Thanks very much for the pointers, Adarias.
i actually prefer the original palette, skin is a very luminous material and the highly saturated tones in the shadows give it that life that is missing from so many pieces.
I'm now undecided about what to do with his palette. You made a very good point and caused me to look at it in a different light. Anyway, I have two other pieces to work on, so I guess he'll have to wait.
robot feels a little plastic in that it only is reflecting strong lights and shadows dully. A lot of metal is highly polished and presents an almost mirrorlike reflection all the way round with crisp contrast, squashed of course for the cyllinder, and highly reflective metals tend to read better as metal.
My edits follow. I'm not very happy with them. I should point out that I only edited the head (except for the global palette swaps) and that the jaw looks quite terrible. (for that matter, the entire thing might look quite terrible) I think it's either because I can't get the angles of the lines quite right, or because the new reflectiveness has brought some minor perspective problems sharply into focus, or both. At any rate, you may want to just block it out with your thumb or something. I found it difficult to judge my own technique with it in view.
The first edit is a simple palette shift to darker, more contrasting colors. The second is my attempt at the shading I think you're talking about, and the third is an extreme palette change that gets rid of the midtone altogether. I think it's technically more accurate, and might suit a plain cylinder just fine, but it seems very wrong for this character.
And that just leaves the thin man. In the first edit I made him less cadaverous (that wasn't really what I had in mind for the character to begin with) and changed his expression. On the two and three I just tried different hair styles. I think he sort of reverted back to cadaverousness in number three.
Whew! I think I'll just work on one piece at a time in the future.
