Amy Denise
Hi, I'm Amy Denise, a digital artist, surface designer, and sometimes painter. Thank you for being here with me on this creative journey. I hope you enjoy reading these posts!
UPDATE: Ice Cream Shop 3D Illustration Poster Print Now Available
The Start of 2023
I did not see my year going in this direction when it started. I planned to stay focused on surface pattern design and create at least one pattern each week. It never happened. I’ve been dealing with some serious creative block regarding patterns. I felt lost even though I had my planner all set with collections to work on, but I just could not even draw anything I liked. I was sinking into a little bit of a depression. I had put so much pressure on myself and creating art that I was sucking all of the joy out of it. Much of it concerned feeling like I needed to keep up with social media. Then I remembered that when I started the account in 2019 (after being off of all social media for 4 years), it was just to post some drawings. I had gotten back into drawing and started to create some patterns, and I wanted to share some of my stuff; that was it. I recently decided that I’m going back to my original plan. Maybe only my family will see my posts, and that’s okay. I wasn’t getting much reach anyway because I just couldn’t keep up with the daily posting, making reels, etc.
I’ve also shifted my focus. I have been doing more 3D artwork. In 2018, I started to learn Blender. My computer had other ideas. I could model things, but rendering them was not really an option. I played with Adobe Dimension and had the same issue: my renders were not good. My plans to do 3D art fizzled out, but I loved it and collected 3D art on Pinterest for inspiration. My illustration boards were full of 3D art, but it never dawned on me that maybe it was because I still really wanted to be making it. I found that in my 2D drawings, I loved spending extra time on shading and getting a semi-realistic look.
When I discovered Nomad Sculpt for my iPad, I was hooked back into 3D illustration! I started doing some tutorials from @drugfreedave on YouTube and Skillshare. When my 2013 MacBook Pro finally maxed out last fall, I got a new computer; the first thing I did was install Blender.
This is the first model I have created on my own in Blender. For this ice cream shop 3D model, I had to combine my love of patterns with my love of 3D. The flooring, wallpaper, and chair patterns are all from my Ice Cream Shop surface pattern collection, as are all the colors in the color palette. The ice cream and the ice cream cones were modeled in Nomad, and I brought them over to Blender.
I had so much fun creating this! I started with a mood board on Pinterest, created a sketch in Procreate using the isometric grid, and then started modeling in Blender.
The biggest help in learning Blender has been the classes I’ve taken from Polygon Runway. I have learned so much! I really enjoy his teaching style. I will say there have been a few things I had to look up because I’m using a newer version of Blender, and I’m also on a Mac. However, I’m sure I could have gotten answers through the class Discord, but it’s just easier for me to google it. So there hasn’t been anything I couldn’t figure out.
I recently had someone ask me how I got into 3D, and it was really back in the day (I’m going to age myself) of The Sims 2. I had a PC that I had built myself with this awesome graphics card because I had really gotten into the game and needed the extra juice so that I could experience it fully.😂 That was when the Sims characters became 3D. The community at the time would share all kinds of mods, and I thought it was so cool the houses, clothes, and hair people were making. I had to try and figure it out. All I could really do was take the masks for the clothes, alter them, add patterns, and make adjusted outfits, but I got really into it. I’ve been into gaming since then but never considered myself a hardcore gamer. I would say I probably game more now than I ever have.
Back to 3D, I came across 3D artists on YouTube. I don’t even remember how, and I wanted to learn it just for fun. I learned about Blender and was amazed that this program existed and was open-source and free. I couldn’t afford any other 3D software.
The more I learn, the more I love Blender.
So here I am again, back on the path to 3D modeling. I don’t know that I will give up surface pattern design. I think surface design and 3D modeling will work together like in my ice cream shop model.
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