Gnomo - my first serious work

[hobbes]

First off, sincere apoligies if this should go in the Focused Critic forum. I can’t particularly tell the difference from the descriptions, and while I do seem to recall a thread about the subject, I think I understand well enough. By my understanding, the Focused Critic forum is for serious projects by the more talented members of the community, meaning those who know their way around Blender and aren’t seeking help beyond the comments on their mesh. The Works in Progress forum is more for the beginner or advanced beginner who still is learning the program as well as looking for advice about the model.

Speaking of models, this is my first… mostly. Today I made this stocking just for fun, and several months ago I posted a model of a coffee mug that I had made. The stocking took awhile because of the materials, and ended up taking up most of the afternoon. The mug took about 30 minutes, and both are basically awful…
Regardless, I’ve continued to read and learn as much as possible. In my Advanced Art class at high school I’ve convinced my teacher to allow me on the computer to make use of Blender. There I’ll be working on a model of the caracter from the online megahit Line Rider. More on that tomorrow perhaps, when I make a thread…

Tonight however, I started a new model which will be my first serious work.
Using this image of a gnome as reference, I plan on making a mostly realistic model and scene. Hopefully you guys can help me along the way.
So, here are some images of my progress tonight. About a hour and a half of work… but I’m coming to love it.

Front View:

Side/Angle View:

I’d appreciate your comments/criticisms.
Especially the nose, and upper eye socket area, as I feel they may need revised. I’m pretty much guaranteed to go over then regardless, but your comments are appreciated nontheless.

Thanks!

[BlackBoe]

Awesome reference for a gnome. :] The eyes look sunk a tiny bit too far back in there, but it might just be me. All-in-all, looks reasonably promising.

The topology, though. Baaaaaad, baaaad mistakes there. There shouldn’t be any weird flaps like you have for the eyelids, it should just be more rings, pulled and folded into shapes. (Actually, there’s a better way of doing it called the spiral loop method, but that’s a little trickier and for later on when you’re more familiar with topology) That and there shouldn’t be that quad on the bottom inner corners of the eyes. It’s a good thing to catch these in the early stages, especially if you want a more detailed model later. Always try to make the lines run the way the thing is going to bend, in broad, smooth loops and curves.

Keep going. I’ll be watching.