Hi, welcome to the forums!! I hope you'll find friends and improvement here.
Short answer from me is focus on fundamentals but also keep experimenting / painting stuff that you enjoy :P
I'll write a bit about your images and then suggest some
resources.
Sorry if it's going to be a bit overwhelming, let's roll!
I love the last image! The dragon has personality, great color choice! Forms read, but keep working on your values.
Real animals anatomy is very helpful for designing dragons (especially raptors and reptiles).
The 2nd image, however, looks way more amateurish, the idea is epic but it's way harder to pull off because it's in a completely imaginary scene. But even so, you can still use art fundamentals and real life reference to help you!
- composition - every time you start an illustration, it's good to do a few 2-3 values thumbnails to choose from, and maybe some composition studies too. Yours is pretty good already, but I'd suggest turning the tilt a bit to the left (it's almost cuts the image diagonally in half, and symmetry is boring), and trying a more elongated crop, + add more light value on the background behind the brows to nose region.
- anatomy, real animals reference - to make that dragon look cooler and more pro level / beleivable
- values - you might consider introducint another light source, maybe dim ambient light to
- environment reference (photos of caves, water) + fire, fire sparkles, magma etc. for the dragon.
Nice to see that you think about reflected light - that red on the neck and the water!
As for the 1st portrait, is it some character from the Vikings series? Anyway if you used a reference it's always better to post it too for easier crits. Right now the way he holds his sword seems unnatural to me. Also you would benefit from learning to construct a head, practicing Asaro heads, learning facial anatomy and doing studies from life or photos with good clear lighting.
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You might want to check out
this post on learning first,
also if you can take some real life classes locally where you live it would be awesome (but it can be hard right now because of COVID)
Here are some resources that I peronally tried and found of help. There's s ton of resources out there these days so you can do your own research and pick others if you want!
- Basic Line control - Drawabox (free), Dynamic sketching CGMA class (+these classes also teach freehand perspective and thinking in 3d space)
- Observational drawing, accuracy - Dorian Iten's articles and Guide, Bargue,
- Perspective (more technical) - Perspective made easy by Norling for a chill start, Scott Robertson's How to Draw and/or Gnomon Fundamentals of perspective - if you're a nerd like me.
- Form Rendering (Lighting and value theory) - Fundamentals of Lighting with Sam Nielson, Dorian Iten's class on sshading, +Scott Robertson's How to render if you're a nerd like me
- Colour Theory - Marko Bucci on Youtube, James Gurney Color and light
- Figure proportions and construction in perspective - Loomis that you're learning right now is a great resource imo!, Krenz Patreon (hit me up if you can't find it) or Modern Day James Patreon on figure rotation from any angle - later along the way
- Anatomy - I personally prefer Proko anatomy, but there's a lot of other materials out there. Also as for portraiture, I liked Watts lectures, but maybe people here who are better than me at portraits can suggest something else.
For animal anatomy (which I specialise in:) - Terryl Whitlath class on Schoolism, Atlas of animal anatomy by Ellenberger, Baum and/or by Goldfinger, Princeton guide for Dinosaur anatomy, Ken Hultgren
- Composition - Framed Ink, Loomis - Creative Illustration, Watts master class on composition, Composition of Outdoor Painting: Edgar Payne + you can check out notan excercise here on Daggers in Classes section, "Environment design rocks", pretty much same idea is explained in Jama Jurabaev's Narrative Concept art clas if you want a more renouned author
- Design, shape language - http://autodestruct.com/
- Working from imagination - apart from fundamentals listed above, I'd suggest checking out James Gurney's Imaginative realism. For me, it helped to understand how and how much artists use reference. I don't mean just models and photos, James Gurney also sculpted or crafted maquettes and lit them for illustration reference. Many artists these days, including me, use 3d for that purpose, but it's a theme for a separate topic.
Good luck and have fun!
I don't appear here often these days, but still hope to see your work later :)
