Leaping to the "next level".. but coming up short :/

[ReviseTheMethod]

Hey there! =)
This painting was meant to be a leap to the "next level", and although I feel that I have learnt a lot during the process, the result isn't quite as close to the "next level" as I would like.
How can I push this further? What is missing?
Is it stiff? Is the design boring?

Any help/advice would be most appreciated! :>

[Jason Rainville]

Well.... it simply doesn't look finished. The monster is nice, if confusing, but the armored fella in the foreground is at the rough sketch stage. Is there a reason he's not completed?

[MT-Mystic]

I'm actually generally liking your creature. Few things I see, though. The pose is kind of stiff, but he looks like a wraith type of creature floating in the mists, so it's actually not bad. The left arm's positioning seems an exactly mirrored reflection of the right (viewer's left vs. viewer's right), however, and lends a lot to the stiffness. If you change the pose of the left arm, I think it would help break up that stiffness. The upper right arm also feels a bit long, but it's your creature, so you can do what you want.

The main light source on the creature is from the top, and I think the trees should be affected by it as well. Compositionally I also feel that the creature is pushed too far to the left, and feels kind of cramped. That guy in the right must be really short and crouching and/or in a ditch, though, to be at that height compared to what I assume to be a generally humanoid height creature. Bring the right guy higher up, or even get rid of him if you feel he's not even really needed.

[masque]

You basically have only two hues going for you here, the pale tannish gray (in many values) and magenta. Your shadows feel a bit flat and the overall picture space is weakened some as a result. Try using some color temperature variation in the grays as well as some hints and glints of other more saturated hues to liven thing up, particularly the shadows.