The Faces Project

Ember Pettersen
May 19
4 min read

Updated: Sep 1

May 19 2025

After applying to a Jr Organic Modeler position I was asked if I have any faces in my portfolio. This wasn't the first time I have been asked this, an even though I love making creatures, I need to add some faces to my portfolio if I'm going to break into the VFX industry. So this is that project.

This will be split into 2 parts.

Part 1 : 30 faces.

I will, for a month, sculpt a face everyday. With a break June 1st - 12th as I will be on a camping trip and wish to enjoy my time.

Part 2 : Likeness Project

I will take one of these sculpts, and turn it into a 2 month long likeness project where I will take it through the full production pipeline. Using Zbrush, Maya, Houdini, Arnold, Mari, and Marvelous Designer.

Let's begin!

30 Faces

Day 1

For the first day I wanted to have a clean slate. This is my start before any studying or practice. I used Nomad on iPad, and a mugshot of a Philadelphia woman for reference.

Day 2

For my second day I started off with some reading of "Form of the Head and Neck" by Uldis Zarins, and we're back to Zbrush.

Day 3

For my third day I wanted to use a celebrity, the mugshots are great to find unique an interesting faces with a front and side profile, but missing the depth from different lighting an different perspectives was becoming tricky, so after chit chatting with my dad on who I should sculpt next, he chose Stellan Skarsgard from Dune.

I also started fallowing Scott Eatons facial anatomy course after a recommendation from a friend, Daniela Vataj, who's a character artist.

Day 4

Didn't have a lot of time for this one, an I feel it kind of shows, but here's my attempt at Billie Eilish.

Day 5

I like the idea of continuing with singers, so of course I had to do a personal favorite Ella Fitzgerald. I also did this sculpt on stream :) , and think this will be a good chunk of my streaming content while I work on this project.

Day 6

I had a lot of fun with this sculpt. Figuring out the forms of Benedict Wong's cheeks, and having a very pronounced brow an inset nose, this was a delight to make.

Day 7

For this one, I wanted to try doing an old woman. After chit chatting with my girlfriend, she mentioned Whan-od Oggay, a 107 Fillipino tattoo artist.

Whilst working on all these faces, I'm paying attention to any one where I may want to take it to be my full likeness study, this one is definitely a contender.

Day 8

Wanted to try doing a young face for today, so we went with little Anakin. Sculpted on Nomad.

Day 9

Wanted to try doing a bald man, so why not professor X! As to the suggestion of Christopher Herrick, I also changed the focal length of my camera to 85mm to get a better portrait style shot, along with turning the exposure down by -0.5.

Day 10

I didn't really know who I wanted to sculpt for today, running along the same idea of super hero characters, we went with a personal favorite of Dr. Strange!

Day 11

From the recommendation of my friend Sena Sarwari we went with Whoopie Goldberg.

Day 12

For today I wanted to try doing a more angular feminine face.

Day 13

After recommendation from Christopher Herrick, we sculpted Alan Rickman (good old professor Snape!), and also per his recommendation switched to gray material renders. I think this brings out the subtler forms a lot better. I've since gone back an re-rendered up to day 8.

Day 14

Why not some Willem Defoe!

Day 15

From here on, because I have taken on another project we're shortening the face sculpts down to 1 hour sessions as warmups. So for our first warmup up, we've got Bob Marley!