Sketchbook: Rima

Rima

Or: Rima's pile of godawful studies.

I'm quite out of practice with them; I've been fixating on anatomy in detail, worrying about the bones and individual muscles and such, but it's not good to do that too much, I think. Knowing them in theory, and being able to sculpt them right piece by piece doesn't matter much if sculpting a whole is where I fall apart.

So I thought I'd try getting into the habit of some drills. Take some references for a pose, do as much as I can in 30 minutes.

So those are from today. First one was while waiting for dinner to finish cooking, second was after that. I'm so not used to having to be so quick; I fixated too much on details and totally lost the overall form, ugh.

Need to make it a habit and improve.

Rima

Some more for today. Might do more later. I understand the torso's muscles in theory, but these aren't as accurate to the references as I'd like. Must practice more.

Rima

Didn't have any time the other day with my main project taking all my sculpting time. Tried to do some today.

First one was super rough; needed to warm up.

I really like to sculpt at a decent dynotopo res. I hate the lack of clarity of low resolutions; it's frustrating. Although, I think it's enabling my bad habit of focusing more on details than the overall shapes; I think tomorrow, I'll try sculpting at a very low one to force myself to focus on those. It's hard to be tempted to add detail the geometry can't support.

I need to continue the arm muscles on my main bones to skin project; I'm very weak at them, especially the lower arm.

Rima

Trying some practice at a really low res.

I'm rather terrible with posed legs. Must work on that.

Rima

Rima

A study I did before work, and a super quick sketch I did. The sketch gets a pass for being bad because it only took like twenty or thirty minutes while something was downloading, but the study has no right to be that bad. Ugh.

Rima

~2 hours' practice.

Rima

Rima

Rima

Rima

Poses without symmetry are really difficult.

Rima

A thin guy, an aged bodybuilder, and some kind of bodybuilder that's definitely been hitting the roids. Last one is from today; others were yesterday.

Last one sucks. Need to improve more.

Rima

I feel like the more I think about it, the worse I'm getting. I totally overthought the last one and couldn't focus at all, so it's utter shit.

I can't seem to look at references properly. Looking at other sculptors, they seem to look, and see not what they're looking at, but the simplified versions of them needed to build it up to eventually become accurate. I can't see that at all, so I get distracted with details inappropriately early and it ends up fucked up. Maybe I'm brain damaged or something.

I think I'm just a shitty, useless sculptor.

Rima

Some more practice. Trying different brush settings and stuff.

Rima

More practice on torsos. I really want to nail them down. My backs aren't perfect, but I at least understand where everything should be there. The front, no good. The ribs, external oblique, abs...Those I'm no good at. More focus!

Rima

Some things from yesterday. First one was a really quick sketch just for warming up, second one took a bit more time. Not great, but I think I learned a bit more about how to do the ribs and oblique at the front. They're not correct, but less incorrect. I think.

Rima

I wish I had "hands" in ZBrush. Asymmetry would be much easier with both hands, and a solid mass to turn around and shape from all angles just by thinking about it.

Rima

Not much time today. Ran out doing the front. Deltoids aren't attached right, among other faults.

Rima

I'm frustrated with those torso fragments, so I decided to do something different for today's studies as a change of pace. I'm incredibly rusty at legs; I've not sculpted them in quite some time. Ahh...One day I'll be good enough that any fragment in isolation is good, and a collected whole will come together nicely. Not today.

Rima

More legs. Some a bit, some really quick and sloppy. I should do something else tomorrow, but I want to really nail them down. I'm unskilled at the lower legs - that's why there's not much here for those right now. And I can't get the front upper leg quite right; the knee area is especially wrong, and I need to study the area around the hip and arse properly.

Rima

Rima

I was looking today at Bammes' anatomy book. The reading is dry, but it is good at illustrating and explaining some stuff I didn't really get. When it comes to the torso here, for example. I'd quite underestimated how much of the ribs can still come through; they can be hard to see on references due to the abs hiding them, or not so good lighting angles failing to emphasise the area, but it seems the arch of the ribs is still quite strong. It's no wonder I was so stuck when I wasn't understanding its prominence correctly. I've also been underestimating how closely the external oblique fits to the skeleton. I couldn't replicate it correctly because of that; I had problems because I was thinking too much about the way its pieces stretch out from the the lattisimus dorsi, and not enough about what they're sat on. That was really stupid....What a rookie mistake!

This still isn't, by any means, good, but I do feel like I've learned something important. I'll do more studies and see if I can't really straighten out my knowledge here. I'm still very weak.

Rima

Rima

Sub-hour quick study before work. Need to pay more attention to the vastus lateralis on the reference; didn't quite get the silhouette and end at the knee right. Rectus femoris isn't quite right either. Will do more after work.

Rima

Rima

Got quite unwell. FML. Not too sick to sculpt a little bit today, though.

Rima

More leg practice. Gradually trying to work my way down the leg. The ankles are quite tricky; they're bony, but also very particular in where and how the muscles are. Need to do a good study of them and the feet. Would be really nice if I wasn't coughing all the time during this.

Rima

Not doing well today. I need to remember exactly how far into the leg the vastus medialis should be; I didn't place it right, so nothing else looks right, and it's awkward trying to fix that later in sculpting. And how low down the shape created by the adductors, the gracilis, and the fat pads over them go. They make a more gentle slope down the inside of the leg's silhouette than I've been giving it credit for.

Rima

Another bad day. Couldn't stay focused at all.

Rima

Rima

A bad day.

zetheros

you gotta stop beating yourself up dude, this is a helluva lot better than what a lot of other people can do. Maybe start doing subdiv modeling. A lot of these dynamesh models can be taken to the next level if you had the fine-tuned control that subdiv gives.

Rima

zetheros said:

you gotta stop beating yourself up dude, this is a helluva lot better than what a lot of other people can do. Maybe start doing subdiv modeling. A lot of these dynamesh models can be taken to the next level if you had the fine-tuned control that subdiv gives.

Thank you. I should use subdivision levels more. I tend to challenge myself to just do one thing in around an hour, so I become impatient and just start slapping volume on. And the usual impostor syndrome, of course. If nothing else, I should probably try to think more about the silhouette. Blocking out a lower resolution is, after all, basically a digitally streamlined way of how sculptors with clay make the general shape first before detailing it.

Rima

Some from today and yesterday. I didn't have much time due to other obligations, but I did a little bit. I need to practice torsos more again, too. I've spent so much time on legs recently, I'm becoming quite rusty. I'll need to focus particularly on the ribs, serratus, and external oblique again. Varying my references more wouldn't hurt, either; I've been looking at the same guy mostly, and I want to be sure I can understand a variety.

I feel like I improved a little bit at the legs and knee, though. I don't entirely understand the tendonous parts to sculpt them correctly, but less bad, I think. I'll also need to have another go at the ankles; I should try some focusing on them specifically.

Fabi_G

Nice sketches! Would be cool to see some rough whole body figures with different poses/expressions. Keep it up!

Rima

Fabi_G said:

Nice sketches! Would be cool to see some rough whole body figures with different poses/expressions. Keep it up!

Thank you. That is something I want to do, but I'm awful with asymmetry. It is on my to-do list, though, for the sake of learning and practice.

Rima

Quick sketch before work.

Rima

Someone else's leg, and some torsos. The backs aren't godawful, but the fronts are really terrible. I'm not good at them at all. More studying required. I've realised I have a bad habit of overdoing the abs and forgetting to keep in mind, as I do them, where they're sitting, so they end up too prominent and basically disregarding the ribcage completely. That's not right.

For some reason, Polycount's made my text bold and won't let me un-bold it, but whatever.

Rima

I spent a few hours today working on this torso. I wanted to really try to learn and nail it down a bit. It's still not quite right, though; neither the abs, not the external oblique, nor the back are quuuiiiiite right.

Something I'm finding tricky from this reference is the external oblique. I understand it has sections, spreading out from the serratus, but they're unusually prominent on this guy. On anatomy references, around the edge of the abs they normally form a | line. Not perfectly straight, of course, but more or less even. But on him, they seemed to kind of make a zig-zag shape.

It's tricky sculpting them to have that prominence but not be too strong. Looking again, speaking of prominence, I overdid the pecs. I also still haven't got the deltoids attached right; I should study the shoulders in a bit more detail for themselves, too.

I'm almost out of free time for today, but I'll have another crack at it tomorrow. I'm sure I can improve if I keep pursuing this; I feel like I learned a little bit.

Rima

Some crap from yesterday. It was a bad day.

Rima

A study from today. Didn't have a tonne of time, and didn't use it too well, unfortunately. Did this torso, then smoothed it out a bit for fun.

Rima

Rima

Some more torso focuses from today.

Tomorrow, I think I'll try tripling down on the front of the torso. I just can't get it quite right; I'm very weak at it. My backs aren't amazing, but less incorrect than the fronts.

I haven't sculpted women in a while. I've been focusing on muscular guy references since you can see all the anatomy easier, so I'm quite bad with them. I'll need to correct that, too.

Rima

First legs were just a dynamesh warmup. Second was using subdivison to block out the shape a bit first. I should use that more; I'm often too impatient, but it is useful. It's not that good, though; I'm rusty at legs already. I think I need to make myself some kind of circuit; like 1x torso, 2x legs, etc. To keep in practice at all pieces. And add in arms when I'm feeling a bit more confident to try them.

I also did one of the shoulders. I've not got the deltoids right right again; need to keep at it.

Rima

I totally forgot to post this before I went to bed yesterday.

Rima

NikhilR

Loving these studies and can certainly see improvements in progression!

When it comes to assymetry I always add it just before detailing, though some asymmetry is always needed to push away from the uncanny valley look (that is also because of other factors like position of landmarks)

Are you using clay tubes brush more than other brushes?
While trim dynamic helps to establish the body planes and clay tubes is good for building volume also use the inflate brush to lightly promote the musculature.

I also recommend doing more full characters, meaning instead of doing torso, arms and legs seperately make a complete model and its okay to use a base mesh to build up the details.

Always keep references handy, you can also bring up a ztool/body scan as a reference in splitscreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSoj-BiVH50

Rima

NikhilR said:

Loving these studies and can certainly see improvements in progression!

When it comes to assymetry I always add it just before detailing, though some asymmetry is always needed to push away from the uncanny valley look (that is also because of other factors like position of landmarks)

Are you using clay tubes brush more than other brushes?
While trim dynamic helps to establish the body planes and clay tubes is good for building volume also use the inflate brush to lightly promote the musculature.

I also recommend doing more full characters, meaning instead of doing torso, arms and legs seperately make a complete model and its okay to use a base mesh to build up the details.

Always keep references handy, you can also bring up a ztool/body scan as a reference in splitscreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSoj-BiVH50

Yes, I think I'm slowly getting somewhere. I stagnated for a very long time because of a toxic perfectionist mindset and complex. Still trying to work it off.

I do need to try more full bodies. I want to push myself on those soon; I've been doing bits and pieces to try and familiarise myself with each part in a bit more detail, but there really is no replacement for the full thing, is there? Especially the connecting parts like the shoulders into the arms, or the pelvis into the legs.  

At the moment, I mostly the clay tubes. Previously, I liked to sculpt with much more of a carving kind of way, as it felt more natural to me, but it seemed to be something of a dead end, so right now I'm mainly using clay tubes. Since they're sketches, I'm using a higher strength to block stuff in, then a lower one as I go.

I didn't know ZBrush had a splitscreen feature; that's really convenient, since I don't have the space for a second actual screen right now. I'll give it a try, thank you.

Rima

This is one from the other day I forgot to post. Some bodybuilder guy as the reference, but it's really not good.

These are from today:

Still need to double down on the legs. Ankles are weak as fuck.

Rima

Rima

Some for today. Still shaky on the ankles. I keep thinking of all those awkward little bits on the outer side, but they're not really visible most of the time, so maybe I'm overthinking it.

I also did a torso, but ZBrush had some glitch, crashed, and corrupted the file before I finished and saved it, so that's gone into the ether. Sigh. It was a little better than my last try, too...