Happy holidays from El Dave Photography! I hope this year has been great for you all and that 2011 will be even better.
As for us, we're taking our end of year break and will resume posting the 2nd week of January.
Be good,
-Dave
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Inspired by this week's Macro Monday theme of "In the Dark", I was reminded of the riddle of the Sphinx. "What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?" By way of interpretation, I wanted to add what man looks like... In the Dark.
Rimshot.
Be good,
-Dave
You look so hard and you never find nothin'
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Since the desktop is down for a bit, I thought it would be fun to share what I've been working on. Sort of a progress report.
Remember when I mentioned working with Hirst Arts plaster molds? I'd been having trouble painting them consistently, but after a quick trip to Games Plus, I tried Vallejo's Weathering Pigments and I stand before you a changed man. Holy moley is that stuff amazing!
What started as a mass of plain, whiteish grey plaster bricks was transformed. I primed the bricks with black gesso and covered that with a very heavy wash of off-white. When that was dry, it was time to break out the weathering powders. I brushed it on very heavily, massaging it into all the nooks and crannies. When I had it looking just how I wanted, I took my spritzer bottle of rubbing alcohol (the fixative for the pigments) and gave it a once over.
Seriously guys, you have to try this stuff out.
Be good,
-Dave
when the saints become the beggars
and they live down among the fray
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So the computer problems I mentioned in my last post turned out to be a little more complicated than just a bad hard drive. I put in a call to tech support and when the technician arrived, he announced that it was most likely a motherboard problem. I could fix it, but I built the PC over 5 years ago and I would need to buy all new internal components (it still used IDE hard drives, so you know...) or I can save up a little cash and buy a modern computer.
Either way, this machine needed to be put down.
"Do it."
Be good,
-Dave
there's no one here to tell you about the depth of the water
or the trouble that you're in
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This week I wanted to take a little break from the usual format and just take a short series without a narrative and see how it turned out.
Who better to use than Iron Man?
Mk 1
Mk 2
Mk 3/4
Mk 5
Mk 6
Overall I'm very happy with the set. Straight out of the camera, with only the lights added in Photoshop. The one thing I would go back and do differently would be the glowing lights. I don't think I did a super great job on them (some of the effects are pretty jarring) and would like to go back and repost the originals.
However, when I tried booting up my desktop this morning I was greeted with a loud, rhythmic clicking indicative of hard drive failure.
Dang it.
Be good,
-Dave
my eyes are alive in this place
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Filed under: Things I Never Considered.
You guys have played Halo, right? Running through the first stages, shooting and exploding Grunts with wild abandon only to get bored and start trying to smash them with the butt of your rifle. Pretty fun, yeah?
Have you ever stopped to think about how the Grunt feels? Me neither. Well, not until Grunt Ultra shuffled into the studio. Two regular grunts "secured" the door and the lot of them swept in, guns drawn. Because of a previous incident, firearms aren't allowed in the studio. My assistant, Reflector, told them that they would have to put their weapons away or leave. We don't want any trouble.
"Trouble?!" And then they panicked. Limbs flailing, plasma going everywhere, it was a mess.
Grunt Ultra sighed and slumped in his armor, shaking his head. "Every time! Every time!" He whipped around at Reflector, "Listen camera guy, I need help-"
I interrupted, "Actually, I'm the photographer. Reflector is my assistant."
Ultra looked at Reflector, then at me, then back to Reflector. "Um, I think not. He is clearly the camera. Now, Mr. Camera," another big sigh, "I've got... problems. It's the Brutes, you see. They think because they're big they can do what they want and they can just hit us all the time and-"
I'll spare you the entire story. Cliff's Notes version: Years of bullying by the Brutes has left the poor Grunts with something of a self-esteem problem, to the point of them developing phobias en masse. They collect them like baseball cards. This little Ultra, hoping for a confidence boost wanted a couple shots to hang around his bunk.
Let's see how this goes...
Dramatic lighting!
Turn to your left so I can get a shot of that cool backpack. What's in that thing, anyway?
"I need Methane to breathe!"
Oooook. Don't think about cow farts. What's your favorite map, Ultra?
Ripping his helmet off in what I assume was enthusiasm (and not cow farts), "I love Blood Gultch!"
Alright, big guy, we're almost done here. Gimme a roar!
There went the gas mask, "RAAAAAAAR"
Reflector burst in holding a Brute Spiker handgun. "Hey Dave, check it out! I'm a Brute!"
Grunt Ultra, his bravery completely forgotten, screamed and ran.
Reflector?
"Yeah Dave?"
...nevermind.
Be good,
-Dave
oh, you can take a penny
you can put one upon each eye
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Last weekend was all about getting the new space finished. It started with casting a huge number of Hirst Arts plaster blocks. I'm pretty sure I'll be finding plaster dust on everything I own for the next few years...
The hardest part was trying to decide how to paint them. I tried sponge painting, priming and then basecoating, washes; you name it, I probably tried it. In frustration, I put the painting on hold for a while, which led to me setting up the lights and reflectors and taking a portrait of Jorge-052 from Halo: Reach.
(click image for larger view)
Right. Yeah, I'm very happy with how that turned out! The new studio really sings and I think this first shot is a good example. Did I mention that this is straight out of the camera? Because, yeah.
Going back to the plaster blocks, I remembered the can of metallic spraypaint that I bought specifically for the blocks and went to work spraying. 20 minutes and some superglue later, I ended up with this:
(click image for larger view)
To give a better idea of what the set looks like, here's a full view of my little table:
(click image for larger view)
What do you think?
Be good,
-Dave
she's got a bottle and a paper
so she can forget her name
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