The next stage on the picture, with Near's face mostly finished. Note: no, his eyes aren't finished yet. I've still got to do blending and small shape adjustments, but I figured I'd wait until I had the hair done before going back to it.

And the reason that I'm waiting until I've got the hair done is that on Near, moreso than Mello, the hair regulates the shape and intensity of his eyes. If you want eyes to have an intense stare, you put a dip of sorts over the pupil. Doesn't need to be much - in fact, too much and they end up looking dopey - but a subtle touch makes the expression.

Both Mello and Near have that going on in this image: http://tinyurl.com/nzl49

You'll note that while Mello's achieving that with his (eyebrowless!) eyes, Obata drew Near's hair doing that on his eyes. And I want to do much the same thing, so there's not much point in perfecting the eyes before I go to the hair.