Description from original post (created 2013-06-01 15:01):
This is my 3rd submission for the_soup's female skin challenge.
Those of you who read my blog post "The Science of Skinning: Head and Face Design", may remember that I skinned just the face of an unidentified old time celebrity to demonstrate some shading principles. I was going to finish the skin and post the skin if anyone could guess the celebrity. No one did. This is the rest of that skin.
The Steve template forces most female skins to look like line backers. For this submission, I wanted to push the envelope and make as elegant a female skin as possible using the realistic skinning style. In my opinion, Audrey Hepburn is one of the most elegant stars of all time. She is the reference for this skin. Unfortunately, in the end I was unable to do her justice. Audrey is very slender, so I had to employ illusions to make the Steve template look as slim and lightweight as possible. I used a red stole to mask what would have been very beefy shoulders. I went with a floor length gown because it adds to the illusion of height and allowed me to work around the problem of keg-like legs. The face caused me no end of trouble and I finally had to give up on it. Audrey has a thin head with fine, smooth features, high cheek bones, arched eyebrows, and a narrow chin. She has a long, graceful neck. The low resolution and dimensions of the 8x8x8 head proved insurmountable and every face I created either looked too pixelated, or too flat shaded for the rest of the body. In my continuing battle with novel hair designs, I opted to go her typical updo and rendered it in shades of black because many of her films were in black and white. The updo meant I had to add ears, another skinning nightmare. I included gold earrings for a touch of class and to draw attention from the ears.
Minor update: I was not happy with the inside of the leg, so I added more detail: red shoes and a contoured leg.