In zbrush, sculpting brings out some of the details I was looking for. At first I had no idea what to do with the design, so I started with the head and slowly expanded it. The head references many cultures and civilisations and finally I settled on a compassionate and peaceful face, that is with the eyes closed or slightly closed, but sculpting is a very deep discipline. A Chinese restorer of relics has said that a statue reveals the mind of the sculptor, and that some deities have a calm face, while others can be seen to be somewhat restless. The Song dynasty Buddha statue pictured here, for example, shows a calmness that belongs to the gods in the light and carving, and can bring the whole scene together.

The Egyptian statue, on the other hand, has a smiling face, and all the reaches of Hathor, the god of joy, carry a smile that puts the whole temple in a joyful mood, even if the painting and face have been smoothed out by the sand.

After experimenting with Maya’sflat dot and line sculpting, which failed, I taught myself zbrush’ and came up with an ideal general appearance, but found the twist braid incorporated into the arms to be unattractive and eventually replaced it with a floating belt.An experiment with nomad was also done in the middle and the results did not fit ideally