Hey guys,
Here is a new character portrait I am working on. I may go Steampunk themed, not sure. Thought I would start with the head first. I am only using a mouse for sculpting FYI. Blender used for basemesh, initial sculpt and retopology.
Latest Update:
nice sculpt. that looks like a really dense mesh.
This is pretty good
Thanks guys. Yes that head was over 2.5 million polys. Now its a low poly version. Here is an update.
This is looking very good indeed! great work.
I’m not sure if this is your “final” lighting or just a temporary setup, but a couple of things that are slightly bothering me:
the blue specular highlight on his skin… it will look great if you put him in an environment that complements that… but if you want to do a studio render then it might come off looking somewhat weird.
you might want to make your key light a tad more bright, just to create a little more contrast between the light and dark areas and give more volume/definition to the features.(maybe its just my own screen contrast that’s screwed lol)
these are entirely subjecive, and depending on the environment and mood you want to create, your current lighting looks pretty nice 
Thank you for the feedback! I have adjusted the lighting. I made some eyes in Blender and Zbrush, with texturing in GIMP. Topology isnt great, but since I am making a portrait it doesn’t really matter. Just that the UV’s are manageable.
The topology doesn’t look right… Did you use an Auto retopology tool, or did you do it by hand? it doesn’t seem to follow a good edge flow like around the mouth and eyes… And in the renders, he also looks quite sweaty, this might be intentional. but if it isn’t, then I would turn down the gloss a little. Are you using BI or cycles? Good job so far though! =]
This topology looks totally good enough for a
still render. I really didn’t notice anything wrong with the shape of the model, so IMO for a still render this will do great.
lighting also looks better. Keep going.
I’d agree that he looks too sweaty. Great work though, it really is nit picking. I’d say it’s almost photorealistic.
I’d agree about the gloss.
Also the eyes seem a little too shiny in comparison to the rest of the work in the newest render
It really is phenomenal though, and it took me a while to notice anything wrong with it. The long I looked, the harder it was.
Thank you guys! I appreciate all the comments and feedback.
Bonrw1- The retopology was done with an auto tool. I just wanted something quick. Normally I would do it by hand and probably will in the future as it did give me some wonky results.
Update: I have reduced the specular a nice amount on the face. I like the effect I am getting now under his eye and on his nose with the sweat.
The eyes I adjusted the specular/gloss a bit and can still tweak, as mike1377 alluded to.
I added some stuble/hair using a cavity mask and then overlaying that onto the diffuse with multiply in GIMP.
