How do I give life to my zombie-looking friend? (Likeness study)

Adam1313

Hi,

I've spent the past few days trying to make a likeness, one of the main problems I'm facing is how do I make her face seem alive and not so "zombie" like.

Any suggestions / tips?

The reference is of my friend it's not a famous person.

Thanks.

Pictures:

Jakub

First of all, nice face

What you need to do is study the muscle moment during some expressions. First thing that seems wrong is her smile, try to smile reveling your upper teeth without "changing" shape of your upper lip(if you can do it ). It will not look like a smile.
Another thing is symmetry, you have to break it. It will always make your work look less appealing and live.

Adam1313

Hey thanks for the comment!

Thou I wasn't asking about the likeness itself, as for her smile, the left side of her upper lip is kinda thinning when she smiles that why I mimicked it here. I did study anatomy, I believe I could never get any passable result without it.

About the symmetry breaking, I broke it after sub-division 2... (fairly early on than in some video-game models I've done) - her face seems too symmetrical? I'll try looking if I can improve the asymmetry.

Thanks!

Stavaas

I think what's gonna help out a lot, is to make her smile with her eyes as well. When people give a genuine smile, their cheeks go up and squeeze the eyes together a bit. Like in these examples, you can really tell which one is the warmer, more genuine smile by the way the eyes are.

Other than this I think it looks pretty good! Would be nice to see the reference you're working from!