Red (Redford) Kenny – ZBrush Character Sculpt
Overview
Redford “Red” Kenny, the main character of Five Survive by Holly Jackson, is thrown into a terrifying fight for survival. My sculpt captures a pivotal moment—fear taking hold as she spots the red dot on the RV, realizing the deadly danger they’re in. Set against the dark night, her wide, shocked eyes, open mouth, and wind-swept hair freeze her fear in time.
I created this piece after reading the book and being drawn into its tense atmosphere and Red’s relatable character. Exploring fan content, I found little visual representation of her, which pushed me to take on the challenge of bringing her to life. With only a vague description to work from, I had the freedom to experiment—starting with the essentials: blonde hair, freckles, blue eyes, a plaid shirt, and a ponytail. The emotion was the hardest part to settle on, but after discussing it with my sister, I decided to focus on fear, a feeling that defines much of the story.
This was my second human face sculpt and my first including a torso and hands. I worked on it over two weeks, spending around 20 hours refining the details. It was a mix of fun, frustration, trial, and error, but every breakthrough was incredibly rewarding. The entire process—from sculpting to coloring, lighting, and rendering—was done in ZBrush, and I’m proud of how it turned out. It exceeded my expectations and proved to be a challenge worth taking on.
Process
The two-week creation process started with getting the rough base shapes down, followed by reshaping it to make it seem more human and figuring out the expression and pose, with lots of refining, posing, and shaping. This was then followed by coloring, painting the textures, lighting, and rendering.
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