New Digital Artist. Would love some constructive critiques!
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I've been doing traditional art for a few years, but have really taken an interest in using photoshop. I find it hard to critique my own work, but I know there's something missing. I would appreciate any help possible. The first is of a 'superhero,' the second is just me trying to do some character desing. Thanks!
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First thing I'd focus on is form, in both of the pieces form really doesn't read very well. In the top piece the predominant direction light seems to be coming from the top right but as you move about her chest and her supporting arm the light becomes more straight on. And while the direction light could be bounced around as such, their is such a high ambient light in the scene that any sort of cast shadow is getting lost or muddied. One of the easiest ways I've found to do cast shadows is to set a multiply layer with black (or a really dark purple/blue) and then set its fill down to 50% and just start dropping them in with a 100% opacity brush. If you're not used to painting shadows, having cast shadows can be tricky because there are so many things to think about like edge sharpness (closer you are to something solid the edges get more sharp where the further and more light shines through an object the shadow diffuses.) and of course how the shadow sets the form in perspective.
Second thing I'd focus on, and I'm sure this forum gets tired of me saying it, is perspective. Right now both of the characters you drew are in a very flat camera. One of the easiest ways to learn how to draw characters in a good camera is to just take a photo of a place you like, can also have people in it, and just add a character to it. If you can get the character to feel like its fitting inside the scene's camera then you know you're on the right track.
Last, and this is honestly the hardest and why people get paid to do this type of stuff, is the design. I promise you that for every piece ryan lang shows, he is drawing no less than 5 thumbnails with exploration. And this is on top of the years and years he has been practicing this and exploring ideas and shape language and all the stuff that goes into this. If you want to draw a character with a bird hand what else about her is telling her story? Right now she has the sword (which how is that attached to her back? How is the rabbit backpack being held up? ) a cape and a claw. Imagine the world that she is in, imagine her backstory. Ask yourself every question you can think of and how that effects her story and then ask yourself how can you visually sell that story. Maybe she was a princess that ran away from home after she dabbled in black magic and was mutilated with a curse that will slowly corrupt her into a carrion bird, or a wizard's familiar who, after the wizard died, kept on living and scavenging for body parts to become human. Design is just problem solving and the more you know about the character, the more iterations you can come up with for possible solutions which means a larger pool to chose the "best" solution from.
Hope this helps and you stick with it. Will be cool to see your improvement.
On top of that, I don't think I can say much more, the light can really help you portrait accurate results, remember that form change is value change, and that is most noticeable by light and shadow planes.