Making of the Countess by Plamen Iliev, Bulgaria Web: www.piliev.com

Hello, my name is Plamen Iliev and in this making I’ll try to explain the steps I took in creating my latest image called “Countess”.

Coming up with a concept for a character after reading a story or novel is something I find very interesting and challenging. The reason being I have to really strain my brain and draw an image of a character from verbal descriptions and conversations, and I find that enjoyable. Being a fan of classic literature, abundant in aristocratic characters, I decided to create this model which I called “Countess”. This is a character of many contrasts. She’s supposed to walk with an air of nobility and importance about her. Her clothing has to convey the feeling of both frivolity (the loose, white shirt on top) and constraint (the tight, strapped skirt along with a laced corset). There are colour contrasts - black and white, textures and fabrics - natural cotton against synthetic latex. I originally intended to make her hold a cigarette which would’ve counterpoised a healthy expression, but I made a last minute change and gave her a riding crop which I thought was more appealing and suitable for a blue-blooded woman. Anyway, enough of the jabbering, let’s move on.

Before I start modeling I usually make some really loose sketches, mostly gesture drawings and I pile up a selection of reference images to help me along the way, such as piece of clothing, faces, poses, light setups and so on.

The head and body were separate meshes which I first modeled in 3ds Max and later sculpted in ZBrush. I created a simpler and lighter mesh from them (some call it remeshing, others retopologizing) which I imported back into Max. I used images of Karima Adebibe, known as one of the promo-models of Lara Croft, although I wasn’t after a particular likeness to the actual model, but I needed a sort of guide.




I then moved on to the shoes, following a bottom-top modeling approach. The shoes are a sort of laced-strapped short boots, which I created in 3ds Max. What’s really important about the shoes are the different pieces they consist of and the seams where they meet.