From the Desk: Seeking Critiques

Well, this is yet another work-in-progress shot of Pandora. I'm near completion, but I'm trying out something new. In addition to my normal "things left to do" list that I'm keeping, I decided to take photos and examine the photos for detail work that needs to be cleaned up. I think many people have the challenge with models looking better in person than in photos. I was thinking about this and figured I could use that to my advantage. So, here they are! Also, as a part of a community experiment, this is an open invitation for feedback comments on what needs to be improved. Constructive criticism is very much welcome. Part of the challenge for me is that I've been staring at this model for weeks now, so it's easy to just miss something obvious. Here are some of my own notes:

Things to do/finish:
* The base - You can't see it here obviously, but it isn't done still.
* Coat - I want to put some freehand on the back of her coat. I still haven't decided what yet, but it definitely needs a little something. My first thought was glowing runes, but I may steer away from that.

Things to improve:
* Mouth - It isn't as crisp as it should be.
* Boots - The shading has some oddities to it that need to be resolved. I also think more color would be useful, but just don't know where to go with it yet.
* Cuffs - The coat cuffs already got reworked once, but they need more effort I think. I don't want to overdo them because it will throw off the overall focus balance of the model, but they need something.
* Skin - Her mid-section could use some improvement. I need some reference photos to help out here though.
* Belt - Now that I look at the photo, the belt isn't as crisp as it should be. Go photo reference experiment!

Things I'm resigned to not being happy with:
* Box - The NMM on the box is terrible, and I don't see it getting any better. It's awkward to get to in the first place, but the tiny fidgety surfaces are nearly impossible for me to work with effectively.
* Greens - The glowing green streaks are not as smooth as I would like them to be. I'm not sure it's feasible to fix them at this point without a major amount of work. Ironically I think that problem is more obvious in person than in the photo.
* Fingers - The sculpt just had a problem here that I couldn't correct. Specifically her left hand (right side of photo). There's not much I can really do at this point to smooth things out with cutting off and resculpting it entirely. In hindsight, I should have found appropriate hands from another model and replaced these hands.