Week one

Anatomy - Proportions / skull

For our first lesson we discovered the anatomy and proportions of the skull. Studying those are vital to creating characters/creatures: as an artist, one of our main priorities should be to make the audience perceive our characters/creatures as believable as possible.

Below I have done the same exercise but with a chimpanzee skull. As we can see there are a lot of similarities between a human skull and a chimpanzee skull, however the proportions are completely different. This is great for artists to look at, especially if you want to create something different and non human.

For example, artist Alepap has created a goblin in Zbrush, using some human skull characteristics. Even though he has played around with the proportions we still get this feeling that it resembles a human.

Goblin By Alepap (Deviantart)

Week 2

The Nose

Like the skull, the nose is made from several bones but it's with the help of cartilage and fibrous fat that will give you a specific shape (hooked, straight,etc). For example if you were to break your nose, you would most likely break your cartilage and if left untreated or if the fracture was extreme, it would permanently change the shape of your nose. Stephen Fry is a great example of this.

Nose sculpt test 1:

Nose sculpt test 2:

I have to admit I like a nose with character, the bigger and the more deformed the better. Below I have replicated Serge Gainsbourg's nose using photos of him as reference. Serge Gainsbourg was known for his provocative lyrics and decadent life but also for his larger features on his face.

The mouth

Mouth sculpt test

Serge Gainsbourg's nose is hooked meaning where is cartilage meets his nasal bone is higher. His dense fibrous connective tissue is slim but flares out a bit. Gainsbourg's apex has a pronounced line going through where the cartilage does not meet and it points downwards to a tip.

The Mouth

Week Three

Natalie Dormer was born with a congenital paralysis of the facial nerve, causing her to have a sagging top lip and a lopsided smile.

Joaquin Phoenix was born with a microform cleft lip (it appears as a notch, groove or scar over the lip and is often the least noticeable cleft lip condition). Phoenix also has particularly small lips.

Below is an image of a more severe case of a cleft lip and the reconstruction on a young child.

Mouth Sculpt Test 1

Mouth Sculpt Test 2

Assignment One

For my next mouth sculpt, I have used Angelina Jolie as reference.

Angelina Jolie is known for her fuller lips. Her vermillion border is pretty round and her Cupid's bow on her vermillion border is not pronounced. Her top lip is as large as her bottom lip making it symmetrical.

The Ear

Earlobe stretching is the most common form of ear modification. You can achieve this by changing the size of your jewellery every 6 weeks, however if you go to fast you can rip your earlobe and if you can too big, there is a chance that your earlobe will not go back to it's original state, leaving you with earlobe like the man in this picture.

Ear Pointing is another form of body modification that is becoming popular. Unlike earlobe stretching, you will have to go for a surgical procedure that will slice the top of the cartilage and then sew it back together in a point, giving you an elf looking ear.

Tiamat legion medusa is known for her body modifications to become a dragon lady. Here we can see she has cut off her ears to resemble more like a reptile.

Ear sculpt test 1

Stephen Colbert's right ear sticks out at an odd angle. This is because when he has a child he had a surgery that was meant to fix a perforated eardrum which caused damage to his inner ear but also leaving him with an outer ear like this.

As we can see here with Adam Beamish's work, for monsters or gremlins, a bats ear would most likely be used.

Ear Sculpt Test One

Ear Sculpt Test Two

Assignment One

Keith Richard has ears on the larger side. He has a large scaphoid fossa and the position of his ear comes forward creating a dumbo looking ear. Keith Richard wears an earring in his left ear creating more of a sag on his left lobe.

I used mainly the Standard brush to create the ear, but with the help of the DamStandard to do the small details.

The Eye

Marty Feldman's unique eyes were caused by a condition called Graves Disease, a type of hyperthyroidism which causes the eyeballs to protrude.Other celebrities like Missy Elliot also suffer from this condition.

Masha Tyelna broke into the fashion world with her abnormally large eyes. However unlike Marty Feldman, Masha's eyes are not caused by an illness.

Eye Sculpt Test One

Assignment One

Mick Jaggers has hooded eyelids and the lower lid has started to loosen creating wrinkles. Jagger doesn't have very large eye when rested. He has more of a rounded shape. His left eyebrow has a higher curve than his right eyebrow.

While creating my model, I decided to concentrate a lot on his characteristics. So a lot of the time I took off the symmetry option off. I used the DamStandard brush for the wrinkles and the hooded eyelid.

The Eyeball

David Bowie suffered from heterochromia which causes difference in coloration the iris.

This young child suffers from a condition called Coloboma. This conditions happens before birth and is caused by missing tissues in the structure of the eye

Tattooed eyeballs are the new trend in the world of body modifications.

However they do not use a tattoo gun but instead inject the ink with a needle into the sclera.

Villain characteristics

In film, every detail counts, especially the characters' personal appearance. Every detail is a clue to their past and to who they are. For villains, the details are more visible.

Scars:

Hair

Facial hair

The stare

Mood board

To help me create my sculpt it was important for me to give it a backstory. In Norse mythology, Valkyries were a group of maidens that served the god Odin and chose who may die in battle and those who may live. In old Norse Valkyrie means "chooser of the Slain". I want to give her strong features, she is a powerful being even though she is dead and soulless.
I wanted to give her a bit of a twist, I wanted her to have fallen from grace and serve Hel (the devil in Norse mythology). A bit like Lucifer from the Bible. She is disgusted and angry with everything and everyone and wants revenge.

Ears

For the ears I gave her elf ears. My character reminds me of the elves from The Witcher and the Valkyries from God of War. I used this image as reference to create the pointed effect on the ears.

Nose

I wanted to give her a strong nose and used Claudia Black's nose as reference.

Eyes

For her eyes I wanted to recreate Sharon Tate's eyes, again I wanted to give her strong features. Sharon tate's eyes have a specific shape and are beautiful. They are large but almond shaped. I also added a scar to show she has been in battle.

Mouth

Full head

Head Piece

Full Head

Final Sculpt

Texturing

For the armour I went with a metallic look by changing the material in Zbrush. I also gave my model silver hair and this demon eye paint by uploading it on spotlight and painting it on. I made her eyes black and kept her skin white as I wanted to give her a feeling of being dead.

Assignment 2: Dynamic Pose

By using the FACS system I was able to recreate disgust. I used action unit 9 (Nose Wrinkler), action unit 15 (Lip Corner Depressor) and action unit 16 (Lower Lip Depressor). I wanted to recreate disgust as I believe it went well with my character's story.