thanks for the comments guys.

small update - I spent some time attaching the ear to the head (ears are a pain!) and trying to position it a bit better. Still a lot of vertex tickling to do, but it's getting there slowly.

gster - not sure if this is going to be a high or low poly model - I think I am just going to keep adding detail and see how it turns out. Are you still working on your head mate? The lion that you posted in Wishbonekenobi's thread looked excellent.