Here I have started the wrist and hand by pulling back the edge vertices of the coat arms, scaling them along one axis at a time to flatten it out (look at your own forearms to see what I mean) and then pulled those edges forward once more to make the wrist.
Shift / Moving the edges once more I start the hand. Tweaking the vertices a little I start to get the curves of the palm.
Here is the hand. As I am making seperate fingers for detailed animations I have to keep them pretty rudimentary. The area around the base of the thumb needs special attention as it is an area that moves a lot once you start animating. So far I've never really got it right myself I have to admit, so your on your own there :)
Here is where I focused on the neck, tweaking vertices as I go along if I see anything out of place. At this point I joined up the vertices in order to get them to line up exact, I will be detaching the head once more (but only as part of the element, rather than a complete new object) in order to continue the coats collar.
Once I select all the head and neck (the line where I want the collar to start) I detach it (selecting detach to element in the option window when you do) and move the head down or up so you can easily select the edges of the coat where you want the collar to go. Shift / Move the edges up, move the vertices around if need be (in my case the one at the front to make it not so square) and then apply a different smoothing group to it.
3DTotal
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Alright! So a few shortcuts were taken on my part, but I still have only used the information and methods I have given in the tutorial so far. It all comes down to knowing what you want, and using the knowledge you have of the subject and medium in order to make what you need. The arm and hand, for example, was all done without reference.
All I can say is to practice, and to study. Look at the world around you, and for characters such as this there is no better reference than yourself (I mean, it IS a self portrait...of sorts). There is also a WEALTH of reference out there in books and the web. Scout it out, you'd be surprised what you can find :)
