So, a mere 4 months after buying my new PC laptop, I suddenly realise that this means I can play with zBrush!
What I really love about zBrush is how totally intuitive the sculpting process is. If you know how to sculpt in 3d (as in, with real, traditional clay, etc), you know how to sculpt in zBrush. I do understand that there's a lot of things like polygon counts and whatnots that models made in zBrush have downsides in... but I hope in my nuggetheart that this is the kind of interface that 3D programs can move towards. I have no idea if that's practical within my nugget shelflife of course, but in the meanwhile... VIRTUAL SUPER SCULPEY! WOOT!
I've also learned that the top part of the sphere should not form the front of your 'face'. -_- It only took me 4 hours to figure out how to patch the hole in the mesh. Ah noobie goodness.