This is Nightblade, my Elven Adept from the world of Shadowrun (more information: [link]).
I started this painting last year in August or so. At an early point (see [link]) I got demotivated and stopped working on it. In December I startet again, beginning completely from scratch. Somewhere in February I stucked and it layed down for several months, until I started again recently. Now I think it's in a stage that can be called "finished" although there may be some flaws I (or someone else) will recognize eventually. But instead of working on it permanently, I'd rather go to make new pictures! I hope you like it anyway.
Thanks to all the people who helped me with this, especially to for redlining the perspective and anatomy (twice!) and to for helping me with the lights/shadows and for showing me the liquify tool in photoshop!
I'll go over the good things first. I looked at your original and I'm glad you had people go over your perspective and anatomy because the piece benefited immensely from it. The lighting is interesting for the most part and you obviously put a lot of effort into this image. Your background looks like it was a highly intentional and necessary part of the illustration. By that I mean it doesn't look like it was an afterthought like it can be with some people. You've got a solid color scheme choice which is helping the image a lot.
The issues I have with this are 1. The composition I feel could still have been pushed. I'm not sure what I might have done but I feel there was a better way to solve this compositional problem. There's some cliches of fantasy here with the alluring mysterious woman with a sword on a rooftop but I'm not going to harp on that too much.
2. Texture. This is a difficulty with digital art that I'm sure you've seen yourself. It's hard to do it just enough but if you don't do it at all something visceral seems to be missing from the image. Everything here seems really smooth and similar because of lack of texture.
3. Atmosphere and distance. The background, while nice, I feel could stand to haze out at a distance. It seems a bit too close for what you were going for. The buildings in the far background could stand to fade into the background color just a bit more and it would push them back into the distance. The foreground has some issues with solidity (something I still struggle with myself). The vents for example, don't look completely solid and the ledge kind of bleeds in and out of solidity. However, I give you props for being willing to let some space fade completely into shadow. Illustrators like us tend to want to show everything and it's a hard thing to do to let something be hidden.
Overall, kudos for all the hard work you put into this. It paid off with a decent piece in the end and I hope this critique helps you more on whatever path you're pursuing with your art.
* ĦFantástico trabajo! Lo hemos destacado dentro de la carpeta "Featured nş 4 o Destacados nş 4" en Special-Groups. (Es la carpeta donde se exhiben los mejores trabajos del grupo).
* Fantastic work! Featured in Special-Groups in folder Featured nş 4. (Best works of the group).
The issues I have with this are 1. The composition I feel could still have been pushed. I'm not sure what I might have done but I feel there was a better way to solve this compositional problem. There's some cliches of fantasy here with the alluring mysterious woman with a sword on a rooftop but I'm not going to harp on that too much.
2. Texture. This is a difficulty with digital art that I'm sure you've seen yourself. It's hard to do it just enough but if you don't do it at all something visceral seems to be missing from the image. Everything here seems really smooth and similar because of lack of texture.
3. Atmosphere and distance. The background, while nice, I feel could stand to haze out at a distance. It seems a bit too close for what you were going for. The buildings in the far background could stand to fade into the background color just a bit more and it would push them back into the distance. The foreground has some issues with solidity (something I still struggle with myself). The vents for example, don't look completely solid and the ledge kind of bleeds in and out of solidity. However, I give you props for being willing to let some space fade completely into shadow. Illustrators like us tend to want to show everything and it's a hard thing to do to let something be hidden.
Overall, kudos for all the hard work you put into this. It paid off with a decent piece in the end and I hope this critique helps you more on whatever path you're pursuing with your art.
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