Basic Honey Critique

A bit of a self-critique here.

This is the art I did for a little D&D project I had going on. Nothing I published, just a reference document. Anyway, that's not the point.

I spent a lot of time on this painting. My goal was to "paint it", not ink it. I wanted to avoid relying heavily on lines and lean more into forms and color, shadow and light. I have mixed feelings about my success. Here are a few reasons why.

1. THE GOOD STUFF

First, I do like this painting. I do not hate it. I'm just iffy about how much I like it. The things I know I like include the hair, hands, and the main figure's arms. I really, really love how her arms look. They captured a sense of volume and roundness that I was going for. And those cartoon elbow nubs! Cute.

The hands down at the bottom are expressive and definitely in my wheelhouse. I also like her hair. It feels lively and golden, which was the goal.

I don't hate her feet... though I struggle with drawing boots and shit.

2. BACKGROUND

It's ok. But not great. It's just color, which is what I wanted. Perhaps I should have went with something more representational. I dunno. Maybe the purple could have been much darker to help make her figure pop.

3. EYES

A bit crazed, which is good. But maybe not articulate enough. Not enough time spent on her eye shape, the lids, maybe some lashes could help.

4. WEAPONS

This looks ok but flat. I fall into that trap of drawing weapons as if we are looking at them lying on a flat surface, with the handles and blades always side-facing. It is important to remember that these are three-dimensional objects and they are in motion. Tilt the blades, turn the cross-guards at an angle.

5. ARMOR

Her armor texture and coloring is middling. I wanted the armor to be metallic, silvery, etc. Which is it. But it probably needed something to help it feel real, textured, worn.

6. COLOR

I didn't go hard enough on the deep colors and highlights. I feel like the colors came out a little bit flat. For example, where are the lightning-inspired yellow highlights on her helmet? I forgot to add them.

7. FIGURE AND COMPOSITION

Ok, this is my biggest critique. I worked hard on her figure. I like her shape. She's round, but firm, soft but hard (if that makes sense). I even gave her some scars and freckles, which is nice.

But she's flat. This is a warrior in mid-leap and her figure is absolutely stable, centered, solid. Not dynamic. Now, in one sense, this is kind of cool. It suggests she's at home and comfortable and in no way worried. She's gonna kill 'em all. But look at her chest. It's level. Again, this suggests stability. Which is fine... but in this case I think having her shoulders not level would have shifted things and caused some dynamics in the figure. Like if her left arm was higher, twisting her body just a bit, but her head tilted the other way... that would have been nice.

CONCLUSION

A good attempt. I'm proud of the work. But not my finest and not the kind of painting I hoped it would be. I shall try again and again!