I often get asked for WIP’s and I rarely have anything to show (WIP’s require an ordered and tidy mindset which I just don’t posses). For my recent post Web Weaver however I did happen to have several stages saved on my computer that I thought might be of some interest (particularly the use of ZBrush as a problem solving tool which I was specifically asked about.)

1. This is the sketch that I scanned into my computer…very unfinished. I still have only the vaguest of ideas what this is going to be about: a girl tied to something and being threatened/eaten by a monster (original huh??)

2. I had been having terrible trouble with the perspective on the girl’s head. As a sculptor I don’t have to worry about all those unusual viewpoints, perspectives, vanishing points etc and so am very unskilled with them (I really must practice my drawing/painting more!!) To get myself out of trouble I sculpted this head in ZBrush, set it to the angle I wanted and added it to the drawing…. voila!!...problem solved!

3. I’ve worked a bit on the girl here. She’s no longer tied up and has definitely become a sort of anthro…her ears moved all over the place during this stage, at the moment she’s a bit rabbitty with them on top of her head!
Originally the creature was a maggoty kinda guy coming up from behind her now he’s more insect like and comes down from on high…I thought that made a more elegant composition.

4. I’ve worked a lot on the girl here. Her pose and proportions are pretty much as they will stay. I tried a zillion different hairstyles on her and settled on this Mohawk in the end. She also still has her body paint that I later ditched.
The creature is becoming recognizable as the finished one but this is still very sketchy and I know I’ll have to draw him up properly before I can finish him.
She also originally stood on a whole heap of skulls…but I was never really happy with them (I don’t like pictures that go ‘all the way to the edges’ as I always think of them…I like vignettes best).

5. I just can’t draw in the computer so I had to do a finished pencil drawing of the beastie. The claw you see ‘floating’ was originally going over her shoulder and breasts.

6. Almost there now! The girl is practically finished, I’ve moved her arm from behind her back (a hangover from when she was going to be tied up) and it’s positioned to look like she’s shoving the creature away. She’s lost her body paint and gained some stripy skin instead.
The Weaver himself is still in his skinny version and his arm has gone back around her hips, as when it was over her shoulder and breasts it tended to cut the picture in half. I was also messing about with his face here.
The massed skulls have gone, replaced by a single one and some rocks and I’m much happier. The skull by the way is supposed to be big…it’s a human skull and my faery girlies are smaller than humans.

7. The finished painting. I felt the Weaver needed to be more bulky, so fattened his backside up, the textures are based on photos of cocoons I found.
The girl’s arm has finally settled into place and her eyes have become more animalistic. I know a lot of people don’t like it when I give my characters these dark eyes…but I think they really work so ya boo to you who don’t like em!!
I spent ages messing around with overlays, lighting and colour changes for the background…I can waste a day just dicking around like that sometimes!! I settled on this slanting light and shadows as I felt it gave movement to the piece.

And that’s it! Hope you found this interesting. My work practices are chaotic at the best of times so how helpful anyone will find this I really don’t know...but if you have any other questions I’ll be only to pleased to try and answer them.