Well, I’m just rendering an image to put up as the topic pic! 
You know, portrait’s with cycles are actually MUCH easier then in BI! As I found out today! 
Cycles surpasses BI in almost everything except render time. I only use BI for freestyle rendering and the occasional cartoony looking character, but if realism is your goal, then Cycles is definitely your ‘go-to’- engine.
On the other hand, certain shader networks can get very complex with time (just look at the SSS shaders in depth, especially the ‘Arnold’ one).
Still, I think the key to creating a good portrait is a good sculpt, and then texturing (if you hand paint it(like I did) that’s quite the challenge). After that you can probably get decent results with either rendering engine.
Definetly! The sculpting make’s the character who they are! Just wondering, how long have you been using blender?
First installed it a while ago (before 2.5), but couldn’t really come to terms with the interface at the time. I started really using it last summer, so I’m still fairly new to it compared to some of the veterans out there.
Will post an update tomorrow if things go as planned, btw.
Edit: I decided to put the project on hold for a few days. Simply too much other stuff to do at the moment. I put this here instead of creating a new post so as not to bump my thread 
I only started 9 months ago! My bro was really into it at first, so I kind of learnt it from him!
I can’t wait for the update!
You only started last summer…?? 0_O this portrait is like professional
Tiny update:
Another small update on the project.
Sadly I couldn’t render out a bigger image, because I’m currently away from home and working on my laptop; it simply doesn’t have enought ram for this kind of stuff.
I added some eyebrows and eyelashes (hope that’s visible). I’ve also finished most of my work on the clothing but I’ll have to render that out once I have access to a more powerful computer.
edit: Just noticed I accidentally used the wrong material for the lashes (will fix that soon)
The model is really beautiful and I like the sculpt. Good point that you’ve added a small asymmetry. I think you gave him a darker skin intentionally. But aren’t the eyeballs too yellowish? You did a good job on the texture painting. And the head is nicely illuminated in this renders.
You’re right about the eyes. That’s definitely something I should fix! Appreciate the feedback.
The model is really beautiful and I like the sculpt. Good point that you’ve added a small asymmetry. I think you gave him a darker skin intentionally.
Thanks!
The skin is intentionally a bit dark, but the tones could probably use some tweaking.
This is looking a lot better! 
the eyes look really real now!
I really can’t wait to see the clothes!
Thank you! 
Might be a few days before the next update, but hopefully I can get to work on it a bit sooner.
OK! Looking forward to it!
Oh, and by the way, if you want to find a good hair shader, blender guru has a good tutorial on how to make a a good hair shader
This sculpt looks awesome! The pores and the wrinkles really help add to the realism of the face. The skin and eye shaders, his facial expression and the lighting all look great.
Thanks for the tip. If I give him any hair at all, then it won’t be much, and only visible under whatever his headwear will be. I find while the hair in cycles does look nice on semi-realistic characters it often doesn’t work so well on more realistic ones.
Thank you for the kind words! Really appreciate it!
Ooh yeah! He might look better without hair at all! Although it would look better with very very short hair if you wanted him to be bald, it would look much more realistic then!
Looking forward to seeing more!
Are the pores done with a bummap, or are they sculpted in?
I really appreciate the small details like the cuts in the lip and the forehead bump variations. The skin overall looks really good, although I think the sheen looks a little strong, like a car dashboard leather material. I think the glossiness can work on certain areas but not everywhere. The eyes are improved as well. Fun to watch this progress.
The pores are mostly sculpted (up to about 3 million polygons) but I also added a bumpmap afterwards, since the subsurface scattering swallowed up too much detail.
I agree with you, the lighting definitely needs some more work. I’d say that the lighting and shaders are probably the hardest part for me on this project to get right. Increasing the SSS on the face might do the trick.
Thanks for the feedback!
As far as the project is concerned: I might have to delay the update for another week until I have some more time on my hands (had to write this post from my cell phone )
edit: project is currently on hold, because some of my files got corrupted and I’ll have to redo a good chunk of the project. I’m currently overseas and it’ll probably be a good while before I can finish this, but I’m definitely do it eventually