I was inspired a lot by all the great elf characters out there - like in the Blizzard games or LOTR movies... They always had this sense of refinement and majesty almost. I wanted to do a character like that and also to use it as a means to improve my skills as an artist.

Started off just sketching the head in zbrush. Initially I didn't know this project would become something so big - it started as just a quick sculpt. Once I had the head done - I saw the potential - so I did a quick sketch of what I wanted the rest of his body to look like and went from there. It was a very organic process.

Base mesh in XSI - zbrush for sculpt, textures handpainted in Photoshop and rendered in Maya.

The background is some pictures of a nature reserve in Trinidad that I stitched together and composited in...

Here's the WIP thread: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=59571

ENJOY!!!!