Hey David and Creatures Community! Had a few ideas for this one: started by practicing my own rendition of your idea, then trying a centaur ape creature, and didn’t love that so moved to the spider monkey. pretty cool but still didn’t feel totally satisfied so tried an ape reptilian lizard or snake creature, which I actually like a lot! What do you guys think? Thoughts/critiques? Thanks! Love the course so far can’t wait for more! :D

Hey Matthew, looks like you're off to a good start! I like the colors you pulled from the skin tone. For it to feel more finished, you will probably have to rework your foundation a bit. I might start your next draft (save new version) with a darker background. Look at overall shape and weight FIRST. Try not to copy photo too closely-- capture overall FEELING. That might mean sketching in greyscale/value/low color sat first to get the nuances of the expression right before you worry about brushwork or colors. Smiling poses are hard!! Then when you have it mapped out more accurately, then try to get the skin tone. Put glasses on new layer. try building from dark to light, saving your brightest and most saturated colors for the most raised parts/ areas of interest. in other words, try toning the whole thing down, and sculpting reservedly with brights. your piece will look more finished with specific sharper/more colorful areas of interest. Looks like up near the hair part is much lighter skin tone. don't forget the baby hairs! Nice work so far, keep working at it/ don't be afraid to rework it!