Death Dealer III – an homage to Frank Frazetta
This is a commission piece for a friend in Washington State. I was not confident in my ability to pull off such a complicated sculpture. I haven't worked in ZBrush for a long time, and I wasn't really ever proficient in it. The idea of doing something as iconic as a Death Dealer though was enough to get me to get back into digital sculpting and give this a shot. I told the client that there were no guarantees and I got to work. The first couple iterations weren't great, the detail in the painting from Frazetta is challenging at best to see. The figure is backlit so I did attempt to enhance the image in Photoshop to get some of the details of the helmet to pop a bit more. I was able to at least make out that the face had more detail than was in the sculpture from Frazetta. I like the painting more than Frank's sculpted version. There's just something more menacing about the pose, he's more hunched in the painting, so the sculpture was used for the details on the back of the figure, but I used the painting for as much of the front as I could. The colors were chosen based on the painting, the clothing under the chainmail definitely looks more blue in the painting, the rest is pretty open to interpretation. The leathers of the upper body could definitely be black, but I chose to go with browns as they seem to balance better with the blue tones. I did use black for the belt. I drybrushed the chainmail which made the process go pretty quickly, the painting was a lot of fun actually.
Please check out the video: https://youtu.be/ToB9cIHhYlY
And if your interested in a copy of this bad boy for yourself check out my Etsy store: https://brithebuilder.etsy.com
Fookin' great, Brian! Wow!
@tcinla - Thanks Tom. I really appreciate it. This is definitely one of the coolest things I've ever done.
Excellent job and really great result, Brian!
@fiveten - Thanks Spiros, and thanks again for watching the video!
This is a really great sculpture, Brian @brithebuilder
With your skills you should be confident enough to even tackle those complex ones.
@johnb - Thanks John. I appreciate it. I have been doing 3D for a really long time, but digital sculpting feels like another level of 'artist' that isn't my comfort zone. I am going to be doing more custom sculpts though. Gotta stay out of the comfort zone I guess.
Very impressive, Brian.
@chinesegeorge - Thanks George, I appreciate it. I really wasn't sure if I'd be able to do Frazetta's work justice.
Nicely done, Brian. Like the horns.
@gwskat - Thanks Gary, I'm super happy with the way the horns turned out. One of the cooler details I think.
Brian:
Congratulations on your fine work; while the kit is really good, I find that it is your brilliant painting that takes the kit sculpture and makes it into a MASTERPIECE.
Bravo!
@marvin - Thank you Sir! I truly appreciate that.
That is some skill and talent you have.
@dblee - Thanks Dan... I keep feeling like I fake it well. LOL
Wow. This is SO good. Your skills are incredible and all the finishing is great. What printer do you have? Your prints don’t seem to have any layer lines. Just excellent all the way around.
@coondog - Thanks Matt. I really appreciate it. I get lucky sometimes.
I printed this on an Elegoo Mars 4 Max. $250 resin printer... set to .03 mm layer height. It can do .01, but it's so slow at that fine of a layer height. The only place there are any layer lines at all is in some of the caps of smooth curves and those are so fine they sand out really easily. The cost of entry in 3D printing is so low these days. It's crazy. Once I'm in my new place, I'm probably going to get an FDM printer as well for doing larger, less detailed stuff like Storm Trooper helmets.
Well done, Brian (@brithebuilder). I have been an admirer of Frazetta for decades but never thought I would see Death Dealer done in such a dramatic fashion. I have never tried to print anything finer than .05 layer height, but now I want to give it a try. I recently got a Bambu Labs A-1 filament printer, and discovered that it will print fine detail almost as well as my Elegoo Saturn. I am envious of people like you who have the skill to create a model like this using design software. You are a true artist.
@gblair - Thanks George, I've also been a fan of Frazetta for most of my life. I didn't realize until recently that he is why we think of Conan as a barbarian. Robert E. Howard's description of him in the early days was far different than Frazetta chose to depict him.
ZBrush is made for digital sculpting. It can handle an insane amount of geometry to allow for very fine detail.
I did print some of those boots I did a while back at .01 and there was no difference than at .03... at .05 the laces were not as good. It's quite a bit slower if you don't really need the detail though.
I am selling the .stl files on my Etsy store if you want to print and build your own Dealer! It's not hollowed or pre supported but so far I've not had much luck with pre supported models. I generally prefer to set up my own. I feel like people know how to get the best results from their own setups.
I had no idea Conan wasn't always a barbarian. It is hard to picture him as anything other than Arnold. I am on my way to your Etsy store. I have never done a figure, but your Death Dealer has me interested in maybe giving one a try. I also have had much luck with pre-supported files. I am still a novice, so my failure rate is still fairly high. Cheers
I definitely think of Conan as a Barbarian as well, I never actually read any of Robert E. Howards books... my internal vision is from Ernie Chan and Joe Jusko from the Savage Sword of Conan comic books/magazines. I loved those when I was younger. A friend and I had a huge collection when combined. Then, unfortunately, they were lost from his storage unit long ago.
If you do end up buying the Digital files of the Dealer and want any help, just let me know.