Wow, that's nice.
I never thought flesh tones in the eyes would work so well. It seems you can establish the shape better without overpowering the outsides of the iris with bright whites, nor extending the entire pallet just for the subtle grays.
Video #2 posted on August 10th, 2010:
Posted another video I made. I need critique on this one as well, thanks a lot everyone. Also, I made this before I got all these pointers and edits from all of you, so all you guys helped me with to improve the faces, I will apply it on the 3rd video. I was really tired when making this, and couldn't stop at the time, so I had to cut few small change frames, such as the coloring process in the end... also this explain why I messed up in the oval measure figure / rough lineart really bad at first... at least I'm glad I saved the piece somehow lmao.
This time around, I prolly should ask the sex of this person first.
I'm going to guess "dude" this time around, on account of the necktie, but hopefully I can focus only on with non-gender issues.
Awesome start, but the hair kinda confuses me. I see bangs over the right (our left) side of his face but it looks a lot like a single bang unless I look along the bottom edge. Perhaps some additional shadows to split up the one shape might help. Following his bangs up, they seem to disappear over his head as if that hair is coming from the top of his head instead of the front of his hair line. You can work in a small arc to improve readability.
For how thick the hair is on our left, the shadow seem strong enough to start unbalancing the image. I'm a bit of a fan of tousled hair, but if you don't like the small sections of highlights everywhere, you might instead consider shifting the light source slightly higher. A top/down shadow effect would help keep the values a little more symmetrical.
Other than the hair, everything else I tried out seems petty, but I might as well list it.
I tried moving the hair slightly further over his eye to reduce tension of where it is, as well as starting the suggestion of an eyebrow at the edge.
Also, I moved the mouth up a bit and tried to make it more prominent, by adding in the darkest flesh tone.
...I haven't even touched the neck (or clothes) yet, but I think the neck will eventually need a shadow to set it under and backwards in space.
In any case, I can't wait to see what you do with it. Good luck!
