Get fresh ideas with 3D sculpting

Paul Canavan shows you how to use 3D sculpting tools to relax and generate ideas for an illustration

Paul Canavan shows how to conquer artist’s block.

very artist has experienced art block. Stress is a major factor that contributes to this condition: being unable to think of anything to draw, struggling with an existing painting or feeling inadequate when you compare your work to others leads to frustration and can ultimately stop you wanting to create at all. This is bad. Developing a process that would remove the stress of painting illustrations became a major goal of mine.

Pareidolia is a fancy word to describe the phenomenon whereby we see shapes such as human faces or animals in clouds or other places you wouldn’t expect them. This has been used by artists for years, doodling in sketchbooks until an idea pops out, but for my art block-beating process I wanted to remove myself from drawing in the early stages altogether. Sculpting, whether using traditional materials like clay or with 3D software was the answer: it’s tactile, relaxing – and fun! Spending an hour or so playing around in 3D led to interesting shapes and compositions every time and consistently gave me ideas for new illustrations.

I’ll be using 3D-Coat for the sculpting phase (alternatives include ZBrush and Sculptris), OctaneRender for rendering (lots of options here including Blender, MODO or KeyShot), DAZ 3D and Photoshop. No real 3D knowledge is required for this workshop – experimentation is the key here!

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