DISCLAIMER
I AM NO WORD SMITH. I TAKE A LONG TIME TO GET WHERE I'M GOING. YOU WORKED REALLY HARD AND WERE REALLY BRAVE ASKING FOR CRITIQUE ON A LOVED AND PRIDE INDUCING PIECE. SO YOU DESERVED A GOOD AND TRUE CRITIQUE WITH SOME LESSONS.
ITS BEEN A LITTLE DEAD AROUND THESE PARTS SO I KIND OF WORD BARFED. I WANTED TO EXPLAIN WHAT ELEMENTS TO USE FOR YOURSELF TO REPAINT YOUR IMAGE OR YOUR NEXT IMAGES ON YOUR OWN. AS WELL AS TO SHOW YOU WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN OTHER ART. (PLUS I REALLY DIDN'T WANT TO REPAINT THAT LEAF ARMOR LOL)
Hello and Welcome!
First of all great job, and congratulations! Milestone pieces that you will remember forever are something to be proud of and hold on to and look back at how much you learned down the road.
How can I level this up to a more professional standard?
For today this is the guideline we are going to stick too.
This is one of the more recent pieces I've done this year and I'm overall very proud of it because it's one of the best I've done so far.
That's awesome.
It has been a few weeks since completion and I'm ready to take on the critiques to help push me to a higher level. Please let me know if anything stands out as incorrect whether it be anatomy or whatever else.
We can work with that.
Critique
Looking for something to improve upon generically through critique vs getting to a more professional standard is a wide berth. Lets see if we can help you bridge the gap today.
There are several large rungs to take up the ladder of every image for it to be successful. Many of them have been simplified to ideas that the brain can handle one sweeping grip at a time. The contrast between the elemental fundamentals of picture making, - Drawing, Values, Edges and Color will control all of the image's finished look.
Making something look more professional, especially with something like WoW, will have a standard that thankfully we can pull from and follow to the finish. Though perhaps there are many artists within wow, in fact too many to say "this is how wow art should look." so lets dumb the idea down to just making decisions that professionals make and see if we can apply them to your image. Shall we?
Here we go.
DRAWING - Everything is just a shape....
As we are pretty well along in the final piece here we should break down the image into the base shapes. The essence, if you will. Lets take a look.
First off I would like to point out the tangents - Tangents destroy the illusion of overlapping elements and depth of the picture. It is where the edges of different elements in the illustration touch each other, even if they are on different planes of existence between the subject and foreground and background.
There are also some arbitrary design decisions with the leaves. We want everything in the picture to serve a purpose of moving the eye of the viewer between the focal points of the image. Which are?
Well to me, they are the portrait, weapon, and the magic of the hand. They have the most contrast and story telling elements. We will get to that later.
Since we are in the realm of splash art we want to focus on the dynamic aspects of illustration drawing that will give the most impact. The first being the ratio to the frame. You have a 'medium shot' here. Which we will try to keep. If you want to learn about different shots and their names in the professional industry I suggest reading "Framed Ink" by Marcos Mateu-Mestre.
Lets redraw the figure shapes with some gesture and anatomy knowledge. And lets design the hair and elements to be complimentary to the focal points of the image shall we? But first lets tackle a little anatomy, figure drawing and perspective work.
We should consider all of the elements that we will have in our painting ones that will help us move the eye through the piece. It doesn't matter what they are. That is why every pictures composed by someone has these theories in mind.
The leaves, magic, hair, armor, pose, and the weapon will all have a purpose.
Are they designed to help the story along and keep the viewer in the picture?
Are some elements not important and can just be blurred, or can a section of the canvas be a place of rest?
Here is a subjective sketch of the pose and the elements pushing towards the focal points of the picture. The idea should be that the the elements all themselves frame the face, hand and axe.
The way I have laid things out I have made the hand the most important focal point with these theories. It is the most complex shape in the image besides the face. Notice how all the other elements have less information in them besides the body with all my anatomy planning.
It just sort of happened that way because I had a pose chosen for me already so you did all the work there thanks!
The viewers eye should move around the image, and have something to look at. But also for the artist, areas that you wont have to actually paint 
. The secret to why this is done, ****
This allows the viewers eye to move through the places with no information, to find the focal points with all the information.
If there is information everywhere, so equally busy, the eye will focus on the areas with no information due to the contrast.
So it is up to the artistic eye of the image creator. Have many things in the image to look at with areas of rest. Or have many plane areas with moments of information.
(I tried to do your character design justice here below.
Dont worry, this really is all I am going to do redrawing or painting anything. Everything else will be small examples for the rest of the rules of image making.
This section of image construction, drawing, this part that seems to be the least fun, and the most boring. It will accomplish 80 percent of your painting if you want it to in 20 percent of the time. This is where all your bad attempts can be thrown out, and all of your good attempts can be saved for later.
Contrasts of Drawing -
Line - flowing or stopping (aka Gesture - Motion or static)
Shape - Curved or Straight (aka Organic or Geometric)
^also consider - Complex or Simple
Perspective - real or imaginary
That is a lot! But it is not unmanageable. Just think of drawing as simple shapes with details inside.
During a detailed line drawing you will not figure all of this shape stuff out. You will be focused on details too zoomed in. But that type of drawing is still fun and therapeutic.
This is work. Its why some people call it construction. You are really building something. It has worth. That is why people still pay for it despite our digital age.
You are laying the bricks of a whole world, and a story that people will play in their mind. And it is overwhelmingly complex if all the stages are tackled at once. So lets keep going at it step by step. Or brick by brick.
VALUE - is KING...you will bend the knee
I honestly think that you did a pretty good job on the overall value structure of the image. Laying out the light figure, on the dark background. You have a strong value pattern causing contrast across the page with the elements overlapping nicely, light, dark, light, dark and so on.
Where I think you got lost is in the details. Or perhaps your process. With there being so much dark-darks everywhere in the nooks and crannies of the armor and leaves it causes a harsher value contrast across the image overall. Making us look at the armor.
The reason we dont really want that is we want the viewer to look at our focal points, but at the same time feel free to move about the image and come back to them. Not get stuck on the armor. So now in this step we will use value contrast theory to enforce that idea of making the viewer look where you want them too, by organizing the values to be clear on the focal points.
TIP: Using pure black (and white) can flatten the image. It looks like a hole in the paper. So I never use pure black until the very end if i need it. Little specs of black on focal points can make an image sing.
I also think you got a little ambitious with three light sources. It is not unheard of. It just doesn't make for a compelling dramatic image as you would think it does. Each light source will have its own separation of light and shadow that it creates. Or NOTAN. The light source that causes these separations will have to be controlled. It is up to the artist which light source is more important, more impactful and helpful to the composition overall.
On top of that you have MANY glowing and special effects places including the focal point with the magic effects. Putting those effects in an area of light is not going to let them be featured as prominently as they should. So lets put them in an overall shaded area.
Its actually kind of annoying how simple modeling the form is once you learn the principles of it. Read the section of values and modeling, and procedure for modeling the form in Charles Bargue Drawing Course to learn more about the simplified process that digital artists mostly use today.
That link should point you right to the paragraphs. It optimizes the technique of shading for the human brain by simplifying shadows and making simple shapes out of the shadows first. Just like we started with the drawings. Oh my, the shadow shapes within our shape shapes! Now you have a drawing...not just a sketch.
How do you do that with a bunch of leaf armor? Well technique is something else. That is why we have the lasso tools and an airbrush as digital artists. Simplify, group and gradient. Add ambient occlusion if you need it. But elements in a painting only need 2 values to describe form. 3 values to start looking realistic. 6 to start looking like a photograph. Blending those together is a matter of edges and is in the next section.
I want you too look at the following example I did. Maybe I will find some ways to improve it in the coming days. But I really just want you to see how I had to dumb down the contrast you had in the armor to a more simple value pattern of one and two values to explain what I mean.
The human brain is going to do all of the work for us amazingly filling in the details, as long as it has a clear representation of light and shadow. This is not finished rendering obviously, I had to posterize the image and simplify it.
I also added in your two other light sources that you had in different colors so that you could see how to organize the value pattern in your image a bit more?
Where are the lightest lights? (magic hand and eyes)
The darkest darks? (face)
Now your glowy parts have room to breath. Your magic envelopes the whole hand and blocks off the distracting gauntlet....moving on.
I want to be clear that this not a progress or a "how to" critique...application is an entirely other practice. This image is also NOT 'how yours should look'. These are images to teach you a concept and take it too the next level.
IMO it really doesn't matter how you get something done, just try to find a process that you have fun with where you can control the fundamentals of drawing, value, edges and color.
Things to research regarding value:
High, middle and Low key images.
High middle and low contrast.
Dark on light, light on dark subjects.
Simultaneous contrast, "contrast counter change" (gradients going into each other)
Here are some examples of how dark on light and light on dark are used composing. And what they do to the focal point. As well as an example of simultaneous contrast.
And you truly will see the below example everywhere subtly applied by professionals.
Use these compositional value principles to take your art to the next level the next time you start building your image.
(If I think of something in the near future with value I will add it in....pun intended)
EDGES - Welcome to the rest of your life....or not
What edges are we talking about exactly? The ones between the shadow shapes created by the light source. The ones that Charles Bargue's book talked about (hopefully you read the passage). The mere transition of one area in the light to the dark. The mid tones to the highlights. The core shadow tot he ambient light. Ambient light to occlusion shadow...so on and so forth.
It is only the shadows and their soft lost or hard edged nature that our brains define the shape of form. As we have already seen through the values section. This ability can create hyper realism and specularity for multiple types of surfaces.
This is how you can make an image with just two values seem very realistic.
I think you have done a very good job with your edges. You understand the principle and have a clear grasp of it. I think your biggest problem was your light sources and value pattern on some things confusing the image a bit. There is not much that needs to be said here for you understanding or education of edges.
In regards of taking things to the next professional level however. Edges can control the entire style of the look an image.
Changing the edges of shapes themselves, or shadows and hues that rest within those shapes themselves can change the style overall. Creating style guides like riot compared to figure art drawing or other blizzard art and digital painting is easy when you think about it like this. Application has a hand in this technique to be sure, but with digital painting any style is possible.
examples
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We can see that you have already chosen your style and we will stick with that.
Color - the last fundamental element.
COLOR CRITIQUE
You did pretty good again. I see you trying to produce accurate color relationships to your light sources.
However if we go from front to back. We have a
'warm' figure (lit with cooling colors) -
on top of a bunch of 'cool' hued hair, (lit with the same green)
On top of a cool background. (with some blue green)
So
Coolish warm?
on cool
on cool.....
You will understand what I mean in a second, because you will go and look at other art after you read this and see what I mean. But your figure gets a bit lost in the mud and is not as impactful as I think you wanted it to be. What is glaring because of these lack of scheme and compositional planning is the red leaf armor stands out as the contrasting focal point of the image besides the bright ass green hand. I go from armor to hand and back. And I dont think that is what a seasoned next level artist will want to intend. Find your intention in the focal points. Lets move on to the color lesson on how next level people do this.
COLOR LESSON
Color, like so many things that we try to master, remains the final tier that seems unreachable. Some people are a natural at it and understand it without a a second thought. Some people become obsessed and are controlled by it. Some think too much of it is 'poppy', and cheap and makes art worthless and you should shy away from color.
What seems to be so interesting to me about color is that there are so many ways to apply it. In fact that is the natural way that it exists. Infinite options of taste AND application. Pick a process digitally that is satisfying and effecting. Lets say we pick a process and are masters of it just for the sake of this conversation.
(I'll say it again, I think that process is irrelevant unless you are hindered by an art style guide by choice, or you are part of a team on a product pipeline.)
But there are really only two things you have to think/process about while constructing an image; COLOR THEORY and COLOR SCHEME
Your query however : How do we take that to the next level?
We must limit the infinite possibilities. Because when you really look for hue change in real life it is overwhelming what just a wall on a sunny afternoon can be vibrating. Or if you choose to not see it, dull and boring. First know how color theory works by watching videos by Nathan Fawkes on youtube. There are few people who can make color sing and be varietal while telling a story with mood.....AND teach it.
So lets say for the sake of this talk you understand color theory as well. You dont have to for the rest of what I am about to say anyway. How do you apply a color scheme to an image? How do you choose the right one?
The answer is with mood, and metaphor. As an example, I've talked to professionals that like to relate a metaphor for a composition like food flavor or food representation. They learned that from Marshall Vandruff. It is simple and effective and allows your brain to think creatively without thinking what is right.
The next question should be, "Then how do I know what mood or metaphor is correct?" You are going to have to feel it on this one. You can look for some help with Clint Cearly's pdf on color to hear more.
But it boils down to these three principles of choosing a color scheme.
Emotion-good, neutral, or bad
Energy - scream or whisper
Visibility - visible or obscured (surety vs unsure)
I'll let you read through Clint's book on "mood chapter 2 colors" to have a really quick, and very cool tool to have on hand for the future when you need to take a picture to finish and are not having any ideas.
There are of course different schools on color schemes and their creation, but I will just give you one to get started unless you have started your own learning elsewhere.
Lastly, go look at artstation, or cara or insta or whatever. Scroll through your artists you follow. As you look at them you can see that many of them choose a darker figure on a lighter background, or a lighter figure on a darker background. Which will include the shadows on the figure, they may not be as dark as the background or as light to make the subject stand out.
But they also choose a warm cool relationship with the subject and background as well.
Warm figure cool background. Cool figure warm background.
Also with simultaneous contrast and hue, warm to cool, cool to warm going against one another in the subject background relationship. This is achieved with the light and shadow of the figure against the background.
These images are merely for educational purposes. Not process or correctness.
You can see these relationships in the images in the above compilation if you look. (except for the figure drawing)
Creativitity--- the secret fifth element that saves the world
Has someone ever told you that you can't do something because you dont have that one thing you need in order to solve a problem or accomplish a goal? People that only see the problem and never a solution are quite common.
If I have read this somewhere I cannot remember. But I believe it and like to think that I have discovered something from my own trials in life in and outside of the art world.
Just like necessity is the mother of invention.
Creativity is born from limitation.
Think about the people who have escaped from prison camps, or learned to write left handed after they are injured. Extreme limitation ignited extreme problem solving creativity. (not to mention some heart in those cases)
Thankfully we dont have to be that extreme. What limitations I am talking about refer to the style guides regarding the fundamentals of picture making, or character design and composition. Like those regarding the fundamentals of picture making that I have listed today.
@zannareia Thank you for reading this. I know it took me over a week to write it and compile the images. It has been edited a couple of times I may come back and edit it some more. I wish you the best of luck on your art journey and dont let all this information overwhelm you. Buy books, read them. Buy lessons and watch them. Never stop learning.
I would like to thank, and recommend, Devin Korwin and his 'advanced basics' for the pyramid theory I have used today. After I read his books and watched his videos everything fell into place one solitary afternoon for me. I wrote down every word. I have been using it to check peoples work ever since and check my own worth with it.
color
EDGE
VALUES
DRAWING
A step in the pyramid effects all those above it. None of the steps effect that which is below.
Squirrel!
