Orphan Design Week - Day 1: Golden Runes

[dave_littler]

Over the years, I've come to accept that 70-80% of the would-be models who say they'll work with me on a body painting set will ultimately never end up taking part in the set they say they want. I accept the fact that this is just the way things go. Nevertheless, as time goes by and my standards for my own technique rise, there is a problem which

Comments

[thecaffeinecat]

My god... That is unbelievably beautiful! If you ever find yourself in my neck of the woods and wouldn't mind a go at the body of a neolithic earth goddess (you might need a lot of paint), I would love to be your model. My husband is very easy going about such things, especially since he is used to me using nude models for my art:)

I can't remember where you are at, but I will gladly let you know when I am next stateside if you are happy to paint big women.

Damn... I can't tear my eyes away!

[dave_littler]

I'm in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (or, more precisely, Vancouver's suburb of Burnaby).

I keep saying that I'm interested in working with different body types, and that it's just that all of the models who express an interest in working with me tend to conform to a specific range of shapes.

Tell you what: If you like, send me a series of photos of yourself in the same manner as the four that I used in the above set (you can e-mail them to me at god_king at telus dot net), and I can see about brewing up a design for you, for if and when the opportunity ever presents itself.

[thecaffeinecat]

Do these have to be complete nudes at this stage? My husband is fine when it comes to art, but his cardinal rule is to never send full nudes over the internet. If I can do bra and panties, he will likely take the pictures himself:)

[dave_littler]

I get asked this quite often.

One of the main purposes of a bra and panties is to lift, to support, and otherwise deform (generally for the better) the underlying form. The purpose of this phase of my design process is to look at the specific curves and contours of a given model's body, as it appears without concealment, and figure out how to decorate it in a manner which best fits and flatters it. To that extent, a set of photos in which you're still wearing anything is about as useful to me as a set of photos of an entirely different person.

[hentaikid]

It's possible 3d model texturing might help you in this workflow in some way, grab blender and play around with it, check out some tutorials, maybe if you can produce a 3d mockup with a makehuman generated model you can produce the preview faster and skip a step, just a thought, and in any case 3d would be an extra arrow in your quiver

(You know about blender don't you? Open source 3d app, powerful but as open source apps tend to be, something of an interface nightmare, though the new version is a lot cleaner)

[dave_littler]

You're not the first person to suggest this sort of thing; back when I was first getting started, people were suggesting I use Poser as a tool to this end.

It wasn't a bad suggestion then and it's not a bad one now, but there are reasons why I've never bothered. I've redesigned a given design sometimes two or three times for different models, and I can say now that a design which looks fantastic on one woman might look ridiculous on another, even with work done to change it around to fit one form or another. A program which gives me a generic female form to work with isn't going to do me a lot of good in terms of fitting it to a specific woman's specific quirks and curves, which is the point of this most exacting and time consuming part of the process.

[hentaikid]

check this out
http://www.makehuman.org/

[dave_littler]

I'll give it a look in a little bit, though I have deep misgivings that I'll be able to accurately recreate the curves and dimensions of a given person in a swift enough fashion that this will ultimately prove to be a time saver...

[ashbet]

That is INTENSELY beautiful. You do amazing work!

Sorry this model had to back out, I'd have loved to see it in the flesh!

-- A <3

[dave_littler]

Well, like I said, there's another model this photographer has in mind, and so it may see the light of day sometime soon. It's just a damned shame that the woman who helped me to come up with this design specifically so that she could wear it will not ultimately be the one to do so.

[thingie]

something confuses me.

as huge as the model/fashion industry is, it's also small. If you fuck up, don't show, continue to be difficult, and someone says to you, "You'll never work in this town again" chances are they have the power to enforce that threat.

So, am I imagining things when it seems common to me that models are notorious flakes? Either showing up hours late, or not showing up at all, with no call or warning? How do they manage to keep working in the industry?

I can't imagine it's because of any dearth of models. There seem to be way too many of them already.

This flakiness, of course, doesnt apply to the black and gold model in your story, since her situation was different.

Also, I am hoping you don't find this insulting, because I dont mean it as such, but I absolutely adore the design in the first and last pictures. It seems very Tron-inspired, and I love tron.

[dave_littler]

It seems to me that what it basically boils down to is, there's a huge turnover rate. lots of girls get into this thinking that they're just going to be paid to be pretty. Then they realize that there's actual work involved, and that this is not as interesting as they think it will be

[nerdfury]

That's gorgeous - almost like Midna, crossed with Iron Man.