Sketchbook: Mike Schaap

schaapie327

Hi guys!

After many -many- years of lurking (basically since I was in highschool), I will finally start posting on the Polycount forums!

By using this Sketchbook I want to share my workflow, tricks I learned, and other usefull stuff, so that anyone visiting can take a digital peek over my shoulder, see how I do things, and maybe learn something new.
And in turn I hope to learn a lot from the critiques and tips that you guys have!

The first thing on my agenda is to start a project to update my portfolio (because -hot damn- that thing is in dire need of an update). I will update on here every week, until the project is finished. And after that... Who knows, right?

Anyway! My anxiety for big (solo) projects is acting up hardcore, but that won't stop me!

If you feel like it, you can check my 100-day sculpting challenge that I did previously on my Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/SheepBrush/
https://www.artstation.com/SheepBrush/

schaapie327

Hi guys! 
Week 1 has passed, and this is what happened:

My goal for this week was to define my project and figure out what it was going to be.
After writing my previous post, I was cycling to work, and this line: "My anxiety for big (solo) projects is acting up hardcore, but that won't stop me!", gave me an idea.
I wanted to visualize my creation anxiety, and to beat the anxiety. The subject is a boy who is being protected from fears by his protector.

Here is my narrative for this piece:

"The boy is a representation of my former self, someone who is quite scared of social interactions or conflicts. I wanted to make stuff, I liked to draw, to make comics, and to write stories, all of which I did as a kid. But in growing up I became more and more scared of making things because I thought they weren't "good enough". So I started to draw less, and to game more.

I wish I would have used my mind to think up a protector for myself. This protector is strong like Goku, brave like Harry Potter, and relentless like Naruto. He will shield me from all the negative thoughts and anxieties that I imagined were being fired at me. Afraid of being laughed at, afraid of being judged, afraid of not being good enough, afraid to fail.

Fear is my greatest enemy. Fear is what kept me doing what I am comfortable with, playing video-games. Fear kept me from making, fear kept me from finishing, fear kept me from starting. 

This is my resistance. "

While the narrative was being described in my brain, I started exploring how I could visualize the piece a little more. I scribbles some really messy sketches in which I was exploring ideas:


The boy is just a regular kid, and I think his imagined protector would be a more bad-ass version of himself:


After this I tried to see how this kind of idea would shape in 3D. I like to think of it as a figurine, displaying dynamic motion, and interesting to look at from all angles. This makes composition a challenge, and composition is not my strongest suit anyway.

The shadow of fear oozes out of the boy, who is drawing, and the protector of the boy is fighting the fear off with his sword.
I tried to block out what that could look like:




I feel like something is still missing in this kind of composition, but I can't figure it out yet. If any of you have some ideas, or tips to make the layout more dynamic/full-of-action, please let me know! 

For now, I will focus my efforts on the boy's protector, in an attempt to not overcomplicate my project.

schaapie327

As quickly as I started that project, so quickly I stopped (/shelved) it again.

I will post some other things that I did since.


This one was made as a learning project, following a tutorial by ScribbleMesh (https://gumroad.com/scribblemesh). Learned a lot from it, which helped me in the projects after this one.
Based on a concept by Lin Chang (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/raRb2)




I started to dip my toes in 3D printing on my brother's Ender 3:

Sometimes they have some problems


Other times they come out decent

schaapie327

This is Battleberzerker Balto, a character created by Joe "Joverine" Vriens (https://www.instagram.com/joverine/)
I liked the design a lot, so I decided to take him into 3D.





I also wanted to print this one, but it was a bit more complicted than a one-piece print. So I had to learn about creating keys in zbrush.

schaapie327

Some other stuff:

Actually my first 3D print

schaapie327

A model of a Morgan Freeman caricature by Arie Vanderwyst (https://www.instagram.com/vanderwyst.art/)

schaapie327

With a very determined look on his face, the fat chinned boy said the line he had practiced all night: "I'm batman".

Hi all!
This is a quite late Halloween sculpt (actually started on Halloween), but it was just so much fun to create! It is based on an illustration by Marco Bucci. (https://www.artstation.com/marcobucci / https://www.instagram.com/bucciblog/)

schaapie327

It has been a while since my last post... But here is something new!
This sculpt was created for the #drawTEGN #drawinyourstyle challenge by Even Mehl Amundsen.


- The Grower - 





Hope you like it!