Hand painting weapons : critique requested

Apolloman

So, recently finished this concept for a weapon Im planning on modeling. I wanted to aim for a hand painted style similar to that in World of Warcraft. Im pretty happy with it but theres something about it thats bugging me about it. I dont know if this the art style or just my painting but it just doesnt seem close to the WOW style. This is something I find happening allot. I can never seem to realize what im picturing when i start a project. 



Any advice or critiques would be most welcome.

Also if you can tell what this is, props to you.

Beestonian

Firstly, here is exactly the tutorial I think you need.
http://3dmotive.com/series/hand-painted-texturing.html

Now, onto the things I've noticed.

1. Lighting is flat. Every element on the sword has an arbitrary lighting direction and it's destroying your form. Try and concentrate the highlight on the blade to a section of it's length, and make a gradient to emulate a specular reflection. Also try and catch light in crevices and on ridges.

2. Materials are not defined properly. This comes back to the form thing. Your handle is being lit with the same intensity and variation in value as the blade is. Try and keep values close together but separate them harder in others. 

3. Details - Is this sword brand new, or has it been worn, scratched, etched? 

4. Try and organize the values on the blade into more distinct blocks. This is similar to materials, but this is from a design/readability perspective. Make an arrangement of graphic shapes and tones that work to produce a nice hierarchy design, and use your materials to support that. 

Hope these help.

Apolloman

Thanks for the response. That tutorial will surely help as will the points you raised. Hand painting has always irked me because I could never get it right but I know I am capable of it. Thanks again for the crit, I really do appreciate it.