Is it too late to comment about visual arts? I've been reluctant to say anything but I hope I'm not too late.
I like the second version of the Broadbeams more than the first ones. In general I like the clothes for the men, and the armbands on the Firebeards.
The beard photos are indeed awesome. In my mind most Dwarves have longish beards, more like in the photos and less like some of the drawings, with Longbeards having beards that hang down at least far enough to tuck into their belts. Firebeards in mind have somewhat shorter but flowing/wavy beards, similar to the Longbeard in Haerangil's picture. But my rough mental picture of Stiffbeards is of short-ish bristles sticking out straight like somebody who's been electrocuted in a cartoon (I don't know if that would look good or silly in practice).
Since the curled and looped beards are so awesome, and most of the Dwarf-clans will hardly be seen on screen at all, I propose giving the epic curled beards to either the Broadbeams or the Firebeards. I would also like the Broadbeams to have darker skin, a light brown shade, and perhaps to have slightly thicker arms and legs (and maybe torsos?) than the other Dwarves.
I also wish to say something about the Dwarf-women. I know that the Hosts are opposed to the bearded Dwarf-women in the books because they're concerned it would look weird or silly. I know that the hijabs and veils are a compromise, an attempt to hide this change from the books, so it won't be obvious to viewers that they don't have beards. So I'm not criticising that as an attempt to hide the change.
But, I think it would actually be easy to depict bearded Dwarf-women who don't look weird or silly at all (I'll explain below how I think it can be done). I would like to request, of those people who attend the Friday podcasts live, if anyone feels up to it, to please consider trying to persuade the Hosts that Dwarf women can have beards (like in the books) without looking weird.
So, the way that I think Dwarf-women can have beards without looking weird is by making them look 100% exactly the same as Dwarf-men, with no visible differences and without feminine voices. If they look like that, they wouldn't look any more strange than the male Dwarves. They would merely look identical. That would be confusing, but Dwarf-women do indeed confuse Elves and Men
The reason I think we should and could do this, is because of this passage in the Later Quenta Silmarillion, War of the Jewels p. 205. The paragraph describes how all Dwarves, "male and female alike", have beards from birth and are never seen shaved. It also says:
Later Quenta Silmarillion said:
nor indeed can their womenkind be discerned by those of other race, be it in feature or in gait or in voice, nor in any other wise save this: that they go not to war, and seldom save at direst need issure from their deep bowers and halls.
I interpret this passage to mean that Dwarf-women are 100% identical to Dwarf-men in every perceivable way, and don't look like human bearded women would look. They not only have beards, they also have no visible or audible traits that Men or Elves can perceive as feminine, or even different from male Dwarves. That must mean that they don't have visible breasts, wider hips, narrower shoulders, delicate faces, shorter stature, high-pitched voices, or any other feminine trait. (Unless they're naked I suppose, but they won't be except when Aule creates them, and clever camera angles would hopefully cover up everybody's groin in that scene.)
There is also a passage in the LotR, Appendix A, which says the same thing more briefly and also says Dwarf-women dress the same as the men:
Appendix A said:
They are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other peoples cannot tell them apart.
If also making them dress identically to the male Dwarves would be
too confusing on screen, we could give them a different style of clothing, although I would prefer to avoid highly feminine clothing such as dresses, skirts, and hijabs. This would be a smaller change from the books, reducing some of the confusion without changing Dwarf anatomy.