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Struggling with Head Anatomy – Need Feedback to Break the Cycle

Hello, I’ve been sculpting in a blender for a few months. And It’d be great if I could get some insights on my progress so far

My goal is to eventually create a full character, but right now I’m focusing on head anatomy. The problem is, no matter how much time I put in, I don’t feel like I’m improving. I’ve been stuck at the same level for a while, and I don’t trust my process to believe that just making a lot of heads will lead to progress.

 From what I’ve learned (mostly from Flipped Normal), getting immediate feedback after each session is crucial. But I didn’t know where to find that kind of feedback, and I don't want to flood any places with unfinished work. At the same time, I worry that if I rely too much on feedback, I won’t develop the skill to spot my own mistakes.

It’s frustrating how long it takes me to get to a certain point with sculpting.  I’m painfully slow, and I don’t even know where I’m wasting my time. It takes me 6–7 hours just to block out, and that’s if I don’t forget the ears. And even after all that time, it’s not anything particularly complex, just the basics. Sometimes, I spend two whole days just trying to match a reference, and it still wasn’t even close. and sometimes, I spend 10 hours tweaking a sculpt, constantly adjusting proportions, observing plane changes, and refining shapes—yet it still looked off. No matter what I do, my sculpts always end up wobbly, stiff, or just wrong in ways I can’t seem to fix.

Then there are the recurring mistakes. No matter how many times I adjust the forehead, it always ends up too big or too long. I’m aware of this issues and many others, but I don’t know how to break the pattern. I’m just been stuck making the same errors over and over again.

Here are some of the examples:
















Lately, I’ve realized that I spend too much time in the later stages trying to fix mistakes I made early on. I struggle a lot with blocking out the head and make the form look right, so I’ve been focusing entirely on learning how to establish the basic shapes and get the proportions right.


Replies

  • Noren
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    Noren polycounter lvl 20
    Many of those look fine to me, although it's not always clear what is what (reference or just another variant/step). Maybe starting a new head might get you more concrete pointers in case feedback stays too general at first. And regular updates or doing your own sketchbook thread is absolutely fine.

    One repeating element I see is that you often overemphasize the mass and distance between the upper eyelid and the eyebrow ridge. Fine for plane studies and also not impossible, but e.g. in your study of the metal portray bust it's way to voluminous.

    As for the speed: Do you draw at all? Should give you a much quicker turnaround, especially to nail down proportions. And perhaps it makes sense to do plenty of  generic heads first and likenesses later. The latter is incredibly hard and can be frustrating (everyone with fresh eyes can immediately tell that something is wrong, but not necessarily why). As for spotting your own mistakes, stepping away every now and then or even wait to the next day is a tried and true method (so you have those "fresh eyes" yourself). I'm not sure what's the reasoning behind getting feedback immediately, is it to speed up the process or break patterns?
  • Luny
    Appreciate the feedback! I’ll keep these points in mind.

    The ones with direct comparisons are reference studies, while the ones without are general exercises. The only variant step is in the second image; the rest are individual exercises. I'll make sure to label things better next time.

    I’ve always avoided starting fresh because I felt like I was just ignoring my mistakes, but I’ll give it a try next time. I try to keep the plane changes obvious since I struggle to understand them in the head structure. Thanks for pointing out the distance between the upper eyelid and the eyebrow ridge—I wasn’t sure if there was a distinct plane between them. Could you elaborate more on the mass? I think I’m not familiar with the concept.

    I didn’t draw much before, and even in 2D, I struggled with the same issues. Most of what I mentioned applies to drawing as well. Would it help me develop a better intuition for proportions if I just sketched a bunch of heads on paper?

    I think for the immediate feedback, is to prevent bad habits and making incremental improvements, rather than relying on trial and error.

    by the way for the sketchbook thread, should I keep updating this current thread, or do I need to make a new post each time? I’m not familiar with the website yet.
  • Noren
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    Noren polycounter lvl 20
    Preventing bad habits is a good point.

    Not sure if there was a miscommunication, but just in case: I was mainly referring to stepping away for a bit and returning with "fresh" eyes, especially if you catch yourself moving features around for a long time. But starting fresh now and then isn't a bad idea, either. In the first paragraph, I was mainly referring to getting more detailed feedback.

    As for the mass below the eyebrow ridge, I partly misspoke (should have looked it up). I actually meant both that and the supraorbital ridge and then simply the skin and fat attached to that and overlapping the upper eyelid. That can be visible as a volume of its own or even slightly inset, but in your standard caucasian male head, which is how I would read many of your sculpts, it would be quite a distinctive feature in the way it presents e.g. in the first two rows from the top. I mainly called it out because the copy of the metal sculpt seemed to have a problem in the same area. Do you see how you put much more volume there than in the reference? (Matching the FOV might be important, too.)

    The main advantage of 2D is that it's much quicker, so yes, I'd say it should help you to develop your feeling for proportions.

    Regarding the sketchbook thread, there is a specific subforum for that, but unless someone says otherwise, the main one is probably better for getting feedback if you don't overdo it. And keeping it all in one thread makes more sense to me, unless you start a bigger project. But I don't make the rules.


  • Luny
    Noren said:
    Preventing bad habits is a good point.

    Not sure if there was a miscommunication, but just in case: I was mainly referring to stepping away for a bit and returning with "fresh" eyes, especially if you catch yourself moving features around for a long time. But starting fresh now and then isn't a bad idea, either. In the first paragraph, I was mainly referring to getting more detailed feedback.

    As for the mass below the eyebrow ridge, I partly misspoke (should have looked it up). I actually meant both that and the supraorbital ridge and then simply the skin and fat attached to that and overlapping the upper eyelid. That can be visible as a volume of its own or even slightly inset, but in your standard caucasian male head, which is how I would read many of your sculpts, it would be quite a distinctive feature in the way it presents e.g. in the first two rows from the top. I mainly called it out because the copy of the metal sculpt seemed to have a problem in the same area. Do you see how you put much more volume there than in the reference? (Matching the FOV might be important, too.)

    The main advantage of 2D is that it's much quicker, so yes, I'd say it should help you to develop your feeling for proportions.

    Regarding the sketchbook thread, there is a specific subforum for that, but unless someone says otherwise, the main one is probably better for getting feedback if you don't overdo it. And keeping it all in one thread makes more sense to me, unless you start a bigger project. But I don't make the rules.

    Ah, I see, thanks for further clarifications.

    I definitely overthink and tend to move things around a lot when something looks off

    and regarding to the eyebrow area, I can see that I have put too much volume, I'll tone them down next time



  • Luny
    2/4 exercise, with references



  • Noren
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    Noren polycounter lvl 20
    That looks great to me. The ear could use some more work, but that's probably beyond the scope of this and maybe even contraproductive.
  • Luny
    Noren said:
    That looks great to me. The ear could use some more work, but that's probably beyond the scope of this and maybe even contraproductive.
    Thanks! Yeah, my current goal is to get more familiar with the basics of the head and get good at blocking out the head. When it comes to anatomy, I’m mostly relying on guesswork and replicating the reference
    There are a lot of areas I’m unsure about, like the volume of the cheek and the placement of the temporal lines. 
    I’ll put more effort into the ear. It’s something I tend to avoid because I find it difficult to control the shapes. Sometimes, it gets too thin and starts developing artifacts
  • Luny
    2/5 exercise (reference)





  • kanga
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    kanga quad damage
    Then there are the recurring mistakes. No matter how many times I adjust the forehead, it always ends up too big or too long. I’m aware of this issues and many others, but I don’t know how to break the pattern. I’m just been stuck making the same errors over and over again.

    Hi. Just copy the mesh, take it down to a low sub level, make the changes then up the rez and compare. Its not like we are working in marble! (ah those were the dayz)
  • Luny
    kanga said:
    Then there are the recurring mistakes. No matter how many times I adjust the forehead, it always ends up too big or too long. I’m aware of this issues and many others, but I don’t know how to break the pattern. I’m just been stuck making the same errors over and over again.

    Hi. Just copy the mesh, take it down to a low sub level, make the changes then up the rez and compare. Its not like we are working in marble! (ah those were the dayz)
    I'll try that next time, thanks!
  • Luny
    2/6 exercise (reference)

     
    turned out terrible, still struggling a lot blocking out the head, even started from scratch couple of times
  • stray
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    stray triangle
    These look nice.
    Though one thing that keeps drawing my attention is the area between brows - it seem to be placed a little too high in some sculpts?
  • Noren
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    Noren polycounter lvl 20
    Agreed with stray. Maybe share your reference if you can? 

    For the ears, it looks like light and shadow or the perspective might play tricks on you sometimes, e.g. I've never seen the depression in the Y-shaped antihelix go down as far as in your second to last model and the last one looks a bit strange from the side. The transition to the side of the cheeks looks a bit sharp, too.
    Perhaps a fully fledged separate study of an ear would help to internalize the general building blocks in space without distracting from the head studies too much.
    Getting the undercuts and thin bits can be tricky, but I don't have any good tips other than using a brush that excludes the back-sides where it makes sense (and one which doesn't if you want to move complete bits around) and use masks. That's for surface based sculpting, though. Volume based or dynamic surface sculpting should give you more freedom if the resolution is high enough.

    But for generic heads, all of those seem fine. Comparing to the reference might help to identify recurring patterns. E.g. the philtrum looks quite pronounced in many of your models. Absolutely possible, but if it's not in the reference, then you might add it without noticing. Then again, this might be more something for likeness studies.
  • Luny
    stray said:
    These look nice.
    Though one thing that keeps drawing my attention is the area between brows - it seem to be placed a little too high in some sculpts?
    thanks for pointing it out! , I'll keep that in mind, I definitely have a tendency to place it to too high
  • Luny
    Noren said:
    Agreed with stray. Maybe share your reference if you can? 

    For the ears, it looks like light and shadow or the perspective might play tricks on you sometimes, e.g. I've never seen the depression in the Y-shaped antihelix go down as far as in your second to last model and the last one looks a bit strange from the side. The transition to the side of the cheeks looks a bit sharp, too.
    Perhaps a fully fledged separate study of an ear would help to internalize the general building blocks in space without distracting from the head studies too much.
    Getting the undercuts and thin bits can be tricky, but I don't have any good tips other than using a brush that excludes the back-sides where it makes sense (and one which doesn't if you want to move complete bits around) and use masks. That's for surface based sculpting, though. Volume based or dynamic surface sculpting should give you more freedom if the resolution is high enough.

    But for generic heads, all of those seem fine. Comparing to the reference might help to identify recurring patterns. E.g. the philtrum looks quite pronounced in many of your models. Absolutely possible, but if it's not in the reference, then you might add it without noticing. Then again, this might be more something for likeness studies.
    Sure thing. For recent exercises, I've used various references as guides. Since I wasn't sculpting a specific head, I kept my approach general thus the proportion is kind of all over the place. Next time, I'll include the references I used.

    I'm not very familiar with sculpting ears, so I've only placed them roughly so far. A separate study is definitely in plan.

    Currently, my approach to blocking out the ear is extruding from the side and using the grab brush to make the shape, but controlling the form is challenging. Sculpting the ear separately and then attaching it to the head sounds like a good approach

    The pronounced philtrum was unintentional—something to keep in mind. I think it makes sense for me to fix any mistakes now since they’re likely to carry over into later studies
  • Luny
    2/7 exercise (reference)



    Reference used:


  • Noren
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    Noren polycounter lvl 20
    Looks good. I don't know the tools in Blender, I'm afraid. For the ear, the middle part of the antihelix seems to protrude more in the photos, and the valley below it on the rear lobe is less deep and more a return to the level of the helix if that makes sense.
  • Luny
    Noren said:
    Looks good. I don't know the tools in Blender, I'm afraid. For the ear, the middle part of the antihelix seems to protrude more in the photos, and the valley below it on the rear lobe is less deep and more a return to the level of the helix if that makes sense.
    thanks, I'll try and fix that 
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid greentooth
    Looking very nice! We're really into nitpicking territory now.

    One thing i'd focus on is the Zygomatic arch, and how it leads into the forehead. At some point along the forehead a plane change happens, where the skull has a ridge, and then that part is covered in muscle.

    I've pointed out roughly where that plane is, and on the left shaded the area more how I would want to see it.

    I'd also focus on really smoothing out the fatty bits above the eye, as they are a bit wobbly atm.

    For next steps, i would say, throw some colours/tone on the face, and blockout the hair. At some point, it gets really hard to judge head sculpts in pure isolation, and giving some local values really helps you pinpoint what's missing. Likenesses don't usually lock in until you do that.




  • Luny
    2/8 (no specific reference)



    terrible fever today, trying to make in the mileage

     I tried to make some change for the ear of [2/7 head] but I barely made it worse 

    I think it'll take more tries for me to get it right

  • Luny
    Muzzoid said:
    Looking very nice! We're really into nitpicking territory now.

    One thing i'd focus on is the Zygomatic arch, and how it leads into the forehead. At some point along the forehead a plane change happens, where the skull has a ridge, and then that part is covered in muscle.

    I've pointed out roughly where that plane is, and on the left shaded the area more how I would want to see it.

    I'd also focus on really smoothing out the fatty bits above the eye, as they are a bit wobbly atm.

    For next steps, i would say, throw some colours/tone on the face, and blockout the hair. At some point, it gets really hard to judge head sculpts in pure isolation, and giving some local values really helps you pinpoint what's missing. Likenesses don't usually lock in until you do that.




    thanks for the insight! I'll come back to it in the morning, as for now I'm barely keeping my eyes open haha
  • Noren
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    Noren polycounter lvl 20
    Take your time to heal up. It's not like there's a schedule you have to stick to at all cost.

    Probably a bit exaggerated, but perhaps this helps. Pretty nitpicky anyway.

    .
  • Luny
    Muzzoid said:
    Looking very nice! We're really into nitpicking territory now.

    One thing i'd focus on is the Zygomatic arch, and how it leads into the forehead. At some point along the forehead a plane change happens, where the skull has a ridge, and then that part is covered in muscle.

    I've pointed out roughly where that plane is, and on the left shaded the area more how I would want to see it.

    I'd also focus on really smoothing out the fatty bits above the eye, as they are a bit wobbly atm.

    For next steps, i would say, throw some colours/tone on the face, and blockout the hair. At some point, it gets really hard to judge head sculpts in pure isolation, and giving some local values really helps you pinpoint what's missing. Likenesses don't usually lock in until you do that.




    I’ve made adjustments based on the suggestions

    I smoothed out the fatty parts above the eye, and the transition from the zygomatic arch into the forehead bit more

    blocking out the hair and adding tone/colors to the face is totally next step, However, I’m currently focusing on improving block out of the basic head structure as I'm still struggling a lot on it. Once I feel more confident in that, I’ll definitely revisit these finer details and move forward with the additional steps. Thanks again!


  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid greentooth
    Nice one!

    I think you are being a bit harsh on yourself tbh, you are doing a lot better than struggling. it might still take a lot of effort atm, but you are getting good results.

    I'm suggesting to move onto the next step, mostly because it will re-contextualize these stages, and hopefully you can see you aren't as far off as you think you are. But it's your call.
  • Luny
    2/9 exercise (reference)



    references used:
    + I tried to make a bit more change to the ear of [2/7 head], pushed the tail of antihelix towards the helix and added more volume to the helix


  • Luny
    Muzzoid said:
    Nice one!

    I think you are being a bit harsh on yourself tbh, you are doing a lot better than struggling. it might still take a lot of effort atm, but you are getting good results.

    I'm suggesting to move onto the next step, mostly because it will re-contextualize these stages, and hopefully you can see you aren't as far off as you think you are. But it's your call.
    Thanks for the encouragement! 
    I think your suggestion is a good idea it might be good for me to move on to next stage, since I tend to spend hours fixing simple things, only to see minimal changes in the final result. it might be beyond my current level to improve certain areas until I understand anatomy better

  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid greentooth
    Yeah, i think it's important to remember that the end goal is to make art. It's awesome to do a lot of isolated technical studies, but if we never finish any of it, we miss the important context of how our studies lead to the art that we want to make.


  • Luny
    Muzzoid said:
    Yeah, i think it's important to remember that the end goal is to make art. It's awesome to do a lot of isolated technical studies, but if we never finish any of it, we miss the important context of how our studies lead to the art that we want to make.


    I agree! I’ve often found myself stuck trying to get decent at one thing and never actually moving forward. It’s better to just get the ball rolling rather than waiting for everything to be perfect. 

  • Luny
    will be taking brief pause for the sketchbook thread, I'll be learning extra things to take things just a bit further, while still keeping up with sculpting the heads for warmups 
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