Sculpting likeness

J33bus

Hi guys! Beginner here. I was wondering if I could get some tips on sculpting likenesses. I attempt to sculpt busts from photo references but I have difficulty on getting them to look like the person I'm sculpting. It'd really help if you guys can point me in the right direction. Thanks!

Mask_Salesman

Well generally you would need to show us the sculpt for people to give feedback on it :thumbup:

But also understanding the underlining anatomy helps a great deal over just photoref, it helps fill in the gaps.

Shiniku

It's something that takes a lot of work and practice honestly. I have no specific tips, but I can try to point you in the right direction for what to research.

Learn facial anatomy and the proportions of the face, I personally think you should be able to draw an anatomically correct skull and the surface muscles from memory. That said, ALWAYS use reference.

Do lots of speed sculpts (or sketches) of famous people's faces or whoever. Try to get lots of feedback. If you make a famous actor from a popular TV show or something, a lot people will likely be able to quickly tell you what's wrong with it or if you're capturing the likeness.

Study caricature. Really, do some research, get books. Caricature artists have many great techniques for how to get a likeness across very quickly, and even if you're doing realistic style portraits this info can be helpful, especially in knowing what to look for.

Also, when using reference, always be cautious of things like age and makeup of the person, and the FOV of the photo. This sort of stuff can really distort what a person looks like, and if you've got multiple reference angles from differing focal lengths or whatever it can be a little confusing. Unless you take the photos in your own studio setup it's going to be hard to get perfect reference, but you just need to be conscious of this problem.

J33bus

@Mask - Thanks! But I'm not really working on something now but I will share once I get on it again.

@Shiniku - Thank you very much! That's a lot of info. I haven't thought of looking into caricature yet so thank you! That does seem like a good way to go. How could I not have thought of that. :poly142:

I have been doing 3D for a while but it's mostly just been props and stuff but I'd really like to pursue doing organic stuff - people, animals, creatures, etc. So thank you friends

Gestalt

What helps me (and this seems kind of obvious) is to identify the different types of features that people have in general. Sort of build a mental library of what things look like so that you can better identify how something is unique. Like get used to the different types of mouths and noses and eyes that people have. Ask questions like does the person have thin lips? How much do they curl out? How much do the parts at the side curl in? Does the nose flare out at the bottom like a triangle or does it keep narrow like a rectangle? Is the tip bulbous or thin with visible cartilage? Are the eyes hooded? Where does the skin above the eye connect and how fatty is it? What shape do the eyebrows make?

And before you get too far with any of that you can adjust the major features into place and ask yourself what the general shape of the head is and what the spacing of the features are. Some people have more of a heart shape and some are rounder and some are more square, and the proportions of features, some have closer eyes and some have a more prominent eyebrow ridge and nose (how far in the skull do the eyes seem?). I'd recommend study different pictures of different faces and look at what makes each feature unique so that you have a sort of mental library of feature types and what makes a feature unique.

J33bus

@Gestalt - Yeah I believe I do need to brush up on my anatomy. There are just times that when sculpting, I somewhat get lost into what I'm doing and then the whole thing just doesn't seem right. lol thanks man