Mort day 7 – sector one

Mort

Hi guys and girls

Those of you who know me, know that I have been blogging on a semi daily bases for a couple of years now.

I have had allot of fun doing that and I have definitely learned allot, but now I figure it is time for a change.

I have decided that these dull stories about my meaningless life and the glorified practice drawings that follow along with it, aren’t really going to cut it anymore.

That is why, starting sunday the 5th of january, there will be a new kid in town.

That kid is called mort and over the next 2 weeks I will enlighten you as to exactly who that is.

So please go over to http://mortstory.wordpress.com/ and enjoy the ride.

coughing your way through concept art

as I mentioned yesterday, I have decided that these next couple of days of school work will not have anything to do with school at all.

As a matter of fact, I thought now would be a great time to bust out the concept art skills that I am very well aware that I do not have. That is how I created this abomination which I have named the factory.

I can’t say exactly what this is, other than a factory and a grim reminder that I really should be better at this kind of drawing.

Still it is something and hopefully that something will blossom into an actual thing in the near future.

No one knows. All I am sure of is that I am tired of planning every step I take, so I will keep going in this vane and hope to see something from that soon… did that make sense?

well, never mind if it didn’t, I drew a concept art!

working all day

What you see here is basically what my day has been like. I have pretty much just been staring at a screen all day, with either blender, unity or Photoshop occupying all the space.

This somewhat dull way of spending a Sunday is in preparation for an exam that I have in a couple of days, that I am hoping to do well on… though I will accept anything above a passing grade.

the broach

this is a hat pin. if you don’t know what a hat pin is, then that makes the two of us. I guess it’s something you put on your hat. Maybe it’s something to keep your hat in place.

I grew up with this thing as the price of my mothers jewelry collection. I can’t remember her ever using it, but I was deeply fascinated by it. I thing this fascination stemmed from the fact that it kind of looked like a fancy wand.

I was never allowed to play with it, for good reason, but it still fascinates me to this day.

my Wacom broke

My Wacom Bamboo broke. this is truly a sad day.

This is a piece of equipment that has been with me for almost 3 years and it has been well used… I never thought it would end like this.

I plugged it into my computer to start drawing, but o such luck. That is why you get this chest today, it was all I was able to draw, just using my mouse.

 

the worst insulin pump ever designed

 yesterday I was at a lecture on interaction design.

The speaker was the creative director of Ideo (which is a interaction design consulting firm), and he talked allot about the esthetic value of product. He argued that when creating something, you should think of form as well as function. This might not have been a very groundbreaking statement, but it did lead me to making this design.

At some point during the lecture he brought up insulin pumps, and I figured that I would create the worst insulin pump that I could come up with. the only thing it needed was to be kind of pretty.

So here it is, the worst insulin self-injection pump in the world. I am pretty sure that this machine would inject you with a lethal dose of insulin if you actually attempted to use it, so it might be good for those suicidal diabetics out there. for the rest of you though, I would stay away from this design.

practice

 

I really don’t think I am a particularly talented artist, well at least not yet.

I see myself a a talent in development, and as part of that development I try to draw for at least an hour a day.

Ever since I bought my galaxy note 10.1 my focus has shifted to still lives, as it allows me to really just draw anything that is in front of me. Armed with the application Layerpaint, I have committed these drawing in the last month

still life

OK, this is going to one of those boring post which is about my progress as an artist, so if you don’t care, you have been forewarned.

Recently I have been quite unhappy with my progress as an artist, where I felt that I once progressed with speed that was fast and impressive I seem to have coasted on the few things that I know how to do and not challenging myself.

I have known what I need to do for a while, but I have not gotten up the nerve to actually do it. What did I need to do? you ask. Well, I needed to start focusing on still life as you see above.

The reason that I have neglected still life’s is that I find them horribly boring to look at. I cannot imagine a larger waste of time than when people try and get you exited about a shoe they drew or a potted plant.

This is why I have been avoiding the subject all together, but I realized today that if I want to change ahead with the gusto that I once had, I have to to the still life’s even if it means that I loose a few followers on various social media sites.

So please don’t hate me, because there are probably more of these coming.

into gaming horror

It may not come as much of a surprise, but lately I have been delving into the vast depths of gaming horror to draw serious inspiration. Most of the games that I have been looking into are classics that I know, love and are the reason that I wanted to do a horror game in the first place. Sadly these games I have played so much that I know every twist and turn. I would love to erase the part of my memory that knows every puzzle of every Silent hill game, just so that I can re-experience it. Sadly, I cannot.

What I can do though, is comb the internet furiously for new games that I have not tried, and that is how I came across the game “amnesia, the dark decent”.

This is actually not a new game, by any means. The game was released in 2008 and was then a show stopper and a great success giving gamers all over the world chills. The game follows Daniel who wakes up in a castle with only the vague knowledge that he deliberately chose to forget everything. Daniel now has to retrace his steps to find out what has happened to him and what is lurking in the dark. Throughout the game you are shadowed by monster from which you have to hide, fighting them would be futile; this coupled with a cribbling fear of the dark makes for a thoroughly terrifying game.

This tittle is from 2008, but that I am late to the game is nothing new. It is really only these last couple of years that I have taken the game controller back up and resumed my passion for gaming.

This game though is one of the games that prove, what I have always thought to be right: a good game-play combined with a good story makes for a great game, to hell with impressive graphics. Even in 2008 this game did not boast the most impressive graphics and that rings through today more than ever, but I didn’t mind and didn’t even notice until somebody pointed it out to me. This game does however deliver some genuine chills.

I am not one to be rattled easily, especially when it comes to games. The feeling of full control and the world at your fingertips helps to take the chills right out of anything. This coupled with the fact that I really don’t care for first person games, made sure that I really didn’t think I would enjoy Amnesia. That being said, I have not been able to play for more than 10 minutes at the time. I have to take a break every now and again, just to keep my sanity in check. that might sound girly, and I a sure that I am not helping myself by saying that once or twice I did scream like a girl.

at the end of the day I am just glad that I was introduced to this game, it has served as great inspiration for my own project. If I can get my game to be only half as scary as Amnesia I will call it a success.