Mace Windu - WIP

NathanielScheurer

Hello everyone!

I am working on a likeness of Samuel L Jackson as Mace Windu. My plan is to post progress here and hopefully get some feedback from all you skilled artists. 

So far I am still working on subdivision levels 1-3 following the workflow Adam O’Donnell shows in his Obi-Wan Kenobi course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WskjAWLicBE





And here are the reference images i am using:

birb

This is nice! You're pretty close to fully nailing his likeness. The only areas in need of correction at this stage are the lips (wider with a slightly vertically shorter upper lip and better defined volumes surrounding the lower ones) and forehead (it's a bit too wide and undefined on the sides). Everything else is just minor adjustments to emphasize plane changes and details to keep an eye on when you get to the next level of detail. I don't know about the "skilled artist" part, but here's a paintover:



When adjusting planes pay special attention to the cyan triangle/square at the root of the nasolabial fold. This inconsequential little plane is what sells the idea that there's a skull under all the skin and mass in the center of the face. Also, depending on the age you'll want to give the apple of his cheeks and upper eyelids more tonus than the painting above.

That's it. I hope it helps, and I'm looking forward to see more!

NathanielScheurer

Thank you @birb! 
I really really appreciate the feedback, very kind of you to go through the trouble of making a paint over. Apparently he was around 50 when they filmed Star Wars but I don´t think he looks a day over 40! Gonna be posting more as soon as I get some of those changes in

NathanielScheurer

Finally got some secondary forms in but really struggling with tertiary forms.

stevston89

Your reference is all over the place. It's very hard to nail down a likeness when you are trying to match several different FoVs. I recommend going to https://www.gettyimages.com/editorial-images and finding a good photoshoot of Samuel Jackson. If you grab all of your main ref from the same shoot they are going to be shot from the same lens, which means no FoV mismatches. 

NathanielScheurer

Thank you @stevston89 thats a great tip! I went ahead recently and watched the prequels again and screenshotted almost every different scene with Samuel L Jackson in it. It didn´t fix the FoV issue but atleast I got more reference from the correct age.