Looking for critiques on my progress so far. What looks right? What looks wrong?
I don’t think I am particularly good, or fast at doing a likeness. I end up staring at everything for too long and it all starts to blur together. This is still at a fairly low resolution. I feel like I need to tighten up the overall form before I add more detail. Your feedback is appreciated. Thanks.
The mouth is a little too low on the face.
Thanks for looking. I appreciate the feedback.
Hey, I don’t know if you’re still working on this, but I’ve got a few pointers if you’d like to hear them:
The first thing you need to do is collect references if you want to develop a good likeness. A front and side profile isn’t enough on it’s own. Getty Images is your friend here, as is Bing Image search as opposed to Google image search, which is a bit naff these days. You want to try and get as many images as you can (search for the actress not the character), in different angles, and lighting. You also want to make sure the expression on the references is as neutral as possible. I’d then recommend getting PureRef (https://www.pureref.com/) which is free and lightweight, and is excellent for using references images.
Also, something I like to do is to open up my main references in any photo editing app (front, side, 3/4 if you have it) and draw around the key landmarks on a new layer, and then save that as a transparent PNG. You can then load that image directly into Blender, and use it as a direct reference. As long as you’re using good initial references, it will make sure that the basic proportions and landmarks are more or less correct. You can then go in and start refining the shape using the rest of the images you’ve collected.
If you want to see a really good walk through from a pro of a likeness sculpt, then I highly recommend this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTpvErzw4cwpWlrjrY_p-LAxBAoreJUMD - It might be a little intimidating, but the point is to learn from it. It really is excellent.
I Just finished watching House of the Dragon myself, and loved her character.
I wish you luck! 
Thanks for taking the time to give me some pointer! I am still working on this (lol, sort of). I think I am playing at the edge of my likeness skill level. sometimes it feels like I am muddling about rather than making real progress. It helps me to step away for a few days, so that I can see the model fresh.
I am already using PureRef. Love it. I did have some trouble finding enough decent reference Images. Partly because the photos from her earlier work have a notable age difference. A year from now it will probably be easier. I have not used Getty Images yet. I’ll check it out.
I like this idea of drawing the landmarks on a transparent layer. Definitely going to try this.
Similar to Magnavis’ comments, I would definitely recommend overlaying the images. There are quite a number of differences in your likeness. Look at the distance between the nose and the mouth for example, the height of the ears in the 3/4 view, and the width of the jaw.
It’s also important to make sure your references line up - for example the height of the ears in the front view is fine but in the 3/4 view it’s way off.
Another thing that’s challenging about faces is that a front view photograph is a perspective view, so if you try to match it to an orthographic front view (not saying you did here, but if you do) it’ll be distorted incorrectly.
That’s a good point regarding orpho view. Generally, I sculpt in a mixture of the two, using orpho initially to match the landmarks, and then switching to perspective to sculpt the general details when using the other references.
My first time sculpting I used only persp view, and when switching to orpho, everything was bizarrely misshaped.
Another thing to consider is your viewport focal length. I generally use between 100 - 150, as this is the general range most portraits are shot at. It’s also important to pick a front reference image that is at a higher focal length. Your front image isn’t bad at-all in that regards. General rule of thumb is if you can’t see the ears, then the focal length is too low. This is why press photos are often excellent, as they’re shot from a distance, with a big lens.
