Monday, February 15, 2010

Haiti 2010


Adrift

35 comments:

Roma GutiƩrrez said...

Together we can draw a lifebelt for them. Btw, great work.

josh pincus is crying said...

beautiful illustration.

The Art of Kim Kincaid said...

Thoughtful and compelling painting.

LDahl said...

Thanks guys, life wasn't kind in Haiti before the earthquake, I can't even imagine what it must be like now. They must be crushed by the trauma of just surviving.

RWDillustration said...

Very cool... :)

Bella Sinclair said...

Oh my. So very powerful. His expression makes my heart weep. Excellent work!

Unknown said...

speechless Lilah and beautiful at the same time.

Andrew Finnie said...

The boy's face sums up a lot of things. Care to share your technique? As far as media goes?

The lines are interesting, how they contain the figure yet there is that sense of roundness. Soft and hard.

cheers

LDahl said...

Thank you Robert, Bella and Toni.
Andrew, speaking of the media is probably all I could say about Sadboy. I hope he says it all, he says his family, his friends and neighbors, those that remain(if any do remain), have been picked up by a million eyes... and when the eyes set them down, they will be adrift again for decades.
Media: watercolor and digital, a combo of tradition,tech and more tradition.
This is the first thing I've worked on that has meant anything to me in two years. I was compelled, obsessed.
The face says it all. I worked on it until my eyes were dirty and I couldn't see it anymore. Then I quit and left him to show you what I felt.

valerie walsh said...

you could never be that my pal,you make my heart smile :D it touched me so much just like your incredible art does! Coming from you i am so honored and this image is pure heart which is what you are ;)

Andrew Finnie said...

Thankyou.

simon said...

not too sure what to say. "Haunting" is the only word that comes to mind. and i can see it in each stroke from the artist

LDahl said...

AHhhh Val,sweetie.Sometimes I'm such a grumpy girl, but you just made me misty eyed.

Andrew you are welcome, but I feel like I've let you down. But you know how art is, it's sometimes an itch, a burr and you just do it. All the times you did it before all the failures and successes, they tell you what to do. You push the paint around until it is where it should be as best as you can see it. :)

Simon, I don't think any of us could have words for the earthquake in Haiti, so vastly tragic, no mere words would suffice. I felt the same way when I saw pictures of burned cars along the roads of your country.
Haunting, yes.

simon said...

yes- those fires and deaths here were beyond words.

LDahl said...

I was worried about you and yours this year, but I think you all are having a wetter year, so that is a relief.

I heard something like million animals died in those fires too.

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studio lolo said...

Wow. I haven't been here in a while. So much wonderful stuff to see! This portrait totally pulled me in. I think you've captured his private little hell through his expression and body language. Sad, but wonderfully rendered.

I love all the art below as well, and how about that daughter of yours! The apple didn't fall far ;)

LDahl said...

You sure haven't been. I didn't post for quite awhile, but I hoping to do more this year. Thanks for your comment. Yeah, my daughter sure surprised me, not that she wasn't able but that she always said she didn't have any interest. Now you should see what she is doing. Amazing stuff. I tried to get her to let me post an update but couldn't get her to say yes. :(
Hope to see more of you!

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

This is really, very good work. You've captured just about all the pain, horror and sorrow a child can experience. Look at his little hand, so vulnerable.

LDahl said...

GG, I had planned something quite different for this post, but then I saw a photo of this little one. My heart was haunted by his pain. I hadn't been able to express what I felt for the people of Haiti... the earthquake introduced me to what Haitians had been through as a people and I was so sad that so many in this world suffer so much. The earthquake made that suffering overwhelming (not the right word, but as close as I can get). I knew I had to do this, to give him a chance to speak to everyone of his situation, one that will go on and on and on... long after his people are out of the news. Did he eat today? Is he sick now as so many children of Haiti are? Is he still alive, does he have family left that will fight for his survival? There can be no answers to these questions... poor baby, I will not forget him. As you say, little hand, so vulnerable.

Cathy said...

What a powerful piece of work - very impressive!

Thank you, too, for the kind comments on my blog - much appreciated!

Andrew Finnie said...

Now I hope you are not resting on your laurels, out with the whip, more work :)

good to see your voyage into the 3d continent... be interested in your experience

LDahl said...

Not resting on my laurels... ah-no I don't even have them planted yet.!heheh
I would love to talk to you about 3D stuff. I don't want to end up doing DAZ Dolls but I have only so much brain room, so some of the bigger stuff is overwhelming... too many tools. Have you tried out VUE?

Andrew Finnie said...

Daz Dolls ... now that's funny! With Daz dolls everyone can be an artist.... even those who aren't. Creativity needs to be satiated. You know I once thought three ducks on a wall were beautiful.... come to think of it I still do :) I haven't tried Vue I'm sorry. What exactly would you like to do in 3d? that will help narrow down your choice

cheers

LDahl said...

I loved paint-by-number sets when I was a kid, yumm the smell of those oils! Hated the brushes though.

You know, I never know what it is that I want, I just want..... :)))) I figure it out as I go along. Sometimes that is, sometimes I wonder if I've lost my mind. What I would like is a 3D app that you could start out and maybe make some decent small items out of primitives, texture map them like with UV and then learn and build as I go along. I don't want to take two years to learn how to light them or get different view points. I know me, I would get frustrated and bored. But I also want the app to be deep enough so as I'm ready to grow I won't have to start over with a new vender.

Andrew Finnie said...

Best thing to do is grab anim8or - it is free but has some good tools to work with meshes. You can't really do much with primitifs apart from pose them and light them... I don't tjink you can uv texture them

anim8or has a primitif render system so Carrara is good for this.

Carra has a model room like anim8or but is a bit overwhelming. too many tools at first. don't worry, you can swap between the two by using the obj format. you can export meshes in anim8or in obj format, then import them into carrara.

Carrara 7 will be on special soon as they are bringing out c8. It is in beta at the moment.

You can get c6 for free from here animanon.com after you have made a certain number of posts. The forum is slow though because....

If you join let me know as I might have some credit there? You get credit with posts and can give them to people.

If you join anim8or forum just say you are a female and they will be excited to answer your questions. They are mainly kids though.

Seek out Raxx and Hihosilver and $imon amongst others and they will set you straight. There are plenty of tuts available. it is a good program.

For Uv texturing i believe road kill is excellent and free. Personally I use uvmapper pro which I won in a contest (Thankyou Raxx)

Carrara is a very good program. The DAZ carrara forum is good.

If you want to fast track just buy Carrara 7 and use content for a while - it comes with some content. after you have used content for a while then you will learn what it looks like and how much you need to change it to make it yours!

The beauty of software is that each software has it's sworn devotees... and some people who hate it.

Carrara 7 is currently 387 but soon it will be much cheaper ..

ahh this is me before I bought new super computer ://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=2005.0 you need to log into see pics

a computer with 12 gig ram will let you render much faster, the more renders you do, the better you will get, the quicker, the more... if you get the guist

Carrara 8 will be 64 bit so quite fast

Andrew Finnie said...

orgot to say get Carrara Pro.

You can plug in BVh files (Human motion capture)

To give you an idea some of my anim8or meshes in Carrara with BVH files

http://www.vimeo.com/3330175

This is a poser figure retextured armour and horse made in anim8or etc.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LordByronMacintosh#p/u/1/nJsSSJ-AsV0

The animation is just from 'poses' that have been joined together. The poses are readily available and can of course be tweaked.

The render is in Carrara.

So the idea is just have anim8or and Carrara in the tool box, forget about the texturing initially, and jump from there

LDahl said...

Thanks for the expanded info Andrew, I D/L anim8or last night and had a go at it, also checked out the forum you mentioned. Anim8or surprisingly works fine with Win 7. It's really straightforward isn't it? I have already have rendered my first model. Thanks again for the support, I really appreciate it!

Andrew Finnie said...

Pleasure, sorry about clogging up the comments! Just delete what I said when you like! Here is a VUE review! http://www.renderosity.com/eon-softwares-vue-8-infinite-in-review-cms-14985?AID=408

cheers

LDahl said...

Hey, that is what comments are for isn't it? I won't delete as it is valuable information. UW!Just checked out Renderosity! How exciting. I was very interested in VUE as it reminded me of the old Terra-Gen. But I can see alternate apps that would also serve the purpose. I think it boils down to what makes sense to you and how far you need the package to go. Maybe I'm wrong, but right now, that is what I'm thinking. Anyway Anim8or makes good sense to me right away and will learn it as soon as possible. I already can navigate my way around it and it doesn't overwhelm. Thanks for the link. Feel free to pass on any info you think I might be interested in. If you would prefer I delete, I will. It is entirely up to you. Toni just mentioned that Blogger now has pages...I'll check that out and I may move this conversation, I certainly don't want to lose it.

Andrew Finnie said...

Aha! It sounds like you are making progress fast!

There are two ways to model - basically.

I usualy start with a simple box (called box modelling - oddly :) ) and use the knife tool to cut edges into it where I need it. But you need to keep all your polygons as quads - because later when you smooth the mesh (subdivide) it will keep the mesh smooth (not lumpy).

Other way is polygon modelling.

If you do Joan D'arc tutorial http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/joanmenu.php

you will be able to use it's premise to make anything.

This Jean D'Arc tut will teach you about edge looping which is all about mimicking facial muscles - eg obicularis.

In anim8or hold the shift key down to start your first line!

I don't get on anim8or forum much, but if you join let me know if you have questions and I can answer them there - other people will answer too!

cheers

Glennis said...

You have captured some of the heartbreak and hopelessness. Touches the heart.

LDahl said...

Thank you Glennis, I couldn't catch it all. I don't think I could hold all those people's suffering in my head, but this one little boy my heart could hold.

Propositum Sententia said...

intense!!

LDahl said...

Thanks Stidwood, and thanks for the follow! The worlds thoughts has moved on, new disasters to worry about, but these people will continue to suffer for decades.