Character Modeling Project WIP - ArenaNet Art Test

I've decided to have a crack at the character art test for ArenaNet. It's fun, and I figure if I don't get the job I'll learn a lot from doing it anyway.

So! This week I started out working on getting a base mesh going with nice clean topology for the body and face, and blocking out proxy versions of the armor pieces to situate everything, and also to use as starters for the low poly pieces. Next up will be working on hi poly versions of everything!

I'm hoping to get most of the hi poly modeling done on the hard surface pieces in Max before going to zBrush for details, which always seems to give me cleaner hard surface stuff than if I blocked it out and then sculpted all in zBrush. Now that zBrush 4R7 has poly modeling tools, though, it might be worth taking them for a test run for this project.

Here are some progress shots of the lovely lady so far:

The provided concept art in the background

It's a balance between keeping close enough to the concept, and also tweaking things so they look good to my eyes in 3D.

Trying to keep everything simple at this point. From my  in-game *ahem* research,  lot of GW2 armors make use of double sided planes and alpha, in any case.

I may interpret the back of the armor my own way. I know this armor does exist in Guild Wars 2 the way the ArenaNet artists interpreted it, but since the provided concept doesn't show the back, I might offer up my own take on it.

Still well within the polycount requirement at this point, but I like to have some buffer if I can. I am sure I will need to spend a few polys I didn't account for after I get everything in a high poly sculpt.

Long way to go, but it's a start! Trying to get as much feedback as I can at each stage so that I'm at least cramming new information into my head. 

Working on this has also made me want to play some more Guild Wars. For science. 

Will (hopefully remember to) post updates as I go!

Woodland Park Zoo Sketches!

I've been really terrible about posting anything recently, so I'll compensate by posting a few sketchdumps this week of random stuff I've been doing the last month or so (along with some new stuff).

Seattle has seen some really nice weather this weekend, so I decided to crawl out of my art cave and squint at the bright light in the sky for a bit. Got the chance to spend a few hours at Woodland Park Zoo, one of my favorite places to sketch. Really lucked out, several of the animals were quite active during the time that we went!

I recently got an awesome new double ended brush pen, so decided to use this trip as an opportunity to test it out for sketching. Had a lot of fun with it! Here are the results:

This snow leopard was frolicking around and being adorable

Bears, wolves, elk, eagles and...tapir. What are you doing here, tapir?

Trying out the two different ends of my new pen - both give a line quality that I really like for quick sketching

My sketching habit is much better than it used to be, but I've gotta get back in the habit of posting things, too!