Tonjo said:

Hey, I think it looks really good! What I really like, is the overall shape of the chest and the sculpt damage details you have added across the border of the metal parts.

A few tips that might help improve it further:

Textures: I think it would help calming down the textures a bit. Right now, there is a lot of small details in the texture that makes the overall impression a bit busy. What I would do, is keep the damage at the edges strong but the parts that look like it's been hit with a hammer (especially at the feet) can be toned down a tad bit.

Materials: I would consider maybe adding some specular/metallic to the metal parts so the wood and metal feels more like two seperate matrials.

Color: This is personal preference, but I like to add a bit of hue to my colors. So instead of treating silver as pure grey, consider adding a tiny bit of purple or blue hue to it.

Also, try adding a gradient to the whole model! I'm not sure what software you use, but you can add a layer on top of all your other layers. choose a desaturated purple ish color and set to multiply. Make it so the bottom is the darkest and top is the lightest. Adjust opacity until it looks good.

Hope this helps! 

That's great advice, thank you so much for the feedback! I'll definitely keep this in mind for my future work. Still practicing with chests!

Love this thread, the feedback you’re getting is top notch, and the strides you’re making forward are inspiring to witness. Go go go!

I think the forms around the bottom are looking better!

I'd go back and revisit the shoulder blades and upper back muscles, that's where the most uniform creasing is.

Muzzoid said:

You are fine! You didn't lash out, you just stated how something made you feel which is actually good! You've taken every bit of feedback well.

This thing is a long game, anyone who has been doing this for longer than a decade knows that preserving your mental health is the number one priority here. Art can be a really rough journey emotionally, I've worked with friends who broke down in tears because they though they couldn't create any more, and they lost sight of the reason why we are doing any of this.

I mean I'm the guy who had the bright idea of the "honest feedback thread" . I thought i was able to take the most honest feedback, but in truth it actually really hurt my ego and made me realize a lot of things. (phew this was 11 years ago )

Also I can expand on any of these ideas at all if you want to know. I've been slowly working on writing a book based on the meta game of art, so it's something I'm deeply passionate about.

Thank you. And it is bloody hard. Like I just said to someone else on Discord - the imposter syndrome is god-awful and it's worse when you're over-sensitive and an overthinker. And yet, when I've worked on an exercise for a few hours, and it's going nowhere and it looks and feels awful, imposter syndrome kicks in, and yet the easiest thing is to just scrap it, start over, and the next iteration usually comes out better and quicker.
I guess I also put too much pressure on myself to strive for perfection and to reach the end goal. Especially the end goal of getting a job in the industry, which is already an incredibly difficult job. I'm constantly worrying about if/when I'll ever be good enough to land that first job role. In some respects, my ex girlfriend breaking up with me was a blessing in disguise due to the extra pressure she was putting on me to get that first job just so we could be living together.

Also, I'd be interested in reading that book when it comes out! My mentor also mentioned another book someone else is working on by Delaney...? Called Violent Triangles. https://www.patreon.com/darkling Just a shame she left Twitter as she posted a lot of insightful stuff apparently.sacboi said:

"This is a lot to digest. There really should be some online courses that cover secondary forms; there are so many considerations and things to be aware of, it could very easily be its own topic..."

Actually, Scott Eaton one of the founding artists behind digital sculpture had authored many of the fundamental concepts/principles you're currently grappling with for example - Anatomy for Artists I might also add peer review offered thus far is quite exceptional and as a point of reference I'd say your journey has imo gotten off to a great start, so keep at it. One other thing I'll mention is that mental health issues prevail throughout the creative sphere irrespective of medium, in my mind perhaps endeavoring upon a targeted artistic pursuit one will initially as an untutored novice resort or attempt to define their self worth via ones creative ability however without going into further depth beyond the scope of this thread, in terms of agreement totally side with @Muzzoid response above.

Thank you. And thanks for the encouragement. I rememeber seeing/saving a link to Scott Eaton's online course once. I would like to try and improve on my real life sketching abilities. Though those courses are quite pricey. Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to save up enough and take the plunge.