i went back and did that, helped in fleshing it out a bit, but just made it stand out more.
figure its because i went yolo with the highlights/light colours without regard for the depth and shape i wanted. so light is more global and less directed, breaking the shape i had in mind.
if i go back to just that base colour, the shape is spot on.
think il start the light colours again from scratch


had a similar thought, tried doing it, but as im drawing, it just didnt look right, will work on that

EDIT:
i thought you promised to bump all the things, chills? :<

might be a little too defined, but it looks more like what I hand in mind

Sorry thought I had that one taken care of looking better.

I might mess around with wrinkles to see what I want them to look like

ah, ive been doing highlights totally wrong.
i see what you mean about harder transitions, ive been using the highlights the same way you would use mid tones, softening the whole face.
more midtones, harder highlights

Light bulbs in action! Yea sometimes if you greyscale a head and a reference, match the midtones and it should show that stuff kinda.

it looks like your man is a balloon with those lines on the cheeks tbh

Shhh slowly, slowly..

been thinking the same, but wrinkles.
reworking the whighlights should fix alot of that balloon effect though

This soft brush is like evil demon magic, its like cheating
brought the one side down a bit much, looks like hes looking left

cool wip. colors might need some life later on.

I'm always afraid of open mouths because in my experience they look silly from the side, so good luck with that.

Just ran out of steam, dunno wtf to do with the back or top.
naix is bald and has a really small skull, so theres not much to go on and im stuck with whats actually there.
hate these end stages, finishing touches are not a strong point of mine, always prefer how the earlier WIPs look.