Ahh yes you're right about that. *shrug Well language aside, I think it'd be cool to do if anyone would pixel the characters.

Shouldn't it be in chinese kanji instead of japanese? Why? Because Bruce is well...Chinese. :-} Nevermind...Japanese kanji was taken from Chinese characters but we should be using the chinese language instead of nihongo.

khorin - do you mean the one attached to the Band of Brothers films?  that is a good one.

Attached to Band of Brothers? This: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Fight_(2005_film) ?
I have the whole series and I didn't see anything about the one I linked. Maybe it's just a different one with the same name. I don't like giving synopsis so I'll just let the almighty wiki do the talking. heh

Below is the reference picture I'm using:

As you can see, the shadows are less dramatic than the one snake has used. I think dithering would work better for this piece should I use the original reference but if I use the one that mangust posted then snake's technique would be perfect. I totally understand all your points about facial features but this reference picture doesn't show so much like the other one but I will scale it down a bit. The mouth has always been bothering me and it still does. Snake, your edit is awesome and very helpful  . Thanks everyone for the tips!