Reply To: [ENDED] BC1-1801 – January Class Homepage – Getting Started with 3D Modeling & Blender

First, I’ve got to say, fantastic work overall, especially for a first sculpt.

Here’s a few things where using references from multiple angles like @theluthier mentioned at the end of today’s live stream can really be helpful.  It may be a little hard to tell some of these from just the one angle of your sculpt (or just using one angle in a reference) but here’s a few things about canines in particular but a a lot of these types of quadropeds in general.

First, with the front legs, image walking around on your hands and knees. Your elbows would be pointed back towards your body. The dog’s forelegs would operate in a similar manner. I think in my fox, I went the wrong direction on one of these bends which is one reason it came out looking wrong.  (I was trying to think my way through it, and if I’d given myself more time, I probably would have figured this out and corrected it, but I was trying to keep that on inside 30 minutes on the sculpt, focusing on the overall above details because some things can still be easily fixed on it at this point.)  I think yours seems like it might be going the right way, but something to keep an eye on if you want to push this further.

There were a couple of things with the head.  Most dogs have an almost lazy S (like an S shape that doesn’t quite double back on itself  is what I mean) shapes going form the head to the nose rather than straight lines, most notably from the top view to form the muzzle and from the side as well. On some dogs (like a Chihuahua), this is more pronounced from the “top” view, and some, like shepherds (like I think this one is) it’s less obvious from a top perspective. Take a look multiple pictures, and I think you might can see what I mean.  (This shape on the head is common on most felines and canines in particular in some varying degree.)

And like Kent said, these points are a bit nit picking, but it’s little things like this that you want to learn to pay attention to in using references, both from pictures and ones you physically have access to, that can really help to push your work further.