Well, life has gotten a little crazy now. That being said it's been a great opportunity to stay at home, visit with family (I am one of the lucky ones), as well as work on my various projects. I'm happy to show you guys I'm now in the final stages of this one. In the last few days I've really managed to knock out quite a bit - lots of unwrapping and mirroring objects, fixing baking issues and getting started on base textures and layout. I did decide to go with the statue head instead of the base rock, and also added some Norse carvings throughout the piece.

The next few days (or week, seeing how things go) I'll really be focusing on the textures - lots of moss, way more dirt and weathering, etc. I will also most likely add some grass and plants beneath, and set up a small diorama. So far I'm pretty happy with it, and have learned a ton!

So far I've completed the first sculpting pass on the larger wood planks and shapes. There are a couple areas I will for sure be revisiting; namely the lower "fangs" to make the ends more bulbous, and some of the other planks to further refine the damage.

For now I'll be moving on to the smaller wooden pieces, aka all the wheels and the lower fences. Then it's time for some metal.

Still undecided as to what the crane should be lifting, but I'm leaning more towards some sort of rock head or sculpture. I think it'll give the piece some more interesting story context.

I'm also getting some Norse vibes from the concept and I think adding some iconography might help it pop further. Will see how I'm feeling the closer to the deadline I get.

Hello everyone! 

In an effort to improve my project documentation skills I've decided to start blogging here on my Artstation. Putting myself out there has always been a weak point of mine, so what better way to work on that now by posting more! This way, by sticking to Polycounts bi-monthly challenges, it will keep me accountable to a set schedule as well as introduce new pieces to learn from. All-in-all, I look at it as a multi-angled approach to improve both my art as well as connecting to more people. Win win!

My main idea is to post both on the Polycount forums as well as here on Artstation every time I have a progress update to share. Please feel free to leave comments of encouragement, critique, questions or anything you deem necessary. Being straight with me will only help my art further! 

To follow the challenge directly on Polycount, and see all the other submissions, follow this link:

https://polycount.com/discussion/216589/the-bi-monthly-environment-art-challenge-january-february-64/p1

To begin, the concept I will be building from is below. This fantastic work is made by Dirty J, who is based out of Seoul, Korea. The link to his Artstation is https://www.artstation.com/dirty_j. Please check his work out, its all great!

So far I have the blockout done - next is figuring out how many unique/repeating pieces I'd like to do. And then deciding on whether to stick with the rock as the weight being lifted, or something more....interesting? Not sure yet. Progress below: