Hadi Karimi began his career 10 years ago as a digital painter but has transitioned into 3D art. His love of portraiture and sculpting has put him on the path to become a major influencer in the industry. He currently works as a freelance 3D character artist based in Tehran, Iran. Here, he describes his process and shares some recent work.

Why portraits?

Portraiture is one of the oldest genres of art. Painting or sculpting a likeness is not just about the right proportions, but also capturing someone's soul, showing what they’ve been through in their lives. I believe that before trying to capture a face, you have to understand the person behind it.

What are you looking for specifically when you choose your models?

My subjects are mostly my favorite musicians and historical figures. I try to go for those subjects that haven't been picked by other artists. Sometimes I do a little research and study about my subjects before starting the portrait, to better understand their personality, it helps me to pick the right colors, expressions...

Do you start sculpting right away or do you create a few sketches first?

I get right to 3d, sometimes I draw some strokes on the reference images that helps me to better understand the form but I don't think it could be called sketching. It's more crucial for concept artists but I don't do concepts that much.

How important are mood boards in creating your final work?

I use Pinterest all the time. It's great to gather ideas and get inspired. Sometimes when I’m completely out of ideas it helps me to know where to start. It could also be a huge help to pick the right expression and know what to use for the background.

What are key features that make your portraits look like the model?

I use as many reference images as I can. I spend hours searching for photos of my model in different lighting and angles. I’m not sure if there's a single key feature that does the magic. For example if you get the eyes right but not the nose or the lips, it would ruin the whole image. And it just comes with practice and experience.

What do you do to capture their personality?

I think that expressions play a major role in capturing the soul and the personality. Even the most subtle movement of the eyes or the head can breathe life into your model. And for understanding expressions, studying human anatomy is essential.

Can you go into detail about your process?

Usually in my workflow everything starts in ZBrush. Sometimes I start with a sphere to practice anatomy but most of the times I'm using a head basemesh so that there's no need to worry about retopology or UV mapping.

Then I export the mesh from ZBrush in OBJ format and import it to Maya (or Cinema 4D). I use Maya Xgen core to add hair to my characters. I always use ZBrush to paint displacement maps but for painting other textures such as diffuse, specular, … I prefer to use Substance Painter, since it's non-destructive and has a layer system similar to Photoshop which I'm more used to.

Final step before rendering is to add textures and lights to the scene. My render engine of choice is Arnold. After the rendering is done, I do some basic color correction and color grading and final touches in Photoshop.

What is your most challenging step and how do you push through it?

For me it's finding asymmetries. Our brains tend to think that every face is symmetrical and it's hard to prove it wrong with untrained eyes. My little trick is to flip reference images to find them. 

Has there been a portrait you’ve almost given up on and why?

So far Michael Jackson's likeness has been the most challenging. His face was so unique and different from any other celebrity's I've ever studied. Yes I almost gave up and it took about two months to finally catch his likeness.

Did you start out with traditional materials first?

Yes, before starting as a digital artist, when I was a teenager I did some traditional painting. I used to paint landscapes. I still have some of those painting, it feels like a million years ago!

What message would you like to spread with your art?

I really want people to understand that digital art is not just about softwares. I don't know if it's funny or sad but most of the comments that I get on my works on social media is -what software did you use?- and I feel like these people have this imagination that all I did was pushing a button on my computer and voilà! I didn't even have a computer when I started doing art, I spent years learning the basic. Trust me, it never happens overnight for anyone.

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For more advice from other freelancers check out: An Interview with a Successful Freelancer.