Free Critique

I ALWAYS CARE! :P First of all I'd like to say that judging by your improvement meme: <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18432289/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18432289/</a> that you've already come a long way and it's obvious you're working hard so bravo for that! The ability to make yourself work and try is way more important than any kind of natural talent (which isn't so important in art, anyway). I feel like you're well on your way, and have been making strides especially nthe last year. I can see that you are trying out a few different styles and materials. That's good. Variety makes for more fresh art. Poses like this: <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/full/16936337/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/full/16936337/</a> are especially difficult and therefore worthwhile to do. I recommend you carry on with this line of study. Of all the images on your first gallery page that one jumped out at me as especially interesting. Side-vew poses are a dime a dozen. Because you're working in a lot of different ways (which is great!) it's somewhat difficult to talk about your style or body of work, per se, but I can talk about general things. Right now all of your work is hovering somewhere around the middle, perhaps the light side of the middle, on the greyscale. Part of making artwork interesting to look at is balancing the extreme dark and extreme light. You can high a highkey image, which is mostly paler, but there are always small, dark areas to draw the eye. Likewise in lowkey art there are always light areas. Without this contrast the eye tends to glance over the artwork and not really take it in. A lot of your work suffers from this lack of contrast. A few of your pieces get closer such as <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18308201/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18308201/</a> and <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18408706/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18408706/</a> but if you were to turn them greyscale I think you'd find they don't have a lot of black or white and that most of it is a middle grey. So my advice to you is to do some hardcore rendering projects where you really push the dark and light. You can take an old painting and beef it up or start fresh. One thing you may find when you really start getting into it is that you actually have no fucking clue what you're doing in terms of form. Not fully rendering is an easy and cheap way of avoiding dealing with anatomical issues. So as soon as you force yourself to really push the values, you will instantly see your anatomical shortcomings and will be able to address them in your study. Sculpting at the same time that you are painting and drawing is a great way to learn form, particularly anatomy. Rendering in full value is kind of the 2D equivalent of sculpting but in sculpting you absolutely can't hide from form, and that's why it's so valuable.

hibbary

Sure thing :) I feel like: <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17027245/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17027245/</a> is one of your more successful pieces in terms of finish. The lighting is consistent and gives the figure a full amount of depth. There's more attention paid to anatomical detail. The green backlighting on the orange fur gives a good color contrast. The only really big pitfall is that the background is so sharp and stampy, and doesn't agree in style with the character. You can use complex brushes in an image and it looks fine, but you have to do it in such a way that it isn't stylistically divorced from the foreground. When you do it looks pasted on and that's a shame, because it really detracts from the character. I think in this case even a badly-painted or very vague clumping of trees would have been less distracting and clashing than those very sharp leaves. This one for example: <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18478833/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18478833/</a> The background is so textured and the figure is so smooth. There is no color agreement from background to figure. There's the beginnings of it, with the slight peach tint to the towel and a little bit in the figure's shadow, but where the light is reflected, as on the curve of his belly, it appears as though he should be in a pale orange environment, not pink. As an object turns away from the viewer, it picks up more color as reflections from it's surroundings. Have you ever done the trick where you hold up a piece of paper almost horizontal to your eye and it becomes a mirror? All surfaces do this to some degree. It may be that you just wanted to have him in front of something that wasn't a blank white background and don't want to be bothered with reworking background color into him, and that's fine, but in that case the background definitely shouldn't contain more texture and sharp edges than the character. Those chalky textures in the twigs and flowers/leaves would be really lovely if they were repeated in the character or on their own, but with the softness and smoothness of the brushmarks on the figure they look out of place. In this image: <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17842849/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17842849/</a> Even though the lighting and color is very stylized, it feels like the figure is more a part of his environment. Because that environment is hand-painted, for the most part, it has the sense of belonging with the character. The green rim lighting in this one: <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/full/17844006/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/full/17844006/</a> definitely ties the character to the environment, though the texture that overlays only the environment but not the figure is a very unpleasant jolt. Instead of thinking of it as character vs. environment you should think about it as layers in space. Perhaps the distant background could be blurred out with texture but as it moves forward through space it becomes more clear and painterly, including both the figure and the grass and mist in the foreground. That both allows the character to be a part of the space and also creates a kind of illusion of depth. Not one you normally see in nature, but you are following your own rules in terms of focus. It isn't that you have to spend dozens of hours meticulously rendering an environment (because fuck that!) but if you do have a figure existing in a space, even a vague space, the figure and space need to have the same rules in order not to look slapped together last minute. They have to be considered. I feel like you're aware of this and sometimes put more thought into it and sometimes you're like: aww fuckit, slap that dogman on a background and call it done! Which I don't necessarily take issue with unless the effect looks rushed or discordant. So just be choosy if you are doing a last-minute background. A little color or texture behind a character to spice it up is great, but if it's distracting it detracts from all the effort put into the figures, and that's the opposite of what you want. Like this: <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/full/14066123/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/full/14066123/</a> the background is just SO textured, and so different from the characters. I'd advise either taking down the opacity on the texture or layering it over the characters as well, or both. Other than that, I'd just say: keep working on your figure drawing. You have some very good little passages like the inner thigh in <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18523218/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18523218/</a> and then some less ideal areas like the elbow, which looks a bit like a ball-jointed doll, and the hand, whose fingers have been fudged. I know how tempting it can be to just say 'screw it' and cop out on a part you don't know too well (I do thiiiiissssss) , but do yourself the favor of researching. Just plug 'thumbs up' into google and you'll find all the reference you need. (Although don't copy any one exactly, of course; that's stealing). Just look at a few images for a general idea. The faces are so well sculpted and thoughtful that things like the arm and hand stick out badly. The good news is that digital paintings are easy to fix. The other good news is that fuck old art, you have more paintings in you and can just tackle it next time :P

hibbary

Wow, such an offer! Here's a link to just my full detail pieces. <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/silvixen/folder/24221/Full-Detail" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/silvixen/folder/24221/Full-Detail</a> I'm really just after general critique. Basically whatever you think needs critiquing. Thanks so much for the chance!

Silvixen

*much exite* If it's not too much to ask could you take a quick squiz through my gallery (mostly the recent stuff though) and let me know general areas of improvement? I'm constantly looking at improving myself and it's always great to have outside opinions. <a href="http://penny-dragon.deviantart.com/gallery/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://penny-dragon.deviantart.com/gallery/</a> <a href="http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/penny-dragon/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/penny-dragon/</a> No problems if you don't have time (or care :P) Loving your art as always :D

Penny

YESSS I know the feeling! Just today I accidentally pressed enter twice and made two comments too early. Thank goodness Patreon allows you to edit and delete comments.

hibbary

And I hate how Patreon thinks hitting enter means you're done with your comment. Here's the piece I would like a critique on <a href="http://liciandragon.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-Portrait-02-575083130" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://liciandragon.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-Portrait-02-575083130</a> Thanks again!

Wow, this is awesome! Thank you!

Oh what a lovely early Christmas gift! I have this painting that is bugging me, I loved it while working on it but I don't feel quite finished. I'd love to hear your critique on it focused on what can still be improved on it. Don't mind giving a new pass over the entire surface, as long as it's possible to work with what I have =) It's acrylic paints. And thank you so much for your time and thoughts =^_^= <a href="http://toyger.deviantart.com/art/My-Brightest-Star-555201922" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://toyger.deviantart.com/art/My-Brightest-Star-555201922</a>

Storm Sebastian Vågshaug