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As individual artist we must know how to make everything for our brand and our image as artist. So this time I'll show up the progress and evolution of the identity I created to push the THR_BHLD project further.

The first idea, a basic San Serif font with the three slash or stripes, simple but good enough to start publishing the project.

A couple of months later I decided to simplify it but it was a mistake because this brand is not so well know to start publish it as an Isotype and the "picture language" thing of course will not work in this case.
  

  Some weeks later I was returning to the usual identity as the start but this time it came with a bit of difference, integrating the three stripes was enough to make myself satisfied for the moment and the separation between the stripes was a thing too.

And again repeated the same mistake as the beginning, started to publish again in Isotype mode but didn't work, this kind of change will work for well know brands so it's a waste of time to rush and start to plant symbols all over the web.  

But after all of that, like refined by fire came this amazing idea to me, simplify and resurrect in the best shape the three stripes with a edgy form to make it notable between the brands, enough satisfied and this time forever this Imagotype identity it's easy to remember, digest and recognize.

Disclaimer

I know that the disclaimer thing must be in the first part of the post but embrace the difference. So it's weird or almost absent talk about corporative identity or brand identity here at ArtStation (The country of the concept artist, illustrators and visual developers) but I'm talking about this because this is the vision through an independent artist and as individual artist we must be prepared to identify ourselves no matter what, make an outstanding or recognizable logo, isotype and so on of our talents is quite important and for me was really fun to make my way until the final identity.

This the end of the blog post but I'll take this time to talk about my first two products in the market place, one of them have become trend in the marketplace are so that's cool and puts me in the position to say "make it true" so go ahead if you have talent, go and create something nor matter if it's too small or two big, just create and put in another level the things you are making no matter what.

I'll talk about it in next blog post but they are already in the market place in the next url: https://www.artstation.com/thr_bhld/store

And GUMROAD: https://gumroad.com/thr_bhld

No more to say, til next time.

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Functionality

I want to start this entry talking about a band, why? because this band reminds me all of the fear I used to have to technical stuff when I was getting inside into the 3D concept world, the name of the band: Animals As Leaders, personally one of the most technical bands in the world, but their music always shows me that there is beauty in technical procedure and technical skills to achieve a complete piece of art with the most important thing inside of the visual concept world, and that thing is called "Functionality" and I promise this blog post will be more short and less boring. Let's go straight to my point.

In this savage speed behavior I acquired running this challenge I decided  to stop myself a bit and turn down a bit the detail quality of several sculpts and start to clean the dust on my technical knowledge, like UV map, topology, and much more scary technical procedure to turn your idea into a game ready character, object, landscape and so on. Several beginners avoid these path at the beginning and that's good, I know how much beginners turn their back into the 3D world just because they have fear of the technical stuff, my process was kind of hard to attach into my abilities, because when I was getting into this I decided just only to do this for artistic "purpose" and have "fun" but at the end of the day I was with something not very useful, and I decided to give a chance to the scary things inside of the 3D career, and it turned to be that getting into topology, UV and other tech stuff my sculpts and concepts was starting to get a more incredible finish, when it's about hard surface, a good and well optimized topology is everything and I know I said that this time this blog post it's gonna be less boring but I'm making my best. Next on the test:

This week I decided to use "polypaint groups" or something like that, and I had almost a year that I didn't use that technique, but this time is back and is giving me amazing results, just with paint and the amazing algorithm that Zbrush offers. Turn on only the RGB button and in the color palette chose a contrast color compared with the matcap you are using and paint on it. 

After working in the line work, I went to the pluging and press the magic button to turn all of the mesh with this colorful polygroups and stylize with clean shapes the whole sculpt. Just press Border button to generate the polygroup by polypaint divisions. Located in the Zpluging window

  But better than the magic of the polygrouping there is the topology, this time I used Zremesher, very easy and responsive to reduce time and spent it doing other things, I still respect doing the retopo by hand, but this time I'm very satisfied to get and it leaves me tons of free time to work in the UV map and the rest of the scary stuff. Keepgroups always on and turn to zero the SmoothGroups to save your shape and then just hit the Zremesher to generate a much more optimized topology.

After the tech stuff I decided to play a bit with the Curve Frame Function and to learn about structures a bit.

Conclusion

Making the promise true this is the end of the blog post, next time I'll show how I make UV with Zbrush pluging, is very fun and useful, I know is not the best but for the speed that I need to finish this challenge the software (Zbrush) is delivering me all that I need to still get fun doing what I love.

Til next Friday.

365daychallenge at https://www.artstation.com/thr_bhld and https://www.instagram.com/thr.bhld

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Statement
  

This last week of progress has returned to me incredible results in the meaning that the improvement in the anatomy thing are getting really good taking that "not so good" advice about learn anatomy in a different way than usual and I think that finally I have learned all the new improvements of the last Zbrush software update, there is an amazing too called Spotlight and this time the development team from Pixologic have delivered a very good tool to create forms and shapes, it's more related to the hardsurface thing but the change is huge and intuitive to keep moving forward and make it more easy to digest the whole UX from Zbrush and all the things that software can offer you in one place.

Let's not lose the sight from the main point so, I'll talk next about the anatomy thing, monster anatomy of course is never equal as human anatomy, there are approximations and nothing is impossible in for the art world, but I decided some weeks ago to learn about anatomy but not as usual, taking some classes or tutorials about human anatomy, I decided to start it at something different, creating creatures and applying to them some characteristic of the human anatomy. What am I trying to mean is next here:

This time started the exercise deforming and refining at the same time the human shape.

After that exercise I found up myself just paying a bit with it and this is the result of it, more confidence in getting humanoid shapes.

The Spotlight Thing

Meanwhile this week finally after so many time, I finish to comprehend and get the overall update of Zbrush 2019, that was really slow to be honest because Zbrush 2020 will be coming by the end of this year or even more closer this next month due to the publish schedule they have, but the point here is that when there is a software update you must spent no more than one to learn clearly all the updates that comes with the patch or the expansion, this time it took me more than one month, but feels good, to be updated and aware of all the new things that your favorite software can offer you and the new and improved Spotlight tool have much more things that blew my mind to be honest related to the Zbrush boolean system and it can make very sharp and clean stuff with this new development that Pixologic offers, results? next here:
  

The decorative lines and the cuts across the surface are product of the new Spotlight improvement, I'm able to show up more detailed hardsurface concepts with this tool.

Clearly I need to improve even more my speed using this, because I'm learning all of this new things inside of the challenge time that actually is set in 120min daily, I'm planning to raise the limit very soon but for the moment I'm getting quick response and speed on the concept development, but this tool can help me to deliver more detailed shapes in the next days of the render.

The Strategy

An important mistake appeared this week, and this is what this blog chapter is about, the mistake? I think that I have been doing something wrong, and that ironically is to have an strategy, since I started this challenge, I have been just opening a dynamesh sphere in Zbrush and then spent the time limit throwing lines, shapes and details into a digital mass just projecting what my mind was building for me in the imagination and loosing time specially in the satisfaction "thing", why? because we as artist don't rest until what we are doing starts to satisfy us, as creators we start to suffer that particular thing and I was losing time doing that, so I decided this week to create a base mesh or a base shape with geometrical forms and it boost the speed and the improvement of my skills to the top.

On my day_131 to day_140 post there are much more models made under this new way, I need to add that there is nothing compared to confront your sculpt from zero, but is really good to use geometrical object to build up what you are thinking and gives a good approximation to what you are trying to reach and open infinite alternatives to new ideas and sculpts. Back to the point, the strategy is to set up a graphical base of what you have in your mind, a basic one, no more than 15 minutes sketching or building up with geometrical shape if your case is the digital sculpt.

Detailing

This is something can cage you forever, and I'm talking about details, I'm a kind of obsessed  with detailing an sculpt or an artwork but thankfully I decided to put a time limit on the challenge, if not this will be a complete chaos, even sometimes I spent my whole time just detailing and forgetting other things, it's really easy to see in the whole progress I have been achieving here, sometime in two hours I can reach a very good full body concept and other days I almost can make a comprehensible shape on the sculpts and that is because I mix getting out of the comfort zone and detailing, so the result of that is huge amounts of time lost in depicting a very detailed small area of what I'm doing, more easy to explain.  

First step: spent 30 min masking all the surface of the concept just to bust my pen and tablet skill.

After the mask inflate the space that was selected to be affected by the mask. Just to achieve something different than a bunch of creature bust and hard surface bots.

Cables and wires can always save your mess, and this one I like it just for the little grade of detail that the wires let me achieve on this one.

A Difference

This week remarks to me a huge difference, and it's related to the learning thing, been a lone ranger in this way and do what ever you want just to learn how to solve things by your own is good is really good because it can help to be a independent artist, but getting yourself into the learning thing like tutorials, classes, courses and all of that stuff is going to launch you like a rocket out of the space, and lot of the learning I got this last week was thanks to Arrimus3D tutorials, Michael Pavlovich, Artstation Learning, Adan Martinez and they are all out there in the internet, easy and free access to reach what ever you want.

Till next post.

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Adding something personal.

Exactly like a year ago, I was in my laptop working on some personal projects and after 4 or 5 hours of non-stop working my heart started to beat very painfully fast, I just ignore the pain and keep working but 30 min later was impossible to keep working, so I went to the doctor, and simply I was diagnoses with a slight scoliosis, slight enough to press on my heart nerves and cause me an actual pain that sometimes is not so easy to handle, but more important than the doctor forbade at all to be seated on my laptop working for no more than 2 hours per day. To the point I'm talking about this personal problem because anything have stopped me to reach my dream, no one thing can stop you looking and making your way of the things that you love and one of the "must have" things that should have an artist is love in the hands and mind to do what it most loves, because this diagnosis haven't stop me from what I want, yes sounds childish but I'm still having dreams and personally I though that having the heart of a child makes you live forever.

Returning to the art thing.

I have been working very hard finally in anatomy sculpt or been putting more attention in full body sculpt, so these last two weeks I have been trying to complete some day challenge as a full body and I have been getting slightly better since the beginning, next up some examples:

day_122 Final Render at:

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/020/958/776/large/diego-m-zanelli-day-122-01.jpg?1569846901

This must be day_132 Work in progress.

Back to words.

From day_29 I made a huge jump in day_122 like... I just can't explain it right now but here I'm improving my "anatomy" skills going through repetition and perseverance, over and over again repeating moves and giving memory to my hand in every sculpt because I see now that my way to complicate things in this challenge is finally fruitful to me and of course I need to add that back to day_27, _29, I was just having 30 min limit time to make that body and in most recent days I'm using just 120 min time limit to create the daily sculpts, I know these sculpts have some mistakes, and there is something good in looking into mistakes because this makes you aware of what you are missing and prepares you to not make the mistake again, to fix it and the best way to reach perfection is going through mistakes to never come back and repeat them, repetition is the key on this post.

These last days, I notice that I'm getting through anatomy in general just running sculpts related to monsters with deformations or robots (mecha) totally shaped by chunks and pieces and this is not the conventional way to learn it, but it works, it's working for me perfectly, yes, I must be wrong and this will be not the best advice you can receive in your art career, but is working, all of this time before day_122 I have been sculpting tons of monster, quad-legs or six-legs, a bunch of monster bust with some human aspects anatomy and this gave me the best position to restart full body sculpts like I'm showing in day_122, and yes this is a kind of monster I know but it have more humanoid shape and this type of sculpts are approaching into human body anatomy and that's what I wanted from the beginning to be honest so I chose a different way to learn what I want in this challenges and it's giving me what I'm looking so this leaves me with the conclusion that I'm controlling this challenge and the challenge is not controlling me.

Signal Fire Pt.2 must be the next chapter because I'm starting to connect my concept sculpts with stories I have been writing several years ago and it's a different approach to give more detail layers and meaning in what I'm doing.

Til the next Friday.

Honestly this is the first time that I have the opportunity to write in a blog, for several months I have been using this PRO Artstation account without using the first entry in their blog platform. This is suppose to be a blog centered in artistic things and that stuff but I think that I'm a writer too, so it's going to be really hard for me not to mix daily things and some personal philosophizes here and of course art stuff too, why I am in Artstation and what are the things that I do.

First of all I have a bachelors degree in Graphic Arts and since I was a kid I always wanted to be part of the concept art / design world, but I forgot that to be part of that "world" you must create first your world, so now that I have already created that world I'm finally open to say that I'm a concept artist, and everything started with this:

Yes (I don't know if this people is going to shut down this blog entry just because I'm using some kind of copy rights but I'll take the hit), I saw that huge title: The Machines of Star Wars, back in that moment I was in the house of my aunt trying to kill that boring afternoon I was getting there and she had this stored in her library, I knew about Star Wars before this magazine and I wasn't attracted by it, back in that moment I was more amazed by video games like Silent Hill and the first Resident Evil and stuff like that a more horror and suspense atmosphere was getting all of my attention back then, before I start to talk in circles I want to finish why I got inside this since the beginning, so yes, I open up the magazine, riding fast into the The "Machines of Start Wars" part and that was enough for me, inside of it where one of the most impressive concept art work until now, a very detailed droid transport bought my attention, color palette, small lines and details, bought the professional future of my life, it's a shame but I can't show more, sadly that magazine got lost in time and in the internet I just found the cover of it, but like I said, was enough for me to get myself in into this career and love it with all of my heart, enough of romantic expression about the stuff that I love to do, I grew up nothing more special happened after that but I already knew what was the path I'm going to choose when I grew up, and that's cool because it's with me since I'm a kid, time pass and I get the opportunity to go to the university, the concept art/design career was not a thing in my country, been more clear still not a thing there, they are more busy learning about oil and corruption. So I choose Graphic Arts for 4 years because it was the most near hit I can gave to the concept art/design career.

Returning back to the art thing I finish my bachelor degree and I started to learn concept art / design by my own through this huge and vast universe called internet, because nothing was able to stop me, and the thing that in my country there is no academy or career available for concept art that wasn't enough to stop me, so I put myself in the way I wanted, I'm almost in the middle of a 365DAYCHALLENGE let's say SUICIDAL 365DAYCHALLENGE because I choose digital sculpt and I choose Zbrush and you can figure out how it was, a huge mess for me because in my opinion sculpting has been the only skill I got that let me show what is inside of my head, to project all the graphical and imaginary stuff I have on my head related to the science fiction area, influenced by tons of science fiction movie like Alien, Event Horizon, Gattaca and games like Dead Space, Prey, Alien Isolation and so on, inspiring me to show what I have on my head since I was a kid, this challenge is showing me how easy is for me to show a very fractured distant future, again is very easy for me depict creature from the future with a very dark atmosphere and I forgot to explain something very important for me, I'm not an ultra fan of Star War just because I put an old Mechanic Popular Cover here  and I don't remember to be attached to anything related to the saga, I like it but not too much, the thing that I don't like it doesn't mean that is something bad, of course I recognize that this saga is a huge masterpiece and that's all because there are other more influential sagas for me, but I put the cover because it was the beginning for me and the signal fire for this path I choose long time ago.

My first contact with Zbrush was when I was at the middle of my career back in my country, I remember been looking for some concept art classes and tutorials at YouTube but I'm not good at drawing, I'm terrible at it but I was trying to improve my skills because back in that moment I was decided to became a 2D concept art designer, but I saw an artist mixing the two stuff, Zbrush techniques and finishing it in Ps, again my mind was blew up because I love sculptures long time ago but I thought that out there was nothing like a live session sculpting with your hands, but again there appeared Zbrush just to give me the right lesson that the art of sculpting wasn't dead, it's more alive than ever with this digital approach so perfectly that Zbrush can show to you, for me was like "I'm in where I should sign?", a new whole era was opened for me starting with this first sculpt:

 That I learned for free here http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/ and helped me to made tons of other incomprehensible stuff that are hard to digest for me so I won't all of that here  but this was the spark that make this grow and grow inside of me til actual day that I'm in the middle of a "suicidal" 365DAYCHALLENGE of digital sculpt.

I must stop this entry here because if I keep writing I won't have material for the next Friday and I'm planning to post here my progress and all of the stuff related to that every Friday until I finish my challenge.

In my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/three.bhld the challenge is more update it can be checked a bit like in real time because I post there daily.

And great to know that you read all the way down til here.

Thanks for reading.