And a Happy New Year to you all! I hope you have a fabulous 2012 and that you aren't hit by the global downturn. I particularly want to thank all the staff at Pixologic and elsewhere who have kindly supported me and supplied clever answers to my questions over the year.
This was all drawn in ZBrush, over rough sketch 3D ZTool meshes, used for guidance. Render layers composited in Photoshop. Below is a close-up of one of these shading-catcher elements. The emphasis was on form, not detail.