Chasing the Holy Grail

When I was growing up all I wanted to do was draw. I'd find myself a quiet corner, grab a pencil and scribble away for hours. I loved the creative freedom I had as a child to create whatever I wanted, no holds barred. It didn't matter what it looked like, whether it was in perspective, if it was even in the right colour, because my imagination did the rest.

The older I got and the more I progressed through school, the more serious art became. I now wanted things to look as close to real life as possible. I spent years honing skills with paintbrush and pencil always striving perfection. 

Then I went to university to study design and my style had to change. Lose, free and most importantly, fast, was the order of the day. This didn't suite my cack-handed lefty pencil grip and I found it really difficult. When your thumb overlaps your forefinger and your wrist twists inwards it doesn't lend itself to producing long, sweeping lines! We also used a lot of marker pens, again designed for speed. 

And then it all changed. Computers took over. Why spend 6 hours doing a hand rendered illustration when you can produce it in two hours in a spectrum of colour combinations? Why use tip-ex (remember that?!) on an engineering drawing when you can easily alter your measurements in CAD (Computer Aided Design)?

Ironically, by the time I reached professional design, the pencil was dead. I can honestly say, in 6 years in the profession, I have barely done a hand draw illustration. Yes, scrappy sketches in a notebook to communicate an idea, but nothing more. Nowadays I draw in Photoshop, Illustrator and 3D CAD software. What is startling is that my chiropractor now tells me my right hand is now stronger than my left from all the mouse work! I have software that tracks my movements - yesterday, in approximately 7 hours, I moved my mouse 50 meters and clicked over 11,000 times! Is it any wonder I have RSI problems?!

So what am I getting at with this little story? Well, this week I bought some new rendering software - KeyShot 4. It's used to 'colour in' my 3D models. I've not updated my rendering software in years (probably 10 years!!) and I was truly astonished at A; How easy the new software is to use (no messing about with complex lighting setups), and B; How fecking ace it looks!! 

The 'Juicy Cactus', a lemon squeezer I designed
and rendered in KeyShot 4.

I think I am finally getting close to the holy grail; a photo realistic visual / illustration, that can trick the viewer into believing it is a photograph. This, I guess, is something, I have been pursuing since a was a kid. Being a perfectionist can be useful as a designer, but it can also be a sin. Thankfully, this new software is making the perfectionist in me a little easier to deal with! :-)

A stationery set, also rendered in KeyShot 4