[WiP] Male anatomy

TheJackdaw

Hello Polycounters!

I've been working on a male figure. Recently have been struggling with anatomy and I really wanted to get better by making a solid basemodel. I'm trying to also get a simple gesture right, so that he doesn't look stiff. Hard to tell when the stiffness comes from the écorché nature of the sculpt or rather the pose, so comments on that are appreciated as well.

I'll be posting WiP shots. Critique is more than welcome, knock yourself out.

TheJackdaw

TheJackdaw

Lifted arms up so I can better sculpt in the armpits, made him slightly buffer and (hopefully) improved the gesture some. Really looking for what -feels- right or wrong before I go into more detail.

Nuclear Angel

His forms are quite nice, but the highs are a bit boxy, the head seems to small and the hands a tad to large. But it would be easier to help you out if you posted orthographic views, Left, front and back to really judge the guy. 

TheJackdaw

Nuclear Angel said:

His forms are quite nice, but the highs are a bit boxy, the head seems to small and the hands a tad to large. But it would be easier to help you out if you posted orthographic views, Left, front and back to really judge the guy. 

Thank you! I'll be taking a look at that feedback, I see what you mean.   Here's some views.

TheJackdaw

It's been busy but I found some time and motivation to work on this some more! Thanks for feedback to Nuclear Angel and Carvuliero (in pm), I added their feedback and then continued trying to improve the natural feeling of the figure by referencing to a 3D scan (from ten24) for subtle details.
I bought the 3D scan model as I was becoming increasingly frustrated with how I was getting the general shapes and details in, but not the subtle medium shapes, and I could not tell what was wrong and why the figure looked so stiff. The scan being in the same space really helped me understand what was missing.
Still a ways to go, just as I am posting it I see issues I could address. But of course, feedback is very welcome!

tysiu

Looks really nice.

Nuclear Angel

Wow what an improvement. Carvulierio is a damn nice man with amazing insights to give and you have clearly taken it to heart! The forms and proportions look way better already and you got a better rhythm going on now. When moving forward with this piece I would recommend you to stick to a certain body type and find reference for that moving onwards. There is a huge difference between different body types, so find the one you are aiming towards and stick to it whole heartily and you are golden. 
Looking forward to see the next update! 

jimdrawandmake

As struggling anatomy, it really is awesome and inspiring! Looks really nice. 

TheJackdaw

Only a 100 years later, but here's an update!

I personally found that for me working on a low res model makes it a lot harder and demotivating. I find that a higher res model with more clay-like scraping brushes (and changing brush depth to 0 for making things smoother) feels a lot more natural and helps me get into the flow.

Still heavily looking at the 3D scan (shown in last post) for most of the ref. But at this point I am feeling like I have squeezed that scan for everything I can, and I'll be carefully adding info from more refs, trying not to lose the natural look. This will be my anatomy base for further projects, so I want more visible detail in the anatomy, for example on the legs. And of course the hands need a lot of work, and I want to raise the arm pose so that the model is skinnable.

Any feedback as always welcome!