The Rookie Awards 2023

This first project is the portrait of one of my favourite artists, Michael Kiwanuka. I wanted to create my first digi double and likeness starting from scratch as opposed to with a scan and it was a tough challenge! 

I'm very thankful to the Rookies to have been able to write an article about this piece. You can read it here if you fancy a more in-depth view of the project!

The compositing done by my friend Laurent Chavalle

Displacement and albedo maps from Texturing XYZ were the starting point and I built from there.

HDRIs by Cave Academy & PolyHaven

Trying out skin clusters for the first time

This second project was inspired by an illustration made by Lucas Merli, called A Tear in the Dark

While preparing this piece, I found a figurine of Vader and thought I would try scanning it to get proportion references. I found videos of people unboxing said figurine and managed to get some decent angles and a scan actually worked! 

I ended up completely redesigning but it was a fun process to go through, as well as looking at old behind the scenes footage from Return of the Jedi.

I definitely need to have this one printed out! I made the cape with that in mind for sure

Scan reference comparison

Apollo's Cattle

This project is a work in progress, the aim is to emulate an illustration by John Rocco. It portraits baby Hermes, having stolen Apollo's cattle. It's a fun tale that I'm having fun translating into 3D.

Work in Progress

Original art by John Rocco