Model of H.P. Lovecraft's face

[Sparky]

For the sake of fleshing out my underwhelming portfolio, I'm working on another model. I'm more or less done with the basic mesh, but I'm not at all happy with the proportions. I've posted a few reference pictures for comparison. I'm relatively new to modeling, so if anyone has any general advice that would be quite welcome as well.




To avoid any confusion, this is very much in progress: the eyebrows are missing, the eyelashes are too dark and badly shaped, the hair is just a placeholder, and the face hasn't been detailed yet.

[Tuomas]

I notice your modelling seems a bit older than the images. I suggest you pay attention to the gap between the coming eyebrows and then the cheeklines from nose to mouth, which aren't as strong as yours. You might want to lower the eye/face some minimal measures as the forehead should prolly be a little tiny bit bigger and the jaw smaller.

It's a very nice model though.

[InCreator]

Lower lip seems a bit too unnatural for me.
I don't believe that it's really that extruded, though it's hard to say based on those photos.
I suggest you to try to move skin a bit inwards directly under lower lip. Lovecraft has quite unnatural facial shape, but you went maybe a bit too far.

Also, upper lip should be extruded (pulled outwards a bit), same for area under nose.
Look at the photos. Especially second one from first row. Low light makes his mouth area shade like ape's, which is how humans look. It also suggests that his mouth wasn't so plain and straight as it's on your side view.

Excellent model, though, I wish I could model like that.

[Stupot]

I'd never seen pictures of lovecraft until now.
He was a strange-looking bloke and that mouth is scary.  Like he's holding a truly dark secret.
I think you could do more to try to capture that sense that he is really carrying a most terrible and mysterious burden.
I almost want to make friends with him and tell him to share his thoughts with me, but one suspects if he had revealed his terrible secrets his writing may not have been half as good.

[Sparky]

Thanks so much for the advice on the proportions. This edit is the result of a lot of proportion tweaks. Pretty much everything got adjusted at least a little. Overall he still doesn't look right. It seems like he could use another round of edits.



Increator's suggestion about the lips was very helpful. Though the lips have been reshaped, I think they still could use work. The lower lip was rounded out and the fold under it was deepened. The little depression in the middle of the upper lip got reshaped, and the the lip itself was pushed outward a bit, but it seems like it should be poutier still.

Tuomas- you're right, he looked too old. I think a lot of the shaping was over-exaggerated in the first edit. The target age is a bit older than the average age in the photos- something like the sepia toned photo or the extremely grainy shot with a lot of shadow. But I think I misinterpreted the grainy shot as showing deeper folds and wrinkles than it actually does. Regarding the cheeks, the area under his cheekbones is less sunken now. I also tried to round out the cheekbone itself, and move it down a bit. There's still something off about the line from cheekbone to chin, though. As for the forehead and jawline, the features have been moved down the face slightly, and the barrel of the mouth has been smoothed out and pushed back into the cheek. If anything still looks off, I'd be happy to adjust it more in the next edit.

The eyelashes are more or less done, but the eyebrows that are on him now have a lot of problems. I hate the eyebrows: they arc too much, they're way too crisp, and the hairs aren't clumpy and random enough. Modo doesn't really have a set of hair tools, but it's flexible enough that you can mass-create and comb small numbers of short hairs without specialized tools. I'm a little daunted by the head hair, though. The technique I'm using won't really work for long strands.

Stupot- I like the idea of giving him a more expressive face, instead of just modeling him unposed. I'll try to give him a sort of distant, "I'm creative and tragically misunderstood" sort of look.

[Haddas]

Do you have Photoshop? If so. You could try putting the 3D face in the same orientation as one of the reference pics, and then put the reference pic on TOP of the model with lowered transparency. This might give you an idea of what is going wrong.

[Sparky]

Thanks Haddas- I was insisting on working freehand, but a little work on top of a reference really helped with this last edit. I suppose it doesn't pay to think too rigidly.



I think his cheekbones might need more rounding out- in the first view they look a little too sharp still. I think I'll start detailing him now, but I'd still be interested in any advice people have on how to make him look more convincing.

[boojiboy]

I think,

something about the mouth makes me think he's smirking. It's very close to the other photos but I don't get the same impression from them.

Not sure if you're focusing on anything but the face. If you are, the neck is too long.

His eyebrows are still a bit off. Looking at the reference images try imagining the shape of his eyes and his eyebrows as one shape. By doing this I can see that the shape of the socket is oval (in the ref) whereas yours are more round. In your model he seems more alert. In the ref images his eyes seem more relaxed.

The tip of his nose has a ridge underneath it (in the ref). You can see it casting a shadow underneath it and on the side. Also, the flesh surrounding the nostrils goes up a bit too high. In the front view (ref) you can see that his nostrils are higher than the lowest point of his nose. In your model they're level. Overall the nose in the refs is slightly bigger and longer. If you divide his face into three sections, eyes, nose and jaw, you can see that your middle section is a little underestimated.

Halfway between his chin and his lip it starts to protrude. In your model I think it protrudes a bit too steeply. Maybe smooth it out a tad.

I think the chin might need to be narrowed but I'm not sure if that might be an illusion because of the last thing I mentioned.

The ears stick out a bit too much.

That's all I can think of for now. I know it's nitpicking but I assume you want it as detailed as possible.
It looks fantastic.

[Sparky]

boojiboy- Thanks for the observations, they were all helpful.

I know it's nitpicking...

I always appreciate the picky, obsessive comments, actually . I tend to think that way myself, but I can understand why you'd be cautious about imposing when you aren't sure how someone else likes to work.

[Erwin_Br]

Damn impressive! The facial curves, and his expression seem spot-on. I can't wait to see it finished with hair.

--Erwin

[boojiboy]

I'm glad they helped. Can't wait to see this finished. It looks great

[Sparky]

OK, here's another edit. I tried to address all the points made earlier, but due to a number of crashes I may have lost a few of my changes. So, err, I'll blame any remaining issues on Modo's stability .

The color isn't quite ready, but the displacement (pores, etc.) more or less is.


Four renders of the model with only displacement on, and one "I'm an angsty horror writer" shot.

Among other minor changes, his nose is a tad larger now. The eye sockets have been reshaped- good observation there, I don't know if I would have picked up on that. Unfortunately these eyebrows were made before the edit, so they conceal the change a bit. I imagine he'll get a new pair of eyebrows anyway, these ones look a bit too much like carpet. Does he still look like he's smirking? At certain angles his mouth still looks a little off.

I'm thinking Boojiboy is right, and the chin is too wide. And he still doesn't have any hair, just a shiny brown swim cap for now. But before he gets hair the color needs some work.

[boojiboy]

Looking better.
Hopefully you're still considering the modeling stage because I picked up on a few more things.

This isn't a paint over it's more to assist me in pointing out the parts that could be corrected.



1. The mouth area. (blue)

You've made the top area of his mouth slightly concaved. Judging from the ref images it's not really this way.
From the cheeks-- when it hits those blue lines it should actually start to protrude from his face. Overall I think this is what's throwing his mouth off. It's not just the bottom lip that sticks out, it's the entire mouth. The furthest it goes out is underneath the bottom lip, but not as much as in your model. Do you know what I mean? If not let me know and I'll try and clarify.

2. (Green) and (purple)

The green bit goes down  a bit too far and is a bit too exaggerated, I suggest making the transition from lip to chin smoother. Also, the (purple) jaw goes down a bit too far. In your model I get the impression his jaw is much bigger than I see in the ref images.

3. nose (red)

I haven't gotten this right at all, but it at least points out the areas which don't seem right. The from plane of the nose seems to widen a bit more in the middle of his nose in the refs.
Also, I'm not sensing that ridge on the tip of his nose, maybe that's just because of the lighting.

4. eyes (yellow) and eyebrows (orange)

Your eyes are slanting downwards too much on the the outer side. His irises are too big (you might fix this later) and the eyebrows should be closer to the eyes.

It's not a very good paint over, so don't take my word for all of these things it's just the areas that don't feel right to me.

Still looking great, I want to see this to the end!

[Sparky]

Thanks again, boojiboy! I'll make good use of those comments.

Hopefully you're still considering the modeling stage because I picked up on a few more things.

I'm definitely still playing with modeling. If anyone else has related suggestions, fire away.

edit:
I have some rather unnerving news to report. Lovecraft's eyes have spontaneously decided to start glowing. It was weird- I never touched his eyes at all, I just hit the render key and all of a sudden they were glowing and the light was off. Given the author's leanings I'm sure he'd be amused .

[ThreeOhFour]

In which Sparky renders the spooky.

Excellent unintentional glowing eyes aside, your model is lovely. Are you planning to do graphics for a game with Lovecraft in it? Or is this merely for your portfolio?

[stu]

great model indeed.

my only nark are those patches of roughness on the skin, (forehead & around the bottom lip/chin). They look too intense, and it also looks like he's wearing some form of foundation make-up.

Also, not sure if you'd finished the hair yet, but it could do with some thinning/fading at the very edges of the  his hairline. Especially where he has his partin.

again though, nice work!

[Sparky]

Sorry for the delayed post.


Aside from general adjustments here and there, the mouth and lips got rearranged a bit, he has new eyebrows (which need some thickening up), and the outer corner of his eyes has been pulled outward a bit. His eyes still don't look quite right to me. In the render on the right the skin has been toyed with a lot. hopefully he doesn't look quite as much like he's wearing makeup now.


old ear (left) and remodeled ear (right)
His ear got a makeover. It seemed like his ear didn't fit the photos very closely. The main changes were the way the earlobe transitions into the head and the shape of the ridge on the top.

my only nark are those patches of roughness on the skin, (forehead & around the bottom lip/chin). They look too intense, and it also looks like he's wearing some form of foundation make-up.

Also, not sure if you'd finished the hair yet, but it could do with some thinning/fading at the very edges of the  his hairline. Especially where he has his partin.

Judging by the photos he's got some pretty deep scarring from smallpox or something. Does it look odd if you look at it from that angle? If it doesn't look like scarring, perhaps something could be done to communicate that better.

Are you planning to do graphics for a game with Lovecraft in it? Or is this merely for your portfolio?

There aren't any plans to use him in a specific project, but making a low poly version with a full body would be good practice, now that I think about it.