Weekend Bash
Looking great so far, the eyes look to be giving a bit too much light though, but that's your choice as an artist and how you want to portray him:

Large google image

pretty much finished.
ran out of patience, pretty happy with the result, backs not amazing, was getting frustrated at that point, went with the default turian anatomy rather than sarens cybernetics, drawing work is pretty rough there still, not confident with flat areas, wanted the front to be the focus anyway, so im not too bleak about that, just needed something to fill the space.
and there are a few unpolished areas that i might get to cleaning up a bit, but nothing major

-=Art is never finished, only abandoned=-
Over-used directional shading.
I recommend duping the shading layer, blending the shading, and keep the directional
on the other layer, place it on top, and drop the opacity a little. Not positive how it
would look, but I believe it would look better and less sketchy, while still capturing
the details.
I think Ben likes the directional-sketchy look. Something tells me he could get rid of it if he wanted to.
Although I've never seen anything of his shaded in a different way... Probably would be interesting.

The stylization on the cloth is awesome! It reminds me of the detailing put into making Chinese plates and Indian textiles. But, and maybe this is just because I haven't played Mass Effect, I had to look up who Saren was before I realized the cloth was cloth. Maybe it would be easier to recognize as cloth if it flowed back instead of bending into the center: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcVMLq64CiI

The jaw looks a bit funny to me. When I looked up Saren I noticed he had a wide jaw, but part of the jaw was hanging off to make up for it. Your jaw is just as wide but not nearly as much is hanging off, making for a really wide face. I'm also not sure if there should be two heavy shadows near the teeth area of the jaw. Shouldn't the teeth and jaw be one piece? I think they should be. Although, anatomy is alien to me and alien anatomy is even more so.

Everything else is good. I like the shading, especially the part on the front horn (Dunno if it's giving the depth you want but it definitely looks cool). The back is a bit plain, but that's normal as people typically have plan backs of heads unless they're brides at a wedding.

~ Bawww wait, I knew you weren't trying to make a photocopy of Saren. I meant that I think the anatomy is messed up in those places near the jaw. I can kinda understand if you wanted to make a wide face. But I mentioned the parts of the jaw being together, because I can't think of any mammal or amphibian where the jaw is separated into parts. I guess you could make one for aesthetics though. Still, main point, I never intended to critique you on how much it looks like Saren. I only looked him up to get a feel for his alien race.
Last edited by GoodBox; Sep 10, 2012 at 11:44 AM.
(>^_^)>
Originally Posted by Dothgar View Post
Over-used directional shading.
I believe it would look better and less sketchy, while still capturing
the details.

i dont believe that directional shading can be overused, i believe if can be further polished and blended, but ive chosen not to, as iv always prefered my work during sketch phases, and have never liked the more polished versions of my work, cleaning it up takes away from the severity of the lines, softens the angles, and just generally makes it look weaker and takes away from the character.
maybe its just my technique, i dunno, my main medium is actually painting, and i had it bred into me that the paint/directional lines should be visable, to uphold the integrity of the piece, and while i could never get it right with my painting stuff, it worked quite well for my pen and pencil stuff, tablets pretty much the same

Originally Posted by GoodBox View Post
Maybe it would be easier to recognize as cloth if it flowed back instead of bending into the center: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcVMLq64CiI

difficult to achieve on the sphere without blocking the back out entirely

Originally Posted by GoodBox View Post
The jaw looks a bit funny to me. When I looked up Saren I noticed he had a wide jaw, but part of the jaw was hanging off to make up for it. Your jaw is just as wide but not nearly as much is hanging off, making for a really wide face.

i took a few liberites with the design and chose something i thought looked good, there are a few areas that arent quite the same as on the actual character

Originally Posted by GoodBox View Post
I'm also not sure if there should be two heavy shadows near the teeth area of the jaw. Shouldn't the teeth and jaw be one piece? I think they should be.

again, took a few liberities to make something that looked nice. all the parts of the jaw are intended to be separate.

thanks for the thoughts and comments
Last edited by BenDover; Sep 10, 2012 at 09:21 AM.
-=Art is never finished, only abandoned=-
havent decided yet.
there has been interest, might make an auction for it sometime
-=Art is never finished, only abandoned=-