Following the advise of make what you want to be making. I made a few stylish #emoticons for fun. I picked a few diverse friends to reference and this is how it turned out.
Made by: Eduardo J. Ceballos (@ejviper)
Software used: Maxon Cinema 4D - R19 and Adobe Photoshop.
It took me around 5 months to complete, working on my spare time on and off throughout that time.