Sculpted in zbrush, and rendered in Arnold, this image is based off on an unknown (to me) sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I found it very elegant and it struck a chord within me and I was compelled to sculpt her. The hair was a tricky undertaking but I started with a simple extract and let the zremesher figure out the topology for me as I further developed the sculpt.

I released a series of courses on Digital Tutors that follow the creation of this image, focusing on techniques in Arnold and Maya

http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/1685-Lighting-and-Rendering-in-Maya-and-Arnold