PDA

View Full Version : Learn by sculpting

joshbailey
09-21-2011, 02:29 PM
Hey everyone

I am just seeking advice on my anatomy learning plan.

I have recently begun learning zbrush and saw a potential learning plan in it.
My plan is to sculpt the skeleton according to physically accurate references then place the muscles and flesh over the top. This will (I hope) give me a good basis of where the bony landmarks are and how the skin will pull over the muscles and bone (especially in the facial area). I figure sculpting will fast track me because I have to sculpt every angle of every feature instead of just drawing one angle.

I know that I need to be good at gesture too so I will dedicate half of my time to doing gesture / figure drawing just to keep that fresh and growing.

Anyone think this is good or bad? leave comments please :D

EDIT: I am learning ZBrush from the highly recommended Scott Spencer who works with WETA digital. Chapter 2 of his book is sculpting the human bust from skull > muscles > Flesh and other features. This is where I saw the potential in my idea.
MadMike325
09-21-2011, 05:37 PM
I started learning anatomy from the same book, and I can confirm that it is a really good one.

The only drawback I had by working from the bones and muscles up was that I thought adding "skin layer" would be easy and apprently didn't spent enough time on it. Shapes came out somewhat unnatural. I still think it was very beneficial for me to work in this way, because I got to know bones and muscles (as you said, especially on the face), but for future project and exercises I will be sculpting final form from the start. You can check out my result in another thread.

Wish you a lot of success
joshbailey
09-22-2011, 01:57 AM
I started learning anatomy from the same book, and I can confirm that it is a really good one.

The only drawback I had by working from the bones and muscles up was that I thought adding "skin layer" would be easy and apprently didn't spent enough time on it. Shapes came out somewhat unnatural. I still think it was very beneficial for me to work in this way, because I got to know bones and muscles (as you said, especially on the face), but for future project and exercises I will be sculpting final form from the start. You can check out my result in another thread.

Wish you a lot of success

Sounds great