So, as the days went by I was trying to speed-sculpt and improvise the look I was going to give to my geisha, I really had no base and was grasping for ideas here and there, which ended up giving me the following look.

I felt it was very weak and it had some anatomy problems as well as the general idea just not functioning, at first the "hair" would be a fish bowl with biomechanic koi fishes swimming in and the outfit (which I hadn't even started to model) was just too ambicious for the short time we had to model. I had no guidelines of material, shapes or whatever, which after some feedback I recognized as my first mistake.

After taking a hard look at it and swallowing a big chunk of pride I started to focus on gathering solid reference and concepting. I had to re-think every aspect of the project. I began by choosing a style I could identify this design in and have materials in consideration, I remembered the interesting designs Warframe has and how it actually could fit the aesthetic, the material was an easy part, I instantly imagined the difference between the soft and hard parts, comparing it to a beetle and how they have this pearlescent look to their carapace and a mix of gold and traditional blue silk, the picture started to form in my head thanks to these quick reference gatherings.

The next step was make a quick easy to read concept, I started by taking some screenshots of the character in and ortografic sequence and thought about the parts that would be important to concept so I could spend as little time as possible.

The drawing was easy, and even though it is not the greatest of concepts, it gave me a huge lift in motivation and inspiration and allowed me to improve greatly the quality of my sculpt. 

For the sake of continuing the blog and keeping some suspense (even though people might not be reading) I'll hold on to the new sculpt until it is slightly more finished, in which I will make a comparison of the sculpts side by side.

Hopefully by the end of this first project, these sequences will also help some people who might be stuck the same way I was.

Sam over and out.