Yes, it seems like a good way to present a sculpture if you want to allow the viewer to get a good idea of the full 3D form of the work. In this particular case it highlights that I did not spend very long on the back of the head/neck at all! Oops 
This one isnât really ready, but Iâve spent most of my time learning about lighting, how to use nodes in cycles (only finally starting to get it!), the compositor and post-processingâŚand I want to refocus on the sculpting again. I appreciate that this is not typically good studio lighting for presenting a model.
Other issues: The UV-unwrapping needs fixing (thatâs on my massive list of things to learn how to do properly), the mouth is very much a WIP, the ear is too thin (the SSS making it glow way too much, which is not appropriate for this material), the forehead creases are too indented, the chin is a little too wide, and the general form is not very close to what I wanted it to be. Anyway, here it is:
I am undecided as to whether I will fix this, or move onto the next one.
Good one Matt!
Thanks! Iâm ashamed to admit that my overkill on lighting/post-pro is hiding my poor sculpting. I would like to incorporate these aspects of producing a final image into my repertoire, but I must make sure that it is not a crutch that hinders my sculpting development.
I got a bit impatient with this one, I started to get that feeling that since I had moved too quickly away from general forms to smaller details, that I was not learning as well as I should (I actually thought my low res version was ok, but in hindsight it was not). I needed a fresh model to work on - so this became a canvas for the post-pro and other experiments in the interlude.
I have a few ideas for the next one - Iâm interested in exploring the history of sculpting, and also perhaps trying a full body sculpt.
yes, i like it too, it has very fotographic artsy feel, just keep going. keep sculpting, it is always up and down. if you knew how bad some of my sculpts are you would be surprised (never show them of course,lol), i get so discouraged when i see the mess i created, that i think i have to give upâŚbut then an exiting idea tickles, i grab the pen, and sculpt fresh on a new project, and most of the time it is going as it should againâŚ
edit oh, and one tip, if you went too early for detail, just increase the detailsize in dynatopo, quite big, very low strength of claystripsbrush and brush over the whole model. i did this just yesterday with a sculpt of mine that did not want to come out as i wished, it helped wonders, since it put me back to the stage where i could see the forms i had created and where the mistakes wereâŚ
edit oh, and one tip, if you went too early for detail, just increase the detailsize in dynatopo, quite big, very low strength of claystripsbrush and brush over the whole model.
Zero strength of course. Not very low.
Regarding UV unwrapping:
The editor is very well organized, the UV sculpting mode is great. Especially the dual mode relax brush there. (Laplacian/HC, the HC will remove possible texture stretching on certain places like nose). Lock borders / sculpt all islands options are very useful. )
it does not matter here, as the intention is anyway to resculpt⌠just saying.
Reminds me the âquasiâ retopo procedure of earlier dyntopo days.
I was able to decimate by this method to a less than 500 triangles.
Then, multires and shrinkwrapping. LOL.
The truth is that it was working. Almost there.
Thanks 
yes, I must ride out the crappy sculpts - it is only a matter of time before I am pleasantly surprised by one of the results 
Itâs good to know that you have some that you do not show.
Thanks for the tip. I am so slow at working right now that I was afraid of âundoingâ all my work by reverting to a much lower stage of detailâŚbut in reality there is no harm in undoing something which should not have been done anyway, nothing is really lost, so I will do that next time I find myself unhappy with the overall form. I had tried to circumvent the need to re-detail by using a large radius grab brush on my higher detail sculpt, but I think that probably made matters worse. Lessons learned.
I had not heard of the UV sculpting mode - after a quick skim of the manual it seems there is a lot I donât know about the capabilities of UV unwrapping and modifying. I am off to hunt for some UV tutorials to help me get started, then I will work through the manual and all the buttons to see what I can get out of it. Thanks for the info!
learning from my favourite master, well chosen, matt, its david of course ⌠proportions and forms look very good, forms could be clearer separated, will make stronger statement, as michelangelo showed
Aha! I just had my own Toto/Laurel moment! I suppose that might be Karma for cracking a joke haha. While I did reference David at some point, the primary source is a sculpture by Philippe Faraut (link).
yes, but you see, faraut learned from michelangelo too, lol⌠i should have listen to my feeling that whispered âwhy has he done that odd tilted plane to close the lower part of the torso?ââŚthat was the clueâŚlolâŚanyway it is well done, i like it, even if it is not david 
Haha Thanks for the kind words and constructive criticism - great extra motivation for me. I originally intended to try and understand the work of past masters, but I started watching a tutorial about sculpting a torso and I recognised one of the reference images as Farautâs work. I decided to primarily use that this time because I loved the sculpture and he had uploaded a few different views.
I have a vague idea that I would like to generally work my way through the history of sculpting, and see the evolution of technique and stylesâŚbut I expect I will jump forwards and backwards a bit as I go, and probably veer off course a few times as unrelated creative bugs bite.
As for this one, I am not entirely pleased with the end result, at one point I was, then all of a sudden I have noticed many things that I do not like about it. The torso seems too chunky, and the arms definitely seem too large (and not much definition there). However, I finally learned how to properly UV unwrap a model, so it was nice to see textures as intended for a change. The arms could have done with an additional hidden seam though.
Ah well, I learned a lot about the human form that I donât think I would have inuitively knownâŚwhich I find strange - how can it be that as a human (I swear!) I know so little about the human formâŚyet I found the same thing with the human head sculpt. Lots of unnatural details that I couldnât even figure out despite having seen hundreds and thousands of people in real life before! It just goes to show that there is a major difference between just seeing and actually examining and understanding.
do you mean the latest video on youtube by faurat, where he sculps a female torso?..that came out so beautiful, it looked like magicâŚ
yes, learning to see i what you mean, here is a blog post i wrote some time ago, that might be interesting to you, it applies to sculpting too, even though there is talk about carvingâŚ
I wasnât aware of his video, I just googled âblender human torso sculpting tutorialâ and watched one near the top. I usually do that with something new so that I can get a very quick overview of something that I hadnât done before. I equate it with reading the table of contents of a new book and browsing through the diagrams before starting to learn - hopefully it lays out some broad ideas and methods that I will fill in with my own experiences (and adjust/correct as and when new info/experience informs that process). I didnât actually do the tutorial though. Sometimes thatâs good, sometimes itâs not A tutorial by Faraut would be the kind of video that I would watch in detail though!
Thanks for the link to your blog post - it is quite relevant to my issue! The drawing exercise is very pertinent to a problem that I noticed just a couple of days ago. I have started to work through Loomisâ figure drawing book and when I was wasnât paying full attention to my sketches I was misplacing proportion lines by much more than I expected I would. Even with very simple divisions like 8 head tall figures. After realising this and trying to really see, rather than just glance and assume, it became a lot better. I expect this is something that can always be worked on, so it will be something I must constantly remind myself to think about (your blog suggestions for doing it when you go about your every day business are good - I have caught myself doing it occasionally at the cashier, trying to estimate how wide their head is in eyes for example haha).
Stay tuned! I have nearly finished something that I spent quite a lot more time on than I had initially anticipated. A good lesson in underestimating how much work a particular idea might take to bring to realisation.
sounds great!! looking forward to it