Wow these are all amazing
I love the clothing on these, so well drawn and formulated. Hmm the idea with the fire as the bow is super cool too. I think in this situation the first one works best, but honestly I can't decide lol
Woaw those designs are really good, as well as your concept !
I guess the one is the best but it's really hard to choose
My vote is for the first one too, having dark areas on the side nearest the phoenix is a nice way of making sure the bird stands out.
Hello!
Thank you so much for voting! I decided to go with the first one and here I did some thumbnails for the final illustration. Personally, I like D the most because I think it shows the costume design well but since the illustration has to be my character 'attacking' so I guess A would be good for that. Please let me know how you think! 
Thank you!
-Dasha
I was stuck between A and D but I agree with your choice for being A because you need to attack or defend
Amazing work on those thumbnails!! They're so cool!
A is awesome but yes D is much more dynamic and we see the design very well! I would say go with D it looks like she's attacking so it works for the contest! 
Just going to toss in my .02cents, she is presenting as if she is just showing off to someone she knows rather than getting ready or in the heat of battle, which under the war title to me means she should be either attacking or defending.
Just going to mention on your C design, you can do something really neat that i thought of and idk if if should let you figure it out on your own or show/tell you what would look neat. But review that and try to figure it out, it came to me immediately after thinking ^ the above paragraph i typed.
Hint it would involve combining C-B mostly C.
I think a lot of this rides on the gesture of the arm. I would maybe have it extended fully, when it's bent at the elbow, fingers spayed like that it seems more like she is shooing the bird away to me. Would a fireproof falconer's glove also look good?
Hi
So, it tool me long time to decide which one to go with because of various opinions but in the end, I decided to go with the D and here is some progress I made so far.
Thank you so much for all your opinions! It really helps me to go forward. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how I could improve this illustration better!
-Dasha
Wow!! It looks amazing! Beautiful work so far! * ^ *
Nothing to add, you have an awesome flow here, feels very dynamic and the colors and lighting is amazing!
Beautiful <3
lighting wise, I think you could make the phoenix far more present by making it the main light source and for clarity I'd basically treat the head as a point light. It should also give you a more interesting lighting across the face which risks feeling a little flat otherwise.
I think a rimlight on the right would then be really effective to really define the shape (sorta like you've done on the left of her body at the moment)
I agree with tck you could really focus the lighting and make something dramatic but otherwise it's really looking stunning so far. That dress is so pretty too. You could even push the foreshortening a little bit more so the camera is more above her
This is beautiful. I'm really excited to see how you render that dress and what you do with the light
Nice choice was a bit fun to see what you would go with but i'll just type out what i thought the 1st time.
Looks great the idea was B+C - C the circle somewhat in front of her in an attack pose with B the phoenix coming at the viewer. (presenting in an attack pose.)
Here is an update on the process!
I read through all comments (thank you so much everyone!!) and worked on the lighting & foreshortening. I'm going to add some rim light on her right side as well but couldn't decide the color - I'll probably go with bluish grey but am also worried if it would be a bit random...
I still have to work on some clean-ups and the background. Please let me know what you think and feel free to leave comments if you have any suggestions! Thanks again!
-Dasha
Beautiful!! Incredible progress on this piece!! Awesome work!
Hi!
So.. I finally finished my illustration! It was yesterday when I got to know how to tag people on this for replies... DX I wish I could try all the options but I'm still satisfied with the result I've got so far. Thank you so much for all of you who helped me through the process. I really appreciate it!!
Please let me know if you have any feedback or suggestion. I'll not submit this as final until tomorrow to see if there is anything I'm missing or can add to improve this piece.
Now, I gotta check other artist's work! I'm very excited!
-Dasha
Congrats on finishing it!!! It looks amazing! Beautiful work!!
Ahh this looks so beautiful! You really nailed the warm tones here. The little gold details on her dress go so well with the entire thing too, good luck for the contest!
