Sketchbook: 30daysofsculptV

30daysofsculptV

This seemed like the correct place to put it but I'm new to posting on these forums so correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm going to dedicate time every day for the next month to try and get better at sculpting faces, particularly female ones, as it's something I often WANT to sculpt but just haven't put in the hours to do.
I'm also going to try and get better at stealing aka referencing pieces similar to what I want to achieve instead of just fumbling blindly.

I'll figure out a template for how I post these daily pieces as I go along, this thread is hopefully enough to keep me obligated to this self improvement project.

Constructive critisism very welcome, examples even more so

30daysofsculptV

Day 1

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Ny0GxD by Alina Dikareva

Time spent ~2 hours

notes
Not perfectly on reference, but honestly with how it looked 1 hour in I'm very ok for day 1 knowing my own limitations.
I think I have a tendency to make eyes too big and placed too far out, found myself re-sizing and shoving them deeper several times during this process
I really struggle with the shape of the entire eye socket. I should look at some breakdowns of the planes

Shocker... reference helps..

30daysofsculptV

Day 2

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Z52PqX by Soff (Chili)

Time spent: 2h30m'ish

notes:

awesome reference, but should probably consider time it takes to block out non-face stuff when picking pieces

I like the three-quarter view but there's something thats lurking in the front view I can't put my finger on..

watched flippedpoly vid on face sculpt as a refresher. tried to apply some of those things here

really push in the area around the tearduct.

Jawline shape vastly changes silhouette

nose/mouth/eye size makes a huge difference with small adjustments

30daysofsculptV

Day 3

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9Kr6R by Mioree

Time taken 3 hours

Notes:

Spent some time having some fun with polypaint on this one but included a limited color one for a more raw sculpt

Wanted to work of something that was just a 2d concept not 3d as reference (but still with enough planar info to rely on)

Think I might have underdone it on the eye size a bit here to overcompensate for my usual oversizing
More happy with the front view today, albeit I dont feel like I captured the reference shape exactly

30daysofsculptV

Day 4

Reference: https://twitter.com/chenevivmi/status/1409683878525108234 by Mie

Time Taken 2h30m'ish

Notes:

Honestly, bittersweet. I think this is quite the regression from yesterday but in its middle state it was so bad I was about to give up this entire project, so the fact that I ended up finishing and posting it is a win for me regardless.

Smiles are HARD. I should stick to more "neutral" faces, at least closed mouths, until I have the fundamentals more down

I think tomorrow unless something changes my mind I'll try a planar style practice.

30daysofsculptV

Day 5

Time Taken: 1h35m
Reference by various artist of generic female face references

notes:

This was a kind of a fun fundamentals practice. Tried to just stick to the usual "rules of the face" in regards to a realistic face.

I'm for sure going to see some flaws tomorrow when I look at it in a new light but I'm proud of myself for being able to do this now and in such a short time compared to before when I could be spending hours never getting close to leaving uncanny-valley central

I was stupid and accidentally left non-perspective on for a good long while, which really messed up the overall shape and I had to heavily tweak the shapes after realizing.

30daysofsculptV

day 6

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LR8R1r by wu shenyou

Time taken: 2h40min

Notes:

Pretty happy about this one! Especially how the very ugly early phase is getting faster and faster to get through which is motivating

Still trying to work on big shapes before focusing on smaller details too early

Taking even 5-10 min breaks can help identify small issues I go blind to sitting staring at it.

30daysofsculptV

Day 7

Reference by Unknown. Found on pinterest with no source & tineye gave 0 results </3)

Time taken: 3Hours'ish

Notes:

Super happy with how this came out! Had some moments where something felt off and I gave it a fresh look and managed to spot some improvements.

I dont think its SPOT on but I think the result looks appealing.

If someone knows the artist please let me know.

30daysofsculptV

Day 8

Reference: found on pinterest. No artist credited </3

Time Spent: 2h

Notes:

A bit limited on time on this one. Kinda wish I had started earlier so I had time to refine stuff and the hair. Might revisit this one soon? Or maybe that's an interesting task later down the line?

• trying a little bit of unsymmetric posing at the end to match reference slightly and give it more soul

30daysofsculptV

Day 9

Reference: Pretty darn sure this is AI. There's a "produced by" watermark but I can't read it unfortunately

Time Spent: 3h~

Notes:

Pretty darn happy about the result of this one. Some things that dont sit immediately right in the front view but the reference angle looks neat

had some time so I tried some fun stuff with the hair, not quite sure its something ill repeat but it was a fun exploration

Still hard to do bigger stylized eyes without it coming across as creepy, might try something even more stylized tomorrow to try and push more

30daysofsculptV

Day 10

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1m8vZ by Adam Ryoma Tazi

Time taken 2h30m~

Notes:

This was really fun and surprisingly quick to mock up

Feel a lot more confident with eyes now than I did before

strayed a little off model but tried to keep the concept strong

30daysofsculptV

Day 11

Reference: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_yQ7utjnGs/ by anixie_art

Time taken 3h~

Notes:

super fun today. Love the hair in the concept

looked at some 3d references by Kirill Senzu for stylized faces, helped with some decision making

I think some of the concept is lost a bit in the transition to 3d and I think a even more confident stylized approach could translate it better

30daysofsculptV

Day 12

Inspired by the general style of Mark Lambert @ https://remenance.artstation.com/

I've been a fan of their style for a while and it was fun to finally take a crack at it

Notes:

Pretty fun to explore something with wilder proportions this time!

They had some great references avaliable to spin around and take pictures of that really helped with the smaller details

30daysofsculptV

Day 13

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0Xl98V by Mercurial Forge

Time Taken 1h40m

Notes:
Started this one late in the day so I had to keep it shorter

Feels like I'm not matching exactly on the proportions but I picked up some cool stuff in some of the shapes

Still like the face overall! Great reference piece

30daysofsculptV

Day 14

Reference: none

Time taken 2h

Notes:

Today was a fun experiment. Tried to work of what I've picked up so far and avoid looking at any reference and trust my intuition.

The character is based on my Cyberpunk V

Fun note is that it was actually a botched attempt at this very idea that made me realize I want to get better at faces, so going from feeling helpless to smashing (becca no) this out in 2h I can't help but be excited now that we're near the halfway point.

The hair is still very much a blockout but I've ran out of time so I might twiddle with this as a side project and clean her up that extra lil bit along the way

30daysofsculptV

Day 15

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EawqZ0 by Karrah E

Time taken 2h

Notes:

tried something slightly more eering towards normal proportions

think it's just "Ok"

definetly the direction I'm on more shaky ground for

didn't capture the spirit of the drawing

fun practice

EDIT: This one was rushed while I was near asleep and it showed. Spent 10 minutes tweaking things as I opened it today and updated the images. Is this cheating the challenge? idk maybe. Should be said it's still not my favorite but there were some fundamental stuff I completely glanced over yesterady

30daysofsculptV

Day 16

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Evoxm2 Wild Rift Zyra by FafaLei

Time taken 2h 30min+

Notes:

This one was fun. I have been considering trying to copy some of Riot/Blizzards models and I came across Zyra on Artstation so it was a good as time as any

Kept other details blocky so I just focus on face for this one

slowly learning to make the final sculpt more polished and avoid tiny blemishes

30daysofsculptV

Day 17

Bit of a stray one today. I did sculpt a head but it's part of a project still under NDA so you're just going to have to trust me on this one.

Turned out pretty nice, perhaps I can share it in the future, though by then it's hopefully pretty outdated.

This shouldn't repeat itself anymore this challenge and I really wanted to squeeze in an extra sculpt for posting today but I decided against it for quality reasons.

30daysofsculptV

Day 18

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YB1K0X by SUN MAN

Time Taken: 2h

Notes:

Meh. I dont think I managed to capture the sharp features present in the concept. Any time I tried to sharpen it it turned out too masculine or uncanny.

This was a challenge for me, hopefully I can see some thing I'd have done differently in the morning

30daysofsculptV

Day 19

No reference for this one, just tried to freestyle a bit again with some reference back to previous work. Sorta goblin/imp inspired

time taken :1h 40m

30daysofsculptV

Day 20

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/zPAZVw by SUN MAN

 

30daysofsculptV

Day 21

A head plane study following Follygons process

After some helpful feedback I took another look at fundamentals. Will be fun to see how these things translate into the next thing I make after this process.

Learned some new tricks with the pinch brush as well on a technique side of things

zetheros

just want to say I'm super jealous at how quickly you churn out faces, and how they don't look uncanny or anything. I'm terrible at them. Keep going!

30daysofsculptV

zetheros said:

just want to say I'm super jealous at how quickly you churn out faces, and how they don't look uncanny or anything. I'm terrible at them. Keep going!

Hey thanks. Im usually very bad at commiting to these things so Im glad I've been able to force myself to keep at it.

Also I LOVE your stuff, especially that lobster monster, so much detail but still such a readable silhouette I'm astounded. The ornate armors are also kick ass

30daysofsculptV

Day 22

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/v1kezE  by Anson Tan

Tried sculpting a simpler planar version of the head this time and shaped it into the final face. I think it helped me maintain some of the bigger planes despite it being somewhat smoothed

Micheal12

30daysofsculptV said:

This seemed like the correct place to put it but I'm new to posting on these forums so correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm going to dedicate time every day for the next month to try and get better at sculpting faces, particularly female ones, as it's something I often WANT to sculpt but just haven't put in the hours to do.
I'm also going to try and get better at stealing aka referencing pieces similar to what I want to achieve instead of just fumbling blindly.

I'll figure out a template for how I post these daily pieces as I go along, this thread is hopefully enough to keep me obligated to this self improvement project.

Constructive critisism very welcome, examples even more so

Hello How long have you been into 3d modeling. 

30daysofsculptV

Micheal12 said:

30daysofsculptV said:

This seemed like the correct place to put it but I'm new to posting on these forums so correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm going to dedicate time every day for the next month to try and get better at sculpting faces, particularly female ones, as it's something I often WANT to sculpt but just haven't put in the hours to do.
I'm also going to try and get better at stealing aka referencing pieces similar to what I want to achieve instead of just fumbling blindly.

I'll figure out a template for how I post these daily pieces as I go along, this thread is hopefully enough to keep me obligated to this self improvement project.

Constructive critisism very welcome, examples even more so

Hello How long have you been into 3d modeling. 

Hi Micheal. I studied 3D modeling at school for 4 years and have worked almost 6 years at a small indie studio after that so I guess I'm closing in on 10 years soon.

Unfortunately doing 3d at work has somewhat stagnated my growth in certain aspects (character modelling, drawing, high fidelity) while getting better at other stuff (environments, efficient cheap assets etc). This exercise is to try and level up my character skill a bit! But I'm definetly not starting from zero.

Hope this answered your question

30daysofsculptV

Day 23

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8b8P9Q by IdeaXu

This one was super fun. Trying some new methods for blocking out the hair fast. It's not the focus but its fun to give it some attention

30daysofsculptV

Day 24

Juri, mainly based on her sf6 appearance. Various references to get the "feel"
Juri my beloved I might not be able to combo to save my life but you're still my fav

30daysofsculptV

Day 25

Another freestyle. Much happier about this one compared to the previous no-ref attempt

SO has demanded a resin print of this one so I'll take that as a good sign

30daysofsculptV

Day 26

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/48z2W4 by Dmytro Bajda

Very fun sculpt! I don't think I captured it perfectly but this is a new style exploration and I feel like I learned a lot of small things

overall very happy with it

30daysofsculptV

Day 27

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Kr2KWX by MashacK

Fun one today! Wanted to keep it shorter than my previous days which had crept into taking way more than 2-3 hours. kept this one to roughly 2h30min with final tweaks.

love the original concept.

30daysofsculptV

Day 28

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/JvVRwA by Kirill Senzu

The model was avaliable for download as a study reference so I had some very easy comparisons switching between tools to compare shapes. Made this more of a "copy" rather than a "interpret" than i probably should have but I think at the end of the day this excersice is about copying appealing styles to try and grab small nuances which I did end up finding.

Still a very fun study!

For the last two heads I want to revisit some of my earliest pieces to have a fun comparison result!

End is in sight

30daysofsculptV

Day 29

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Z52PqX by Soff (Chili)

In preparation for the final day I did a remake of my 2nd piece as I was always a bit let down by how it turned out. I think there's still things to tweak but I am so happy to see the improvement!
Onto the final day remake of my first piece

30daysofsculptV

Day 30
Here's just a reminder where we started

And here's today's re-visit of the first piece

Reference: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Ny0GxD by Alina Dikareva

This has been a fun, exhausting challenge for me but I am so happy I pulled through even if I had a few pushed days.

If someone ends up reading this thank you for taking a peek

Cheers.

✌️