well I’ve been using 2.49b for over 6 months now mainly in the Game Engine and haven’t really made any proper renders yet it’s something i want to learn. so im trying to make a cartoon style character in 2.56a. I’ve started to model the head but it really doesn’t look right. any c and c would be helpful :D.
left: unsmoothed wire. right: 3 sub-surf levels
Nice alien! Remember that when you enlarge something, like the eyes, you need to shrink something else to balance it, or inflate something. Or you have to break from reality completely. I think you need to work out your proportions on paper first.
You have a decent basic face, now give him pupils so you can actually judge proportions with the eyes. Consider blowing up the nose, and enlarging the jaw. I find it is best to have a human reference that you can pull details and idiosynchrosies from. A great cartoon design, enhances certain features, and plays down others.
i better get the paper out then :D, thanks for the link and advice, i’ve put some pupils in there now and playing around with the features 
well i got to pushing a few vert’s around and come up with this…
i know there’s a few crease’s in there i’ve got to shrink the mouth area some more so they will smooth out.
i’ve got a sketch on paper to work to.
I think the upper one is better, but it does look a bit alien-ish. a good way to make cartoon characters is to map them out using seperate objects, one for the nose, 2 for the eyes, one for the main part of the head, 2 for ears, etc. Use simple subsurfaced objects, so you can deform them easily. Then once you have your head plotted out this way, use retopo to construct a topographically optimized mesh over top of it.
I like the first one better.
well i lost that one by accidentally overwriting it so i’ve been trying to remake it. so here’s where im at seems more alien like now. i think it need’s a wider face.
while i was looking around my computer for cartoon drawings that i’ve done im thinking i should do this
instead. ignore the hair im not that good at it.
I like the drawn one. Hair is hard.
ok cool :D, i’ve started to model it and it think it look’s similar. no sub-surf on yet. i got figure out how to get the nose to show up in the front view.
just pull in the area between the nose and upper lip a touch. nothing drastic, just so it has a bit of a shadow. i guess you could fake the shadow with a texture as well.
Anime Face Modeling:
Looks like your design sorta. Demonstrates good edge flow for a cartoon face. Ignore the app I think it is 3ds max. around 1:11 a screenshot of that topology and proportions would help you I think.
Note how he lays out his loops flat first. Might help you out since you are getting started. Black Cat has an anime hair tut, http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=204592
hey thanks :D, so now i’ve completely restarted the model, trying to get the topography right i think it’s close apart from a couple of places where the edge loops end suddenly.
the face still seems flat aswell so i got to work on that, then the hair.
The face seems really flat, the hair has to fit the model, don’t try it too soon. You need to fix the proportions of the face IMO. Strive to get it normal first, then you can toon it out later. Blender cookie has a nice tut from David Ward on hair.
It’s topology not topography! prolly get more google results that way!
Do not go read this thread… http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=907 .
If you do you can’t say I didn’t warn you…
BTW, I like the nose.
oops read it, head explodes!
well beings my proportions are totally off i think id better make a reference image in photoshop.
while the essence of that thread 3dementia posted is good, I have to say that triangles don’t always mess up your mesh, sometimes they’re even my first choice, especially when modeling on low poly meshes. Eg, if you wanted to create a realistic nose you can easily achieve that by placing a triangle at the nostrils and voila, you saved yourself the trouble of creating the nostrils, because the triangle creates an edge that automatically makes it look as if there were nostrils xD. the only downside of this is that you cut off your edgeloop.
But of course , in this case you should definitely stick with quads 
@ kiriri, yeah i tend to stay away from triangles as much as possible, i usually just have a really short edge on a quad so it looks like a triangle and then i can keep the edge loops.
well i done a concept sketch of what i want it look like, should be able to use it as a reference aswell.
Nice work. I would do a side view as well before modeling. The point of drawing it out, even if it doesn’t look as great as you want it to, is it gives you time to think about things. How do I want the character to be dressed? What will the hairstyle be? Basic proportions fat,skinny, oversized head, short arms, big hands what? I want to point out that you don’t need to model the parts under the clothes, too many people seem to do just that.
Thanks, yeah im working on the side view 
it was actually in the same image with some guides to get everything in the right place but i cropped it out because it didn’t look right compared to the front view. a drawing definitely helps with ideas as there’s no need to worry about what’s going on in the third dimension :D. ill probably end up modeling her that way save some faces for other objects :D.
edit: finished side view of the character 
