Experimenting with new skills

This summer, I experimented with new skills. I want to expand my usefulness in animation and expand the way I can make art. 

The stickers were a starting point last year. I am now considering making block prints, which are fun because I get to carve and I can print in gradients, metallics and mixed colors on plain or unique papers, meanwhile making limited prints so they are more special and ephemeral than the replications of my watercolors. I always loved the texture of ink pressed into paper. 

First attempt at linocut. I forgot to reverse the image & carved too deep, so a lot of detail got lost. I'm going to use this same sketch as a watercolor.

The skill I've been learning to increase my animation skills is 3D in Houdini, which uses nodes and procedural generation. I am doing beginner tutorials to get a feel for how things work, and for my kind of brain - the node workflow isn't particularly daunting. This means I could be simulating explosions and water effects, or using procedural generation for environments, characters, buildings, ect. in the future. It's great fun to set up a file & watch things appear like magic. 

A still from the tutorial where I made the glass, wine, and a bullet hitting & breaking the glass.

If I can, I would also love to try VR sculpting. I always loved sculpture, but the problem with sculpture is...having sculptures in the end. It's one thing I definitely don't mind doing as digital art. I would sculpt my monster ideas into 3D characters. I already learned some basic rigging techniques.

The main reason I am considering expanding my animation skills is because it's a completely fluke Justin & I are in animation... we used to work together a solid 50/50 on everything because we had the same skillset and it was live video. I could shoot video, sound record, edit, color grade, do some minor VFX. Now, I've been isolated to doing some hand animation & writing since those other skills are no longer really relevant. Likewise, I think it really unlocks what we could make in the future...being able to generate a complex 3D environment alone is a great asset. Now 3D environments + 3D sculpted monsters sounds like something I could make a story with.

Procedural generated city options. This is really basic, but with further customizing to the building shapes it could be very unique.

There is a floating question in my of: Would I make a good tattoo artist? So, I will be saving some money up to buy an inexpensive tattoo gun while chewing on this idea, then practicing on false skin and fruits. Even if I had 2-3 clients a month, it would really help my artistic income & decrease the amount of isolation I deal with working from home full-time. (I love you guys in stream, but to feel so disconnected with the IRL community around me is really starting to get to my mental health.) It's likely I would have to do an apprenticeship, which no longer seems like such a bad idea...it is a time commitment. An avg. tattoo artist spends 6-12 months in apprenticeship, which is usually unpaid for the training in return. I think mine would likely be shorter taking into account I already have significant rendering skills. It's more learning the medium, working on skin, and working with people.

Tattoo design I came up with that'll I'll be practicing on an orange. If anything, I will have lots of designs before I get a tattoo gun.

I've been playing with polaroids as well, but that's another post!