Hecate: The Three Faces of Fate

Hecate — An Apprenticeship Project I’m very proud to finally share my Hecate model. I created her as part of my apprenticeship with Dalren Kaldulren, and this project ended up becoming one of the most memorable lessons I’ve had while learning ZBrush. The whole point of the lesson was actually pretty simple: Dalren wanted me to learn how to work faster. I have a tendency to overthink my models, keep changing things, redo areas I’m not completely happy with, and spend way too much time trying to preserve every little detail. So for this project, he decided I was going to have time limits. Lots of time limits.   And reminders about those time limits. And reminders about how much of those time limits I had already used. Along with plenty of sarcastic warnings about what would supposedly happen to the future of my apprenticeship if I didn’t finish in time. Basically, complete torture.   In a meaningful educational way, of course. 😂 My first attempt at Hecate did not go well at all. I had unfinished areas and mistakes that I wasn’t sure how to fix, so I turned to something I love and apparently believed could solve every sculpting problem imaginable: Roses.   Roses are actually my favorite flower, so adding a few of them seemed perfectly reasonable to me. The problem was that I didn’t stop at a few. If an area wasn’t finished, I added a rose. If I didn’t like something, another rose. If I wasn’t sure what to do with an area... apparently it also needed a rose. Eventually I had gone completely overboard. Dalren’s response was a roughly three-page satire about my model and my excessive use of roses. That should probably have been the low point of the project. It wasn’t.   At one point I managed to mess up another version badly enough that even Dalren couldn’t fix it. There was no clever repair. No saving it. No emergency rose placement. I had completely destroyed that version and had to start over again. At that point, redoing Hecate was becoming a regular part of my week. The deadline jokes didn’t help either. After one of the first nights working on her, I actually had a nightmare where I was being chased while running out of time.   Naturally, I told Dalren about it. Naturally, he thought it was hilarious. And naturally, that meant I heard even more about time limits afterward. Unfortunately, real life also decided that this would be the perfect week to make everything more difficult. I had several things happen throughout the week that interfered with the different timeframes he gave me. For once, even Dalren had to admit that I had some very legitimate reasons for missing them. There was also a point where everything I was dealing with outside of designing became overwhelming. Dalren stopped giving me a hard time about the project and helped talk me through it. That part of the experience is important to me too. Underneath all of the sarcasm, deadlines, and teasing, his actual goal was never to make the project miserable. He was trying to push me out of a habit that was holding me back and teach me how to make decisions faster and trust myself more while designing. Although I will still continue referring to the process as torture. He made sure I included that part. 😂   What was supposed to be a timed exercise eventually took me about a week, and I probably went through around twenty different versions of Hecate before arriving at the finished model.   That might sound a little ridiculous, but repeatedly doing things over is also one of the ways I learn best. Every version taught me something.   I became more comfortable using different ZBrush brushes and tools. I learned better ways to combine and modify pieces. I got faster at correcting problems instead of staring at them forever. I also became much more willing to make major changes when something wasn’t working instead of being afraid that I was going to ruin the model.   Although, considering I created at least one version that neither of us could rescue, apparently sometimes I really was going to ruin the model. Another major part of the lesson was realizing that I had completely overthought the assignment from the beginning. I believed I needed to preserve every possible detail of Hecate and somehow incorporate everything into this very elaborate finished sculpture. Eventually Dalren had mercy on me and showed me what he had actually been trying to teach me. It was much simpler than what I had turned it into.   Take the parts I was given and make them work together as one cohesive model. That was it.   I had spent so much time trying to make the assignment more complicated than it needed to be that I was actually making the work harder for myself. Once I finally understood that, everything started making much more sense. Looking at the finished Hecate now, I see much more than the final sculpture.   I see all of the failed versions that came before her. I see the tools and techniques I learned along the way. I see the areas I completely rebuilt, the mistakes I figured out how to correct, and even the version that was beyond saving. Most importantly, I can see how much faster and more confident I became in ZBrush during one very chaotic week. So despite all of my complaining about Dalren’s deadlines, sarcasm, timekeeping, and general apprentice torture... the lesson worked.   I’m incredibly proud of this model and of how much I learned while making her. And after approximately twenty versions, one completely unsalvageable Hecate, one nightmare about running out of time, a three-page satire, and enough roses to start a small flower shop... I finally finished her.   And yes, despite roses being my favorite flower: There are no roses hiding mistakes on the final model. 😂 Check out Dalren Kaldulren's works here Dalren Kaldulren | Home - MakerWorld