Gardens Project 11: Hackwork and Ennui

Gardens Project 11: Hackwork and Ennui

Langour of spirit is about right as far as the ‘Gardens Project’ is concerned.

I’ve got, finally, the topography established for the glover street scene. It took about 230 hours to get it looking the way I wanted. I’ve noted before that this is because of my lack of knowledge which leads to the iterative process of build, test, scrap, rebuild, test, scrap and on. I’ve also built the Introductory scene in outline and started to model the oak leaf as the overall box for the environment.

There will eventually be an introduction leading to the oak leaf and six chapters built around the gardens that will be accessed through the oak leaf at the whim of the player.

Hackwork and Ennui

Gardens Project Plan

I’ve planned this out to complete over the next six months frustrations notwithstanding, but then I got a job, so that’s going to slow it down somewhat.

Given those frustrations I’ve continued to paint.

holly leaves oil sketch

Holly Leaves, oil on board, 10″10″

I added a 10”x10” oil sketch of the holly leaves on plywood and finished the Bathroom Still Life.

bathroom still life

bathroom still life, oil on board, 50cmx40cm

This one is 50cmx40cm plywood and is another oil on board.

I made three small (30cmx20cm) oil on board paintings of lens flares from my camera trap.

lens flare painting

Lens Flare One, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

lens flare painting

Lens Flare Two, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

lens flare painting

Lens Flare Three, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

I also made a garden painting the same size,

apples

apples, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

and a painting of honeysuckle.

honeysuckle

honeysuckle, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

I added a sparrow to my bird collection

sparrow

sparrow, oil on board, 10″x10″

Finally I began a 50cmx40cm of a rose from the front garden.

rose - in progress

close up painting of a rose in progress

I’ve carried on drawing every day and you can see the November images

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

The Gardens project posts start here 

 

Gardens Project 9: Continually frustrated by my old brain.

Garden’s Project 9:

Continually frustrated by my old brain.

I finished the July drawings, one day left handed and the next right handed, and by the end the left hand ones have a delicacy that matches the right. The difficulty with ‘wrong’ handed drawing is the lack of muscle memory and/or development (strength) in the hand.

pair of drawings left handed and right handed

pair of drawings left handed and right handed

The example above from the end of the month shows that it’s hard to tell the difference.

For the first six days of August I continued with the left hand right hand to finish the sketchbook, then I started a new one doing double page spreads for each drawing, mostly right handed.

End of August drawing of kitchen

Kitchen Window, 30th August

I’m still sitting in the kitchen drawing from the same seat.

The finished July Gallery is here

The August Gallery is here

I’m carrying on through September and beyond. The drawings are posted daily to Instagram and Twitter, there are links in the side menu.

3d model of areaa around Glover Street

3d model of areaa around Glover Street

The last two months have been incredibly frustrating for the Gardens Project. I decided I needed to change the layout and the way the ‘news’ was encountered and had to relearn modelling for terrain to do it. Since then it’s been stop start, rebuilding and rejecting and I’m close to 200 hours into modelling chapter 1.

This post is only here because I need to put something up.

Garden’s Project 8: Not really the Gardens Project most of the time.

Garden’s Project 8:

Not really the Gardens Project most of the time.

I’ve been meandering through the swamp since early June when I last posted, stopping and starting, changing tack and changing back, generally not having the slightest idea what I’m doing. At time like this the discipline overtakes and “doing” becomes the purpose in itself, mostly for the worse.

So I’ve kept drawing, I’m halfway through July in my sketchbook and for this month I’m working one day left handed and the next day drawing the same thing right handed.

Gardens Project 8

First pair of drawings, 30/06/21 and 01/07/21

This is the first pair of drawings for July 21, I’ll put them together as agallery at the end of the month. The key is to spend about the same amount of time drawing each page and see what happens. Drawing left handed is still hard, especially in terms of connecting with the paper – I don’t seem to be able to exert the same pressure on the page as I can with my right hand, something I obviously didn’t notice on the iPad through to May.

Onwards and upwards.

VR project wise I’ve been stymied by having to relearn modelling and upgrading my equipment. I’ve got so much data now that it took two days to back up between computers and externalhard drives. I also fitted a new SSD to my big computer and got a new laptop to use with a new Quest 2 that I’m just getting to grips with.

I think chapter one of the gardens project is pretty much outlined now, the direction is there, but the finish on all the environments is not what I want yet and the dome with floating news doesn’t give the impression I want. So I’m developing another way to navigate the space with objects that you move out of the way to progress. This will give me a better way to look at the passage of time as well I think. I also want the environment to be a lot more black and white and possibly drawn.

More to come.

I got a message about a post from 2016 regarding “Photosynth” a now defunct software, I updated the post in response and it’s here Garden in Balby – Photosynth with a link to an article that discusses the software and what happened to it.