This is my first post here, in Elysiun, so here it goes.
My image is a geisha (in portuguese we use the word gueixa, is geisha the right term in english?) with a sword. I´m making it in my free time, and my plans are to build a better hair, better lights and add more things in the background. Maybe I´ll put makeup on her face, but I really like the white ghost-like look.
Old render
Actual Render
Photoshop PP
skin is plastic and slightly blue, and the face is too fat for a geisha…
cloth and balde (maybe with less reflection) are very nice!
the texture on the left wall is very strange, and finally turn OSA on in the rendering screen
Nice work so far - I agree with jazzroy that the face is a bit too fat for a geisha.
I like the ghostly look of her skin.
If you look for a hair reference, you could use this :D:D:D
(prominent german geisha)
With osa the render is too slow - I’ll use it only at the end.
About the fat, maybe I can change it, but the face is something like a baby geisha… BIG CHEEKS!
I’ll put some work on the textures of the bg later - now I’m focused on the character. In truth, I’m trying to make a good silk material - let’s tweak the Blinn… The skin is unnatural, but I like that porcelain look.
Great hair ref : ))) It’s perfect for her! I didn’t knew they have geishas in Germany… : )
Thanks for the replies, guys! I’ll update it as soon as I can.
I suggest that you tone-down the sword texture. It’s too bright.
But most importantly, work carefully on the keylight of the face of the geisha. She’s the star of this show, and what we want to see is her expression, a hint of her emotion, to connect with her as a person.
(Ahh, keep it clean, gentlemen…) 
If you can focus our attention on this character, and convey her emotions while she is proferring this sword to (whom?), you can make a very powerful statement.
Consider, however, if you want that large fob sitting down in front of her eyes like that. It’s quite large and it’s precisely in our center-of-view. It does serve as a shade (well it would, if it cast a proper shadow), so it may need to stay there, but I’d suggest that it be modified somehow because right now I think it detracts. You could address this issue either by altering it, or by strengthening its role in the picture.
I’m intrigued. I like it very much.
After a long time I had a couple hours to tweak things and make UV’s. I know the hair sucks - I’ ll work on it later. I’ll add a frame on the window later, but now I have no time and I wanted to post something…
ROFL! Prominent german geisha. ROFLMAO!!! Nice one, thoro!
JJ: I noticed by the second look that your latest pic is a render, not a reference pic of some china doll you have taken a picture of… good! (Although I’m not sure if that’s what you’re going for)
Her hands need work, they look kinda wooden. Nice idea though with the sword. Her face looks like that of a little kid or a doll. If you do a Google image search for Geisha, you’ll find (typically) quite pretty, skinny, young woman (girls).
very nice work. no crits from me 
