Fantasy non-character

This is an experiment I’m making to create an animatable base mesh from which I can derive characters. The mesh is shown in subdiv 0, as this is where I’ll make the rig, but it’s to be refined at subdiv 1.
I’m going for a semi-cartoonish look, but I think the face is a bit too realistic. Any thoughts about that?
This is the most current shot.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]393648[/ATTACH]
This is the mesh at subdiv 0.




Attachments


I’ve given him two types of hair. The left is solid hair à la Disney Infinity, and the right one is particle hair. The particle hair is beautiful, but it’s killing my render times. The solid one, I’m almost satisfied with it, but messy hair is difficult to model. Any tips about modeling that kind of hair?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]392584[/ATTACH]
His smile is a bit forced. I haven’t completed his facial rig yet.

The facial rig is (more or less) complete. I’ve used the 25 expressions meme from Deviantart to test and refine it. It was a great exercise, and I recommend it to anyone, 3D or 2D!



Some expressions are not entirely to my liking but for those, I’d have to use textures.

I’d consider the face rig finished. Now, it’s time to check the body rig.

And now, a first animation test:
[video]https://youtu.be/pXXVO3WHpDE[/video]
It still has not much secondary animation, nor funny faces, but I think the rhythm is right, so I can animate those things now.
Any thoughts?