LOL @ Sculptrisnewb! As much as it pains me to read those critiques, they are spot on. But at least we got to check out the pink pantie version before any revisions are made. 
I love the face on her and the hands are very cool.
Excellent elf, love the armor too.
the high collar gorget is a nice touch .
great face too . 
Arthaven: Thanks, hopefully I can come up with something that is as much fun to look at as what I posted already 
Pygmalion: Thanks, glad you like it
Hello everyone! I think I’ve found some waistwear that works with the rest, but I’d love to hear opinions on it. Does it look silly? Should I try again? Should I just shut up and move on?
Also note that she’s now got some tight leather pants now I guess. heh.
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Thanks for looking, sorry to those sick of seeing this model 
-oof
I like the protective metal skirt you have. With that you can almost do anything you want underneath (even keep the pink panties ;)). The biggest struggle I have with making armor is the balance of function and sex appeal (male or female). There’s so many cool features to show off on the human figure and you want to represent them in your skill set but at the same time, the parts you want to show off usually are the areas the need protected.
It looks great! I like the armor additions and the leather. i enjoyed seeing a different hair style than your last.
this model is top row !! lets see it posed !!! 
Damn!! he’s only gone and covered that Perfect Butt up , Ya just cant please some people lol:D Oh and we won’t ever get sick of seeing good work bud.
Arthaven: Thanks! Yep, making armor appealing is a big challenge. Especially for female characters if you don’t want to put them in either a platemail bikini or a solid metal box – I haven’t been able to find much in the way of reference for inspiration. (also I tend to avoid references because then I just end up duplicating)
tony: Thanks, man. Glad you like the hair – a placeholder, really. The character should have much longer hair which will probably be mostly created as part of the posing process for the final scene.
Gary: haha thanks, I’ll use your rig again for posing, it really worked well. Assuming I can figure out how to get subtools along for the ride that is. Just have to decide on a pose…
Sculptris: Yeah, it was hard to cover that up, went against every fiber of my being. So I compromised with some vacuum packed pants. :lol:
The cleavage hole to me is a target. It says, “Stab my heart!” in sword-ese.
I’m in the same boat as you. What I’ll do in a lot of cases is concept with no reference, just from what I know. Then once I get some stuff I’m happy with I’ll go research my references and do a once over to weave the realistic reference elements in with what I originally concepted. Because just like you, when I get the reference first I seem to be stuck from diverging far enough from the realistic path. So my round about suggestion is to not avoid them but know the right timing in the process to use them.
I saw this girl and wondered, “how the heck has this guy slipped under my radar?!” I checked your website and I do know you! You did the assassin in the Character modeling 3 book! Belated congrats on that! Your entry was 10000x better than mine.
Jerick: Its a trap. its really a very thick steel plate painted carefully to look like boobs. This serves as two forms of distraction: 1) the boobs. 2) the surprise when the sword point is abruptly halted by the steel and then just as abruptly twisted from the wielders hand by patented jiggly action. Thanks for the comment
Arthaven: Yep, good point, thanks. I definitely need to get a more healthy reference habit. In this case, I did much as you mention – got a good portion of the model done so I had a good feeling as to the design themes, and then went searching for some reference. the belt here specifically caused me some trouble – the references I found weren’t fitting with what I had already done, and it was a big blank spot in my mental picture of the armor. Maybe some day I’ll figure out this art thing
Nyx: I spent a few minutes trying to figure out what thread you meant to post that in apart from this one … I think you have me confused with someone else. Not sure what website you found… I guarantee my ancient stagnant one wouldn’t lead you to the conlusion that I’m remotely of the caliber to be featured in a book! if you were referring to the model in this thread, then thank you for the compliment! I think I know the assassin model of yours that may have been your entry – there’s a screenshot of it in my inspiration and study folder :).