Post #490248 by Polynesiac on Mon, Oct 26, 2009 1:47 PM

I hate photoshop and illustrator (mostly because I suck at them :) ), so I applaud anyone who is willing to spend the time to teach themselves how to use these programs. You picked a challenging image, and that to me says that you are motivated to learn, so please don't take my suggestions as anything more than me passing on what little information I may be able to help you with. I may not know about the computer programs, but I do know a little about carving and have used these exact tikis as inspiration for some of my work.
Take a closer look at the eyes in the original drawing and you'll see that the eye is a complete teardrop shape (not a circle in your rendition) that extends from the nose all the way down the side of the mouth. Also, the legs in the tiki that is holding his legs against his body look a little to blocky and like sticks, but you said that you were adding texture and more stuff, so you will probably end up fixing that anyway.
The original illustrator did a fantastic job of making those tikis look like they are 2d renditions of carved tikis (possibly from a 4x4), which will not be an easy act to follow. With practice, you'll get there!

Your computer rendition is looking good and I look forward to see what you end up with!

PS - "laid back island lifestyle" does sound a little JB-ey, Caribbean-y (which is fine), but I like to think I'm on "Hawaiian time".