ZBrush's heart is in its workflows.

Ryan Kingslien has just added a couple of tutorials that are worth checking out!

Sculpting Dynamic Hair (60 Min)

Artistic Workflows (30 min)

Ryan Kingslien is the master of ZBrush!

Pixie figure study

Hate having a cold - Winter sucks!

Here is a figure study I did last month.

My Neighbor Totoro

More old work - My Neighbor Totoro that I did last year in ZBrush. Might redo him one day and add fiber mesh for the fur.

New print - framed and ready to hang!

Just picked up my new print that I did for my son - he was super stoked.
Frame turned out to be a perfect match! Big thanks to David from Exhibit A in Wellington for the frame.

We are so lucky to have amazing friends.  ^___^

Brrrr Winter has arrived!

Started snowing in the hills around Wellington today. Inside, warm and on my third coffee =^____^=

Just about to start something new - but, thought I would just start adding some old works up in between new works. Here is a  Thompson submachine Gun I did last year - it was my first attempt at hard surface modelling in ZBrush.

I Love ZBrush! What more can I say?

Changes over the years to ZBrush have been fair but, 4r5 is the shit!
I have a newfound love for ZBrush! <3

Inspiration even from the smallest things

We are so lucky to live in a city where there are still streams clean enough to have an abundance of wildlife!
I did some illustrations of a few creatures found just down the end of our pathway.

This is a Caddisfly (as if you didn't know that :)
Illustrated in Photoshop CS6 with my trusty wacom.

I just read this interview by Caddisfly expert Kjell Arne Johanson, a professor and head of the entomology department at the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

"Little known by the general public, Caddisflies are an ancient group of aquatic insects that are important indicators of ecological health".

Caddisfly larvae live for around 11 months before they pupate, so they accumulate pollution from the water and are good for extracting chemicals dating back several months.  Of course, pollution will affect larvae and they will die if some pollutants get too high. Some species react in different ways.

Are they important ecologically?

They have been able to adapt to many different kinds of water systems and they are very important for water ecosystems and above the water. They are a food resource for many kinds of organisms, including bats, birds, amphibians, fish, and other insects, such as diving beetles and dragonfly larvae. By occupying so many different niches they are available in far higher degree than other organisms.

We should try to save as many microhabitats as possible because there are many species that are dependent on them. There might be quite many species within a small area, and that diversity should be saved in order to keep ecosystems intact.

Anything else we should know about caddisflies?

They are quite beautiful. Although many are gray-brownish there are a lot of species that are more or less colorful, reminding of the colorful moths. They are fascinating in many respects. They build these larval cases from different kinds of material, and they use what they find. There are species-specific requirements, but they will try to build cases from what they have around them.

So there you go. Next time you are out taking the dog for a walk or playing with the kids in the park, take some time out to have a look for these little critters they are truly wonderful!

Butterfly ZBrush Model

Just a quick render of the butterfly I did for ""Reconnecting with Nature" image.

Introducing "Goatman" - Creature design concept

So, I just finished goatman yesterday. Haven't really done any creature designs before, so it was fun to just play around in Zbrush. I didn't have any clear idea as to what I wanted to make but, I think it turn out alright.

• Modelled, Textured and Rendered in ZBrush - comp in Photoshop.

OMG! my computer is so sloooooooooow  - took two full days to render out a turntable!
It's so painful!

"Reconnecting with nature"

My 6 year old son asked me to make him a robot...

"Dad,  make it old school, and it's not allowed to run on battery power"

Anyway here it is "Reconnecting with nature"- ZBrush, comp in Photoshop.
I have done a print for him which is getting framed at the moment - Pick it up next week, can't wait to see his face when he unwraps it :)

"Reconnecting with nature"

Internal workings - progress render.
there was a lot more added in the final image

external detail work