Awesome progress on the viking! His wrists seem a bit narrow, though maybe that’s just the angle…
He looks very realistic but I think that the pose need’s work 
Nice, I love the mood of this picture. With a decent background and compositing this will become awesome!
I must say that the pinky finger on the right hand looks a little weird where the joints are. Other than that, the hands look pretty good to me.
@downfall61
Heh! thanks. That’s a very pesky pinky 
I’ll try to fix 
As for background… I’m still trying to decide what to do there…
Hey guys & girls,
I started experimenting with backgrounds, here I have a very subtle red ‘smoke’ effect for the background… what do you think?
@ Joan D
Thanks man! I’ll work on the pose
ok I quit the comp!!! just kidding but seriously that’s beautiful. I really love it.
Hi Guss, this is looking really good.
I have no doubt that you will do well in the competition! Since you have a lot of time to finish this, go back and make everything flawless. Tweak the modelling (already very good), work on the pose and composition, add more depth to the materials, fix the hair (looks much too flat and shiny), and perfect the lighting. If you keep steadily improving this piece, it will be gallery material.
The red smoke works perfectly, I agree with Johnathan, this is very good, keep going and it will be stunning.
Thanks a lot everybody, I will definitely keep working on the image until the deadline!
Hey Everyone!
I did some more work on a bunch of small stuff, but mostly on his hair…
I put an update in the first post.
Guss
Great work so far, but I’m a bit confused with the arm in front. if it’s holding the helmet, then maybe open it’s thumb (maybe thumb lying on helmet) cuz now it seems that it would be very uncomfortable to hold helmet in this position. Hope you got the idea. Good luck!
@ orux:
Thanks I’ll fix the thumb
I love the expression you’ve given this guy, has a lot of personality to it. Personally, I don’t feel that the torso quite fits the head though. He’s got broad, full features yet a very slender frame by the looks of things. Have you experimented with maybe widening the shoulders a little or bringing the chest out a notch?
Not a huge change mind, just enough to give him a little shape. The viking warriors were likely to have been quite muscular owing to their hard, working lives both home and away. Funnily enough though, according to skeletons from that time period, they were also likely to be 8-10cm shorter on average than people of today. So maybe a little extra bulk underneath the chainmail could make sense, it would certainly fit the face very well I reckon. Not superhero big, just a little broader than he is now. I very roughly drew out what I mean here (sorry for the crappy overlay, on my office laptop with only a touchpad and pixlr at my disposal):
As far as I can see, the head seems a little too small for me, I’d give him more strenght and maybe a more dynamic pose.
Said that, he look awesome! I’m competing too but I’m very sad now…
Heyall!
I updated the first post, enjoy! (C&C welcome)
@Extra guy and edofaravelli,
I widened his chest and arms, hope this works…
@ orux
I fixed the thumb…
Guss