Hello friends,
Welcome to my first creative experiment report! I'm super excited to share this with you.
As I said in my last newsletter, I picked 3D modelling as my very first experiment. I spent six weeks working on a small piece of 3D model every week.
Here is what I did, and learned, and experienced.
How long is long enough?
There are two aspects of time I considered during this experiment: how long I spent each week on it, and how I found the length of the experiment itself.
I'll address the second part first: I'm finding six weeks quite a long time overall. With this particular experiment, at week four and five I was already trying out other things, thinking about changing or giving up. I’m notoriously prone to shiny-new-toy syndrome, that is the main reason I put these constraints in place. This felt like a very long six weeks.
As for how long I spent on each item was the inverse. The first week I spent hours researching, learning, and experimenting in Blender. I created actually two items, not only one. The second week, I came up with an idea for a model that didn't work out, so I had to restart with something simpler. Which meant again that I spent many hours learning new things. The third week got harder, and I was more distracted and exhausted thanks to my day job, so the time I spent with the experiment has dropped significantly. Weeks four through six didn’t fare much better.
I ended up completing only five weeks, as week 4 I slipped into the following week and never quite managed to catch up.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Okay, but how was it?
I thoroughly enjoyed learning Blender and getting comfortable with 3D modelling again. However, I realised that I did not enjoy my simple prop subject matters that much. While I love looking at adorable low poly creations from others, it doesn't match my art style. As a result, while I loved the process, I felt constantly let down at the end, because I wasn't creating what brings me the most joy when I create.
I love intricate and complex designs. I adore details in art. Creating things that are lifelike and feel real. Low poly props don't fulfil that.
But the things I would want to create in 3—intricate and detailed environments—would take weeks, if not months to build. Especially for someone with my skill level.
I still found this experiment a huge learning opportunity. 3D art will always have my heart, and I will find ways to incorporate it into my art. Maybe via a mix of environment modelling and a paint-over. It is probably a great opportunity to experiment again at a later stage.
For now, however, I will move on to something else.
Week 4
Week 5
What's next?
In the last week or so of my 3D experiment, I let myself be tempted by an old(ish) interest: I discovered pattern design approximately 3 years ago, but never really gave myself the chance to actually try it.
So it’s no surprise to anyone who’s been keeping an eye on my social media, the next experiment will be leaning into this old, but so far supressed desire to learn surface pattern design.
I will create at least one repeat pattern every week for the next 6 weeks. As part of this, I will participate in at least two Spoonflower challenges, and upload one pattern to Spoonflower each week.
It is a little more complex pledge. But I wanted the accountability that comes with actually making my patterns public. Spoonflower challenges give me themes, so they will help if I fell stuck on the theme of the design. But I don't think that will really be a problem.
I'm full of ideas, and I cannot wait to test them all out. I’ll share my first pattern results in the next newsletter. And if you’ve tried pattern design yourself, I’d love to hear what inspired you.
Love,
Ivy 💛