Critique! I wanna get better!

[Markdotea]

http://fav.me/d5stm7s

Hey guys, how r you doing? Well, I've been studying/practicing a lot lately, even this character being a fantasy one and sufferring some anatomy deformation, I'd want to receive some advices from you! What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong?
Color, scenery and even your personal thought! Please tell me what you think! Last time some artists said that my character and background looked like they belonged to the same plane, this time I tried to fix that bringing sharper edges to the forground and letting the background kinda blurry, I also tried bringing a third/fourth lightsource what made me kind of struggle with the management of many lightsources, even with some problems, I did like the final result, but I want to know your opinion and most importantly receive some precious advice! Please help me!

[Chiritsu]

Image and link is broken? :/

[Markdotea]

Image and link is broken? :/

try this one out http://fav.me/d5stm7s

[Chiritsu]

try this one out http://fav.me/d5stm7s

So I did this quickly.. Id recommend doing some material studies too and using references for the boat/ship. Think about how the boat fell into the bottom of the ocean and check out atmospherics for the bottom of the ocean too. I hope this helps D:

[Markdotea]

It did help me Thanx! I liked the way you brought the horizontal line down a lil bit, I use to align it to the character eyeview! I'll follow your tips! This character was supposed to be more cartoonish but your tips are still aplieble to him! I'll definitly pay more attenttion to what u said! Thank u!

[Chiritsu]

You're welcome. I noticed you still wanted him cartoony. Just remember that anatomy still applies!
The great thing with the cartoony style (which I'm still trying to get my head around..) you can really put and emphasis on the shapes.. kinda like with squash and stretch in animation lol

[Shaun Patterson]

I really like the design of the character, a very original idea. Here is my 2 cents for you:

1. Don't stress about 4 light sources, it can frustrate and confuse you. If you simplified to a single ambient source or that plush a direction then you might have an easier go of it.

2. You are on the right path with separating the background in terms of sharp/blurry. I would try lightening up the background to really push that sense of depth.

3. Soften up those brush strokes, try using what you have as an underpainting and then use a low opacity soft round to really paint those materials, highlights and shadows.

Hope this was helpful. :)

[Markdotea]

Thank you man! I'm definitly aplying those concepts on my next artworks!