I took some time during September to do some digital doodling on virtual 3D pebbles. I think it’s wrong when too much work gets in the way of doodling.
Why Celtic Knots on pebbles? Why not? It’s doodling. Celtic Knot patterns have fascinated me since I first saw them in books and carved in stone in cemeteries and churches. They are, however they are made, an exploration of three-dimensional space. Considering how long people have been making them, it’s possibly an exploration of the fourth dimension too?
And I did spend some time on the beach in September collecting pebbles…
I am doodling in Blender using Grease Pencil (this is a free-hand tablet drawing tool) with the intention of moving them into Unity. I have also made them in Tilt-brush which is a VR app but I think that Blender gives a better range of editing tools.
Repetition, variation and permutation are an essential part of doodling: the pleasure of the familiar. I make a virtual pebble and around it doodle Celtic Knot patterns. I draw Trinity Knots (Triquetra) onto the virtual pebble. This knot has lots of meanings attached to it, many with common threads… I like that.
My main interest is making the 3D doodle but what if I make the pebble invisible?
I enjoy being able to see the pattern behind the pattern (if you see what I mean) so I make the pebble visible again but this time it is transparent. I can see there are a number of missing permutations but `virtual glass’ can be a difficult and complex material.
The clarity of the transparent pebble distorting the line worked, but further observation takes me back to the texture of the pebble. As Vera Molnar (a pioneer of computer art) said `with computers you can first open the entire spectrum, then let intuition select.’ Observation is the root of all of my artwork and I want to retain the patination of the pebbles, a sense of their texture when held in the hand, their shared geomorphology. So, I add texture to the pebble.
I find it fascinating to see how essential movement is to display the 3D quality of the image. The moment the animation stops, the image flattens. Try pausing the animation. The 3D digital animation movement is creating a 2D and 3D visualization. I’m finding them quite hypnotic.
