In Arsen Asyrankulov’s course Organic Sculpting, students learn to think far outside the box with their designs. We recently spoke to student Neeraj Menon, who created the incredible imagery you can see in the gallery above, about his experience with the course, how it shaped his thoughts on design, and how it helped to make him more comfortable with 3D tools in future artwork!
Learn Squared: Your Isopod creature design is so striking! What are some of the inspirations that went into its creation?
Neeraj Menon: Thank you! My initial goal was to make an insectoid creature, so I could sculpt organic forms and shapes. And also something that I could reference and learn from when I came to the texture stage. One of my early sketches (pictured below) had the germ of the idea in place: a female face with her arms clasped, merged into a sea creature’s body. It was a fun challenge to build from that.
Pictured: Neeraj’s initlal sketch (left), then the reference images (center) which inspired the final design’s color scheme (right)
LS: How did the design evolve as you progressed through the course? Were there any points where you decided to change things up?
Neeraj: The design evolved most in terms of color/texture I’d say. I initially wanted the creature to have a glowing ethereal look, drenched in white. But as I started texturing, I found my shapes and forms getting lost in the uniform color. I went back to my insect references, for inspiration on how to separate the color and shape. That’s where the blue, black and white came from.
LS: Arsen shows off a lot of very outside-the-box design and sculpting methods in the course. Was there anything about this process that you particularly enjoyed? Maybe some aspects you hadn’t tried before?
Neeraj: There were a LOT actually. Some really basic things like using PureRef to have references up on screen while working. I use it all the time now. And some really important technical tips as well, how to use Sculptris mode in ZBrush efficiently and to then create clean topology. Most relevant for me however, and the main reason I took the course, was to learn how to efficiently set my file up for UVs and send them to substance for texturing. I’ve always been shackled by my lack of understanding on the subject, and would create pretty low detail sculpts in ZBrush, so they could be imported easier into software like KeyShot for render. I would then take hours doing paintovers in Photoshop. [But that’s] no more, I can now sculpt with all the detail I want, and texture it all cleanly for render.
Pictured: Close-up view of Neeraj’s creature as the design progressed.
LS: Tell us about your background as an artist. What do you do normally, and what brought you to Arsen Asyrankulov’s course on Organic Sculpting?
Neeraj: I’m an illustrator and comic book artist. I primarily work as a comic book colorist and currently work with Marvel. I’ve dabbled in concept art and character design brings me a lot of joy. ZBrush especially has been really instrumental in helping my ideas come to life. But as a hobbyist, I’ve mostly resorted to paintovers and Photoshop to ‘finish’ my 3D concepts. Arsen’s course immediately caught my eye with the presentation of his final renders. They were so beautifully textured and moodily rendered. I NEEDED to learn how to do what he does. And I’m very happy to know some of the tricks behind the magic he creates.
Pictured: More creature sketches that Neeraj might explore further in the future.
LS: For the sketching phase of the course, you created quite a few amazing creature ideas. Tell us about some of these. Are there any creatures from the sketches you didn’t go forward with that you might want to finish later?
Neeraj: There were a few ideas I explored based off what Arsen talked about in the sketching phase and some of the artists he mentions in the course. I also wanted to explore a floral, whorl covered character (pictured above, left and center), and that’s the one I will most likely do next.
There’s also one more (pictured above, on the right) which I expect will be a fun sculpting and texturing challenge, and was the sketch I initially wanted to turn into 3d for the course. But decided to go with the more challenging idea instead.
Big thanks to Neeraj for talking to us in this interview—we certainly can’t wait to see where those other creature sketches go from here!
If you want to learn to create your own beautiful organic sculpts, check out Arsen Asyrankulov’s course Organic Sculpting, which is available now on the Learn Squared site.
🎨 See more of Neeraj Menon’s artwork here: https://neerajmenon.com/
⭐️ Try out Organic Sculpting here: https://www.learnsquared.com/courses/organic-sculpting
