Realistic Portrait (Blender/Zbrush)

Syblend · May 27, 2019, 8:34pm

Hello,
I am working on a realistic portrait. I am sculpting it in zbrush and I will texture and render it in Blender.
My reference is the actress Kaya Scodelario. I am trying to catch the likeness, that is the main difficulty I met for the moment. I am not sure you can easily recognize her for the moment… I am working on that.
Sculpt in zbrush (still in progress) :

Texture test (just a preview, I will remake all textures when the sculpt will be finished)

What do you think about this start ? Any tip to improve the likeness ?
Thanks

XGibbo · March 21, 2019, 4:51pm

Looks really good so far. The proportion of the jaw and neck look like they need to be made a bit larger. I like to do likeness sculpts myself so I know how difficult it can be. Have you added temporary hair? I find it hepls to catch the likeness. I also like to zoom way out on the figure ( so it looks distant ) and this helps a lot in looking t the overall likenes. Nice job so far.

Syblend · March 22, 2019, 9:59pm

Thank you for your comment ! I tried to apply your advices.

New pictures :

Syblend · March 30, 2019, 11:40pm

Hi, I did a lot of changes to improve the likeness
What do you think about these new pictures ?

Outsidelane · April 2, 2019, 1:43pm

Keep going.
Also add some eyebrows; they change the look quite a bit.
Here my 2 cents.

PS: Likeness is a bitch, but you’re getting there - i knew who you were sculpting right away at least

Syblend · April 3, 2019, 8:51pm

Hi, thank you very much for this very constructive reply. It helped me a lot
New pictures… it is very difficult to catch the likeness but I think it is a bit better :

robi · April 4, 2019, 4:46pm

Nice. What doesn’t work at this stage (in my opinion, please feel free to ignore it) is that your model is symmetric, whilst the real girl is pretty a-symmetric. She has her left eye higher than the right, her chin leans in the opposite direction and I think these irregularities are an important part of her, because they make her interesting and different from a standardized-boring-beauty, making her alive.
I attach an image to show what I mean (lines are slightly exagerated, but you get the idea.

Syblend · April 6, 2019, 10:17pm

Thank you very much. I totally agree, she needs asymmetry. For the moment I think I can still improve my sculpt base. Then, when it will be really good I will add asymmetry.
New pictures :

Is it better ?
Edit : just a texture test

Syblend · April 10, 2019, 9:09pm

New improvements :

Syblend · April 11, 2019, 4:44pm

I did some new adjusments :

Syblend · April 15, 2019, 4:43pm

New pictures. I know there is a problem with the ear. I will solve it when I will do the retopology.

What do you think about it ?

Syblend · April 19, 2019, 9:54pm

Photox · April 21, 2019, 11:37am

This is coming along nicely. I have a lot of critiques but I’m not 100% sure if this is supposed to be a likeness of a real person. If so I don’t recognize the woman in the earlier post, so I can’t really check against it. Let me know.

Syblend · April 21, 2019, 1:05pm

Thank you. Yes, it is supposed to be a likeness of a real person. My reference is Kaya scodelario. I have a lot of work to get the likeness but I would really like to know your critiques to improve it.

Photox · April 21, 2019, 1:20pm

Well for starters, this is really good, and you’re really close. I’d say maybe another hour of symmetry work, and then turn it off and start working on it asymmetrically.

Can you show me your reference sheet? I am a believer of one big ref sheet with ~12 images total ~2 each for front 3/4 and side, and then 6 other off angle 1/3, 2/3 shots.

Photox · April 22, 2019, 3:42pm

The biggest overall change is that the cheeks/jawline should be wider/thicker/fatter and the chin should wider and less pointed. the nose should be slightly wider, look at angles. the lip’s cupid’s bow is way too sharp and pronounced K has softer more circular arches. Anyways, here is a paintover of the thing I see. Good luck!

Syblend · April 24, 2019, 9:02pm

Hello, thank you very much for this very helpful reply
I did some improvements :

My references are various images from internet. I use also some video to see various angles.

Photox · April 25, 2019, 1:20pm

Nice progress, you’re really really close. You should start putting in hair, eyebrows, lashes, and working on the slight asymmetry. She has a lot of looks, for the final work you might want to cut down your references and just focus on a few similar ones.

Syblend · May 1, 2019, 9:17pm

Thank you !

I changed some things and I started to work on asymmetry.

Retopology made in Blender :

Photox · May 1, 2019, 10:05pm

Nice work. Look forward to seeing it finished soon!