Creating shit until it looks about right - The cycle of creation and then failure

The Cycle of Creation and then Failure

 I had decided to proceed with the Elite Knight Helm concept as the one I was going to attempt to recreate from paper. With this decision began the lengthy process of trying to figure out how I was even going to go about create the object -- My prof's advice was to as soon as possible try to create something out of paper. I drew up some sketches -- just to try to break down the helm into simpler objects/ patterns. The lower mouth guard and the decorative piece on the top of the helm seemed easy enough to visualize -- but it was really back piece covering most of the head that I was having trouble conceptualizing. I had also taken some measurements of my head and neck that I thought I might need which I noted in my sketches. 

Heeding my prof's advice, I quickly started drawing some of the patterns out on newsprint. Occasionally holding the pieces up against my face to see how they might look. Fig 1 and Fig 2 are supposed to be both the top decorative helm piece -- both turned out not looking quite right on the face. Fig 2 was the first one I had drew up based on my earlier sketches -- When holding it up in position on my face I realized that it was too short as it left my eyes too exposed. With Fig 2 I sought to rectify that by lengthening the width of the piece all together as well as creating a slant in the eye slit. This piece sat better on the face, but the eye slit still seemed a bit too long.

Fig 1

Fig 2 

Fig 3 was by far the most straight forward.  I'm super happy with how it looks on the face so far though I do foresee some changes in the overall shape when getting closer to putting all of the patterns together. 

Fig 3

I started tracing the rough patterns in Rhino and then cleaned them up using mirror and editing the curve points.

Though I am attempting to create the helm I also have been working on my CD case idea a little. Last week in class I had started modeling the case and the CD itself in Rhino.