Thanks Ben, I appreciate it.
So I’ve gotten a bit more done. Did a lot of accuracy work on the whale and I’ve begun to pose the two models. Still a ways to go but I’m happy with where this is heading so far. Don’t hesitate to comment or crit:
Looking good, my only crit is the whale looks like hes got a smile on his face and hes supposed to be in an epic battle with the giant squid, not that whales have facial expressions, but maybe making him look a little angrier could be better.
I see what you mean. This kind of brings up the current issue for me. I’ve been trying to keep the models and the set up fairly realistic. Sperm Whales actually have a sort of bulge/flap at the rear of their upper mouth that curves that way and sort of gives them a permanent smile look. For the sake of this composition though, I agree, it might be better to exaggerate a bit and make them both look a tad angrier, even if these aren’t expressions we see on these animals. Thanks for the input. Definitely something to consider.
Haven’t posted for a little while. Just a quick alien sketch. Hoping to get a little better at doing these concept things more often. I guess that’s all of us though, can never do enough work. Well, let me know what you think. About 1.5 to 2 hours.
Toothy McHorn is my favorite. Good start!
Thanks Eric, I’ll consider revisiting that model, maybe do a proper sculpt. I liked him too, I always like characters that are just a little too ridiculous for nature.
Well, maybe not pumping out as many concepts as I always wish I was, but then I’d be spamming these boards, so I guess it’s good. Got another alien. I wanted a really clean sculpt so she is not overly wrinkled and she’s pretty simple. Also, I did say she, I am trying to move towards making things more feminine as I’m realizing that I have trouble doing so. That’s why it’s probably impossible to tell if this creature is male or female or something else entirely. Anyway, anyones comments and crit are always welcome. It’s just a concept and it’s not finished so yes, I realize there isn’t really much skin detailing. Approximate time for completion was probably about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
I recently started participating in a challenge a friend of a friend set up called 30 Characters in 30 days. We started on November 1st and the goal, as you may imagine, is to have 30 new characters by the end of the month. I saw this a great way to hone my skills in zbrush, and lose a lot of sleep. So far I’ve completed 2, each about 3-5 hours (trying to keep all of them around this time frame). I’ll be posting them in my sketchbook here throughout the month. I hope you enjoy. The challenge can be found at www.30characters.com .
Day One:
Attachments
Day 3:
Attachments
So, it turns out that working a full time 3D job, then doing a relatively finished character every day for a month is already turning out to be a bit of a challenge. I’m have a lot of fun with it though, despite not really going outdoors or doing much else. These 3 conclude the first week where my theme was just “Creatures/Aliens”. I wanted to start off with what was easy for me, just creating random creature concepts.
Next week I’m going to be focusing on realistic humans. I intend to do portrait/sculpture styles of humans that, well, look like humans. I won’t be doing bodies for any of these as my focus is studying the many lovely differences and subtleties in the human face.
I hope you enjoy.
Day 5:
Attachments
I was Just thinking Taking a shot At a SpirmWale., Gess I should take note …, Looks good.
hey dude. I’m gonna sound a bit harsh here, but maybe that’ll be a nice break from all the “looks good” comments 
Anyways, I kinda feel like you’ve got some solid skills in detailing and such, but you’re detailing pretty boring and unappealing forms. Those 6 last models you posted, and the heads on page 1 are all very unappealing. Mainly due to the lack of understandment of anatomy and proportions I would say.
Looking at your day 1 character as an example. He looks extremely weird and dysfunctional in the front view, like he wouldn’t be able to move, his hips are extremely narrow and it’s like he has an invisible waistband pulling his gut in. Looking at the head in side view, its face is extremely flat and the back of his head is also very flat so it gives this look of him being squashed and not in some cool horrid creature way either.
The other day x characters all have the same problems, the relations between head size, shoulder width, hip width, all create unbelievable and unappealing forms.
It looks as if you’re looking at reference for the finer details but not for the major forms and proportions. Hence the nice details on not so nice forms in my opinion.
That was a very long post and I hardly ever post here. Anyways hope that gives you some ideas on how to improve your work!
icaba1: Thanks :). Feel free to hit me up if you need help on the whale, I got a lot of help on the anatomy from a guy who has studied them for awhile. Had him constantly saying, that’s wrong, that’s weird, there should be 7 bumps, but you have a tiny 8th, etc. Best of luck to you, they’re fun creatures to sculpt.
Salmon: Ha, good break indeed. I appreciate you really looking at the work. A little, that’s great, from time to time is nice and helps keep you going, but a little, “Hey, get this right!” helps more, so thanks. I can see what you are saying in regards to some of the anatomy, I think that is part of why I’m doing this challenge, to really immerse myself in creating characters and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Obviously on some of these, I’m stretching how anatomy works, and sometimes this can work out, sometimes it just looks wrong. Anyway, I’m certainly still developing my anatomical knowledge and skills, so thanks for your comment.
Hey again Just as a quick tip for getting a feel if your characters proportions feel right, imagine them walking or just standing in the pose you have them modeled in and ask yourself “Would he keep balance?”
Your day 7 character is a good example. His feet are in front of his hips and not under them and it gives the feeling that he’s off balance tipping
backwards. Having a character feeling balanced even in the model pose gives a lot more believability to it.
Keep up the work!
Oh, and one more thing, I’ve seen that weird invisible wasteband on older guys at the beach who have slight potbellies. It looks weird on them too 
So this week I decided to do nothing but busts of humans. Plain ol’ humans. I figure, one can never get enough practice with that, and I wanted to work on creating good forms and faces with reference but also with some input of my own, creating original faces that aren’t just replica’s of existing people. I hope you enjoy.
Day 8:
Attachments
Day 10:
Attachments
Day 11:
Attachments
Attachments
Keeping knocking them out. Your work improves with each new post.