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I don't normally like to show WIP/sketchy/unfinished artwork because my process is a complete mess and I'm embarrassed by how bad it all is before I reach a point where I'm satisfied enough to call something done. That being said, as the AI inundation is upon us, it feels valuable to share the human trial and error and my own manic desperation that goes into making art. I always spend too much time on stuff that ends up looking like it should not have taken that much time, but I REALLY overcooked my last drawing and fried my own brain. Trying to draw a speeder bike was torture. Here's some of the goofy shit I did!

I really had intended to simply draw an existing speeder bike, but as I considered the ~aesthetic~ I wanted and examined the standard ROTJ-style bike, it wasn't working for me. In terms of motorcycles they're too much like choppers for my taste when I vastly prefer the chunky '80s futurism/cyberpunk/mecha anime look (clearly, since this started out as an Akira reference). But. I have zero expertise in mechanical design or even concept art itself. I do not know how vehicles work or how to draw them. And referencing either real or fictional motorcycles isn't a huge help because they have wheels to focus the design around, which of course hover bikes don't have.

So obviously trying to both design a speeder and draw it in perspective was really difficult to wrap my brain around. I started out by photographing one of my old '90s Micro Machines for reference, but it wasn't exactly useful for extrapolating the shape into a new design:

I sketched out some profiles, but, again, tough to convert to 3D using only my very weak power of imagination:

The only 3D-adjacent tool I know well enough to use is After Effects, which is a poor substitute for a real 3D modeler because it can really only do flat planes and basic shape extrusion, and it was too cumbersome for this. I started to try it and it sucked:

"Just learn a 3D program," you say. "Blender is free." WELL. Maybe someday. But not today. So I resorted to building it in miniature out of cardboard:

This is less mortifying than taking pose reference photos of myself (which I have done a lot! it's a great way to make yourself feel like a complete lunatic!!!) but it was also more work, so. Still makes me feel like a lunatic.

Thankfully it did make it possible for me to finally draw something. The design isn't groundbreaking, and I still have absolutely no idea how to create convincing mechanical details despite poring over mountains of concept art… but an attempt was made. My perspective is probably still out of whack because, despite having studied art throughout my entire academic career, I never officially learned all those multipoint perspective tricks, drawing cubes inside of cubes, etc. I've always preferred and been much better at organic shapes than anything mechanical or architectural.

My initial iterations were more X-Wing/BSG Viper-esque, but I kept being unhappy with the nose shape. I wanted it to be pointy and triangular but I couldn't add enough detail to make it interesting. Even after building it MULTIPLE TIMES I didn't like it, so the shape I ultimately landed on… wasn't one of the prototypes I built. LOL. It was just so hard to tell in the earlier stages, so I had to go through the whole refining process just to land on "nah." It looked alright in cardboard, and then translating it to line art, and then once I colored it I didn't like it. It would have been a lot easier if I could tell at an earlier stage than that!!!!!!

There wasn't any one ship/vehicle I referenced, but things I looked at for inspiration included: the Akira bike (obviously), Tron lightcycles, every time we've ever seen a speeder bike in any piece of Star Wars media, actual motorcycles, X-Wings, A-Wings, U-Wings, Jedi Vectors… etc.

Once I had settled on the split nose, I tried adding vertical stabilizers to the tail section for some more interest back there and to balance out the front, but even though I liked them I thought they made it too busy. It also started to look too much like a miniature ship instead of a bike, like he was riding one of those coin-operated kiddie rides. No!!! I wanted this to look cool!!! So I stuck with the nondescript tail section.

Pose and likeness referencing aren't very exciting but just know that I use a mishmash of references for literally everything. Normally I would pose myself (even though translating my own blobby female proportions into those of a large man is another layer of awkward difficulty), but riding a speeder is a tough action to recreate so I downloaded the "MagicPoser" app on my phone and used that instead. The basic version is free and you can move around limbs and joints in their normal range of motion—some of it gets rubbery, but for the most part it did what I needed it to do.

Also just had to make up an excuse to put him in a pilot helmet! The shape is based on a Y-Wing helmet—a personal favorite of mine—which made sense to me for using on a speeder since it has more face coverage like motorcycle helmets tend to have. (not that I drew him actually wearing it on the speeder, haha. safety first, kids!!—UNLESS you're a dumbass space wizard, then just do whatever looks cool.) I really waffled back and forth on what color to make the visor, because I'm extremely partial to the pink from the Y-Wing helmet, but ultimately I went with the more traditional yellow-orange. Either one looks good with blue and white so I still like 'em both.

This all feels like it was an enormous waste of time, but I did realize the thing that was in my head, so. I guess that's an accomplishment. Unfortunately the problem with making art for myself is that I invariably end up hating my own work, and being in a dead/dying fandom on a dead/dying platform means there is very little external validation to counteract the self-loathing brain worms. Agony!

#my art #my constant need to overexplain myself

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curveybay · 5 months

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It took Glenn a solid hour to dye his curly, back-length hair orange and at least two to fit his bottom-heavy figure into a tight purple miniskirt, but all that effort was worth it to attend the convention he'd been waiting all year for! Sure, some of the guests he'd taken pictures with got a little grabby, but so what? He didn't mind the attention one bit. Still, after a long day of soaking in the stares from the crowd, Glenn had gotten pretty hungry, and no sooner did he step into the center's food court did he spot a familiar figure at one of its tables: "Georgia! Hi girlie, how're you doing?" He chirped with a smile, waving and running over to the short and curvaceous lady sat at the food court in a black leotard and cape that strained and struggle to contain the stunningly generous curves of her pear-shaped physique - almost as much as Glenn's did to contain his massive bulge and asscheeks, which bounced heavily with each loud, thudding step that he took towards the table. Utterly oblivious to the lewd display he was putting on, he hurried over to his friend and took her hand: "Omg our costumes totally match! Yours looks great, too, you're just rocking that leotard."

He smiled, absent-mindedly bouncing his backside for all there - including Georgia - to see.

"I was just about to get some snacks, no problem if I sit with you, right?"

Georgia had been picture-perfect with her cosplay, designing the perfect wig and painstakingly crafting her own unique leotard, thick blue cape and black leather boots. Georgia refused to go half-measures for one of her great and powerful passions. Curvey Bay Comi-Con was the biggest nerd event of the year and she was going to attend dressed as her favourite hero! She enjoyed the photo ops, getting her things signed and patronising artists all over. She had been so popular that she had been groped and fondled by other con-goers, photographers and even the artists who complimented her on her cosplay. It was all in a day's journey through the convention. Georgia decided to take some time for herself as she felt her belly grumble as she hadn't eaten since she had came in to the convention this morning. As she settled at a table she came face to face to a familiar face from St. Glutea's.

"Glenn! I'm doing great, check out my haul!" Georgia gestured to the bags and bags of art, hentai, cosplay building materials, and anime she had been buying with her parent's money. She watched the utter bottom-heavy blond practically skip toward her; each bounce strained his Starfire cosplay to the max. the purple skirt was practically worthless as it couldn't cover Glenn's massive ass or ginormous cock. Georgia felt her face go a little flushed at the display; but knew that Glenn had no idea how lewd his bouncing cock or clapping ass cheeks were as he came to her table.

Not that Georgia had any room to argue; her leotard looked like a tank from the back with how massive her own ass was and whenever she moved, her fat cheeks bounced and clapped together.

"We do, your cosplay looks great, r-really brings out your best qualities... O-oh yeah! I built it myself, all hand-made to fit me perfectly." Georgia grinned as she tried to ignore the heat rolling off of Glenn's barely contained cock or the sight and sound of his fat bouncing ass cheeks. Each clap only made Georgia more aware of a deep, depraved hunger in her belly; as well as the fact she had purchased a massive doujin The Massive Ogre Queen and her Effeminate Big-Cocked Elf King and that Glenn was a shoe-in for the Elf king.

"O-oh no! Not at all! Go get your food and we can continue the con together. I can't imagine how many photo ops we could get as a duo." Georgia grinned at Glenn, but her mind was on all the dirty things she had read from her new favourite doujin. And how she could get around to doing those things to Glenn.

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monikablaszczyk · 3 years

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Lost and found - analyse of 5 creative manipulation images

Anil Saxena is a photographer, illustrator and graphic designer from India. Anil creates wonderful surreal images in the Photoshop. At first he was working in the darkroom to achieve the result he wanted, but after being introduced to Photoshop he stated using it and there was no other way for him. He's using his imagination and creating superb photo manipulation.

“If the image is a success but my work goes unnoticed, I’m doing my job well.” says Anil.

I personally think that this image is fantastic, looks really realistic and is humorous. I like the idea of converting the building into giant bowl with spaghetti. I like how my eye concentrate on the manipulated part of the image and then when I look down I see tiny people and cars. I also like the contrast between colorful/ bright part of the image and darker/shaded part.

By looking at the image I can say that light comes from the top right side. The background image was done in a sunny day, when sun was quite high, there are visible hard shadows on the building. The image with boy and the one with spaghetti was most likely done in the studio, looking at the highlights i think there was strong source of light on the right side and probably diffuser situated below.

More photo manipulations created by Anil:

Joel Robinson, fine art photographer from Canada. At the beginning the photography was just a regular hobby that took Joel around the world and changed his life completely thanks to one photo he took and posted on Flick group - the theme was Coca-Cola brand.

His talent was discovered by Coca - Cola company few years after, since they noticed his work he had a chance to work for them and became a lead photographer for Coke’s 2014 FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour

His work is now used by worldwide brands like Coca - Cola, FIFA, Yahoo, Adobe, Oprah Magazine, Mariott and many more.

Joel created many great, unique photo manipulation but I have chose this one because it could be a good inspiration for my image. The image looks quite simple to create - only when I look at it, I'm sure in reality I would need a lot of Photoshop knowledge and skills. Anyway it could be a good start point for planning my image.

The artist probably used 3-4 images to create final image ( background, book, model and door and bird).

I like the idea of gigantic book withe the door inside in the middle of nowhere. Nice and simple :)

Images were taken from the low angle in a cloudy day. That reminds me to when taking photos for the background to take them from different perspectives. This can really change how the final image will look like.

Jeffrey Vanhoutte, photographer from Belgium. Passionate in photography since he was eleven years old. Right after graduating from photography, he started working as an independent photographer, at that time he photographed still life and food, then switched to the advertising. Jeffrey is currently working for big and small advertising companies, creating beautiful images.

I think this image is hilarious, as a mum of two kids I have seen this situation quite few times, but it always happen so quickly.

I like the surprising face expression of a girl and idea of giant ice cream ball on the ground. Looking at the backstage of the images that were done to create this photo manipulation I like how simple it looks. The photos were taken in from low angle in a very sunny sunny day, when the sun was high - clearly seen by looking at the highlights on the ice cream ball. The photo of the girl was originally taken with a ball next to her, that created a desirable shadow and later was swapped into ice cream ball from other image in the Photoshop.

When I showed this image to my four years old daughter she said that we need to put that big ice cream ball back on the cone :)

Backstage of creating this image:

Dariusz Klimczak is a photographer from Poland with thirty years of experience, also a painter, journalist and drummer in a rock band.

Dariusz is widely known for his unusual surreal photo-montage of everyday objects and natural landscapes. Dariusz prefers black and white photography, but he doesn't shy from colors. From the research I found Dariusz seem to be inspired by Salvador Dali. His work is widely known in Poland and abroad.

I like this image because it's original and kind of bizarre - ginormous toothbrushes in the middle of nowhere :) I like this simple idea it makes me smile.

I don't really find any more words to describe this picture.

Looking at this photo from the production side I think that the author used at least 3 photos or of course more - few photos of toothbrushes taken from different perspective and image of the background. Looking at the highlights and shadows it was quite sunny day, the sun comes from the left side - in the morning i guess.

Photos of toothbrushes were most likely taken in the studio with use of soft light.

More photo manipulations made by Dariusz:

Albin Thelander is an artistic photographer from Sweden. He created a business "Thelander Creative" that deals with photography and graphic design. I didn't find any more information about Albin.

I have chose this image because it's quite moody and different then the others. I like the idea of giant old clock again in the middle of nowhere and a person trying to move the hands of it.

This image gives me an idea that the background could be done anywhere, in the nearest park or even in the garden.

The image was done in a gloomy, cloudy day, possibly in the evening or looking at the clouds it could be after storm. The light is dim, shadows are soft, there is no much color.

Looking at the clock I think that artist used blending modes in Photoshop to softly reveal clouds.

#lostandfound

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