Cristina's Blog

STRENGTHS What are you good at naturally? I am naturally good at research on the internet, problem solving and analysing situations. What skills have you worked to develop? I am working to develop my drawing skills, 3D modelling skills and programming skills. What are your talents or natural-born gifts? I am a quick learner, a good listener, a hard working person. What do other people see as your strengths? Being calm, finishing projects on time, the ability to analyse things. What values and ethics set you apart from your peers? Analytical ability. WEAKNESSES What are your negative work habits and traits? Sometimes I work too hard, I get upset when things go wrong or don't work the way they're supposed to. Does any part of your education or training need improving? There is always space for improving. What would other people see as your weaknesses? Being a quiet and introverted person. Where can you improve? Trying not to be negative. What are ...

Exercise: Object perspectives The exercise was to select three objects and draw them from at least five different perspectives, from a low view point up to a higher view point. I started with a bottle and managed relatively good perspective sketches of the bottle using perspective lines and feeding upon my success I spied a wonderful scary Halloween pumpkin lantern which looked to be a lot of fun. However, this was not as easy as the bottle proved to be and I did only a reasonable job on this. Resolving to exceed expectations on my third effort, I picked a shape which should show perspectives dramatically being of cuboid shape i.e. a box type pencil sharpener. True to my resolution, I produced what I consider to be the "piece de resistance" of my three attempts. In an effort to understand why I did so well on the pencil sharpener I came to the conclusion that straight lines rule in perspective drawing and curves are not as easy when drawing from different perspective...

 Exercise: Still life arrangement Select a range of objects from around your house, ideally a minimum of 5. Set them in an interesting arrangement, and produce a full page detailed A4 drawing. Step 1: Select 5 objects from around the house Step 2: Arrange them in an interesting way. Be sure to set them up in a location where you can work without disruption. Step 3: Plan your drawing lightly using the sighting method to establish distance and scale, Step 4: Work from your rough plan, work into detailed full A4 drawing of your still life arrangement. Work in pencil/graphite, with shading (shading values). Materials: ~ 5 objects of your choice ~ A4 paper ~ 2B pencil/graphite. ~ My most difficult part of this project was actually choosing the still life objects to use. I wanted to make something good, but equally did not want to go overboard to make things difficult at this early stage. After arranging the items I decided upon a center point of the drawing and then m...

Mjolnir SUMMARY This model was fascinating to do because it involved using many different tools which took a lot of time researching on the internet. This was a very time consuming project not only because there was a lot to learn and a lot to do, but also because I decided to use a drawing program to create the curves for the ornament details. I found this technique on the internet whereby I could draw curves in a drawing program such as Photoshop or CorelDraw and then export them as EPS (encapsulated postscript) file. This was easier than trying to model the curves directly in Maya. However, I obviously had to install the drawing program and to do that I also had to upgrade my internet explorer and to do that...............(Further, I wish I had found out earlier that I could have used Photoshop to create EPS Files as then I would not have had to install CorelDraw and learn a bit of that because I already know Photoshop a little - Grrr!). In total with the reinstallin...

Our first assignment in Maya was to model a simple chair. I've mostly used cube polygons and spheres and manipulated their vertexies, edges and faces to make it look a little like a Nordic interpretation. As Norsemen used to have horns on their helmets, it gives me the impression that their chairs should also have horns. I've modeled the horns/antlers by drawing and EP curve next cu a cube, then I selected the curve and one face of the cube and I've extruded them to make them look as in the picture below. It was an interesting project and it really helped to get familiar with Maya Software.

S trengths W eaknesses O pportunities T hreats  SELF EMPLOYMENT Strengths: ~  Independence ~  More control over what you do ~  Freedom ~  You follow your own rules Weaknesses: ~ Less security ~  Fewer free benefits ~  You're responsible for profits and losses ~  No set work hours - you can work as much as you want Opportunities: ~ Travelling ~  Developing leadership and time management Threats: ~ You're responsible for your own pension scheme FREELANCING    Strengths: ~ Higher payment ~ Potential to work from home ~ You can claim expenses Weaknesses: ~ No job security ~ No financial security ~ Have to manage your own taxes ~ No job benefits ~ No sick payment ~ Have to pay for auditors Opportunities ~ See different types of companies ~ See different technologies ~ Make more contacts ~ Travelling Threats: ~Legisla...

Exercise 1: Using a found object, you must produce 4 studies and one full page drawing. Observe your object and work on the size and proportion using the sighting method. Divide and A4 into 4 sections and draw the object from 4 different points. This may be close ups of certain areas or interesting positions.  My object of choice was a toy helicopter. I used the sighting method to get the size and proportions right, marked certain areas with an X ( for example I marked where the tail of the helicopter should end) and then I started sketching it resulting in the drawings below.