As an inaugural post I thought I would do a bit of an introduction for those who don't know me.
I'm Carol, born and raised in Argentina, currently living in Spain. I'm a data integration analyst, 3d stuff freelancer and am currently pursuing my Maths degree.
The road so far...
While I was in high school I enjoyed the art class a lot. My teacher constantly encouraged me; even when the class was over she would let me stay in the room for a couple of hours while I kept on painting. We used to paint with acrylics and sometimes draw with colour pencils. I remember when my mom used to take me to the art supply store to buy the Staedtler Karat watercolour pencils, one or two at a time because they were expensive and it was not like I was making money by drawing. Also, I did a couple of courses related to art, outside school.
Almost at the same time, during computing class, our assignments involved using Excel and Flash. I used to finish them very quickly, and I believe the teacher saw my bored face, because she asked if I was interested in trying out a 3d software. I said yes, of course, and she gave me 3 DVDs (or maybe CDs, I can't remember) to install 3ds Studio Max in one of the computers. Oh, do I remember the thrill while rotating the vast and empty viewport and resizing the teapot. She started giving me homework, from the very basic stuff to more complicated scenes. I had to learn by trial and error, I did not have internet back then, so there was no way for me of "googling" things. And by trial and error this is what I mean:
A couple of years later, we did some freelance work together related to archviz (architectural visualization).
Once I graduated from high school, I started working full time in IT (at first in Support, later on as a data integration analyst) while at the same time studying engineering. My spare time was almost non-existent. On the odd occasion I could find the time to do a couple of art pieces, but nothing more than that.
A decade later life gave me a few lemons and I rediscovered art. Looking back, it was some sort of coping mechanism but that was not my intention at the time. I still had the acrylics and brushes from way back then and I bought some watercolours and other supplies.
I started painting and drawing more regularly. Also, I learned about the existence of another 3d software: Blender. Let me split the chronological order here in two superposed timelines: art and 3d.
Art:
The watercolours I had bought were of a really bad quality, and having never used the medium I quickly became frustrated. I had had a lot of practice with acrylics but now I was doing more complex artwork and the fast drying was playing against me. So, I bought oils! A whole new experience. I love art supplies and I never wanted to stick with a certain medium, I just wanted to choose it according to what I want to draw/paint. Certain scenes I like them better with watercolours, others with charcoal, and others with pastels.
I started investing in high quality and lightfast supplies. Watercolours, pencils, soft pastels, oils, cotton paper, brushes, etc.
My stash went from a single drawer to a dedicated studio. I started selling original artwork and prints, including some commissions.
I think it was during the pandemic that I streamed on Twitch, but it was interrupted when my plans for moving abroad became a reality. In the streams I did a full A2 piece using pressed charcoal of the Terminator 2 poster, I also painted a few landscapes with soft pastels and did some instructive videos on high quality art supplies and common watercolour techniques.
*Music for the video made by Agropio.
3d:
The first 100 hours using Blender I replicated my kitchen and living room from scratch, modelling and texturing everything. This was Blender 2.79.
After this I was determined to learn how to *do it right*, so I read a lot about good practices, topology, how some algorithms are implemented, texturing, modelling, trim sheets, composition, lighting, etc. I followed an insane amount of tutorials. Suddenly, I had so many files that I stopped creating more .blend files and took my time to think what would be the best way (for me) to organize them all. Some of the work was manual and whatever could be scripted, was scripted using Python. Along with those scripts, I wrote several others to automate the repetitive tasks inside Blender. Now everything was neat and tidy and I started selling some 3d models online.
Now...
Since moving to Spain, I kept on doing art and 3d. I am slowly building my art portfolio and hope to eventually have an online shop.
Last month I finished updating all my 3d assets to implement better topology and texturing and re-uploaded them using the latest version of Blender. I am doing some 3d freelance jobs and reading a large quantity of math books.
Having introduced myself, my plans for these publications are sharing some of my artworks and 3d projects with you all. Every so often I might share about a holiday or something I find interesting, but that would not be the main topic of the newsletter.
Let me know what would you like to see more about!
Carol