Quick Dummy Base Head

[SporkFuMaster]

I know I’m one of those people who always hated those “How to draw” books as a kid. I could never follow along with making a bunch of circles and then erasing everything. Just show me how to draw the final thing without all the stuff in between and without an eraser. And I couldn’t get into the whole planes thing for faces. I’m sure it has its uses, I just don’t want to spend the time. I like things as quick and simple as I am…lol.

So, here’s my little method for creating a base head. It’s not a perfect head, just something to generate quickly to start the next steps. Usually, since it’s fast enough, I create one for almost every sculpt rather than using a pre made one. So for me, this can be as fast as a few minutes (minus the ears which is only 1-2 minutes more for their base). Figured you never know, just might help someone else who isn’t a fan of the other methods either.

Starting with the sphere, I’ll turn the view to the left side an pull out the lower left and side down and left to a rough 45 deg.

Now I can pull the upper left hand side towards the front as well

With the side profile done, switch to the front view and pull in the sides.

For this base I also turned it back to the side and added in a small indication for the chin.

Now to start with the features of the face. At this point I also turned on dynamic topology with subdivide and just left the rest at the standard settings. Finding an approximate halfway point, and using the clay brush, I started with a line and then two little circles. With the head said to be 5 eyes wide and having one eye width between the eyes. This, as well as every other step doesn’t need to be exact. Everyone’s head is different as well as the measurements. Besides, everything can still be tweaked later.

I dug them in a little deeper. Next, turned it to the side to pull the outer sides of the orbital sockets towards the back slightly as well as pulling in the upper portion of the bridge of the nose flatter with the forehead.

Sometimes I’ll also dig a bit on the side of the nose at a slight curve into the outer mouth. I’ll be filling it back in later.

Not sure how many images it will allow for each post, so I’m going to continue this on the next one.

[SporkFuMaster]

Now it’s time for the nose. At about half the distance from the eyes to the chin I made a little mound.

Creating a line and building it up slightly to the bridge of the nose.

Here’s the same thing from the side.

Using the Move tool, pull it out to resemble more of a nose.

Back to the clay tool to throw in some quick nostrils.

Now shifting back to the front view, I started with the Crease tool and cut in the shape for where the lips meet. It’s a little low, but I’ll be adjusting it shortly.

Back to the side view and I pulled the edges of the lips back.

Back to the front and I use the clay brush again to carve the area just above the chin into the lower lip.

Continued once again.

[SporkFuMaster]

Pull out the Smooth tool and smooth it all out.

Now I started filling in some of the skin and fat between the nose and front cheeks as well as adding the extra bits to the sides of the mouth.

Small bit of detail to the lip areas. Not necessary at this point, but it helps me to do some adjustments here and there.

And now go back over those cheeks with the smooth brush and pull the lips up just a bit.

Since the ear is located at roughly half the length of the skull, that’s where I’m going to start the slant of the jaw.

Now carve a bit further in for the rest as well as around the base of the skull.

And again, smooth it out with some minor adjustments with the move tool as needed.

Continued once again

[SporkFuMaster]

Next is the neck. I used the clay brush again from a further distance to build enough mass outwards.

Using the move tool to move it further down and start spreading it outwards.

Adding in those long front neck muscles to fill in some of those areas.

And now smoothing most of them out while keeping the mass there. You usually don’t see more than an indication of them underneath the skin unless there’s some major facial muscles going, or the character is super thin, etc.

This is just to pull out a bit more of the neck for a fuller bust.

For most, this should be enough of a base to get things started. I’m still going to add my way for ears though. I’ve seen a lot of tutorials where they use a mask, but to me it just ends up looking like an ear that’s been plastered to the side of a head. To me, ears have more form to them.

[SporkFuMaster]

Starting at the side again, I form the base to the ear where it connects to the head. The upper connection is usually straight back from where the upper cheek bone and lower part of the eye socket are. Basically, where the jaw fits in. The lower connection is going to go into the jaw. That backwards C, from this angle is also where the inner curve of the ear starts, so it makes it easy to place once you get to that part of the detailing.

Now I us the regular Brush tool to go around the edges of the ear and push it out.

Back to the side, and with the Move tool to shape it a bit more properly.

And here’s the final quick head which can be tweaked, squished, or mashed to form just about anything I usually need.

[Scully]

Very cool, thank you for sharing!

[Genko3D]

Nice tutorial!

[Marsbar999]

Just what I was looking for

[Marsbar999]

Great work I could follow this tutorial