I'm no pro by any stretch, but one thing that stands out to me is your material definition, everything looks very soft, and I think it's coming from an excessive use of soft brushes. Try some material studies using soft and hard brushes.
I think your design and composition's are good, i like them.
Hmm. I can see a lot of the sort of things I tried when I was starting digital work, so I suppose I'll try to communicate to you what I would communicate to my past self were I able.
Don't get suckered in by the fancy options at your disposal due to it being a digital medium. Ignore the texture/pattern overlays, ignore your dodge/burn tools, ignore the myriad of custom brush packs available online. Many of those tools have a use, but the knowledge of how and when to use them comes from good old fashioned art fundamentals - perfectly acquirable, and probably better understood, using fewer tools.
Some of these ideas are interesting, but the manner in which they're carried out is a little all over the place. Soft brush for all the shadows, super sharp/defined texture overlay only on certain parts, blacks for shadows, whites for highlights, etc. The lack of consistency makes them weaker than they could be, makes them harder to read, and makes them lack confidence ("Hmm, not sure how I'd paint that but I've got a digital tool that can get that sort of look for me.")
They're not bad, and I don't think experimentation is at all a bad thing while you're starting out. So I suppose I should rephrase and not say "ignore", but rather, "don't rely on" your digital tools, and try to focus more on the fundamentals of how to paint/draw/render good, strong images.
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I think your design and composition's are good, i like them.
Don't get suckered in by the fancy options at your disposal due to it being a digital medium. Ignore the texture/pattern overlays, ignore your dodge/burn tools, ignore the myriad of custom brush packs available online. Many of those tools have a use, but the knowledge of how and when to use them comes from good old fashioned art fundamentals - perfectly acquirable, and probably better understood, using fewer tools.
Some of these ideas are interesting, but the manner in which they're carried out is a little all over the place. Soft brush for all the shadows, super sharp/defined texture overlay only on certain parts, blacks for shadows, whites for highlights, etc. The lack of consistency makes them weaker than they could be, makes them harder to read, and makes them lack confidence ("Hmm, not sure how I'd paint that but I've got a digital tool that can get that sort of look for me.")
They're not bad, and I don't think experimentation is at all a bad thing while you're starting out. So I suppose I should rephrase and not say "ignore", but rather, "don't rely on" your digital tools, and try to focus more on the fundamentals of how to paint/draw/render good, strong images.