Slime Mansion

It's been a while since I updated but I thought it was about high time that I did something about the layout of this site D: I was getting sick of the blue, and the site organization was getting in my nerves too. I hope with this layout everything is more accessible and easier in the eyes :D

Also you may notice that I now have art categories specifically for visual development and vector graphics now! Between classes and my job on Graphic Services on campus, I've been doing a lot more of these kinds of art lately, so I figured they deserve their own categories now!

I think most sections work properly, although I still have to put up a lot of my old art back up on the art gallery, and the store is still not up at all, and I haven't finished my profile at all ha ha Dx. I'm also still planning on fixing up a lot of the current art here though so check back every now and then to see if anything is new :'D

It's been a busy week, and it looks like it's gonna remain that way until next Wednesday at least, but I feel like lately I've finally been getting a better hang of managing my time properly. My room's actually pretty orderly and clean right now, which is to say that I'm not dying I guess.

A long, long time ago I made the emblem for the Alatus Institute using just pen and rulers and stuff, and scanned that into the computer and somehow vectorized it using some shady freeware that I managed to find that automatically converted it for me. Of course, the nature of shady freeware that automatize tasks that require the intuition of a real live human being meant that the same vector file I've been using since 2002 or whatever has been fundamentally flawed, and me being a vector dummy did nothing about it.

Usually the logo was either small enough or obscured enough that I think most people probably didn't notice how crooked and crappily-made it was (or did they??), but it's always bothered me nonetheless. SO, one of the first things I did when I actually learned how to work with Illustrator (other than the Slime Mansion logo) was re-vectorize the Alatus emblem! Properly!

Woo new emblem woo silky smooth mmm!

...E-except when I showed my friend Tina, she commented on how the old emblem looked more organic while the new one felt a bit sterile. :< Ohwell. So now I've got some hand-drawn renditions of the emblem that I'm working on instead. 8D() I'm thinking that ultimately I'll probably end up with maybe three versions of the emblem: the current new one, a simplified one, and a hand-drawn organic-looking one. And I guess I'll just alternate between the three on a case-by-case basis?

ramblerambleramble I'm going to bed good night XO

The second Illustrator project in my digital illustration class this semester was to make a internet game background based on a theme he provides each of us. The theme I was given was "heaven." I had a tossed a few ideas around for it, but ultimately I ended up drawing cows again, + other livestock? aheheh. o_o

The week before the project was due my professor taught us how to use the gradient mesh tool, which I ended up abusing for the entire project. It was a bit of a masochistic endeavor in that it took forever to do, but I sorta liked it. >__> I had vowed to myself that I wouldn't stay up all night again for this project like I did the last, but alas! Better luck next time D:

Incidentally, I just got a job (!!) as a graphic artist in my school's Graphic Services department (hurray steady income!!) so I guess I'll be getting a lot more practice with vector stuff from now on. :X But normal pencils and digital paint illustrations will always be my true love!!!

This semester I'm taking a Digital Illustration class where, for the first time ever, I'm learning Adobe Illustrator! O_O Vector stuff had always intimidated me because I never really gave it a shot before (and I didn't have Illustrator or any other vector-producing programs), so a lot of things I've done in the past that could've been better if it were in vectors were instead done by hand and Photoshop.

That being said, one of the first things I did when I learned the basics of Illustrator was a vectorized version of the Slime Mansion logo. 8D

Go ahead. Keep zooming in. 8) And just for reference, here's the old raster version of the logo:

...It's not such a HUUGE difference really, but at the time I felt really proud of myself? :D() I've since gotten a better grip of Illustrator, and while I'm not QUITE dying to vectorize everything in my life just yet, I AM pretty excited by the possibility of blowing images up to dimensions of several feet and relishing the razor-smooth edges of my lovely lovely vectors. :B We've had two projects so far using Illustrator with a third due in a couple of weeks, so I'll post those up in the near future!