First Head Sculpt

[Gordon]

I finally finished my first head sculpt. I could spend ages trying to make it look more like the real thing. But I feel like I’m not learning anything from picking at things hour after hour. So I’ll just have to take the knowledge that I’ve gained and do a better job next time.

Making procedural eyeballs was fun and a good learning experience. So I recommend you check out this video by CG Cookie if you’re interested.

Creating a Procedural Eyeball with Blender 2.8

I also found a very detailed tutorial series by Anèésh Arts on Youtube. I didn’t get into skin texturing and all that this time. But I found his videos helpful when grooming the hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes.

Blender Tutorial - How To Make Female Long Hair [Part 03]

Blender Tutorial - How To Make Eyebrows & Eyelashes in Blender | Final Part [Part 04]

I ended up with too many vertices that were not necessary but did not want to remesh because I realized I’d loose my paint job. So I had to groom the hair with a 2 second lag after each stroke.

The ears are too big, the head shape is too round, and it is overall lacking the randomness and intricate details that makes it look human. But I need to cut myself some slack. It’s a good first try.

Now I need to decide what animal to make in the next part of the course.

[ZachDude]

Awesome job for a first head sculpt!
Sounds like you have exactly the right idea, refinement is only good for so long, even if you can’t get it how you want it.
I have recently followed along both those tutorials and I especially like the eye one.

I think skin texturing makes a huge difference. One thing that looks tricky about your reference is how much makeup she is wearing. For realism, ideally you’d texture the model without makeup, then apply it as a layer after.

[Gordon]

Thanks! Yeah, a model without makeup might have been easier to start with. I would love to get into skin texturing and layers at some point. Got any recommendations for good tutorials I can add to my playlist?

[ZachDude]

Sure! I can tell you the route I’ve taken anyways

Blender doesn’t support a non-destructive (layer-based) painting workflow by default, but there is a free add-on called Layer Painter that does:
Layer Painter for Blender (gumroad.com)

It takes some getting used to, and here is a tutorial that helped me:
How to Use Layer Painter addon for Blender - YouTube

Then I followed along this tutorial for Substance Painter using the Layer Painter add-on in Blender:
How to make SKIN TEXTURES in Substance Painter - YouTube

I made this orc from the Character Creator course on this site using these tutorials and techniques:

[NP5]

Very good indeed for a first head.
Thanks for all the tutorial links you used.

[Miss_B]

@NP5

Thanks for all the tutorial links you used.

I’ll second that!! I had already spotted CG Cookie’s Procedural Eye tutorial the other day, but have now checked out (and bookmarked) the Blender Hair Grooming tutorial, as well as the first two parts of that series.

[Gordon]

Nice orc! And thanks for the links. I’ll save them I was thinking about taking Grant’s Character Creator course after I’m finished with this one. But at the same time, I kind of miss hard surface modeling. We’ll see

[Gordon]

Thank you, and you’re welcome.

[Gordon]

Nice!