UPDATE
TurnTable - Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/7093232
FIRST POST
Should be a fun one to take part in! Been wanting to get some sculpting / ZBrush practice in since I’m taking a course in it right now.
So I found this bronze sculpture while searching google Images (I’m un-educated in classical art, so I unfortunately know nothing about it). It’s a bronze sculpture at the V&A Museum in London… if anyone knows anything about it, please let me know so I can try to find other reference images.
I actually saw this in person the other day at the Tate! It’s called An Athlete Wrestling with a Python by Lord Frederic Leighton (had to google to find the sculptor, but I remembered the name). It’s a nice sculpture to go for.
Here’s the Tate’s page on it.
Now that I know the artist / sculpture name, I was able to find many references… here’s a couple really handy ones.
And since I just got my hair cut, I figured now is the best time to take some photos of my face for reference.
Also had a question, any tips on how to create a snake in Zbrush, was just going to create a ZSphere chain, but is there a better way to get a nice smooth starting mesh?
i think i would draw a curve in maya and extrude a pol plane along that curve,
but i never worked with z-spheres, so its just an alternative 
Thanks, I would normally agree, however I’m trying to challenge myself to do this entirely within ZBrush to force myself to learn the tools.
i think zspheres would be a quick and easy way of doing it, from what i’ve seen - i myself have no experience- this challenge would be my first
The new ZSpheres should be perfect for this. The smooth brushes for ZSII do a great job of giving uniform shape when you need it. Then just a matter of matching the bends in the sculpture.
Yeah, I’ve been holding off on the update since I’m doing a course that’s designed for 3.1, though I may to get the update… getting too impatient to try those new features!
Anyhow, I got a bit of a start with the ZSphere mesh for the man.
Well I roughed out the details a bit more, the sculpture is in a really challenging pose so it took a while to get to that point.
Roughly Matching the Reference angle :
I’ve got a question for all of you, is it possible within ZBrush to do a sculpt of my head separately and then somehow project it accurately onto my body mesh later on?
You can use the ZProject brush to project details of one mesh onto another. Actual results may vary. 
Alright, thanks for the tips… rather than risk doing a lot of work and then not being able to transfer it, I’ll just go with the difficult of sculpting my face on the mesh where the head already is. I guess it’s an added challenge 
Here’s my latest update, any of you who are anatomy pros, I’d really appreciate you pointing out any mistakes I’ve made since I haven’t really done much anatomy work before.
Original Reference Photo Angle
Did some more sculpting, looking pretty good, though not sure how well my face will end up later… just trying to get the rough shape of my head.
Reference Angle
Took my first stab at blocking out the face and I must say I really wish I weren’t working on it at such a strange angle!! Essentially I’m doing this all by eye, and having to do the symmetry myself… quite the challenge, but it’s slowly getting there!
It’s a good thing that you don’t get into too high subdivision too early and focus on shape.
I think you just need to seperate - in your mind - the main shape from the more details like muscles and stuff. Doing these refinements are sometimes a little easier on a few higher subdivs.
This way you can also avoid the need to distort the poly’s too much like on the mouth. Sometimes you can do this - for very hard shapes - but most of the time, it means that you need to keep that detailing for a higher subdiv.
Switching to a different subdiv is only a few clicks away. 
And for the symetry, I guess there are only a few reasons to work like this.
In this situation you were better off blocking out the main shape in a normal pose - while having the benefit of only sculpting one half - and posing it afterwards and then do the changes.
The more you do these things yourself, the more they will become clean and logical.
I tried what you said and bumped it up a couple subdivisions and things went a lot quicker! I’m still getting used to the idea of being able to switch between high / low resolution… amazing stuff. Thanks for the tips, now all I need is practice
So I worked a bit more on the face, the shape is much better and I added a bit of contempt / anger in the expression. I didn’t want to over do it since I was having a hard enough time keeping balance in the face. The eyes might look a little odd because he’s looking slightly upwards (intentional).
