Sketching Armatures in ZBrush

Well… kind of 😅

You can actually fill an armature with colour and then use ZSketch brushes to add volume while blending the colours together. It creates really interesting anatomical sketch effects.

Here’s how it works:

Start with a simple ZSphere armature for a creature or character. Then choose a colour and click Fill Object from the Color palette.

We used a beige colour to mimic bones.

Next, go to the ZSketch subpalette and enable Edit Sketch.

This lets you use all the ZSketch brushes directly on top of the armature.

Choose something like the Sketch 1 brush, switch to a red colour, make sure RGB is enabled, and start sketching volumes onto the armature.

You can also hold Shift to smooth and blend the endpoints of the strokes.

That’s the trick.

ZBrush blends the sketch colour with the original armature colour which creates a really cool muscle and tendon effect.

It’s a super fun and fast way to create anatomical creature studies or quick visual references.

Here’s a rough sketch we made in about 5 minutes: