This was a very tough choice to make but in the end I decided with the least complicated of the bunch. If I can finish then I will also attempt the other one. I’m starting to notice how much detail is in this thing now but it’s only a bust so that should help.
Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755 - 1842)
Augustin Pajou
Indeed, after combing through every piece on the website this one struck me as the most beautiful one there. Copying Pajou’s techniques is going to be a fantastic lesson on sculpting in general.
These plus the one above are the only decent sized reference shots I’ve been able to find so far. If anyone comes across someones photo journal or any pictures at all please let me know. I’ve especially found nothing of the back, funny how people rarely want to snap that side. Don’t they know 3D modelers need reference. Reference I tell you! 
Little did I know when I picked her but Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun was a very famous painter during this time period. That and she painted quite a few self portraits so there is a bit of painted material available.
Ah crappers! I started working last night and only got her eyes done LW was locking up so bad. I’ve never had these kinds of problems with LW going back to version 5. 8.5 was steady as a rock but 9.3.1 is crapping out every 10 min or so (modeler BTW).
In case anyone has any ideas why:
Intel Q6600
2GB 6400 RAM
8800 GTX 768MB
680i based MB
XP 64-bit
Its not an App crash or BSOD this is a full system lockup and only a power cycle works. I switched between regular SubD’s and Catmull Clark but didn’t seem to matter. This is a newly built machine with a new install of LW so there shouldn’t be too much customized in there yet. And no plug-ins like FPrime or anything.
I’m going to post in the Newtek support forum also but I know there are some experienced LW guys here too. Thanks for any help.
Nice choice - very subtle facial expression and pose. Cloth folds require careful sculpting too 
Parts are coming out okay but others…
The eyes just aren’t right. I may scrap this attempt and try again. Any critique is welcome.
Good Progress so far.
I would change a bit the proporpions of certain elements in the face,
but the model look good so far.
But I would reduce the number of polys in the neck, and try to follow the contours
of the neck area.
I took the liberty of tweaking one of your WIP in photoshop.
You should really be sculpting rather than trying to poly model this.
Organic poly modeling really is dead, and it serves no purpose.
Trying to work out how to get the polys to go where you want them only detracts from what you should be concentrating on, which is the work itself.
This is just the base model which I don’t enjoy doing at all. The problem is I’m never sure if the base will be enough to get good results in ZBrush. A project I had worked on before became almost impossible due to the screwed up mesh being generated in ZBrush. Of course there’s always the nifty retopo tools but I don’t have alot of experience with that yet.
Thanks Roberto, I will address those areas.
This is way too much detail and convoluted poly flow for taking into a sculpting stage.
The more ambiguous you leave the mesh, the more free you are in your sculpting app.
All you’re doing with this kind of mesh is binding your own wrists.
You certainly don’t want to be concerned with working in subpatch mode at this stage. Stick to faceted polygons and stick to getting the overall volume and bone structure, not the details of the facial features.
This is a common mistake. Too many people think that sculpting apps are for adding detials, so they try to do the actual modeling before they bring it in to sculpt.
Here are my thoughts on poly vs. sculpt. I hate hate HATE poly modeling organics. Nothing about it feels natural and I hate not planning the cage well enough so that later on you get screwed up on the details etc etc. This is why I was so attracted to ZBrush in the first place. Problem with ZB is there was always a point where I couldn’t transition from the low-level to the higher and get good results. I’m not passing judgement on any method BTW I personally will never be able to stick with it and get better if I stay with poly modeling.
So I’ve spent the last week and a half going through a few training DVDs for ZBrush that I’ve been sitting on for too long and I’ve found just about every problem area I was having before. That said I’ve scrapped the previous attempt and will post the new results soon.
2 weeks before the deadline, time to start hopping.
I’m not much for traditional poly modeling either as a concept -think of it a bit like chiseling in stone as opposed to sculpting clay, which is more spontaneous and organic by nature; vertices arent. There are no straight lines in nature so why start out creating with them?
That said, once you delve more into zBrush there's a definite fork in the road where you realize workflow-wise, why people chose to create the base mesh in another less uh.. 'creative' app. Zbrush definitely has its quirks and things it does less well, some of those presumably on-purpose since us artists shouldnt want those things. :hmm:
Anyways, good luck on your model and getting thru those tutorials. There are some good quick-start ones out there too if you get fed up and just want to start modeling.Hehe, I know that feeling very well. “I can’t watch someone else work any more, gimme a canvas!” I think the main problem is getting to the right information and never knowing what was the best approach. Some good standardized documentation would go along way instead of having to comb tutorials.
Thanks spleek.
Alrighty here are my results so far. ZSpheres are fairly basic as she ain’t got no arms or legs. I wasn’t sure if I should add the hair later as a subtool or what. In the end I decided to model the hair along with the figure.
Stopping point tonight. Bumped it up to level 7 real quick just to smooth what I had, I’m still working at 6 right now. I have yet to find a picture of the back of the sculpture so I based it off of another Pajou piece, ‘Jeanne Bécu, comtesse Du Barry’, which seems to have many more photos available. Face is incomplete obviously, I’ll finish it tomorrow. I plan to mesh extract her dress and the hair on her shoulders and then blend it all together somehow. I expect it will involve the clay brush. Almost time to start sculpting the hair, that should be fun.
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