Anatomy Practice (CRITS AHOY!)

ChaosWWW

Hello everybody! I love zbrush and want to use it way more then I currently am, but I have been very busy recently and have hardly been able to touch the program. So, I've made it a goal to make at least one anatomy practice every Thursday, and more then that if I can. The point of this is to master the tool and to learn more about anatomy. So, bring your harshest crits, ladies and gentlemen, because the whole point is to learn.

So, without further ado, here is my first head. I'll probably be doing human heads for a while.



Along with the anatomy crits, would like some help understanding zbrush a bit more. I started with a dynamesh and went up for a while, and at a certain point smoothed for finer details. For some reason, I started encountering weird knots in various places on my model that wouldn't smooth, some of which were very annoying to deal with. Anyone know why that might be or how to fix it?

Image of what I'm talking about

Leinad

The "Knot" you are encountering is most likely pole topology in the mesh (example image below) which doesn't subdivide nicely. Smooth it out by using a different smoothing algorith in zbrush (let go of the shift key without lifting your pen off the tablet or use the hpolish brush or change your topology). Since you're just starting out make sure to use reference and follow it closely (Don't stylize and break the rules if you don't understand the rules that you are breaking). Also make sure to watch tutorials on youtube, since there are some amazing artists out there showing their workflow for free.

Here is an example of a pole topology:

spiderDude

My critique is try sculpting a couple of skulls first. It looks like you kinda have an idea where certain structures in the face should be, but still a little lost.

Here is a nice site to get you started with some refs
http://anatomy4sculptors.com/?menu=9&sub=22#body

By doing a head a day or even a week, you will improve :thumbup:

ChaosWWW

Alright, here's post 2. It's a tiny bit late because I was doing stuff Thursday, but hey, making up for it today. In the meantime I have studied human head proportions quite a lot in order to strengthen my foundation. I'm also going to try to capture references in the future, starting now.

Here's the sculpt:


Here's the reference:



Thanks for all the critiques so far, they have been really helpful. Keep it coming!