Coinhero's sketchbook

[Rotohail]

Hey! The face on the painting improved quite a lot! I see you fixed the far away eye also! Good job! I personally think the original orientation worked for me better because I read left to right, so when seeing it I instinctively would catch a glance of the whole picture before stopping at the face, which is usually what draws attention. But for readers that go the opposite way (in case that's your way) this current orientation would make more sense. Opposite cultures!
Soft version also looks the best to me but hard ain't bad at all!

I can see what you mean with the face on this new one you are working on. Yeah I've stumbled upon the same issues when trying to paint way overly realistic shadings on abstracted styles, like you start to shade things like cheeks and eye sockets, and it starts to look weird quickly. The simpler the shading the better, on 3D that translates to custom shaders right? Or just soften the face forms quite a bit. Aesthetically I would try to match the face proportions to the original better, somehow, but that's up to you. I just suck at trying to blend realism into abstractions ha! So I take the easy route.
On the other hand you are rocking the body! Looking really good! Keep it up!