Axe was a character I created for a multitude of reasons- I wanted to demonstrate my competency in creating more stylized, “cutesy” work, I had yet to create a character model that didn’t use a cell shader for the final render, and I wanted to try to sculpt an organic environment. In the end, I settled on a Rankin Bass inspired hand-painted character meant to resemble a clay model in an environment resembling those used in toy miniatures. I hoped that by tackling a lot of unfamiliar territory all at once, I would see exponential growth in my character work as well as my general artistic skill.

And I was correct! This sculpt posed a ton of unique challenges- for example, posing a character with such short legs and a wide body was really difficult, especially since I couldn’t rig it. I found that leaning on the longer, more flexible arms to create a compelling line of action helped, along with splitting the upper body and legs into separate subtools to keep the stomach from warping when the character bent over.

The tree was also a massive hurdle. Trying to create convincing foliage in Zbrush was daunting, and I spent a lot of time wrestling with fibermesh or covering a ZSphere block-in with low poly leaves. I couldn’t wrap my head around how to make it look good until I realized that my mindset was off- I was trying to sculpt a real tree, when I should have been trying to figure out how to sculpt a miniature tree. Miniatures use big, chunky shapes and exaggerated features to be readable despite their small size, and by recreating these features I was able to achieve the playful, toylike look I was going for.

Overall, I’m extremely pleased with my results- I think the piece tells a fun story, and I got to push myself in ways I haven’t really experienced before. I’d love to try my hand at a more complex environment scene someday.

Sculpted and polypainted in Zbrush, rendered in Marmoset Toolbag.