Recent illustration critique

[bianchi.sean]

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this. I recently completed this illustration for a client and would appreciate some feedback to help me improve future works.

I was tasked with combining 6 specific anime and game characters in a night scene where they are around a campfire. I wanted to give these disjointed characters from various universes some interactions to show that they would be friendly with each other to help create a warm and inviting scene.

This composition was both rewarding and challenging for me to conceptualize, so I appreciate your feedback! Thanks for your comments

[cedricgo]

I'd say it's a good challenge to tackle an illustration with multiple characters like with various poses like in this illustration. So good job!

I'd say there's two main things that I've noticed that could maybe improve it.

First of all, I don't know if you used reference for the different poses, but some of the anatomy looks a little bit off a times. Like the back of the hand of the guy left seems to be almost facing us, but with the way the arm is position that would be a very uncomfortable position to have it. Also the other guy on the foreground right (sorry I don't exactly know all these characters ) seems to me like he would have a very short torso with the way the legs connect to the body. So I'd recommend finding reference of similar poses or even take your own if you can, just to make sure that it all looks okay.

Next would be the lighting. It is a night scene, but it doesn't really look like it because it's pretty bright overall. I think darkening everything a lot and bringing back the highlight from the fire would sell the night aspect much better and would make the fire look brighter and warmer by comparison. And then you can also bring some highlights from the moon on the characters to make them pop even more.

So that's all I can think of right now. It's nice that you challenged yourself with this piece and I hope you'll keep it up

[moirae]

The anatomy in your figures is the biggest problem, but as well as the critique above I would also add that none of the characters seem to be interacting.
No character is looking at another. The woman with blue hair is looking behind the man with white hair, who stares into the fire. The blonde looks straight down the camera, the redhead also looks at the viewer and beckons us (with sword drawn!) and the man on the far right stares off into space. A little eye contact between characters would go a long way in achieving the warm, inviting scene you were trying to create.

[bianchi.sean]

thanks for the feedback!