Low poly girl head - requesting assistance/paint-over. [Blender3d]

NegInfinity

I've run into trouble with  a model I'm working on, and therefore I'm asking for assistance/paintover (as suggested here: http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2555005#Comment_2555005 )

Model:


Issues:

Does not really look like a girl/woman, as far as I can tell. I've wasted several days, and I can't pinpoint the remaining issues myself, so I'm asking for help.

Wireframe:




Hair is a placeholder, hard edges are intentional.

Basically, I can't spot mistakes myself, so if someone was interested in marking them, that would be great, and the help woudl be appreciated.

Regards, NegInfinity.

--edit--

Sketchfab sample:
model

NegInfinity

I've adjusted the head slightly based on advice I got elsewhere, But I think there's still something wrong with it...
model

Brian "Panda" Choi

Have you tried turbosmoothing it?

NegInfinity

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Have you tried turbosmoothing it?

I'm using blender 3d, so there's no turbo smoothing. There are catmull-clark subdivision surfaces, but I'd like to keep the level of details low and polygonal 

Visually, sharp edges and flat polygons are pretty much the look I was going for, the problem is that anatomy has been giving me grief for quite some time. 

Character wise I'd like to have some sort of "action-girl" or even tomboyish archetype, meaning not cutesy/fragile/silly type, the problem is I'm not seeing what I want in what I have at the moment, and not quite sure how to adjust it to get what I want (maybe painting over it myself would help? Hmm...). I've also been told that I'm prone to make one specific face archetype.

So, to summarize - there's an anatomy error somewhere I'm not seeing that contributes to more masculine appearance, plus I'm stuck with it in general. I'll probably put a helmet on the char for now, but I'd really appeciate some, I don't know, advice/guidelines or something like that.

Apocrs1980

Main thing I see is that some of the proportions are off, particularly her ears, normally they do not sit that far back and low on the head.  And there is a subtle concave between the mouth and cheak which is more prominent in male anatomy where females tend to be softer.

I would suggest looking at references to see where everything lines up.

Just my two cents,  dunno if that helps.

ozzy310

Are you working from a reference or something off your head? If you're not you should it makes it easier and if you are show all your references you are working from so we can all see what you are trying to accomplish. 

NegInfinity

ozzy310 said:

Are you working from a reference or something off your head? If you're not you should it makes it easier and if you are show all your references you are working from so we can all see what you are trying to accomplish. 

Working off my head. Basically, I had a base mesh made by retopologying manuel bastioni lab output into low resolution (because I tend to mess up proportions everywhere otherwise), then I tried mold it something that was more matching the rough idea I had.

Speaking of which, you guys gave me idea - I think I'll grab my tablet, try paint over the output myself, figure out what kind of face I want in 2d, then bring it back to 3d. Not sure why I didn't think of it earlier...

Brian "Panda" Choi

If your own imagination is failing to be comfortable that this is a female face, I'd make sure you start using a facial reference and stick to it at that point.