If you are not living in L.A. skateparks are usually pretty sad. I wanted to have my skatepark close to the beach. I can imagine the nice breeze and a quick dip in the see between sessions.

Here i explored the pose

I wanted to do something with skateboarding. I sketched out an iconic pose (a handplant) which should be placed in the centre with a dramatic fisheye perspective

that was long

i researched some different possible oasis for me and i dediced for the number 5 to have the possibility to study the design.

I included a green vegetation to spite the fact that natural food has their medicinal value which they havn't yet lost it's relevance in some part of Africa especially West Africa. They can easily plant and source food from their surrounding solving Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) most especially SDG 1, 2 and 3(No Poverty, Zero Hunger and Good Health and Well-being).

Reading over the theme of this submission, I was drawn back to my root. Deep down the soil of a rooted igbo culture and how my garndma cared less about what was in the mind of others. The state of insecurity wasn't her problem and the warmth her hut gave was far better than the cemented storey building of our family house.

At this phase, the emphasis is on the meticulous refinement of the artwork to attain a polished and unified final product. The review and adjustment of elements like color fidelity, texture uniformity, and the accuracy of lines and shading are paramount. Particular care will be taken to boost the overall harmony and equilibrium of the work, with fine-tuning to enhance the flow and visual appeal. This phase is vital to ensure that each detail is in sync with the envisioned concept, and that the artwork emanates the intended aura of serenity and wholeness.

The image is still way too dark but I'm working on it!
I'm also going to revise the composition quite a bit as right now it's full of small shapes but lacking some bigger ones. Adding details without cluttering the image and managing the different value planes is definitely one of the biggest challenges of this illustration, especially given the technical limitations of my monitors and their lack of true blacks.

Very much starting to approach the breaking point cause I've been staring at it for way too long without breaks, but luckily got some encouraging feedback from fresh and trustworthy eyes which made all the difference. 

I don't really want to give a definite interpretation because I've already heard a couple very interesting ones from friends, but my idea revolves around being able to use what we can find in the place that's most special to us to take care of the environment and the arts and create a cosy corner no matter where we are. Resilience, resourcefulness and creativity would definitely be part of my personal oasis :)

Going to cram as much fixes and finishing touches where I can in these last 24 hours!

I would say I wasn't so happy with the result but since I could'nt add more elements in my scene as it's getting broken so I have to let it go. I had a great experience and learnings trying to join THU. Unfortunately, maybe this year isn't for me. I just started learning 3D last January and I thought this challenge could help me improve myself but redshift isn't allowing me to render it properly. lol. I still want to send my entry even tho it wasn't totally finished. At the end, I still learned. 

Research on character in modern cool-looking, futuristic and magicians

I first imagine a wizard control technology

But I found an idea inspired by Bethoven

I also decided to mix formal black with cool jacket wear to make a combination of retro/ classy and techno.

So this is me trying to finish populating the scene. I might consider using 3d assets for populating it since I'm done with the house. 

I was not happy with my first pass at the character, so I redid her to make her pose more dynamic and to add a bit more personality. I painted in some more of the foliage and added a bit more wear and tear to the windows. I also added a few more props to the ground to try and help tell the story of the scene a bit better. 

So as I mentioned in the previous post, I needed some paintings to fill the empty canvases, so this was a bit of a meta moment where I, the artist, was painting art, that the artist in the painting had painted. 

And of course, the subject of the paintings were all unicorns/Greg. THU2022 was my first main event, and a place that truly felt like an oasis, so this felt like a fun nod to that. 

(Yes, I had a lot of fun with the last painting, hehe. Perhaps you can see my sense of humor peeking through here. I tried to paint a portrait of Greg in the style of the master painter Rembrandt. It was difficult to not spend too much time on this because even though I knew it would be barely visible in the final, I was having too much fun with it.) 

Using the 3D model I just made as a base, I play around with textures, colors, blend modes and adjustment layers in Photoshop to start figuring out the lighting. I want to make sure I evoke a happy, safe, creative, and hopeful mood.

Using the thumbnail, I built a model in Blender to help me finalize the composition and perspective. 

While I was creating the model, I had the idea of decorating the greenhouse with more paintings that were made by people who visit the greenhouse, so I put up some empty canvases on the walls. To be filled later!

Credit for the plant: 

With a vague idea of "greenhouse" I started sketching ideas of what it might look like and how it might be used. I liked the idea of the greenhouse being a safe and creative space, in addition to being a garden. 

While I originally thought about showing the greenhouse from the outside, I realized it was the inside that mattered more. This was why I picked the bottom left image - it was more imporant to me to evoke the feeling of a safe and hopeful space, rather than showing off an intricate design.

I was inspired by the image of the house made up of windows and doors to imagine a greenhouse as my oasis. I liked the idea of a greenhouse for two reasons:

1) I am always inspired by the beauty of everyday nature...
2) But I'm not exactly an outdoorsy person. I am an indoor cat at heart

Also, I liked the juxtaposition of the man-made greenhouse to the natural environment inside of it, but in this case, the man-made thing is nurturing, not harming. 

I started brainstorming for this piece back in late June. After word vomiting, I knew the most important feature for my oasis was something sustainable. I did some initial research on sustainable homes, and while they were all very cool, none of it felt like *me.*

After feeling stuck and un-inspired, I found one image that particularly resonated with me, which was this house made up of old windows and doors. I always love the idea of re-using old, discarded materials to make something beautiful and new. 

(I somehow completely missed this wip component on the platform, so apologies for posting retroactively!)

After thinking about the idea of a personal oasis I decided to create my ideal atelier, remembering a lot of the spaces of art and creativity. An atelier, for me, is not only a place of creation but also a place where I do art restoration work. With that in mind, I decided to mix in this oasis, the atelier where this is possible. So my goal is to also bring a green museum/laboratory atmosphere to it. 
 

Hey, I just wanted to post a small wip crop. I'll post the messy sketch later. 

The idea is very straight forward - the oasis I'm envisioning in this piece is an island full of creative people who through collaboration create their ideal space. I've always liked the idea of being able to directly influence my surroundings through mural art for example, so a whole island full of "blank canvases" (the white buildings, which I intend to add grafitty to) would be so fun. Needless to say, in my oasis everybody can focus on creating art they love, learning from one another and enjoying the sea without the constant pressure of the industry. Also the weather would be nice :D .. it's just waaay too hot in my town right now so at least I can dream haha.

Ideally I'd like to add plenty of details and life to the piece, however due to a very late start, a couple of days ago, I might have to limit the scope. I hope I'll be able to stick the landing before the deadline!

Either way, good luck to everybody!