Metal Gear Rising: Raiden

Well, I'm certainly not the first person to try drawing this portrait of Raiden (and it's kinda cool how everybody's version seems to turn out completely different), so I just had to give it a shot. I had started this in January while laying in bed recovering from an injury, and it was originally done with mechanical pencil and on a large piece of paper. Then later I bought some drawing pencils and beefed up the shading, which looked a lot better.. but something about his face just didn't seem right. So I redid portions of the picture yet again, and kept picking away at it until it seemed better, and voila! The finished -as-it's-going-to-get product is here before your eyes (I know it's still kinda sloppy in places, but at this point I just wanna take a break with it) . All this took.. I'm guessing around 12, 13 hours or so? over the span of several months. Anyways I think I've spent longer on this picture than any other in my life. It's also one of my first serious attempts at anything halfway realistic..so after doing this I appreciate anime all the more XD