A couple of paintjobs on some creatures

So while visiting LA I created a few creatures of my own as well as some for Hollywood.  Ill be leaving here soon but my creatures will stay.  Here are a couple of my personal sculptures.  More to come.

 This one above is made from ceramic then painted in acrylic paint.

This guy above is made from Super Sculpey, baked then painted in the same acrylic paint.  (click on images to see larger)

Some Exhibited Sculptures

Well I had an exhibit here in Brisbane a few days ago which was fun.  Here are some of the sculptures from the exhibit and some others that were not in the exhibit. 

Alien bust

Just a sculpey bust I whipped up the other night.  I had gotten a few hundred ball bearings in the post so I wanted to use them.  While I was making it I was thinking that I need to make something totally not human in its make up.  But that everything is head and shoulders and legs n arms.  I will find something else.  A different structure for a being.  I guess Ill have a closer look at aquatic creatures.  Cuttlefish and octopi, sea slugs and caterpillars, shrimp too.  Yes!

Anyway, here is a sculpture.  Im almost ready to start painting them...all.

This weeks sculptures

Here are a few sculptures for this week.  I wanted to do some sort of monkey creature with lots of eyes and no ears.  So I did, I drew a few variations first then went in and sculpted the creatures head.  As I was sculpting it I found I didnt know much about how a monkey looks so, I decided to sculpt a chimp.  Using reference images, I created a chimpanzee study which I will, later on, create a body for.
Another day, I did a few drawings of a goblin which I was to sculpt in Zbrush.  I figured I would work it out in clay too as a preliminary.  So, the hooded head you see below is a goblin sculpture which took about 30-45mins to complete.
I also did a little quadruped creature who has some sort of large moth like insect on its bum.

Quick bust

Here is another quick bust.  Took about 1hr 30mins.  Water based clay.

NSP finally!

I have had this block of NSP laying around for a bit now. Finally picked it up and made something from it.

Quick sculpture

This one was done in water based clay, white earthenware its called.  It took 1hr 30min.  I love how fast water clay can be worked.  Im trying to get my speed down to around 45mins to create something decent.  So this week I plan to bang out a pile of water clay sculpts with the aim of speed form and proportion.

An Odd Limbed Creature

I have begun to explore odd limb creature designs.  I want to make them somewhat believable and functional too.  so not just a ball with nine legs and three arms, although I would like to get that stage where I can see the functionality of all those limbs.  Maybe it would be centipede like or something.
Anyway here is a design, this one is a hanging creature which hangs by its colon. It whips its feces at predators and leaves its waste everywhere it goes.

Not a good pet.

A couple of sculpey sculptures from this week

Here are a couple sculpey sculptures from this week.  Usually spend about 2-5 hours on each one.  I start with no plan and just see what comes from the sculpey.  Most of the time is spent trying to figure out what I see and to create something new.

7 Cyclops over 7 days!

Cyclops #1... I have found that I am not comfortable with the idea of a cyclops.  Something about the idea just doesnt make sense so, I am going to do 7 cyclops over the next 7 days.  With the hopes that I can shake the need to make sense of the cyclops. 

This first posted cyclops is done in Zbrush.  I kind of like him.  I liked the ears and his big mouth full of crooked teeth.  I dont really want to follow the usual style of cyclops which was just a giant man with one eye.  That just never made sense to me.  The whole one eye thing just seems silly.  How could it see depth?  It would have a terrible time navigating about the place. 
Anyway, we shall see what comes next in the cyclops future.

A few Zbrushins

Hope you enjoy these few Zbrush creations.

Sculpey updates

These are my latest Super Sculpey creations.   These would have been done over the last 2 - 3 weeks.  Im trying to focus on proportion, form, anatomy then wrinkle and details.  These will be painted in the future...once I get my air compressor.

Old man head

Alien half body

 Alien head

Goofy alien head

Zombie

Alien demon

Demon

A fresh thingy

Hi, I threw together this thingy today.  I dont know what it is, maybe aquatic...with chicken wings.

Click on the image to see it larger.

Making clean edges in Zbrush

This video shows my technique for creating clean edges. There are two techniques I use, both similar. One is to simply mask, in low subdiv, and pull the geometry over other geometry and then pinch to make the edges close so that after subdiv up they remain close.
The other is to turn off "subdiv smooth modifier" so when subdiv up levels the corners remain.
You will see both techniques in this video.




Making clean edges in Zbrush from Nick McGavern on Vimeo.

Edit existing topology in Zbrush

This is a short demo showing how to take existing geometry and to edit the geometry/topology to better suit your mesh needs.
Load a Zsphere.
Scroll to the "Topology" dropdown.
Click "Select Topo" and choose your geometry to be edited.
Go to the "Rigging" dropdown above and choose "Select Mesh" and choose the mesh your editing (to be used as a surface that you can lay your verts onto).
Click the "Edit Topology" button and begin editing the topo.

Tips.
Hovering over the verts will turn your brush green, you can then click on that vert to use as a starting point.
To reset the beginning point of your vert placement, double click in space, otherwise it will start at the center of your zsphere.
Make your draw size about 1-3 so you are only effecting one vert at a time.
This method can also be used to merge two tools, once they have been merged down to one.
Also great way to add geometry to a sculpture without having to venture out to another program.

Edit topology in Zbrush from Nick McGavern on Vimeo.

Zbrush layers tutorial

I have a tutorial for you all to have a gawk at.
Basically I had created a sculpture in zbrush and posed it before saving it in a neutral pose.  I would usually pose a sculpture on a layer but this time forgot.  So, this is a work around to get the creation back to the neutral pose.   Using layers and importing an early saved version of an exported .obj into a layer at the lowest subdiv on the latest posed sculpture...the video will explain it better.

MutAnteater on top of the mountain

Here I placed the creature on top of a mountain.  Also updated its skin.

30 Creatures in 30 Days - Day 23

Well I have been without internet for a week and a bit now...more like 2 weeks. Ive had to move house and had a hard trip to Sydney for some Picasso and an Aphex Twin show.   Its been traumatic but I have survived...just.
 I have a few sculpey creatures to upload but havent had the chance to get the camera and all the rest of it.
So I have here a couple of designs one is new, the other is from a couple of months ago I just reposed it and rendered out a turntable.
Enjoy and feel free to leave some comments, would be good to hear what you all have to say.

30 Creatures in 30 Days - Day 22

This drawing is facing to the left as some believe the other way.  Just so we are all knowing of what direction this little guy will be coming at ya, its to the left.

30 Creatures in 30 Days - Day 20

This sculpture is mainly sculpted while looking in the mirror for body reference.  I dont really do muscle bound characters but, I guess, that means I should. 
Thanks for dropping by!!