Plakkie- If “Hey, that’s Cutter!”. That’s all I want from my model, to look at it and instantly recognize Cutter" then your doing fine. As RaelNorth said, some hair would help a lot to accomplish this for you. Also as far as the head, keep molding it to get a good skull structure as you are looking at doing. Think of terms of whats going on underneath the face, the bone and musclature and how you want to represent that to give Cutter a good likeness. This will help to give him angles that will make him appear more male like(like I was trying to illustrate in that basic markup), get away from the soft sphere-ish look in certain areas(like that girl elf in that color ref pic) that is keeping him look too female-ish. The jaw muscles/chin and the forehead planes that reflect the cranium underneath are the two biggies. Also a male like neck could help as well. Keep working strong! 
LoL, I don’t know I’m a member since 2004. But I don’t post that much.
I’m an admin on www.c4dcafe.com and www.forum.cinema4d.be and I’m very busy with that.
I keep an eye on this thread, real nice work as I said before.
Peace,
Rich_Art. 
AngelJ: that’s good advice, thanks. I’ve two nice books showing skeleton and muscle anatomy. I’m looking at them more and more to understand it. In my next session I’ll follow those books and see if I can put some muscles and bone underneath. In some area’s he’s indeed still a bit girlish, and I’ll try to adress it. On the other hand I don’t want to push the male thing to the extreme, 'cause there is a bit of a boy/child-thing about Cutter that I want to keep in there. The Cutter I’m aiming at is still a young man. I already tried pushing the maleness to the limit, and it made him look very old, famined and ill. :o Neither must he look too etheral and elvish: the thing I like about Cutter and his tribe is that they are very ‘earthbound’, of this world so to speak. So, I have to find a balance between the strong face of a leader and the young elf that he is… But as said, in the end I would already be overjoyed if he looks like Cutter. 
Again, you make me really think about this, which is a good thing.
A neck, that’s another thing. When I started I thought to do the head first and then the body. Zbrush3 can do that, right? Now I’m this far I kinda regret not putting a neck on him when starting. Have to look around if there’s a way to put one on him.
Richart: haha, didn’t see that member-date. 
Nice job on the website; very complete! Websites like yours are the main learning source for uneducated 3D guys like me.
Hi there! After a month of hard work on a film project (finished now, finally!), I’m dying to continue with my odyssee: to make my first character sculpt, representing Cutter, a character from the Elfquest comic series by Richard and Wendy Pini. As I am a total amateur on character sculpting, I humbly ask the opinions of the many excellent artists on this forum. Thanks for your time!
This is what it’s like right now. For reference, see the first page.
[
](javascript:zb_insimg(‘63141’,‘Cutter_sculpt7.jpg’,1,0))
I’m focussing on the jaw, mouth, nose and eyes right now. If you spot something I can improve upon, please tell me! I’ll be working on the ears and the brow/top-head soon, so if you have tips there, they’re welcome.
Last question: I want to add a neck and a bit of torso later on. Is there a way to blend those to this head without deleting all by subdivisions? (as I believe one must do with Mesh-insert)
Cheers!
Plakkie
Hey Buddy!
I personally think it look So much better! I think you’re at a stage where you can add the hair, neck and torso so you can see the whole “picture”.
I really like the sculpt
Keep it up buddy!
PS.
On the side, the link in your signature doesn’t redirect you to the topology thread -thought you wanted to know-
Very nice elf-head, alien in its difference yet quite human. Love to see more!
-K
Thanks Fidel buddy, I’ll work some more on the ears first, and put in some decent eyes, but after that I agree, adding hair (-gulp-) and torso will show me if the face is close enough. Stay tuned!
Fixed the link, thanks for the warning, dunno why it got broken. 
Kerwin, thanks, you wíll see more, I’m comitted to see this through till the end. It’ll probably take me a year, but hey! I can’t take credit for the design, that’s the work of R & W Pini. It’s what I like about this brand of elves: they’re not so etheral, long-limbed etc. Cutter’s tribe is quite close to nature, with a bit of animal in them, hunters and survivers. He also has a lot of muscles, so that will put me tot the test when I get to that point.
Secretely I thought: I can’t sculpt hair… it’s so complex… no way a noob like me can do that…
So in a reckless mood I grabbed a ZSphere, drew it on a canvas and…
[
](javascript:zb_insimg(‘63169’,‘Haartest_compi.jpg’,1,0))
Can you believe it?! Those guys at Pixologic are geniouses!!
This is just a test, to see if could get anything resembling Cutter’s hair, but it turned out not too bad at all. More: I actually recognize Cutter now, which makes me feel sooo happy!
Now I know I can do it I’ll make a more accurate version of the hair, strands and all, but not before I’ve placed the ears on the right position, 'cause the hair flows around them.
What do you think? I also need to find out how to join the neck to the head without loosing my division levels… anyone know about that?
Hey PLakkie, Wow, it’s really coming together. What I ussually do for hair is model it roughly in Maya and then import it into ZBrush for detailing. Which as you just noticed goed very well indeed. Keep at it!
Gr. M
It’s really coming together great Plakkie, he really looks like Cutter.
As a test the hair looks great.
Don’t be to hard on yourself, you won’t be an amateur long
groetjes,
Bimm
Dank je Bimm!
It’s nice to hear you see a Cutter in him! I hope that in spirit I’ll remain an amateur forever; learning and admiring others can be much fun. :lol:
Started working on the ears and changed the basic hair shape, still needs more tinkering. His hair is all over the place, almost makes me regret the work on the head itself.
)
It’s funny how he looks so much younger all of a sudden. Maybe everyone with a lot of hair looks younger… in that case I’m in trouble. 
he looks like a girl
Looking really good. I like the skin texture your useing.
Well, this is where I am at the moment. Just gave the current hair a quick texture to get an idea how it’s going to look. Worked on the neck and some minor things in the face.
[
](javascript:zb_insimg(‘63489’,‘Snijer8.jpg’,1,0))
He looks quite like Cutter from the side, less from the front, got to find out why. It would be great if I could find a way to join that neck to the head. I’ll sift through the Wiki and this forum tomorrow to see if there’s a way (probably is).
Randy: thanks. The skinmaterial (I think you commented on the pink one) is by Ralf Stumpf and can be found on somewhere down here. I think I’ll use this one as the basis for texture work when it’s done, cause it’s got just a bit of a picture/comic feeling to it.
Joopson: if you would tell him that in person he would slice you in shreds! I don’t mind crit’s, but please try to give hints how to make it better.
yeah, sorry about that, lol
i cant exactly place why he looks girlish. probably the chin and the big eyes.
maybe make the eyes a BIT smaller, and make the chin more manly and broad, lol
and maybe the lips too, although i dont know why, they look girly. :lol:
Thaaat’s better! :lol:
Problem is, he being elvish and such makes him a bit more feminine. Like Orlando Bloom, who isn’t that manly in the face either. The chin right now is already more broad then my reference images, and same goes for the eyes… I leave them alone for now. The lips on the other hand… I’m not sure about them. Cutter has a huge lower lip, but the upper lip… I’ll see if I can change it a bit.
For me, as I know the character, I don’t think my model is thát girlish at the moment. Maybe that by adding his muscular body all doubt will be taken away. 
Hey Plakkie,
There you go! It’s really coming together. I’d say maybe give the torso a little bit more dept around the breast area. Feels a tiny bit thin to me. And I’m asuming you’re gonna work some more on the hair? It’s the right shape but still a bit lumpish (if you catch my drift ;)) I agree that the sideview looks wicked as for the front I think his face might be a bit too broad. Does that make sense?
Just my 2 cents, you’re getting there though. Great to see.
I’m struggling with my girls hair but hopefully I’ll have something later tonight and otherwise tomorrow.
Cheers, M
Many thanks Maxim! You’re right about the torso; I’ll let him pump some iron.
The hair is just the main shape right now. I’m planning to add strands later. You did yours in another package… hm… Maybe I’ll try that too, but it can be done in Zbrush as well, I’ll will experiment…
I’m very interested in your remark that the face it too broad. Do you mean in total, or just the upper or lower part of it? I’ll medlle around with the tweak tool to see if it improves it.
Good crits, keep 'm coming!
Well looking at it again, I’d say it’s really subtle. And those are always the hardest things 
Maybe his face is a bit too flat? Make the whole thing a bit more rounded? I’m sure you’ll fix it since you’re doing very well! It’s off to breakfast for me and since there is no sunshine (as was predicted) I’ll stay home and work on my model (yay!)
Oh and by the way he doesn’t look feminine to me at all. He is an elf after all. Don’t they have to look at least a little bit feminine?
M