New at character modeling, critiques requested!

Correne

Hello, I'm new at character modeling and I would appreciate it if I could get some critique from the community. I've seen all of the awesome work and know everyone here knows what they're talking about! I love constructive criticism!

This first model is supposed to be a 3d self-portrait and the second a cave monster called the Hunter of Bones.

Correne

Some more pictures so I can get a more thorough critique. (someone brought the difference in poly density between my character's hands and face, is there any way for me to fix that without losing any shape?)

Also I used a different and better reference for the head, so it will not match the reference sheets used in these shots. Thanks in advance!

haikai

Referring to your portrait model:

The first thing that jumps out at me is that the overall shapes need work. The head looks a little small. The hands and wrist are a little too flat, and the fingers are very thin. Might make rigging easier if you straighten out the feet so they're pointing forwards more.

There are a lot of subtle bumps and curves to the body that you're missing, especially on the arms and legs. It's a tough thing to get right unless you have a better grasp of anatomy, but I suggest finding other references in addition to your photographs. A big mistake beginners make is they rely too heavily on their orthographic image references without thinking about the model's shapes more critically. Don't rely too much on your imagination or assumption of what the body looks like because our memories are very symbolic and not detailed enough without a lot of training.

For example, if you're going to model an arm, you should look for many photos of arms from all sorts of angles. Even if you're not modeling a muscular character, it can help to look at references where it's easy to see the forms more clearly defined. This will help you keep in mind what's going on and will give you a better idea of what to emphasize and what to tone down on your model.

Your topology actually isn't too bad in some areas although I'd suggest keeping in mind the areas that bend and allocating enough divisions to make it work for animation. I'd recommend reworking the pole where the shoulder meets the chest. You want to avoid having that many edges converging at one point like that. Maybe focus on the forms first and get the topology right later.

You should also consider showing images of the model without the wireframe on so it's a little easier to see what the model looks like shaded.

Good luck!