Sculpting A Human Skull in ZBrush 2021
Sculpting a Human skull in ZBrush 2021 for artists . In this tutorial series we focus on sculpting Primary forms, secondary forms and tertiary details. For tertiary details we will be using ZBrush HD geometry to capture all those details. And remember this is 100% hand sculpting so it will require a lot of your time and patience. It is highly important to sculpt paying attention to every detail, this also helps you to train your eye and will improve your skills when nailing likeness.
If you follow along to the end and with much practice, investing more hours in hand sculpting you will be ready to tackle any project. On the other hand this is not a beginner tutorial or intro to ZBrush but a hand sculpting tutorial. One thing we can’t stop stressing about is to not rush into tertiary details(fine details), you can use this break down if you want to:
Human Skull Worksheet
Stage Time Spent |
Primary forms 4 Hours |
Secondary forms 6 Hours |
Tertiary details 3 Hours |
Highly Recommended Drawing Tablets
1 | Wacom CTL4100WLK0 Intuos Wireless Graphics Drawing Tablet with Software Included, 7.9″ X 6.3″, Black | Great if you a beginner and in a very tight budget, you can achieve most sculpts |
2 | Wacom DTC133W0A One Digital Drawing Tablet with Screen, 13.3 Inch Graphics Display for Art and Animation Beginners | For ZBrush users who surely want to increase their workflow |
3 | Wacom Cintiq 22 Drawing Tablet with HD Screen, Graphic Monitor, 8192 Pressure-Levels (DTK2260K0A) 2019 Version, Medium | This is what everything artist should have, the power of drawing or sculpting. |
Human Skull Reference
Regarding reference our goal was to get as close as possible to realism, to provide assets that you can be trust. So we used real specimens and cadaver data as our reference, some of our reference board you will see on screen in the tutorial video. To create our own reference board that we could use on one screen, we used an awesome application called pureRef.

Human Skull 3D Model
If you having trouble using images as reference we have made available the human skull for purchase, great high resolution reference, with a base skull mesh, different file formats and HD subdivisions. If you have any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to comment below. Now enough with the talking, lets start Sculpting A Human Skull in ZBrush.