• Personally, I imagine Skaarin as someone who's considered beautiful. So yes, he's beautiful.
• The stress lines can be made however you'd like. His body is under constant strain. He uses magic a lot, and he's trying to keep his soul bound to his body constantly. From that and lack of sleep, he gets stress lines. But I'm giving you total freedom and choice in the subtleties.
• Here's the original image I sent to my friend as a reference for his hair. (Just his hair, though.)
The top is dyed red with blood.
The bottom is brown, and should extend to his hip.
All of it is swept to the same side of his head. The top, red part should only go to about his shoulder.
(The side shouldn't be shaved, either. It's just flipped. So the curls should continue along the whole set of his hair.)
(Also, he doesn't have facial hair at all.)
• Skaarin, being one of the main characters of my story (the antagonist), goes through a wide range of emotion. He rarely dons a blank expression. He's a little insane, bordering sociopathic. He's lost everything in his life many times over. However, he's a father figure to King Latrus, as well as a good friend to him. He's happy enough during the story, but has an inner anguish that afflicts him. So really, serenity, giddiness, rage, a look of painful reminiscence, a bellowing freak out - anything could work for Skaarin! Do as you'd like!
• Skaarin is supposed to be skinny and toned, and he's certainly healthy. He's treated just like royalty.
My friend draws a lot of super buff characters, so that's just how he came out in previous drawings.
A feminine set of eyes, and a feminine jawline and face would fit him. He shouldn't be super wide or buff, but should have a lean and refined body.
Sorry if he's confusing to draw! He was so fun to study and write, so I was thinking he might be fun to draw, too!
Also, these are all just references. I'm not just looking for your style on a drawing someone else did before, but your take on the character in general just seems awesome to see!! So keep your ideas in for sure! I doubt I'd get upset with the result, and I definitely want you to retain freedom and your own expression of the character.
Thanks so much for taking your time to draw Skaarin, my dude!