That's great! Big fan of the warm palette you chose. I think that you could tweak the lighting on face a bit, because it feels too dark for the light setup... Lastly, I'm a huge fan of the light and dark contrast to the composition, but the fallen figures on the back ended up barely visible. It may be a bit too much, but how about moving one of them to be catching some light as well? I think it could be interesting composition wise.
Keep up the great work!
Look great so far! I agree with with the previous two comments about the lighting. so I don't need to add too much, but the figures in the back need to have some soft light on them.
Also, I guess this is just what I noticed, the room in general seems a bit dark for there to be such a bright light shining into the room? Maybe not enough ambient light or bounce light?
Lighting for me can be tricky as well, but I hope I was a bit helpful! I think the other two comments properly explained a lot better than me anyway XD
Really, really like this. I agree with the lighting advice you’ve already been given and as you’ve said I think thicker lightning would be the way to go. I’m looking forward to seeing you implement it! 😊
@vasge_ Thank you for the advices, I'll try moving the closest one a little
@clarief Thanks ! Indeed it looks dark, I wanted it this way at first, to have this strong contrast but, the more I look at it the more it bothers me now 
@HollyRose Thank you ! I'll work on that
And now, I guess I know what I have to start working on ! 
Alright! The deadline is coming but unfortunately, it's been hard to find time to work on it...
But I manage to work on these lightnings and light so here is the result.
What do you think?
But I was thinking... What if the guys in the background where actually midair... To show the speed of Nariko and add a little me dynamism? Like, she's so quick that they don't even have the time to touch the ground that she's already taking steps toward the next ennemies! I feel dumb to think about it only now... Crunch-time I guess 
At least I haven't gone to far in the details of the ennemies yet 
The lightning reflection is a good idea. I think you could have some variation of dirty/clean spots on the floor. That way some areas have a clearer reflection and others fade/blur it. Also The lightning up close should be thicker than the lightning in the background to push that perspective. You are doing it a little bit but not enough in my opinion.
Keep it up. We only have a few more days left 
Yeah the floor is far from finished, same goes for the wall in fact.
As for the lightnings I'm still struggling to make it visible enough but not too much because, as I said, I don't want it to be too over the top.
Update ! So I changed the changed the guys in the background 
I think that I spent too much time detailing them since these details will not be THAT visible after post-processing and all 
Tomorrow I'm going to put the patterns on Nariko's kimono, and work a little on the background walls. After that ? Just some details, tweakings and post-processing, to add some movements and all.
I'm close (yet so far) to finally finishing it. I don't know if I'm happy with it, I guess I am , I think I've just stared at it for too long ^^
Sure she is different but her strength/muscle make me think of Makoto from Street fighter.
Really lots of details on the poor electrified guys !
No idea if someone pointed this out but the shadow on the floor, those on the front, seems off no ? (or just placeholders maybe for the moment ?)
By those on the front, do you mean the bottom left corner or the right corner ? If the right, would it be because I forgot to draw part of their shadow being projected on her kimono ?
Her shadow and the dudes closest to her shadows' were better lighter, you've taken away depth by darkening them although in the newest update the lightning across the floor is super appealing to look at, and you've painted the texture of the floor so well! The floor itself though could do with something to make it a little less perfect, the lines between the boards are so perfectly straight and unbroken, and it could benefit from having horizontal slats as well
Thank you!
Woops ! I didn't even notice these shadows were this dark 
It must be an old layer I enabled by mistake (I failed at keeping them organized )
Now that you mention it, I think you are right about the floor being too perfect, I'll work on that
So, hello again.
Here's what I've been doing today. As I planned yesterday, I worked on the walls and applied the cloud patterns on Nariko's kimono (That. Was. A. Pain. In. The. ***) I also tried to work on "unperfecting" the floor
(Please dont mind thoses orange dots in the lightning area, I juste painted as place holders and will make it look better later.)
There is still a lot I have and want to do : Putting the lightning emblem on her kimono around the shoulder, add some dust particles, light reflections around the hair, etc etc...
ALSO !
Before going even more in the details I wanted to check real quick what the final illustration could look like with some quick post-precessing. And I need an opinion on that ^^
Here are 2 versions of it.
So here's the thing I initially wanted to add motion blur and other to add a little more depth to the illustration. Thats's what I did here :
BUT I believe that, as I gain in depth, I lose in details, so I tried without the blur :
And I can't make a choice... What do you think ? I Think that, either way, I will keep the motion blur on the first 2 water soldiers to show the impact but I don't know about the rest of the scene...
Ahh this definitely looks a lot better! I'm really loving the shadows and reflective light on the boards in the back, and the extra details really does ground the piece. It looks fantastic! I quite like the motion blur but I think either work, maybe have the middle one crisp as he's sitting next to the wall and the other two blurred? But maybe with a little less blur though it's quite harsh.
Another thing I wanted to mention is that you have a powerful light source coming from the top right, but none of it is touching her head, yet the cast shadow from her head isn't reaching that cast at the back so it doesn't make sense her head is in shadow. Other than that though it's looking really good, the lightning is painted so nicely
Thank you ! I'm gonna try every options after I'm done painting the final details 
As for the shadows, I'm not sure to understand what you mean exactly (I still have some trouble with english) but I scribbled something real quick to explain the way I casted the shadow.
I've always had troubles with lighting and shadows so I might have done something wrong here. 
ohhh I didn't see it like that at all, I thought that shadow was her hand 
dude, the textures and patterning look great! I think the odd thing with the shadow is that it might be a tad small? Kind of nitpicky. I don't necessarily think it should change.
@nesokaiyoh Ahahah ! O no
@danrob Thanks ! Yeah, I wanted to make it long since I wanted to have that kind of "sunset" light but shadows are part of my "prespective-newbie" problem
I think I can finally call it done now !
There are a few things I wanted to keep working on (like her face, something's bugging me, I just stared at it for a whole hour in my bed last night trying to figure it out... I just can't be as satisfied as I am with the faces concept illustrations I made when I started ) but unfortunately I won't be home until saturday evening, and since I don't know the hour when the contest is officially over I am going to stick with this final illustration !
EDIT : NEVER MIND i just checked the contest page, i'll be able to fix it in time I think
It was such a challenging contest ! It made me go beyond my comfort zone and it allowed me to discover some amazing artists ! THANK YOU !
(I still want to make a little animation of this illustration, I might post it here 
)
good frame, nice work!
