Which one is which?

Welcome!

Which one is the old one? I'll assume the left one....But yea you know. You know if you have or not you dont need us to tell you that.

I'm not sure...for what exactly. Both have their merits. Art has many applications. We need a goal to push you towards in order to have a constructive critique. Just doing the bust shot of the character and not seeing the whole artwork and its purpose or intent makes that critique entirely subjective.

You can probably decide that superiority on your own.

Well....I feel we cannot give an accurate critique then. Its kind of setting us up to be less helpful than we want to be because we dont know what the style guide is that you are trying to aim for, or follow in the end. Or if we will even get to see the finished product.

Right away comparing two styles is sort of a moot point. If you are wanting to see if you have improved and have us confirm that let us know which one was old and which one was new.

Technically...I guess the right one.

In terms of design - It follows shape language clearer and keeps the original IP's design on an innocent persona. The left one is...That's just not it. Peach is sort of a nothing burger with no personality. The head shape and eyes are the biggest difference between the two but man she was never supposed to be over s*xualized.

For it to be recognized as the OG character some aspects of the emotion and shape design have to be respected, and stylistically translated from the original. The right one does that better.

Linework and Color - The right one.
But dont let that auto smoothing line feature of whatever program you are using decide what shapes you are going to be ultimately putting into your work. There are some missed opportunities there to make a more pleasing shape with the hair or hands. Watch out for tangents.

Drawing, Value Edges and Color. Those are the fundamentals, and their order of importance.

Ultimately, you have to decide which style or process you like making more in terms of how you spend your hours. If you do this for fun who cares which one is superior? Always do the fun one.

If you do this for money, decide which one is better to enjoy while you stare at a screen all day or is more tolerable. Because the design is going to have to be more rigidly adhered too.

If this is just a post to let us know you have improved over the past few months, congratulations are in order! The right one is better than the left and you have improved. Gratz.

Later Tater.

Sure no problem!

Before I get into the technical stuff consider this.

Bottom line is-
I like the right one.
I don’t like the left one.
Critiques are subjective however. So mine is biased based on my experience and taste.

I base it off of the complexity one has to achieve to make, make or apply a style guide. The choice you made to have thicker line on the right emphasized the shape, which is important. And you also have line weight variety. Which creates interest. It is more interesting. So I see that and know that and think it is superior, because that is more difficult to achieve. It’s time consuming.

And I was also right that you didn’t need us to tell which one was superior to you. If you enjoy the calligraphy skills it takes to make clean and clear line art that is great! No one should have to convince you or change your mind that which you already know.

So the left one has the same line weight everywhere. And of the goal was to add more detail to the lips and nose compared tot he old style then it worked. But I couldn’t know that. If adding more detail is superior then the style will evolve even more as you continue.

But like I said the right one has its merit. Sometimes all you need is a blob or a line to emphasize and communicate. Those lips are fun and cute, the nose doesn’t need to be rendered. The right one is the stronger piece. To me.

No one can tell me or you or anyone which one is superior to which that’s why I mentioned it’s sort of moot. If one needed to sell, I’d pick the right one.

I think the right one just has more character to it, both stylistically and in the actual expression of the character herself.

You mentioned thinking it was "shoddy and wobbly" but the almost traditional media effect similar to chalks or pastels interests me more than the soft digital brush of the left. On the right the pink background, solid lines and higher contrast just make it more readable overall (if you squint the left one blurs, but the right is still fairly clear, and for illustration that's a strong plus.)
Also the lips, whilst simpler, add more to the facial expression than the slight smile of the left one, even if they are more realistic. If you really want to see if you have improved try capturing the surprised pout of your earlier piece in the new style you are going for.

The decision to colour the lineart makes a difference. It works on the hair, but on the cheek it's barely darker than the shadow you have there, and doesn't show up, the dark yellow of the hair is doing the major lifting in describing the shape of the face. Do vary the thickness of the lines too, generally thicker around the outside and thinner for inner details.

I look forward to seeing what come next with this.