ZBrush® Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting, Second Edition

The Écorché Approach to Sculpting

The approach used to sculpt the head and body in Figure 2-21 is called écorché. Écorché is derived from the French word for “skinned” and generally refers to a sculpture of a human or animal with the skin and subcutaneous fat removed so the muscle and skeletal systems are visible. As a method of anatomical study, écorché sculpture involves a constructive approach to building the figure by sculpting the bones and overlying muscles layer by layer, working up to the surface forms. This allows the artist to gain a deeper level of insight into how bone, muscle, and fat combine to create the human form. This tutorial is similar to the process I demonstrate for sculpting the human head in my book ZBrush Digital Sculpting ...