Here’s my first post about posing this elf character into his final pose before final sculpting and adding in A-symmetrical details. There are quite a few details that will be added in still, this is all I could think to sculpt before I broke symmetry. Lots to do to finish posing!

For this update I was working on changes requested by the client involving plates on the lower half of the character and some other small issues. We decided to go with 2 sets of plates guarding the hips/thighs of the character instead of 3 large plates covering his groin/air haha. I suppose that makes perfect sense!

I’m blocking out bracers and as you can see there’s a theme of 3’son the character, 3 plates for the chest, 3 plates for each spaulder and so on. I decided to stick with this pattern I didn’t mean to make. I also started to block in some hair, next update I think will be finished bracers, finished arms (before posing) and more detail on the head.

Ethics is a very complicated subject and goes to the core of what makes someone who they are. We live in a very complicated time and a technological time where it’s very easy to cheat, to push things off onto another, or to just outright lie. It is hard to talk about ethics for myself without considering age old questions of character like this:

“Would you steal bread to feed your starving family?”

To me this is the core of what ethics is based around, hard questions that necessarily don’t have a right answer. Depending on your surroundings and the context in which you would have to steal or do something even worse to protect your family is what defines your character when considering something like this.

In the work place the word ethics gets thrown around quite a bit and when you are an artist and as a person you need to be ethical and trustworthy in order to truly be a part of a company. Why does it matter if you’re an ethical artist? Who cares? I realize that you and I are just the jockeys that make the concept art into 3D and then color it but we’re dealing with intellectual property that could be worth millions if leaked. As an artist dealing with intellectual property you must have the integrity to respect that you are dealing with someone else’s ideas that they hope to profit from. It isn’t your information to just hand out, to brag about to others and to post on the internet without proper consent.

As an artist dealing with someone else’s intellectual property we already decided you must have integrity but you also must have an enormous amount of temperance. Clients you work for will ask for complete 180’s on projects that you poured your heart and soul into without flinching one bit. They will ask for more and more without thinking about it and if you want to retain your clout you’ve created for yourself you must treat everyone with respect 100% of the time. Self-control can’t be made to seem important enough to do it justice when working with someone’s intellectual property. You at all times must be positive in nature and always just push forward and accept that you aren’t the one dictating if something is good or not, you are just a conduit for their ideas to become reality.

When I interned at Fisher Price 6 years ago I did respect their intellectual property, I realized what was at stake for myself and them if their ideas got out. I however didn’t have enough self-control and was resistant to change involving their intellectual property. Part of me now realizes that I was resistant because I didn’t know enough to work quickly and change things on the fly but that’s water under the bridge now. Another part of me realizes that I was just a cocky 21 year old who knew it all.

Times change and I’m a lot more humble now and I try to also take my emotions out of the equation when dealing with clients and my artwork. What’s that, a client wants a change? Sure! Why not! This week a client has honestly already asked for 3 completely different models for a project and now the third looks almost like the first! This would have sent me into a downward spiral in which I probably wouldn’t escape 5 years ago. Complete 180’s in projects are a common thing for me now and I really don’t mind them, it’s just more time it takes for their company to get out the work, I get paid all the same.

I’m not really sure what I want to improve on as far as ethics are concerned but I’m sure after a while yet another weak spot in my artist armor will show and I’ll have to find a way to patch it up and push forward. I’m going to be starting a job search in 2.5 months so I’m sure at that point I’ll be picked apart by companies and colleagues.

Had to add in a panel for the chest to open from the front, also needed to add a latch. More changes are pending..

Had to rework this for a client, my last one wasn’t realistic enough. The front wall also has to open so I need to make those changes tomorrow.

Since I’m posting this in 2 blogs now I should describe what this project is. I wanted to add a new sculpture created and designed by myself into my portfolio. This is what I work on when I want a break from freelance and from game design pieces that I’m reworking for my portfolio at the moment.

It is a warrior who is based around a ram (the animal) His strong traits if we were in a video game, which is how I try to design characters is a very solid base, and strong defense. Rams characteristically are hearty animals who won’t fight unless provoked, and then charge violently and relentlessly. That was my inspiration for this piece.

Right now I’m reworking pieces I sculpted a few days ago to remove a few rams from him, it was a bit to much so I’m trying to change the focus around on him right now. In the end he’ll have maybe 3 more rams on him, including on large one on his right greave, his weapon, and possibly his shield.

This is a small update on my ram warrior… (I’ve been working on this for about a week and a half in my spare time for those who are learning about this project for the first time) I’m removing some of the ram sculptures that are on his armor like his spaulders because I decided his big shield is going to have a ram insignia on it too. Reworking the helmet at the moment as well.

Here is my second update for an elven warrior I’m creating for a client. I’ve been tweaking the style of plates, belts and slowly working cloth to the level I want it at for this stage in my sculpt. I’m trying to tweak the style of everything as I go and I think so far the piece is really cohesive.

Before I work on some glove/wrist stuff I need to finalize the musculature on the arms which is incorrect at the moment. Anyways, here’s a progress render!

So as I keep going on this piece I’m deciding on styles for armor and such, I have 3 designs I’m going to be reworking his armor with at the moment so I think those ram shoulder pads and the lower part of his helmet are changing.

This is my detail for his back so far. He’s also going to have bags and a sheath or two back there. This is mainly stuff to just hold his armor together and things of that nature. 

I’ve been blocking out this piece for about 2 days and I still have quite a bit of blocking to do! The sheer amount of armor pieces on this piece is going to make it look amazing, the complexity is something I’m really excited about. When it’s all said and done I expect this piece to be anywhere from 40 to 100 subtools and I’ve never really gone that far before!

So obviously it’s mostly still just geometric shapes but I did manage to detail the waist a bit just for a change of pace. The breastplate has been a focus of mine and I think once the torso is posed it will be a great focal point for the piece, the plates will turn with him giving a.. bug carapace feel to it all.

The face has been softened up from a hardened warrior to a more regal figure and I really think the hair is going to lock that in. It could be a bit brash still but we’ll see how that goes in the next day or two. I better get back to sculpting!

Today was yet another day when I woke up way earlier than I should have. It’s 9:30am and I’m done with one set of revisions on a rapid prototyping project and I sculpted on a figurine for a client. I’m going to be spending the rest of my day sculpting on his character so I can show him something that will hopefully get him even more excited than he already is about his project. Updates to come! Also, more female heads today.

Oh, here’s a video I made for my Thesis prep class.