A Toothless 'Goldtooth McGee'

 The first character in the Outlaws and Lawmen bunch I'm making is an extremely thin, old, and skeletal looking outlaw that's I've named Goldtooth McGee, named after his solid gold dentures. So far his head and torso are close to being done, with limbs and the actual teeth on the way soon. Due to how quickly I managed to create this character, I hope to be able to produce more than the original idea of 4 - 6 characters, and maybe even do two themes.

While he is still very much a work in progress, I feel as though he's coming along rather nicely at a fast enough pace. The torso still needs a lot of work as so far it's only rough, but the head is mainly finished. The anatomy studies have greatly helped in creating this character, as I have been able to exaggerate the features a lot more accurately than before, building upon them as though this character could really exist in whatever universe he came from.

Back to it!

 Over the break between semesters, I played Telltale's The Walking Dead from the first game to the last and got inspired by their artstyle to create something similar. For this I turned to Glenn Rhee, who has been in the show, game and comic. I used referenced from all three of these styles to create a mishmash Glenn bust.

Also as a nod to the games and the comic, I decided it would look best if he had an outline surrounding him, just like the game has.

This was a super quick 4 hour sculpt just meant to keep in practice, and I feel as though it came out decently well. The anatomy is present and structure is where it should be, while maintaining a balance of stylisation and realism.
 

Semester 2 Conclusion

  This semester took a very surprising, yet fun direction that I hadn't anticipated at all. Character design was always something I had wanted to do, yet thought I had nowhere near enough talent to even attempt it. This semester however I have fully pushed myself to learn as much as I can, about stylisation, realism, and anatomy to put together multiple small pieces. While I feel content with the progression I have achieved this far, I still wish to push myself as much as possible to refine this newfound skill, and so in the next semester, I plan to continue my anatomy studies with James as more of a side project, while focusing on creating full body ( possibly rigged) stylised characters. Going forward with the stylisation idea, I wish to create between 4 and 6 full-bodied characters of varying heights and builds all belonging to the same 'universe'. Genres I have thought of to create these characters from are; outlaws and lawmen, a band of pirates, a band of mercenaries, or a set of secret agents. In each of these categories, I will aim to have a main 'hero' type character, a short, stout side character, and an unusual or ill-fitting character, such as a baby in an over-sized suit as the lead operator for the agents, or a very obviously female pirate with a fake beard.

For my next set of anatomy studies, I will be looking into the rest of the body, with the torso, arm, and leg studies alongside the facial anatomy sculpts to keep me in practice and further my knowledge and skillset in the area. James has recommended to me some anatomy books that he uses all the time to achieve correct forms with his sculpts, so I will be buying those too to make sure I can achieve the best results from my studies possible. These studies will also greatly aid in bringing my stylised characters to life, as proper knowledge of how the human body is formed is essential for knowing what parts to exaggerate when approaching stylisation, for example on a tall skinny character, which parts of the body to exaggerate the length and width of, and what that would look like.

Super Sculptin'

 I decided to try my hand at a somewhat anatomically accurate head if it were covered by a full head mask, like a superhero. I thought it would be a fun challenge to try and create a simple shape with somewhat accurate proportions (even though they are slightly exaggerated for some stylisation practice too).

Initially this was going to be a stylised character that could sit along side the cow I made in the previous post, however, I accidentally grabbed a chunk out of the back of the character's head using the move tool, which reminding me of the back of Deadpool's mask in the comics. This instantly made me want to create a Deadpool-esque character with my own style added to it. I also tried to incorporate realistic proportions to help guide my anatomy studies, even though this is clearly stylised.

I am particularly happy with the side profile of the character as it really feels as though there could be a human face under the mask, with the slightly squashed nose adding to the idea of the mask. In the last anatomy session I had with James, He mentioned how the skull of my sculpts need to sit on top of the neck rather than, as he put it, be a part of the neck, which I totally agreed with. This prompted me to angle the neck more, and separate it from the head. He also pointed out that the way I had the back of the jaw was way too angled, and so on this sculpt I went more vertically.