Axe Grunt [update]

Here's an update of the Axe Grunt.  I went on to try quick texturing by using the 3D paint tool in Maya. It does well enough to block off some colors but it doesn't fully give me the detail that I wanted.  It was still a quick way to see how the model will look with colors and a great way to find out how effective the UV layout is.  I noticed a lot of tweaks to the UV should be done to achieve a more effective texturing but before I went on and did it, I proceeded to doing a quick sculpt of the model to have a source for the texture.  I would then bake normal maps or bump maps in to a color map together with ambient occlusion maps.  I am not good with colors or painting that's why this method appeals to me more for the texturing process.

Sculpting in some details was fun but the tools and navigation needed some getting used to.  I used Sculptris Alpha 6 for this.  I am also hoping in the future that I could paint in colors using the freeware as Sculptris has a paint mode. 

Here's my initial sculpt:

With this sculpt, I exported an .obj file to be used as a reference and source of the normal map baking. When I put the high-resolution mesh in Maya, I had to adjust the low-poly model to suit the silhouette better.   

working low-poly mesh. 998tris

I then went on to finalizing the UV layout so I could start baking the texture maps.

In high quality hardware render mode in Maya:

with normal and ambient occlusion as diffuse. 1024x1024

Now that I know the method is good, I'll go on to finalizing the sculpt and putting in colors and more details from images to complete the texturing process.  So far I've spent 2.5hrs in this update and 4hrs total in the project.  I feel it would take me 1.5-2hrs to finish texturing so I would need to rig and skin the character in around 2hrs to stay in the 8-hour period of the 1 work day challenge I set upon myself.