Need help with Graham's face

[Nightfable]

This is a close-up of King Graham when he has a heart-attack. I'm having a hard time making him look like the KQ5 buff Graham that we know and love. Honestly I don't think he looks too bad but I could really need your feedback on how to make him look more like the actual Graham.

His torso and arms are unfinished, I'll work on that once I've got his face right.



Here's the reference picture I used:

[Nightfable]

I lightened his skin a bit:

[Igor Hardy]

It looks to me more like Graham is laughing than having a heart attack.

[Nightfable]

LOL!! Oh noes!! How do I fix that?!!

[Nightfable]

Is this better? I've lowered his eyebrows a bit and changed his neck..

Does he look in like he's having a heart attack?

EDIT#1: I also made his nose a pixel or two longer. I find he resembles Graham more now! Yay! (Tough to do, with him grimacing like that)




EDIT#2: You peeps want a good laugh? Here's what Graham looked liked when I first began painting him over.



Hahahaha, he looked like a feeble old man!  

[Calin Leafshade]

Yes, better.

I think it also needs higher contrast.. but that could just be the style.

[Nightfable]

Yeah, I tend to not put enough shadows/contrast in my pics. I'll remind myself to fix that, thanks!

[Sughly]

It's looking good, making some nice adjustments there. I think the reason why he appears to be laughing in in his mouth too though. I think it's the same for the reference pic which just goes to show how well you've been able to reference it haha!
I think maybe try making his mouth turn down instead of up, might make it look more like he's unhappy about his heart attack?

[Nightfable]

Thanks Sughly, I'll try that! Love your art by the way! 

[Asclepius]

HHNNNNNNGGGGG 

[Sughly]

Love your art by the way! 

Why, thank you!

[Ali]

I think he's very recognisable as King Graham. However I think the image could be a bit more dramatic tonally. Here is a very rough paintover showing a simple way lighting could make the image more intense:

[Stefano]

@Ali: Excellent edit!!
@Nightfable: It is a very difficult emotion to convey on a static image, specially when most of the body (and thus, all its potential expressiveness) is out of the frame. Currently, I think he looks anguished or saddened, like it's his metaphoric heart that is aching. "-How could she leave me?"
But, like I said, it is quite a hard emotion, even to offer critique on.
Among other things, he looks quite relaxed. The eyes-squinting, wrinkle-forming and teeth showing on your ref pic is a lot more intense. Still on the ref: his neck muscles are seemingly tense and his right shoulder is being pulled forward (also tension).
Interesting! I'll try to make an edit and see if I can try to understand it myself.

[EDIT] I have made changes that seemed fit according to what I've said. Also, for this size of head, the body seemed too big and wide, even for our buff king. I've changed that too.
Animated gif of the steps: http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/stevetera/stefano_heart-attack-graham3d.gif
Final product: http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/stevetera/stefano_heart-attack-graham3d-1.png

(I've grabbed the skin tone from this excellent tutorial: http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm)

[Nightfable]

@Ali: Thanks! With your help, I'm doing a paintover. It's looking really good!!  

@Stefano: I can't wait to see your edit!  8)

EDIT:

I've begun adding some shading but I mostly rearranged Graham's body structure similar to what you did Stefano, and also added his other arm.

How does it look?



I'll add highlights next.

[Nightfable]

Thanks again for the help!

I'm hopping on to something else -- lots of animations to work on.

I'll be lurking around.

[Stefano]

My edits are on my previous post, Nightfable! I didn't want to occupy too much space so I provided them as links.
In my attempt to make the head/body ratio more proportionate, I may have made him too scrawny. Heh.
I'll just go ahead and [ img ] them:

[Khris]

Great edit!

Nightfable, the main problem with your version is the small head; the neck fits the body but also emphasizes how tiny the head is in comparison.
The new hand (his right) is great but unfortunately, now his left looks too small and somehow crippled. The base of the thumb should be more visible and the wrist is too slender.

[Nightfable]

Really nice edit Stefano!  



- Re-sized his head slightly to suit his body & neck
- Added a few pixels to his wrist
- Changed his skin tone a little

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Did you use some kind of scaling for this image?  I tried reducing it but couldn't a 1:1 pixel ratio that didn't distort the image so I made a messy edit over it:

1.  Adusted the shape of the nose, making it tilt down a bit while making the nostril more prominent.

2.  Made the eyebrows look more like he is wincing.

3.  Altered the shape of the mouth to show more teeth;

4.  Cleaned up some artifacting around the image.





My main focus was on giving him more of a proper wince to show he's in great pain.  This meant arching his eyebrows more, drawing his brows together tightly, and most importantly, showing his teeth (and a bit of gums) to really illustrate something is wrong.  Moving in this direction will make him look less sad and more in extreme pain.

[Matti]

Very nice edit, ProgZ !