Impasto painted 3d sculptures

[C0Y0TE]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has any insights as to how one would go about sculpting and texturing something like this:

I’m pretty naive about cgi in general but wondered if I sculpted a head - for example and unwrapped it, imported the maps into a digital painting software, painted 'brushstrokes onto the maps and then rewrapped it if I would get a similar effect. Or am I thinking about this all wrong?

[beta_channel]

You’re thinking about it correctly.

Personally I would just do it using layers and difference meshes inside of Zbush.

[C0Y0TE]

Thanks beta_channel. I shall research ‘difference mesh’ and try to apply it.