Sculpting - Blender Master Class: A Hands-on Guide to Modeling, Sculpting, Materials, and Rendering - page 81

Figure 6-22: Defining the anatomy further. References are important at this stage, though there is room for invention as well.

To create the shape keys, I first added a new
shape key in Object mode to hold the new pose.
(Click the + icon on the right of the Shape Keys
panel twice to set the original shape of the mesh as
the default “basis” shape; then click it again to cre-
ate a new shape with the vertex positions stored rela-
tive to the basis shape.) Next, I selected the vertices
of the arm in Edit mode and rotated them about
the shoulder to bring the arm outward slightly. Then
I adjusted the surrounding vertices to refine the
new pose (see Figure 6-23). Returning to Sculpt
or Object mode, I could then turn this shape key
up or down (using the value sliders in the Shape
Keys panel) to move the body into a position that
would be easier to work on.

Hiding Parts of the Mesh
Another way to reach difficult areas in a sculpt is to
hide part of the mesh using the shortcut alt -B, which
lets you drag out a box on the screen to restrict the
visible part of your mesh to only what is inside the
box (see Figure 6-24). By hiding parts of your mesh,
you can concentrate on one small area of your model
at a time and also see into more difficult or hidden
areas.