Renaissance Mat

Renaissance Mat is finished! As mentioned, his face is a portrait mimicking Artemisia Gentileschi's work and his body shows a painting in progress from the feet up (bare canvas > primed canvas with chalk sketches > paint > finished and framed work).

I had many inspirations apart from Gentileschi for this project; for example, the frame is based on Michelangelo's Doni Tondo as I previously wrote, I looked at Raphael and Jan van Eyck for the sketch portion, and the idea for the ornamented base partly came from museums like the Uffizi or Borghese Gallery. I also did a little research about painting tools and techniques during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

I changed Mat's back, as I wasn't satisfied by my previous attempt. Like the back of his head which is the back of a picture frame, Mat's body also shows a painting from behind, but in unframed canvas form. Mat's head is darker because I wanted to depict an aged canvas.

This project involved a lot of masking and less procedural elements than I'm usually used to in Substance 3D Painter, because of the numerous unique details. The curve tool was indispensable for the frame and base, and it was very intuitive to use with sculpted alphas brought in from Zbrush. Displacement also went quite smoothly, though I still have a lot to learn to get the highest quality out of it.

Next time, I'd like to be better organized with my folders and layers. Renaissance Mat started off neat but as I kept changing and adding elements it became a bit of a mess. Being able to label and colour folders was a godsend.

Process and channel views:

In the interest of time—and the fact that this is a 3D painting competition—I only did as much of the portrait was necessary for the project, so whatever would show in the round frame (I played with the crop; it's closer than my initial draft because I worked most on the face). I think the texture on top adds a lot to its Renaissance-y-ness, because the original still has quite a digital look.

I added more details to all areas of Mat and textured him below the waist; the white layer is the primed canvas with a chalk underdrawing, while the bottom layer is plain unprepared canvas.

The back of Mat's head mimics the back of a picture frame, with wood and the exposed (and aged) canvas. On his back I added a stone where pigment is being ground to make paint, as well as cups of paint. All of the above was done in Substance 3D Painter this time.

I still have to finish the painting on his "face" and continue to tweak as I see fit.

I've been chipping away at, well, texturing the Mat. I coloured and laid down the main details for the body. I haven't settled on the final colours for most of the elements yet, and will continue tweaking for best visibility and composition. I'll probably move onto the lower part of the Mat now and keep detailing the other parts.

As you can see, I've also been working on the centerpiece painting on the side. It's based on existing Artemisia Gentileschi self-portraits and other work. It's far from complete but I wanted to see how it works with the overall project as it is, and make sure doing a whole painting would be feasible within the contest timeframe.

I worked on the displacement for the frame that forms Mat's head. I got inspiration from Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, which is also circular. Similarly to the props on the body, I modeled and sculpted alphas via Maya and Zbrush. This time, I used Substance Painter's curve tool to form the patterns with the alphas. I did a quick test with a basic gilded material and think it's beginning to look like a fancy frame.

Doni Tondo reference and an alpha sculpt that was based on a section of it

I started with the displacement, and I think I've gotten to a decent base to refine and work on details from. The art tools were made in Maya and Zbrush, then exported as alphas that could be imported into Substance. I went with this method rather than sculpting an entire high-poly Mat so that I could tweak the positioning and scale of those smaller elements easily in Substance.

I love Renaissance and Baroque art, so wanted it to be the theme for my Mat entry. Even though it'll lean much more Baroque than Renaissance, I'm calling it the Renaissance Mat because I enjoy puns. My concept for Mat is that from bottom to top, it'll depict the process of a painting being made—from the bare canvas to the framed and finished artwork.

I'm planning to utilize displacements in Substance for this project, especially for elements such as the art tools that I want to "model" on Mat; it'll be my first time doing this. Since I'm big a fan of the Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, I'll make a digital painting in her style for the centerpiece that'll go on Mat's "face". I'll need to balance my time between learning new aspects of the software, creating detailed materials and painting Mat's face.

My initial rough sketch and notes for the project; I wanted to clarify for myself early on what materials I'd need for my Mat, and consciously tried to include a variety of materials—my plan includes wood, gilded wood, metal, canvas and of course various paint textures, plus wood flooring or stone/marble for the base

the preliminary reference board for the project