Help approaching a sculpt!

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Hi guys! i just finished Kent TrammellĀ“s course on sculpting and i really loved it! i dont now almost anything about blender but it was really easy to follow heĀ“s a great instuctor. The shark was pretty easy to make out of a sphere because of itĀ“s shape but i took the course and subscribed to cgcookie because i need to sculpt a dog , specifically a xoloitzcuintle ( https://selecciones.com.mx/sabias-que-el-xoloitzcuintle-necesita-cuidados-cutaneos-especiales/ ) its like the dog version of those weird hairlesss cats lol, itĀ“s a mexican dog, much less famous than chihuahuas but still pretty cool, anyway!

Im not sure if i can achieve this without a base mesh that is not a sphere? i understand how how remesh and dyntopo can help me bring shapes out of a sphere with the snake hook brush but iĀ“m not sure itĀ“s the way to go since the posture the dog is seating does not adapt that well to that method.Ā 


IĀ“m looking for advice on how could i model this? it has to be on a seating posture so iĀ“m having a lot of trouble on the back paws and legs, i donĀ“t really know how to properly model those any hints would be greatly appreciated!


hereĀ“s my result from kentĀ“s course, a bit lacking on the mouth crease and wobbly on the teeth but for my first sculpt i think itĀ“s not that bad!

I also did a simple render with it but could not follow KentĀ“s second part of the course because im not yet that familiar with blenderĀ“s UI and cycles and nodes are something im just not ready yet to approach at that level so i did this simple caustic-less render with Thea render.

  • Michael Mirn(michaelmirn) replied

    Hola, Juan. I think it is a bit of a personal thing how to approach an artwork but I'll try to give you some basic tips.

    Start with primitive forms:Ā 

    In that picture red means 1, green = 2, blue = 3, yellow = 4, white = 5. So follow that path from the biggest part, the torso, to the smallest one, the tail. Try to divide that doggo in segments and work it out one by one.

    Don't rush to perfect things out from the scratch. Do the base and then let the details come.

    Try to understand the gravity of an object, its geometry, find some pictures with different views of that dog, learn it's anatomy a bit.

    Do not follow the photo in exact way (keep it as a reference but only as a ref, there is no need to replicate something that is already here). Lead your own way.

  • Juan Carlos Uribe Ortega(juancarlosu) replied

    Wow thanks for your time Michael! Ā 

    i will try that approach! thanks for the advice! i guess modeling out from a sphere as i did with the shark as just not very good idea.

    Regards,

    Jc.