I had some time the other day and I wanted to add some Fantasy or Medieval work to my portfolio. I also wanted to practice some characters with some expression after watching Wes Burt at the SFWorkshop back in August. He stressed beginning with a loose sketch, in a very hi key with only light and complete shadow to figure out the characters head "gesture". He has a mastery of anatomy, and so he can make short hand marks that denote the surface features of the face and indicate a lighting direction in a single mark. I do not yet, but I can start to see how you sort of "feel" the features out in a rougher big brush and sometimes marks just look natural. The second part was that building on top of this in other layers, you must continuously check back and make sure your character's mood and personality still read and resemble the sketch. Rendering can easily make your faces contort and drift, so that was very helpful.
