100 Weeks of Posting

[NelsonAnimation]

It has been some time from the last time I was posting here in this community. I’ve taken some time reconsidering my direction as an artist as well as improving my 2D skills. Now would like to get back into the flow of posting more of my work here.

Roughly 2 years ago I committed myself to post art online once a week every week as of now I am 90 weeks in of my streak. For the last 10 week I’m going to dive back into sculpting. This first one was sculpted from a sphere with no reference. Why no reference? I wanted to create a benchmark and test my ability from my knowledge reserve. I also find that my skill in collecting and actively using reference is poor at best. So, this is a direct test & habit building exercise to be more resourceful.

My plan for the next ten weekly posts is as follows:

1. No Reference
2. Basic Anatomy Reference
3. Planes & Proportions
4. Age
5. Hair
6. Facial Characteristics
7. Clothing
8. Lighting
9. Pose
10. Final No Reference Benchmark

Week 90

[NelsonAnimation]

Week 91
Countdown: 9
For this sculpt I only used basic generic anatomy references, the plan for the next one is to reference planes of the human face & average anatomical proportions.

[NelsonAnimation]

Countdown: 8
Head planes! This week was using reference for and focusing on the plane changes on the head. With a masculine and feminine base forms.

Week 92

[NelsonAnimation]

Countdown: 7

This week’s work using reference on the aging process of the human head. With limited amount of time to spend on the subject I was only able to address from infant to adult. Though future opportunities will allow me to spend more time on the aging process and how characters develop over time. For now, it’s a good benchmark in my current skill & understanding.

[NelsonAnimation]

Countdown: 6

This week spending time on referencing hair, working on simplification for the form and flow to depict different styles. The three that I worked on this week was for a male cut, medium length loose, sweptback, and an undercut.

Week 94: Hair

[NelsonAnimation]

Week 95: Facial Characteristics
Countdown: 5
A study of a few facial characteristics that help define and create unique subjects. Everyone has some form of characteristic that plays with their own style, button nose, narrow eyes, pointed ears. With the combination of subtle variations of these attributes work to create an individuals appearance.
There are of course many many more attributes and variations of each that exist. But narrowing down your options while creating a character helps you define which match your talent or needs to be set aside for another.

[johncox85]

Hi Lance, I’ve been keenly following your posts and they have all been really great. I just love this last group of facial characteristics. Look forward to many more. Johnsmall_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamond

[NelsonAnimation]

Thank you very much John!! And yes much much more to come!

[NelsonAnimation]

Week 96: Aging v2

Countdown: 4

Continuing from week 93’s aging process, here is proceeding from adult to elderly. Ears and nose still slightly growing, jaw size decreased, and skin losing its elasticity developing heavier creases.

[NelsonAnimation]

So I did change my initial plan of this countdown to 100. After week 95 Facial Characteristics I came back with Age for version 2, and this week I’ve been working on Hair version 2.

Here is the new plan:

1. No Reference
2. Basic Anatomy Reference
3. Planes & Proportions
4. Age
5. Hair
6. Facial Characteristics
7. Age v2
8. Hair v2
9. Pose/Lighting Reference
10. Final No Reference Benchmark

To end on Week 100! Merging all I’ve learned in the past ten weeks for a full portrait with reference!

[NelsonAnimation]

Week 97: Hair v2

Countdown: 3

Taking another route at hair styling, this time rather than designing the hair by its form I worked with ZBrush’s fibermesh and groomed the style. Working with millions of strands to simulate hairs and grouping them into section on the head to frame and silhouette our talents face.

[NelsonAnimation]

Week 98: Pose & Lighting

Countdown: 2
For this week I took the base mesh I created from last weeks hair work and did some pose and lighting setups. Using transpose master in ZBrush with a little bit of noise to break-up the surface then rendering in KeyShot. Working without any HDRI lighting image to focus on just in scene lights. Basic 3-point lighting, flat lighting with two lights in front, heavy split light, and a double back lit with a small emissive plane fill in front.

Next week is the final No reference benchmark, to be compared to week 90 no reference sculpt.

[NelsonAnimation]

Week 99: No Ref.

Countdown: 1
99 weeks in the bag!
This week was another portrait without using any reference. A benchmark from week 90 where I jumped into a free form bust sculpt. A simple measurement of where my current skill lies with baseline understanding of anatomy and form. Sure, this week I didn’t use reference but I did have fresh in my mind all the reference that I have been using for the past 8 weeks available to me.

Next week will be 100 consecutive weekly posts. A full bust with using reference.
After that the new tiers will be active and the start of designing characters to follow!

[NelsonAnimation]

Week 100!!
Here we are reaching 100 weeks of art posts! It is hard to believe that I’ve been posting weekly for this long already. Several weeks where challenging both on my work ethic and deciding on subject matter, some weeks I’m not very happy with the resulting post, but the overall process and progress I have made from the start of this endeavor has been worth the struggle.

This week using reference and combining the subjects I set myself these past 10 weeks is how we have come to this result. If this is the level of work I can create in a weeks’ time I’m getting confident that I will be enjoying the next step in my artist evolution with larger projects that don’t have such time limitations.

As always, a big thank you to my Patrons! Your support does make a difference.

For the full 100 weeks unedited check out my Pinterest board: NA Sketches