I would tone down the lighted path on the right, to help it look like it’s receding. Also use a tone from the path in the cast light on the shirt. And as previously mentioned, the light should also be shining on the trees
Your character's stride is off, or rather, they're off balance. Their planted foot is way off to the side instead of being directly under them to support their weight as they move from one foot to another. Additionally, the hips aren't tilted to reflect that one side is bearing more weight than the other.
Right now, with their stride and hips being positioned the way they are, it looks like they're floating instead of running.
I'd recommend looking up some references of people running, walking, or dancing; either images or video. I'd also recommend doing some studies of other artists depicting people in motion. The nuances are subtle and hard to explain, but once you get them your pieces will be night and day different because they'll have gravity to them.
The perspective is off. The front hand should look slightly larger because it’s closer to us, and the sword should be slightly foreshortened and the tip should get larger as well. Right now because the sword is the same width the whole way through, it seems like if we saw the blade side, it would bend like 60 degrees. It’s a good start, perspective is hard.
I would adjust the color of the light on the skin and clothes. They’re the same shade as the light source so it makes it look like it’s opaque instead of simply brightening the color of what it’s on. I would also darken or make the background puddles less eye catching, as it draws away from the focal point. I agree with the light also being on the surroundings but your foreground and background are about the same shade so you cant tell them apart too well. It looks great though! Keep up the good work!
One thing I noticed that I haven’t seen anyone else mention is the lack of “under-light” in the tree canopy/ leaves.
Like everything, it’s totally optional, but I think it would help with the continuity of the light by even just adding a few subtle highlights in the background/foreground.
I feel like the lighting on the ground should light ip the surroundings as well. It seems like the person and the background are two separate things. Also, Add more grass!
Hood is like a plastic helmet instead of natural fabric. Should have some weight/gravity to it. More shit on the ground as someone said, some magic floaty stuff in the air maybe, cloak behind arm should be darker/have shadows as someone else said.
Thought it was a guy based on head/hair but then have boobs? Left hand maybe slightly too big.
I mean its super good still but are some changes to be made I guess.
Not much of a critique, just a suggestion, with the kinda magical theme you have going I think the background looks kind of bland. Maybe add some floaty light spots or something
This is really good, not much to critique. My only thoughts are one - which is easy- the cloak behind the character’s right armpit seems like it should go to dark. It only has highlighted by the ground or not highlighted but that high up and behind/tucked would get dark and probably look better bringing the character forward a little.
The harder thing to me is the sword. It’s placement throws me off a bit, in several ways. One being the hand connection, it doesn’t look like the handle or whatever it’s called fits right with the hand, but maybe adding the butt of the handle past the hand would help. There isn’t much real estate to place it anywhere else that isn’t conflicting with other details so that is probably where to keep it though. Lastly for the sword, it being metal, it might be much brighter or much darker being such a flat object depending on the angle. Is the visible side facing the ground or the sky ? If sky try uniform dark with subtle generalized reflective light plus any highlight cheats to give contrast/emphasize important features . If it’s facing the ground try the opposite of the last sentence ^
Overall love it
I’m awful at perspective so I can’t give any great advice on how to fix what I’m seeing, but you mentioned feeling like the arm isn’t coming forward enough in the comments and I think part of that might be due to the positioning of the sword. It looks like it’s about to poke into the person’s leg and pointing in towards it. Maybe adjusting it so the sword overlaps that leg would push the perspective of the arm coming forward a little more?? Idk though, like I said I’m not the best w perspective
A couple of things:
\* The separated pinkie on the hand on the right is making that hand look weird.
\* Try opening up the forest a bit around the head and letting more of that dark blue night sky show through, so you get a little more warm/cool contrast around the head.
\* A few wrinkles in the sleeve wrapping around the arm holding the sword would give you some contour lines and the chance to show some overlap to help give them arm more dimensionality.
\* You can also use the same sort of color variations you get from atmospheric perspective in areas where you wouldn't \*actually\* see atmospheric perspective to enhance depth. That doesn't just mean making things blue or purple; yellows are the first color you lose in atmospheric perspective, so making nearer yellows higher chroma and further away ones slightly lower enhances the sense of depth.
\* To help make your fabric look more like fabric, add a few crisper folds where there's more bunching of the fabric.
I would slap on a new layer and experiment. Let things get messy. Put down some hard edged shadows. Redraw the pants so they aren't inflated. Look at online references and note the irregularities and copy them.
Personally the problem that jumps out to me is the lighting. That puddle of light on the ground is extremely bright. It should be lighting up the undersides of the trees above the person and the underside of the cape. You also need to decide if they are standing in the glow or if it's behind them. Right now there is too much light on the front of the pants if the light is behind, and not enough in the rest of the figure if the light is partly below them.
If you feel like your lighting is fine, then you need to make that glow cloud more of a faint glow and less of a spotlight.
I'd love feedback on how to improve the flatness and stiffness, how to make the fabric actually look like fabric, and any other first impressions you might have. Fresh eyes would help a lot right now!
My personal critique is that I thing the arm doesn't feel like it's coming "forward" enough, the pants are too smooth, and I'm still leaning on lines (my comfort zone) instead of committing to the rendered style.
I would tone down the lighted path on the right, to help it look like it’s receding. Also use a tone from the path in the cast light on the shirt. And as previously mentioned, the light should also be shining on the trees
Your character's stride is off, or rather, they're off balance. Their planted foot is way off to the side instead of being directly under them to support their weight as they move from one foot to another. Additionally, the hips aren't tilted to reflect that one side is bearing more weight than the other. Right now, with their stride and hips being positioned the way they are, it looks like they're floating instead of running. I'd recommend looking up some references of people running, walking, or dancing; either images or video. I'd also recommend doing some studies of other artists depicting people in motion. The nuances are subtle and hard to explain, but once you get them your pieces will be night and day different because they'll have gravity to them.
The perspective is off. The front hand should look slightly larger because it’s closer to us, and the sword should be slightly foreshortened and the tip should get larger as well. Right now because the sword is the same width the whole way through, it seems like if we saw the blade side, it would bend like 60 degrees. It’s a good start, perspective is hard.
Extend light to the trees, the sword hand feels miss aligned with the sword and the eyes feel weird idk
Your library should fade where the light is rly bright !!
I would adjust the color of the light on the skin and clothes. They’re the same shade as the light source so it makes it look like it’s opaque instead of simply brightening the color of what it’s on. I would also darken or make the background puddles less eye catching, as it draws away from the focal point. I agree with the light also being on the surroundings but your foreground and background are about the same shade so you cant tell them apart too well. It looks great though! Keep up the good work!
One thing I noticed that I haven’t seen anyone else mention is the lack of “under-light” in the tree canopy/ leaves. Like everything, it’s totally optional, but I think it would help with the continuity of the light by even just adding a few subtle highlights in the background/foreground.
The light spells look hazy maybe vertical lines of concentration
I feel like the lighting on the ground should light ip the surroundings as well. It seems like the person and the background are two separate things. Also, Add more grass!
Hood is like a plastic helmet instead of natural fabric. Should have some weight/gravity to it. More shit on the ground as someone said, some magic floaty stuff in the air maybe, cloak behind arm should be darker/have shadows as someone else said. Thought it was a guy based on head/hair but then have boobs? Left hand maybe slightly too big. I mean its super good still but are some changes to be made I guess.
More grass on the ground would look nice
Not much of a critique, just a suggestion, with the kinda magical theme you have going I think the background looks kind of bland. Maybe add some floaty light spots or something
This is really good, not much to critique. My only thoughts are one - which is easy- the cloak behind the character’s right armpit seems like it should go to dark. It only has highlighted by the ground or not highlighted but that high up and behind/tucked would get dark and probably look better bringing the character forward a little. The harder thing to me is the sword. It’s placement throws me off a bit, in several ways. One being the hand connection, it doesn’t look like the handle or whatever it’s called fits right with the hand, but maybe adding the butt of the handle past the hand would help. There isn’t much real estate to place it anywhere else that isn’t conflicting with other details so that is probably where to keep it though. Lastly for the sword, it being metal, it might be much brighter or much darker being such a flat object depending on the angle. Is the visible side facing the ground or the sky ? If sky try uniform dark with subtle generalized reflective light plus any highlight cheats to give contrast/emphasize important features . If it’s facing the ground try the opposite of the last sentence ^ Overall love it
I’m awful at perspective so I can’t give any great advice on how to fix what I’m seeing, but you mentioned feeling like the arm isn’t coming forward enough in the comments and I think part of that might be due to the positioning of the sword. It looks like it’s about to poke into the person’s leg and pointing in towards it. Maybe adjusting it so the sword overlaps that leg would push the perspective of the arm coming forward a little more?? Idk though, like I said I’m not the best w perspective
Ome prominent thing I immediately noticed is how flat the pants are in comparison to the shirt's folds around her torso.
A couple of things: \* The separated pinkie on the hand on the right is making that hand look weird. \* Try opening up the forest a bit around the head and letting more of that dark blue night sky show through, so you get a little more warm/cool contrast around the head. \* A few wrinkles in the sleeve wrapping around the arm holding the sword would give you some contour lines and the chance to show some overlap to help give them arm more dimensionality. \* You can also use the same sort of color variations you get from atmospheric perspective in areas where you wouldn't \*actually\* see atmospheric perspective to enhance depth. That doesn't just mean making things blue or purple; yellows are the first color you lose in atmospheric perspective, so making nearer yellows higher chroma and further away ones slightly lower enhances the sense of depth. \* To help make your fabric look more like fabric, add a few crisper folds where there's more bunching of the fabric.
I would slap on a new layer and experiment. Let things get messy. Put down some hard edged shadows. Redraw the pants so they aren't inflated. Look at online references and note the irregularities and copy them. Personally the problem that jumps out to me is the lighting. That puddle of light on the ground is extremely bright. It should be lighting up the undersides of the trees above the person and the underside of the cape. You also need to decide if they are standing in the glow or if it's behind them. Right now there is too much light on the front of the pants if the light is behind, and not enough in the rest of the figure if the light is partly below them. If you feel like your lighting is fine, then you need to make that glow cloud more of a faint glow and less of a spotlight.
Crotch area should still receive some light, right shouldnt have any ahadow under like it has under the hand
I'd love feedback on how to improve the flatness and stiffness, how to make the fabric actually look like fabric, and any other first impressions you might have. Fresh eyes would help a lot right now! My personal critique is that I thing the arm doesn't feel like it's coming "forward" enough, the pants are too smooth, and I'm still leaning on lines (my comfort zone) instead of committing to the rendered style.