First art critique

[cl3chi]

Hello everyone! As the title has said, this is my first time asking for a critique.
This is one of my latest drawing. I'm trying to use non-white lighting to bring more emotion but so far I'm not completely happy with the results. Thus it will be a great help if you guys can check this and maybe point out what I need to improve (anything asides from the lighting is fine).
Thanks for taking your time :D.

[adambeardall]

First, her face is great, and I really like the colors for the skin! There a couple things I noticed:

The proportions are a bit off on his size compared to her, he is much bigger than she is(this might be a creative choice, but his body is a bit odd looking...)

You also need a bit more light on her hair, make sure to show the "clumps/groups" of hair and not just small strands.

There is a lot of canvas space that is empty, so a blurred background that is less saturated would really bring it together. A place, such as a battlfield, room, forest, ect...

Fix those things and a bit of polish and this will be amazing!

Good luck! let me know if you have any questions and I can do an overpaint to illustrate what I mean.

[Acolet]

Let me add
- the colors are almost all one hue, which creates no color contrast and makes it look a bit washed out and unnatural
- you left the parts you don't want to deal with vague, like his body or her cloak. I notice, because for a long time, I've been doing the same thing! If you want to improve, you need to face the things you don't like to do, get some nice references and try to paint. it will help you in the long run.

That said, i like the expressions and the story you put into it! Especially her face is really very nice.

[shiv0r]

First thing what i would do is to clarify your light setup. The male has a top light hitting him and the female has a light that hitting her more or less from the front.

Also clarify your focalpoint and make a hierarchy. Both faces are fighting each other because they have almost the same values.

Here a overpaint:

Cheers!

[karidyas]

Agree with what others are saying, good advice! However I'd like to float that instead of filling the empty spaces around the edge of the canvas with a background, you could just crop it by like 20% and really focus on those faces. I'd even argue that the right 1/3rd of the canvas isn't really needed at all. Cut what you don't need and make what's left the best it can be!

Crop eg. (man you can really see how big the guy's head is here, its almost as big as her rib cage )

[taydemcdonald]

This is very cool. It might be a stylistic choice, but to me the ladies mouth looks like she's smiling which kinda conflicts with the tone that the colors bring? Also both faces are beautiful but you kind of dulled out the hands and clothes, I encourage you to try and work on those for the sake of improvement!

[thunderdumpling]

The ladies face is really nice, however she looks more confused rather than heart broken. Adding tears or straitening the mouth may add a more saddened effect.