Our white Christmas lasted well into the new year, so I was inspired to do more snowy paintings in Procreate before it all melted. We’ve had some nice warm weather here this past week, but I’ve been informed that it’s now “Fool’s Spring” in Vancouver, so I may once again catch the mood to paint more winter scenes in the next few months.
Over the holidays, I stumbled upon some new iPad apps that are great for creating reference. One is Nomad Sculpt by Hexanomad. It’s like a mini ZBrush for the iPad. I used it to sculpt and light reference for my crying elf and this snowman.
If you just need a basic human face with customizable expressions and features, Face Model by Code Lunatics has a lot of controls and is easy to use. The lighting isn’t quite as customizable as Nomad’s, but I’m hoping they’ll add more options in the future. I’ve been using Magic Poser since this summer for full body poses, so it’s nice to have something just for the face.
Neither of these apps are free ($15 USD for Nomad and $3.99 USD for Face Model at the time of this writing), but when I find apps this useful, I like to support the developers.
Have suggestions for other art reference apps or resources? Share in the comments please! Happy New Year!