I took up art when I retired in 2017 and have made several paintings since then which can be viewed in this blog. They were created mostly using Acrylic paints on canvas and wood. I like experimenting with various forms of art and I have thought for awhile it would be cool to add some 3d elements to my paintings.
I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a Bambu A1 3d printer. For a few weeks I simply looked through the millions of models available for printing and printed ones that I thought looked interesting or useful. I am truly impressed with the capabilities of these printers and with the standards which have been developed for modeling and printing across printing platforms.
For example here some models I created using Maker Lab on the Bambu software and my own photographs. It is so simple to do! I’m pretty sure AI is involved in turning a flat image into a 3d printable model. I uploaded front facing photos to make each of the models pictured below. Maker Lab created 3d models that i think are pretty amazing Likenesses. The girl one is my granddaughter. I sent the model to her for her birthday as kind of a 3d birthday card, and she loved it.
So playing with existing models and Generated models was all fun but I wanted to get down to business with my real goal which was to create my own models and add them to my art or have them be the art themselves. I had no modeling experience other than making a clay pelican for a Diorama I created awhile back (turned out ok). So I was starting from, you guessed it, youtube videos.
After research I landed on Nomad for IPad as my modeling tool. The learning curve for the tool was rather steep for me since I not only was new to the software but also to the Real world clay modeling tools it emulates in digital form. It was frustrating at first but became fun as I started to experience some success.
Since I live in the desert I am very familiar with the plants and landscapes so I have concentrated on those for my first modeling efforts. See my first Saguaro effort to the right followed by my second on the left. the second one is a more ragged looking Saguaro like many actual Saguaros found in the desert. Its a rough life out there!
From there I graduated to a flat backed desert scene that I can glue to a picture frame glass enhancing it. I also modeled a moon with a face (see center below)
So that is my 3d journey so far. I’m not sure if any of it is marketable yet and I may never know since I like creating but hate marketing and repetition. I probably need a partner if I am to make any dollars from my art.
More later.
Leave a Reply