Motivating Faith Through Dramatic Digital Art

April 26th, 2024

I've modeled several philistine soldiers, armor type, weapons, and costume items, and done some preliminary painting compositions. If you have any reference material or historical information on this timeframe, I'd love to hear it. Samson's fight is only the first of many paintings I hope to create for ya'll! First verse option is Psalms 121:1-2. Thanks much.

April 30th, 2024

Here's an example of a 3D mesh that I have applied my "clay sculpture style" to. It's rough, in nature, but like a real-world stone sculpture, the mesh presents better emotion and immersion from the viewer. These types of models, and the light/shadow volumes they create, are where I start alot of my paintings from. The enemy running shot, is a test render from Unreal Engine. It helps me to great shadows and forms. The last image is a test painting from one of the UE renders.

May 12th, 2024

Short Update: currently, creating shield variants (cloth covered, wood versions, sprinkled with various metal shapes. Also, spearheads options. Lastly, different helmet options. I have to keep in mind, there was no set pattern for ancient armies, each shield, spearhead, helmet, and even armor would have been custom made by different artisans. Iron was highly prized, and would've been used over and over again, with unique alterations. The power of iron gave the philistines a great advantage over other nations. I can only imagine they would have slapped it on everything.

This crazy process of 3D modelling for paintings will certainly take a minute or two, but it will pay off later, when several different scenes come from all the hard work. Thanks so dang much for supporting me in this! I do this after hours, and it takes alot of time, but I ain't stopping no time soon!! Ha ha. Thanks so much, n God Bless!!

May 13th, 2024

Here's a short vid, (https://youtu.be/4ZYGHc494rM?si=By6inzfBDAE9xyns) showing some of the model process on the shields, helmets, and spearheads, for the Philistine army. I still got leg greeves, shoulder pauldrons, and body armor, to go. Thanks for the support, it makes me wanna do late-nighters on all this stuff (which is a bad idea, in the longrun of the project).

• May 27th, 2024

  More update images, soon but first, this. So one of my patrons made a good suggestion that I should build a packet out of a set of images plus a possible 3d model video flyover, depicting the size of Jawbone Hill Battle. order to show the vast size of the army
  image 01 - Samson willing submits to his people, and is brought bound to the enemy.
  image 02 - Ropes fall off n Samson grabs the jawbone (current one).
  image 03 - Surrounded by the philistines, Samson pulls a shield down, raises bone to strike an enemy. The philistines, with all their iron weapons, are being driven back by a single man.
  image 04 - closeup of damaged jawbone, piles of bodies. Samson leans on overturned chariot, looking up exhausted and crying out to God.
  
  The flyover video would be setup in a game engine using my models, hopefully this would help show the enormous problem that Samson faced. When all of this art is done, I can release this packet to the general public, for a small fee. Of course, the patrons would already have access, as soon as a painting is done. Thanks so much, for all the support and prayers. I'm excited to see how God might move thru all this!

June 11th, 2024

Okay guys, so I've uploaded another short video (https://youtu.be/tzcXcVPsfDk?si=qeFvM5LB0DeXtGF6) for you, depicting some of my workflow. At the moment, I've been throwing all my 3D armors, helms, and weapons, into another character program. This character app allows me to get facial expressions and varying body angles, from animations. This is how I will make interesting poses out of all those different warriors, and those poses will eventually lead to a big successful painting. That's the theory, anyway. I know, sure, there are easier/quicker ways to do this,..... but I won't be doing that! I don't want these paintings to look easy or quick. I'd really want for a kid like Jackson to say, "That's cool, dude!",... so that's gonna be the finish line. Ha ha.
Thanks for looking at the vid, more to come.

June 30th, 2024

New Samson Assets Update for June 30 2024. More Philistine soldiers, the start of the elite scale armored commanders, and a few priestly guys. This allows for more helmet/ armor options, as I'm sure there were many. I spent alot of time, reconstructing a war chariot, drawn by onagers (donkeys). Oh, and I added in more weapon options, clubs, and even some broken spearheads ( I doubt any bronze or iron item was ever willingly discarded). Still more to come with research and build out. Thanks for the donations, prayers, and any helpful comments.

August 10th, 2024

So, as of late (https://youtu.be/YB50skkBmbQ?si=VMqhJ8oIudAMrc0q), I'm snooping around inside of Unreal Engine, looking to find a good heightmap to use for the desert battlefield scene. I also played with different export methods to send my philistine warrior into the battlefield, and after a couple of failures, failed again. But! But, then I got success, with an .fbx mesh even bringing in his test color information. This is great news, as I can do this with all the other guys I need to export. Hope yah like the vid and a big thanks for ya'lls support and God Bless.

August 28th, 2024

Latest update for everyone (https://youtu.be/spI1t9X0JP4?si=DhqQ2WDYgsZkAoO6)! I've made a side-scrolling video clip out of slowly moving down the philistine lines, until it ends at Samson. This will be used on youtube, to read out loud the Bible verse, associated with this moment. Also, I included some shots of various warriors, as well as different angles that I will make the actual painting from. I've had a few some snags, here lately, trying to derail my attention, but God's in this, so brace for impact. God don't quit,... ever. He sends me more iron through all different folks, so it's all good. When I get far enough along with this one, I might even step out and start up a new image soon.
God Bless all His children!!!

September 14th, 2024

https://youtu.be/XbbdAVIgcFE?si=UJYkkXp_qYjAfCL7

Now, we are officially at the painting part, my favorite part!! I say we, cause without the donations, I could never have spent so much time on this project, as this. Thanks. Oh, and I might do another version that is a side angled view of this moment. We will see.
Verse option to be read over this image, when I put it on youtube,....

ps121
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber

ps39
“Hear my prayer, Lord, and listen to my cry for help;
Do not be silent to my tears;
For I am a stranger with You,
One who lives abroad, like all my fathers.
Turn Your eyes away from me, that I may become cheerful again
Before I depart and am no more.”

ps144
Praise be to the Lord my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me.

1Peter 5:6-7
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

ps40
You, Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
Your mercy and Your truth will continually watch over me.
For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
My guilty deeds have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my heart has failed me.

Let me know if one of these sounds good, or if you have another option, please.

September 22nd, 2024

BANG!!! I'm done with the first painting, I am so stoked!! Started with the idea, like 3 years back, fell seriously down into the afterhours rabbit-hole 6-7 months ago, lost 50 gig of vital data, full-time job issues, all sorts of reasons to shelve this till later. But God didn't reply to my formal complaints, nope,... it happens, sometimes (see JOB). So this is the main Samson painting, I will be making a video for the internet, soon, with a verse n all. But for now, ya'll got me here, so a big gracias to you!! For a small donation, anyone can download the final painting! A really good online print-house is https://www.canvasdiscount.com, I've used them to slap my render onto a real canvas. It looks great as a screen-print, and the prices were very reasonable. As long as folks are seeing what God's done, then it's a win win, and I'll keep making these puppies!! I've attached a small jpeg of the final image, hope you like it. If you know anyone who'd like a print, tell them to drop a few bucks and they'll get the link, too. Seriously humbled to see what yall have blessed me to be able to do. Thanks much. T

October 1st, 2024

https://youtu.be/ed5jjQSusLM?si=1xsBcj3xjg5Yc3Gk

WHAOOooo! This is the video for youtube, that I made of the Samson_Main painting! This is the video, of image 001, "Samson Grabs the Bone." I also was lucky enough to get Phil Thames (from www.philthamesvo.com) to give me a great voice over, with the verse. Hope ya'll like it! Remember, any donation gains access to the digital download. Please share this with anyone that'd be blessed with it. To remind everyone, a really good online print-house is https://www.canvasdiscount.com, I've used them to put my paintings onto a real canvas. It looked great as a screen-print, and the prices were very reasonable. This image is not for resale use. I've already started a variant of this image, called "EVILS_BEYOND_NUMBER."
Thanks ya'll.