Adventures across the 3rd dimension

Nope. This is not working at all.

 

I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time not achieving anything and not learning anything either.
It may be time to put the axe idea away for good.

EDIT: After posting that I had a brainwave and painted some quick Dirty Vertex Colours to increase the depth/sharpness of the cavities and it sort of looks a bit better...

 

Still not the same visual style as the Orc but maybe the axe idea isn't dead yet.

I am currently learning about "holding edges".
My complete ignorance of this concept is why my poly-modelled subdivision axe (not the one pictured, that was the lumpy sculpted one) kept losing its shape AND why it looked like a silly balloon when shaded smooth.

*goes back to watch end of video to learn more*

Yes, I'm think of switching to a sword too.
The shape is a little easier to model.
And that one looks pretty damn good.

That second version of the axe doesn't look too bad on its own but when I put it with the Orc it looks very odd. It looks like a much lower resolution (even though it isn't. That bumpy noise texture on his skin makes the Orc appear much more detailed than it is) plus they seem to behave differently under the same light and I guess that's mainly down to using vertex paint to fudge some of the shading.

I think poly-modelling is the better option for these things so I'll work more on that next.