Jeffrey's path to glory

[Fedodika]

aight this is gonna be kinda long so strap in hehe 

Okay, first I'd like to say you did a good job drawing the features and texturing the dinosaur. He looks very accurate at least to my layman's interpretation of a dinosaur. His rendering is far better than the environment around him, so I'd reccomend getting some studies in of the specific plants and rocks and stuff you want to draw before starting an illustration because the trees in the background don't really have that realistic vibe you're going for. 

So, a little philosophy before I dig into this; I'd reccomend since you're quite accomplished with creature drawing and design that when you move into composition you really take that just as seriously. I'm sure you're aware of James Gurney's Dinosaurs and he'd be a fantastic person for you to study to get a good idea for composition. My advice is to get a piece of paper and pencil, (specifically these things) and do small thumbnail sketch studies of Gurney's work that should resemble something like this

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/cf/bb/f7/cfbbf...ng-art.jpg
https://orig02.deviantart.net/d0d1/f/201...8dnwlu.png

Try your best to control the values and keep it down to just three if you can. Black, mid, and white. The most powerful images will read as designs if only three values are visible with maxed contrast. Do NOT pay any attention to detail, proportion, or anatomy; only placement and value shapes. 

Also read a few pages of this if you have time, it'll teach you loads about composition
https://illustrationage.files.wordpress....ration.pdf

So I found a scene by gurney similar to your illustration and maxed out the contrast. As you can see, there's no mistaking from even a great distance of viewing, that we're looking at a triceratops. When I max the contrast in your image, the values don't give me a read of anything but some breaks in the trees and a few highly lit scales.To fix this, you'll want to plan at very early stages the values of your focal points, say the head. And make sure it's placed so that the objects around it will make it read from afar. Get this right in the tiniest pencil sketch and when you blow it up, it'll look incredible. 

Place lights in front of darks and darks in front of lights, easy right?

Also, pay attention to how lights in a forest would affect your character. There are thousands of leaves there to break incoming light and scatter it around. This isn't cheating or even a rare phenomenon, it's just how it is. 

http://vacay.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/...monton.jpg

I also couldn't tell until I started looking for his foot that he was walking in some swampy water. The ground texture is so similar in value and even color that they both look like the ground. Try adding light hitting the water in a realistic way, emphasize ripples in the water even if it's murky. And remember even murky water can have gorgeous color.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/be/0f/9c/...d06847.jpg

And the final thing is... What's the story here? Why is he in the woods, where is he going? what do the shapes say about what is happening? I get a very restful mood from the horizontal shapes, but there's this terrifying dinosaur right next to me in a swamp? I'd recommend looking into gesture and deciding on a powerful or some sort of narrative in that gesture before building your value shapes. 

You can also try analyzing the gestures of dinosaurs in gurneys paintings for instance, just using simple straight C curve or S curve lines. Also study the human figure for gesture, since it will help with most applications of it. Everything in the image has a gesture, the trees, the rocks, the water, and it's our duty as artists to arrange them in a way that captures the viewer. Why is that stump pointing that way? Why are those trees going this way? What is this dark, why is this light? Does it all have a purpose? 

Best of luck Jeffrey, your my crit victim for today, hope it helps you!