Sculpting a Sea Turtle with ZBrush - Part 1: Blocking Out the Basic Form

Hello, Steemians. I'm back with a new blog post and picking up where I left off in the previous one. With this, I continue demonstrating and documenting my effort to learn ZBrush, and this time I will present to you, in various parts and not just one blog, a small personal project from start to finish.

For this small project, I chose to give life to one that's been in my to-do list since late 2017. I had originally planned to do this in Blender, but personal as well as professional concerns would often get in the way, and I just decided to do it at another time.

The sculpting process is divided into three parts, namely:

• Blocking of the basic form
• Shaping and refinement of the main form
• Adding the fine details

Other aspects such as the painting of textures will be covered in future blogs, when I have learned the basics of painting sculpted meshes with ZBrush's own polypainting toolset.

Chelonia mydas, the Green Sea Turtle

There are seven types of sea turtles and all of them are in various levels of being endangered. I chose the green sea turtle because it is the most popular, thanks to the characters, Crush and Squirt, in Finding Nemo, who happen to be green turtles. Their pop culture status has made them the poster boys for the plight of their kind, and for all endangered marine creatures, as well.

Some facts about these creatures:
1. The green turtle is the largest species of hard-shelled turtles, and is the second largest of all sea turtles.
2. Green turtles are 3 to 4 feet (91 to 122 cm) long and weigh 300 to 350 pounds (136 to 159 kg).
3. Green turtles are thought to live for 60 to 70 years, reaching sexual maturity at 25 to 35 years old.
4. Green turtles are named after their green-colored fat, which they get from their herbivorous diet of seagrass and algae.
5. Green turtles live all over the world and can be found off the coasts of more than 140 countries.
6. Typically, only female sea turtles will visit shores during their lifetime, but male and female green turtles are known to come ashore and bask in the sun on Hawaiian beaches.
7. Female green turtles return to the same beach where they were born to nest, no matter how far it is.

Source

And, as preparation for this type of project, one cannot proceed without gathering first, as many of the reference images one feels he or she might need for the task. I did not bother to download them, I just Googled "green sea turtle", and left the tab open.

The Sculpting Process in Action

For the first part of the creation process, I begin by blocking out the basic form of the creature. Since the body plan of all marine turtles are pretty much the same, I could also use this base form to create the other kinds of sea turtles. And, here it is in its rough and inaccurate glory.