Mixed media artist Yellena James is well known for her colorful artwork of undersea corals, compositions in gouache and watercolor that create micro-universes bursting with life. I'm a big fan of her book Star, Branch, Spiral, Fan, which breaks down these four shapes found in nature and how to use them in art.
To sculpt her illustration titled "Flit", I first started sketching out forms in Oculus Medium. Starting my project in VR let me quickly understand the proportions of my objects, and where to position them in space around me to get the composition I wanted.
I moved to ZBrush to continue adding details and arranging my pieces. Since corals have such intricate details, I used alphas to stamp ridge textures onto coral poufs. This step is where I refined the shapes of tendrils and fronds.
Finally, I exported the mesh to Maya to add materials and render with Arnold. I used translucent materials with subsurface scattering to give the pieces a glassy, ethereal feeling while keeping a believable texture.
