I began by generating a human base mesh using a Blender addon, modifying and tweaking the character’s features to my liking. The first layer of the headpiece was a thin, skintight mask. I achieved this by taking advantage of the edge loops around the eyes, selecting faces in edit mode – excluding the eyes and separating them from the mesh. I then added thickness and tweaked it around the nose bridge. From there, I began layering elements and intuitively experimenting until I felt there was a good balance of ornamentation and not drowning the character’s features beneath it all.

This was a rather pivotal project, because when it got to post-processing and creating the final look, happy accidents began to happen. A misclick on the Posterize effect suddenly gave the piece a warmth and amber-like glow that encapsulated the environment I imagined this character in: a harsh sunbleached desert. I’ve been partial to this post-processing look ever since.