I am kind of curious. How many other folks out there besides me are Hobbyists with no planned ambitions at a professional career? I see a lot of students wishing to turn their hobby into career and I see a lot of professional graphics folks learning Zbrush for the obvious benefits but how many besides me are hobbyists? Mind you I have been playing with graphics for quite sometime. I am not an entirely ignorant person. I started with 4 programs, Photoshop, Poser 3, Bryce 3 and Raydream Studio (how many folks remember that old workhorse)which was recommended as a means of producing morph targets on Poser models. I continued in that vein for many years until recently.
Zbrush of course has spurred me on in different directions but (speaking for myself only) I found that in order for me to understand Zbrush better I had to return to the basics and relearn things I had forgotten and learn things I never knew. So I started learning box modeling using Silo. I know a bit more than I did when I started but dont think I will ever know all I want lol.
Anyway, I wanted a new character that I could have waiting in the wings til Zbrush updates and I can consistently pose him. Anyone that has set up skeletons in Poser will know why I am choosing to go this route lol.I very roughly followed Tony Jeungs silo head tutorial and extruded his torso out from the head. Once I got into it tho I decided that I would like to be able to
put a regular human head on him later because the body was taking shape. So I cut off his head and inserted back into scene as an object. I am planning on doing the legs next, then feet and hands. Once done I will save that model and then go back and add a tail. After that I think I can bring it to it Zbrush and really kick it into detailed shape. Any criticism or advice would be appreciated. Now if you made it through all that verbage here is the picture lol
Tartan
but having fun learning. I may go to college when I get my kids grown and out of the house in a couple of years…they get all the money now…but up to this point I am a self taught person for the most part. Sometimes I envy all these youngins going to school for this type work. The cool thing about z I first discovered was 2 and 2.5d tools…paint brush and the toy plastic and red color and I had instant guts and gore…then the love began 
Now days, it is a bit intimidating at times watching all the young talent flood the forum. I used to be a zbrush purists…(start from scratch in zbrush and finish 99 percent of all the aspects of an image via z)…now thoughthe community has changed, the works changed, the workflows changed…it is all good though…in the old days if you posted a pic or model that used an outside program you would have been crucified and then burned at the stake…now most anything goes…but that’s ok too…I wish we would see more of the Grand Poobah, Pixolator’s work here again…really miss Ofer’s work for sure.
and I’m also a hobbiest. I started with Bryce and played with that for a while. Then since I’m into photography got into the Corel Draw Suite and then PhotoShop CS. Bryce got boring so I tried Vue and Poser and found I wanted to do my own models. I did some looking around and decided on LightWave, Vue Infinite and ZBrush thinking it would give all the capabilities I needed. Now I’m so hooked on ZBrush I have barely touched the others. I should have mentioned that I am an artist to begin with, but all my experience was with traditional media. Pen, pencil, pastels, ink, oils and acrylics. I think thats why ZBrush hooked me as its the only thing I’ve found that even comes close to the freedom of a pencil or brush. Lightwave is giving me fits because everthing I make will not import into ZBrush right and I can’t figure out why.
Ron when I look at your recent pieces as compared to earlier I see a vast improvement. You really are getting better. I am thinking that you are being more patient with it. 
