# Beginner sculptor looking for critique and advice **URL:** \ **Category:** Modeling\ **Tags:** sculpting, characters\ **Created:** [September 19, 2026, 10:26pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/beginner-sculptor-looking-for-critique-and-advice/1653200 "2026-09-19T22:26:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harvest443](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/harvest443/32/1084870_2.png) [@Harvest443](https://blenderartists.org/u/Harvest443)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 10:26pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/beginner-sculptor-looking-for-critique-and-advice/1653200/1 "2026-09-19T22:26:14Z")
Hello, I’m about a week into learning digital sculpting in Blender, mostly focusing on the human head, and I think I’ve reached the point where I could use some advice. I’ve been following Uldis Zarins’ _Form of the Head and Neck_ ([https://anatomy4sculptors.com/product/form-of-the-head-and-neck](https://anatomy4sculptors.com/product/form-of-the-head-and-neck)), which has been incredibly useful so far. I’ve also been studying the Asaro head to get a better understanding of the major planes of the face, since that seems to be pretty important for sculpting. ![59yMLg8m7h](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/1/6/7/1674b4d56a53b42138f53580ec18bcdc2c5ee907.jpeg) That said, I feel like there are still a few key things I’m not quite grasping. I’ve mostly been attempting female heads, and these are the main problems I keep running into: 1. **The cheeks always feel wrong somehow.** I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing incorrectly, though. I usually start by trying to make the cheek area fairly planar, similar to the Asaro head, and I’m wondering if I’m taking that too literally and it’s negatively affecting the final result. 2. **I have trouble getting the face to project forward from the cranium correctly.** I understand that the face shouldn’t just sit flat against the front of the skull, but I can never seem to find the right amount of projection. Either the whole face ends up sticking too far forward or I overcorrect and make it too flat. I’ve been starting my heads from a quadsphere and then distorting it into the cranium and facial mass, so I’ve also wondered if my starting method might be contributing to this. 3. **Should I sculpt the ears as separate meshes at first?** Sculpting them separately and merging them into the head later seems like it’s easier as a beginner, but I’m not sure if there are any disadvantages to learning that way compared to sculpting them directly out of the head. 4. **I find the eye sockets themselves surprisingly difficult to sculpt.** I don’t mean the eyelids so much as actually establishing the eye cavity and the forms surrounding the eyeball. I often feel like I need a lot of strokes with Blender’s Draw/Draw Sharp/Clay Strips brushes just to remove enough volume, which makes me wonder if I’m approaching the construction incorrectly rather than simply needing more practice. 5. **My mouths keep ending up looking like duck lips.** What’s confusing me is that when I compare the side view against references, the mouth seems to project roughly the same distance from the face. I’m not really sure what I should be looking for. 6. As I’m just a beginner I know theres a lot of things I just haven’t noticed so please let me know all the things I need to work on, I know this isnt a highly detailed sculpt but I figured itd be better to get advice now instead of waiting till I can better sculpt individual features. Lastly, are there any courses, videos, books, or writeups you’d recommend specifically for sculpting the human head? _Form of the Head and Neck_ has been great, but I’d like to expand the material I’m studying from. ---
**Author:** ![MartinZ](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/martinz/32/1437938_2.png) [@MartinZ](https://blenderartists.org/u/MartinZ)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 10:37pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/beginner-sculptor-looking-for-critique-and-advice/1653200/2 "2026-09-19T22:37:18Z")
I don’t think much can be said about this to help. I think you are learning, keep practicing and observe the reference you have and detail in it closer. From what you write I have a slight suspicion about you having a specific reference at all though 😆 😆 😆 now that would be a mistake. Have specific reference that you can directly compare your result with. ---
**Author:** ![Magnavis](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/magnavis/32/1503967_2.png) [@Magnavis](https://blenderartists.org/u/Magnavis)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/beginner-sculptor-looking-for-critique-and-advice/1653200/3 "2026-09-19T22:40:00Z")
I would highly recommend Kent Trammell’s HUMAN course if you’re open to a paid course. It’s very in depth, and is pretty user friendly to those just starting out. I’ve seen plenty of people with zero experience come out of that course with really good results! Even with courses though, having a basic understanding of facial anatomy is going to help an awful lot. You don’t have to study it for decades while trapped in a cabin atop a mountain, isolated from humanity like some people like to claim, but understanding the shapes, if not the anatomy itself, is vital. Also, be sure to watch other people sculpt! You’ll learn so much from watching speed sculpts and timelapses etc… it will help you spot things you’re doing wrong, or perhaps not doing at all. ---
**Author:** ![KarlS](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/karls/32/1427516_2.png) [@KarlS](https://blenderartists.org/u/KarlS)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 10:47pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/beginner-sculptor-looking-for-critique-and-advice/1653200/4 "2026-09-19T22:47:03Z")
Don’t worry just like any skill it’s just a matter of practice over time. You can study human anatomy and it does help but it will take time to develop your eye. It helps to take a break in between sessions and come back with fresh eyes and study your references. I find that I struggle with likeness at times but with experience you realise that small changes can make a big difference. I think in general your human anatomy is off but this is something that you can definitely fix. If you look at the lips you notice that they curve inward as they reach the corners and the cheeks project out from the sides but not so much that they pass the jaw and the eyes should sink in a bit so the brow ridge and cheek bone protrude a bit further than the eye ball. Again these things can be very subtle so you have to be careful but also it depends on the person. It’s hard to explain like this but hopefully it helps. Good luck ---
**Author:** ![Weekend](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/weekend/32/498353_2.png) [@Weekend](https://blenderartists.org/u/Weekend)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 2:30pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/beginner-sculptor-looking-for-critique-and-advice/1653200/5 "2026-09-20T14:30:19Z")
Best advice I could give is: **practice on paper a lot:** with a pen and a paper you could spot your flaws faster, basically making mistakes and seeing them faster will work in your favor. not saying don’t 3d sculpt but saying at least do 10 times more sketches before that. **always use a reference:** you have to have a good eye for details before doing anything from imagination. don’t be afraid to be bad, and celebrate every small win. Hope it helps. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Draws](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/sarah_draws/32/1482798_2.png) [@Sarah\_Draws](https://blenderartists.org/u/Sarah_Draws)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 5:41pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/beginner-sculptor-looking-for-critique-and-advice/1653200/6 "2026-09-20T17:41:23Z")
1. At least in this sculpt, I think the cheeks should be definitely be puffed out at least a _little_ more. While some people do have really flat cheeks, and I elaborate on this in the answer to #2 below, this seems to be pushing it a _bit_ beyond the realm of realism, so I would give the cheeks a tiny bit more volume, as a minimum 2. I think this actually looks alright in your sculpt - some faces are really just flat-ish to this extent (see the final image at the bottom of my reply - that woman’s face is pretty flat on the front, too). Don’t make it any flatter, though 3. Yeah, I would sculpt them separately. It makes it it much easier to retain the sharp angles where they join the head at the back, and it ensures you have enough geometry to block them out properly. I have definitely seen professionals do this in streams, too, so I think it is fine 4. In this sculpt the eyes and sockets are indeed definitely too shallow and in need of being pushed back into the face somewhat, if that is what you mean by question #4. I would add that you can just use the Pull and Elastic Grab brushes (they look like the images below) while viewing the sculpt from the side view, to quickly move them back into the face, if you find you made them too shallow initially - you don’t have to completely resculpt them with the Draw, Draw Sharp, and Clay Strips brushes. ![Screenshot 2026-09-20 110421](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/3/9/8/398834321ca4427aae63b14f6eb6c8b747e7e64c.png) ![Screenshot 2026-09-20 110408](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/2/7/0/27095e6be1b7d6913238c1c12fc184bb40016705.png) 1. I actually think your mouth is alright, too, at least in the sculpt you show. The lips look pretty similar to references I could find - I don’t really see the duck lips issue you are describing at all 2. Some more things I will add: The neck of this example is extremely thin and placed to the back. If you made it thicker, it may be a bit more realistic. The ears are also a bit too far forward on the head, and the back of the jaw could be further back in addition to the ears. The chin seems a bit pointier than real life chins I could find pictures of, so I have smoothed it out a little in this edit, using those references. The space between the upper lip and nose always seems to have at least a slight curve to it in real life, so I made that change as well, and I marked it with an orange line so you can see. The last thing I notice is the shape of the base/bottom of the nose is a little off, so I changed that, too. Here is a screenshot of yours compared to a screenshot I edited to include fixes to the problems I listed, including the cheek and eye feedback from answers 1 and 4. ![Screenshot 2026-09-20 101050 - Copy](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/9/1/3/91371d47be67784a1096d2f6c41a74d6bed63308.png) ![Screenshot 2026-09-20 101050](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/f/c/3/fc3eebe56f353e3261d02949ca3868c6c612e993.png) I have never taken an art course, so I can’t recommend anything about that, but Anatomy for Sculptors is definitely great for this sort of learning. Since you already have their book, though, I don’t really have anything more to say other than to keep practicing with it. Also, here are the references I was using for the answers above: ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/e/7/e/e7e0ed70a45bbaa5064cc58b9723bb2aca8704da.png) [https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/human-head-side-view](https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/human-head-side-view) ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/4/2/d/42dfc91b58e67f810c455741be2373b62b369f7c.png) [https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-woman-head-side-neck-image21997944](https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-woman-head-side-neck-image21997944) ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/9/c/2/9c22706adadb90a0c1f80b032bd4592425e4830f.png) > **[Ask The Man](https://asktheman.xyz/)** ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/7/d/5/7d5cb03b2182ef9af165238f98c8cbf1cb67de6a.png) [https://www.pinterest.es/pin/463448617880680234/](https://www.pinterest.es/pin/463448617880680234/) I hope that answers your questions! If you have any more questions or need clarification on something I said here, feel free to ask of course. ---
**Author:** ![Harvest443](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/harvest443/32/1084870_2.png) [@Harvest443](https://blenderartists.org/u/Harvest443)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 6:54pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/beginner-sculptor-looking-for-critique-and-advice/1653200/7 "2026-09-20T18:54:30Z")
Thank you all for the advice, I’ll spend a few days gathering better references and then a few weeks to go through some courses (Gnomon Workshop seems reputable). I’ll also check out that HUMAN course