Constructive Criticism Appreciated ♥

[NarkissArt]

Hey Narkiss, welcome to CrimsonDaggers!

Your piece looks very lovely. This is a lot better than the first piece I've ever done. You can definitely push it with some of the analysis you've already made. Definitely keep at the illustrations. The more experienced you get, the less attached you get to the final image and the bolder you become in your design decisions.

You did, as Darktiste said, stick a little too close to reference, so don't be afraid to add your own style and flare. You can  do this by studying/pulling up more references for your pieces. You don't have to stick to just using one. You can use a reference for the pose, background, costume, weapon, etc. and add your own flavor to it.

Your technique does need work. The skin tone looks a bit dead because it's not incorporating subsurface scattering that occurs in stuff like the ears, nose, etc. to show the blood beneath it. I would look at skin tone tutorials or even study from life/pictures to get a better feel for it.

Your values need to be pushed. You can do this by planning out the shadows ahead of time. Don't just use soft edges too. Use hard and soft edges.

And just work on mileage. Stuff like the way drapery wraps around the figure/limbs because easier as you come to understand how to describe form.

Try to study form and perspective. And by study I mean, learn to visualize it by practicing box constructions using grids for 1p and 2p, then learn how to manipulate basic forms and do rotations of them. You need more of a mastery of the visual language to push your draftsmanship. Do these as warm ups and try to construct things from basic forms to get a feel for it. There's a ton of videos and tutorials out there on perspective and form. Moderndayjames is amazing for that.


Darktiste, your critiques are well-intentioned, but often times they do more harm than good. You're going to confuse people and/or scare them away. You're right about it looking flat, but it has more to do with the values and structure of the forms than sticking too closely to a reference. It's hard to gather what to practice to improve her piece from your post, and that's the whole point of critique. imo, you should focus more on producing more work than critiquing ppl all over the forums. you focus too much on theory and not enough on application. I get that you want to help people, but you will be much more able to do this when you have spent the time.

Thank you so much for your criticism! It was very helpful and I wrote it all down. I'll be trying my best to incorporate what I can in my next piece, in between practicing and doing courses. :)