Baroque Fireplace

My thought process for tackling such a complex piece was to figure out its initial shape first before anything else. Once I created the basic rectangular shape of the fireplace, I moved on to creating the smaller wrapping around detail and "stair" like extrudes. I only had to make a small set which I then duplicated it around the mesh. I stayed in Maya for most of this process, I used Zbrush only for creating the "man-bird."