3D BLOG/INTERVIEWS/BALANCING REALISM AND STYLE IN CHARACTER ART WITH MAYANK TOMAR

Balancing Realism and Style in Character Art with Mayank Tomar

Oct 06, 2025

Article by Filip Radivojevic

Mayank Tomar has turned a love of sketching and gaming into a career focused on sculpting characters with both technical precision and personality. In this RenderHub interview, he talks about balancing realism with stylization, the checkpoints that guide his workflow, and the lessons he believes are most valuable for artists building their place in the industry.

Building Artistic Identity

What led you to choose character art and digital sculpting as your primary focus, and how has your artistic identity evolved?

I've been drawn to art since childhood. I used to fill my notebooks with sketches, designs, and even tattoo ideas. At the same time, I was always excited about playing games and fascinated by the characters that brought those worlds to life. That natural mix of gaming passion and a love for drawing gradually led me toward character art and digital sculpting.

Over time, my artistic identity has evolved from simple sketching into creating fully realized digital characters. I've learned to combine my early love for raw creativity with technical skills, pushing myself to balance aesthetics, anatomy, and storytelling. Each project helps me refine that identity further, making my work not just about creating characters, but about giving them a sense of life and personality.

Among your portfolio pieces which one pushed you the most technically, and what specific hurdle did you overcome on it?

One of the projects that pushed me the most technically was a character called Explorer Guy that I created for 3D Scan Store. I wanted the textures to hold very high resolution, and during that process I discovered UDIMs and how they could be used to achieve better texture resolution. Learning and applying that workflow was a big hurdle at the time, but it really improved the quality of the final piece.

Research and References

How do you approach gathering reference material (for anatomy, costume, materials)? Do you rely more on traditional art, photography, real-life models, or digital sources?

I approach reference gathering in a structured, multi-source way. For anatomy, I rely on real-life observation, anatomy books, and 3D scans to ensure accurate proportions and muscle structure. For costumes, I combine photography, fashion references, historical sources, and Marvelous Designer simulations to capture fabric behavior and detail. For materials, I use close-up photos, texture libraries, and real-world observation to decide what to sculpt, bake, or paint. I organize all references in the PureRef app, allowing me to work efficiently while keeping the character realistic yet stylized.

Workflow

What is your usual working pipeline? Do you have checkpoints or quality gates you use midprocess?

My usual pipeline starts with blockout and proportions, where I focus on silhouette, anatomy, and overall character presence. Once approved, I move to high-poly sculpting, adding primary, secondary, and tertiary details. Then I create a clean, optimized low-poly for in-game use.

At each stage, I set checkpoints, for example, silhouette and anatomy checks early on, high-poly detail review, and topology validation during retopology. A key step I never skip is a UV layout check: I carefully open UVs to ensure proper spacing, straightening where needed, and maintaining texel density so there are no issues later during baking or texturing. After baking in Marmoset or Substance, I check for projection errors before moving into texturing, where I balance realism with readability.

These quality gates at every stage help catch issues early, ensuring the asset meets AAA standards and avoids costly revisions later.

Essential Tools

Which software or tools do you consider indispensable (for example, ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, Substance, Marmoset)? Are there plugins or scripts you developed yourself?

For me, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Maya, and Marmoset are essential tools for character creation, and I use Marvelous Designer when the project needs realistic cloth work. These cover everything from sculpting and texturing to baking and presentation. I don't use any custom scripts, but I do customize my ZBrush UI to keep my most-used tools and brushes easily accessible, which helps speed up the sculpting process and keeps my workflow smooth.

Detailing Strategy

When adding surface detail (skin pores, wrinkles, material imperfections), how do you decide what is sculpted vs what is baked vs what is painted? How do you avoid surface clutter?

I like to sculpt the bigger forms like wrinkles, folds, and shapes that really affect the silhouette. Smaller things like pores or subtle noise I usually handle with alphas and baking, while material wear and imperfections I add during texturing. To keep it from feeling cluttered, I constantly zoom out and check if the details are helping the character read better, rather than just adding noise.

Style and Believability

Your portfolio displays a blend of stylization and realism. How do you strike the balance between exaggeration and believability?

Thank you! For me, striking the balance between stylization and realism is about understanding the underlying anatomy, proportion, and weight of a character first. I focus on keeping the gestures and forms believable, even when exaggerating certain features for stylization.

Reference is key, I study real-life anatomy and motion, then selectively push shapes, expressions, or proportions to enhance personality without breaking the sense of realism. It's always a back-and-forth: exaggerate for character, check against believability, and refine until it feels natural yet visually striking.

Feedback and Iteration

In team projects, how do you manage feedback, art direction changes, and iteration? Can you describe a time when constraints or feedback significantly altered your vision?

I always respect the client's vision while also offering my input to make the character as strong as possible. I enjoy creative freedom and give my best when designing a character from scratch, but when following a concept, I like to interpret it in my unique style. Feedback and art direction changes are part of the process, and I approach them collaboratively. For example, on a recent project, client feedback required adjusting the character's silhouette and color scheme. By combining their notes with my suggestions, we arrived at a final design that was stronger and more appealing than my original concept.

Presentation

How much importance do you place on lighting, camera, and post processing when showcasing your characters? Do you use a fixed setup or adapt presentation per piece?

Lighting, camera, and post-processing are really important to me because they're the last step in bringing the character to life and creating a connection with the viewer. I don't rely on a fixed setup; I like to adapt each presentation to the piece, emphasizing its mood and personality so it feels alive and relatable.

Guidance for Emerging Artists

What advice would you give to emerging character artists regarding skill development, portfolio building, and breaking into the industry?

My advice to emerging character artists is to focus on building your skills consistently and make it a habit to learn something new every day. If you become stagnant, your growth stops. Keep pushing yourself with personal projects, study fundamentals deeply, and aim to show variety and quality in your portfolio. That constant growth mindset is what really helps break into the industry.

Follow Mayank Tomar on ArtStation, Instagram and LinkedIn to see more of his incredible work.

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