I’m really challenging myself by entering the BG competition on characters. Characters are one of my biggest weak spots, so now is a great time to practice!
Recent Progress:
Once I have the basic form down I can move onto the detailing.
I am still relatively new to sculpting and have only a basic understanding of anatomy, so please critique as I go along! I won’t take it personally 
I think from these pictures here, I am seeing that his jawline is very sharp and lacking in some volume there - could you show one with reference comparison maybe? I might be wrong
Nope, you’re right about the jawline. It also looks like I need to take some volume out of his cheeks. Thanks for pointing that out!
Some references:
EDIT:
Is this any better?
Here is a paint over of one of the side view refs, I see that there is a problem with the volume in the chin in the purple area with your sculpt, it seems thin and pinched. Also along that purple area, the white line should be where the jaw line sits but should be softer in the transition to the neck and under the jaw there, maybe examine your own in the mirror to see what I mean. The form is changing, but is not so drastic as to look like it has a hard edge.
Just as a note, I am a painter and not much of a sculptor as of yet, but the shadows of your matcaps are drawing my attention to areas that are not as smooth as they should be. Maybe use the grab brush to just push things around til you get a better profile match, and you might see where the rest needs to build.
Thanks Craig, that was really helpful! It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what you meant, but once I saw how pinched the jaw was it looked so obvious. I guess that just comes with practice. How is this?
Just as a note, I am a painter and not much of a sculptor as of yet, but the shadows of your matcaps are drawing my attention to areas that are not as smooth as they should be
I see what you mean, and I’ll try to smooth those out.
I really appreciate the critiques!
this is a really good sculpt, especially for someone who claims to only have a basic understanding of anatomy 
it looks like you’ve got all the anatomical elements already there - now it’s just a matter of getting the proportions right.
I did a comparison between an image of the actor and your screenshot to highlight some differences:
Some differences in the order I noticed them:
the eyes look really far apart - eyes tend to be vertically aligned with the corners of the mouth
the face as a whole looks a bit too wide
the fat form that flows down and away from the nose is too wide (this would probably be mostly fixed by moving the eyes closer together)
the bottom of the chin could use more volume and could be a bit higher
there’s a bit too much space between the nostril and the lip (although this could be partly because of the missing mustache)
this is a really good sculpt, especially for someone who claims to only have a basic understanding of anatomy
Thanks! I’ve sketched faces before, but that’s my extent of anatomy education. I took physics class in high school instead 
Thanks for the comparison, it was really helpful!
Here’s what I have now:
In other news, the grab brush is way too distracting:
wow jonathan, great stuff!
i tend to also get distracted by sculpting 
haha
so far, so good. I think the face hair will really be that feature that makes you recognize him.
Thanks! Yeah, I’m thinking the mustache and an exaggerated expression will make it really obvious.
This morning I tried fixing some of the anatomy issues around the nose, eyes, and mouth:
Anyone know a good way to get of the lumpy parts? You can see it right on the brow for example. Smoothing seems to flatten the area too much.
A little early for this portion of the scene yet, but here’s a material preview for the holographic computer:
Just making sure cycles is OK with holograms inside of holograms inside of holograms I’ve got a pretty insane composition idea sketched out, so stay tuned! I won’t start modelling it until I at least finish detail sculpting the head though.
You might need to fill with the clay brush and then polish brush to smooth them out
Looking good! He’s chin looks still too small.
Starting re-topology:
You might need to fill with the clay brush and then polish brush to smooth them out
That did the trick, thanks!
Looking good! He’s chin looks still too small.
Thank you! I’ll take one last look at proportions after re-topology.
It starts to look good! The chin is definitely better than before.
The edges look good, Jonathan. But Tony Stark has a strong nasolabial fold, which you sculpted also. Your edge loops around the mouth on the other hand will not support that. Of course you can rely on baking a normal map from your sculpt for this
Cool stuff Jonathan.
Ill check follow this threads progress. The topology is not so important when doing stills, so don`t worry too much. Though if your proportions are off even slightly, the viewer will notice that. So pay attention to that.
Cheers, and good luck on the competition.
Thanks!
But Tony Stark has a strong nasolabial fold, which you sculpted also. Your edge loops around the mouth on the other hand will not support that. Of course you can rely on baking a normal map from your sculpt for this
I tried getting in that defining line, but I always end up with some weird topology (5 sided poles are best avoided) around the cheeks. Which do you think is the lesser of the two evils? I’m going to use a multires modifier on it later for the fine details.
The topology is not so important when doing stills, so don`t worry too much. Though if your proportions are off even slightly, the viewer will notice that. So pay attention to that.
True, but good topology will make UV mapping and good deformations (for the pose) easier, so I want to keep it clean if I can. I’ll definitely keep my eye on proportions! Please let me know if you see something that looks off.
Nice progress Jonathan.
I’ve been following a CGCookie mesh topology tutorial series by Jonathan Williamson and he has five sided poles at the cheeks - so this seems acceptable. I think it more important to avoid non-quad faces which I think you have managed to do.
Good luck!
Hola , I think the part of the cheek it’s really terrible . it have to be more fluido
