Almost done but need fresh eyes

[Lightship69]

If its just tool tips you want mate have a look through the forum in the hardware and software section, also some of the stickies will help.

working through online tutorials will also get you up to speed with the brushes etc. have a look at these for example.

http://www.henningludvigsen.com/inde.../tutorials/P0/

great tutorials on how to use the software and create great images.

I hope this helps you out.

[TArnell]

[IMG][/IMG]So am I there yet now or do you still think I should go back to school and learn how to draw, and yes I now it needs shadows below the hair etc....

[Swamp Thing]

Why are you even still posting here if you can't take critiques? Of course some are writing harsh, but usually nobody here is doing this to blame or troll, but mainly to help you and find out what you've done wrong. And you can't expect that somebody comes up helping you with those eyes if their problem is just leading back to your general lack of understanding. And yes, it is the hardest to accept if all of them tell you the bitter truth - you have no understanding of the basics (anatomy, light and shadow, color, composition - and those are not a matter of the medium) and should better invest time into learning them rather than drawing complex scenes / copying photographs without understanding for the things that happen in those.
Have you ever taken your time to look at some work of the artsist that gave you suggestions/critique, or in general what the art of people in the finally finished section looks like? Because this is where people posting here are trying to get usually, and you are far from this. The problem is, you just can't accept and realize the fact. If you're satisfied with what you're drawing, having no intention in becoming better, ignore this place instead of getting mad and blame us for trying to help artists that are serious.

[TArnell]

Why are you even still posting here if you can't take critiques? Of course some are writing harsh, but usually nobody here is doing this to blame or troll, but mainly to help you and find out what you've done wrong. And you can't expect that somebody comes up helping you with those eyes if their problem is just leading back to your general lack of understanding. And yes, it is the hardest to accept if all of them tell you the bitter truth - you have no understanding of the basics (anatomy, light and shadow, color, composition - and those are not a matter of the medium) and should better invest time into learning them rather than drawing complex scenes / copying photographs without understanding for the things that happen in those.
Have you ever taken your time to look at some work of the artsist that gave you suggestions/critique, or in general what the art of people in the finally finished section looks like? Because this is where people posting here are trying to get usually, and you are far from this. The problem is, you just can't accept and realize the fact. If you're satisfied with what you're drawing, having no intention in becoming better, ignore this place instead of getting mad and blame us for trying to help artists that are serious.

Yes Swamp,
I have looked .....at their work and yours too! Obviously "WE" work in different fields of art, why would you bother writing a small book reiterating what a few others have already said???? But since you brought up anatomy, why wouldn't you care to share your thoughts on the complexities and general wrong-ness of the anatomy of this woman's face? Because you sure have a lot to say!

[Maidith]

A few pointers.

I did notread what people previously wrote; that way you can see if I'm saying the same as previous critiques; and take it as a sign that these areas really need work.

1) Eyes. You REALLY need to get some reference; don't skimp on this - getting reference for an eye is one of the easiest to do!
For example:
-She seems to have no eyelids, neither upper nor lower ones, giving her a creepy look.
-Lashes aren't tiny ant-legs sticking out all along the lid rim, but have a dynamic all of their own. Again, reference photos will show that.
- The eye shape is too generic; usually an eye is not a perfectly symmetrical shape.
Like here: http://photoshop-freebies.com/photos...e-tutorial.php

2) Lips
The highlights are all over the place, making the lips look very messy.

3) Direction of the light? Frontal lighting is beloved by photographers, but it's very difficult to pull off for painters because it tends to make things look flat. Your painting suggests an outside setting which means you should paint considering a light source from above. You're almost there - don't be afraid to show more cast shadow below the nose and lower lip, darken the upper lip, add extra shadow onto the furry collar, etc. Again, look at reference photos.

[Swamp Thing]

The whole face has no construction and also there is no light source defined, which would give any construction form.

If you want to learn it, this should reveal most necessary informations about drawing heads:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/501782/And...Head-and-Hands
(this also include eye drawing and all the other parts)

If you want to stay with your current knowledge, again that is okay, but then this is the wrong place for you.

[Cherry_Cheesecake100]

You should try using structure lines too, to figure out where the eyes go in comparison to the ears, mouth, ect. Again Andrew Loomis is the man for learning this stuff.

[TASmith]

Here's my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

[manlybrian]

I have some thoughts I think you should consider. I hope you won't take any of this offensively.

I soon realized I had lost my objectivity which I fear is the case now!

If you've lost your objectivity to this image then why are you defending it against people's critiques?

So if you wouldn't mind I'm looking for "brutal" critique in regards to execution

Why do you say people are bashing your image when you asked for "brutal" critiques?

The image I have tried to create was to show what Madeline might have looked like and the day she bluffed her way past the guards and bolted from the confines of the castle/grounds she and the remnants of the court had been holed up in for a few months under guard ( in part to keep them in and to keep others out...to long a story to go into...)

We should see all this in your painting but we don't. It's not conveying the story to us. That's partly why people said you should start over. More thumbnails, more planning, less worrying about digital tools. Even if you mastered all the digital tools, this would still not be an effective painting. We still wouldn't know the story by looking at it.

Of course it hurting me thats why I I'm trying to learn it one aspect at a time.....

Learning one aspect at a time can be a smart move. You're just doing it in the wrong order. You should learn anatomy, values, etc before learning the digital tools. Using a pencil and paper is a great starting point. The digital portfolio can come later.

inccidently this image started as a bust and just grew.....

If a painting starts as a bust, it grows into a bigger bust. If the foundational elements are wrong from the start, then you should fix them, not include them. Again, poor execution is not because you don't understand digital tools, it's because you need to work traditionally, starting with the basics.

I coming to this digital format with close to 30yrs airbrushing

This shows in your work. Lots of it looks airbrushed. Her face for instance is very soft and does not have hard edges or good definition. This is why it would be prudent to use pencils and real brushes, because you need to break some of your airbrushing habits.

the latest now residing in a museum (there is a pic of "Mr.Gully" on my T-DA2 dA page.

It's obvious that you spent a lot of time and hard work on Mr. Gully, but a lot of the advice people have been giving you here could also be applied to his image.

Yes I agree the values and depth of field leave alot to be desired but that will be sorted out in the final image.

This shouldn't be the case. I've heard it said from a number of incredibly skilled artists that when you're painting, you should be able to stop at any point in your work and it should read well as a painting. From the very beginning it should read well, even if it's not all rendered out. So if you see value and depth of field problems, they say you should stop and fix them before continuing on.

Since most of the background will be obscured by blowing snow the womans face is the issue

Blowing snow will make the story even less clear to us. What it needs (first and foremost) is more thumbnails and a composition that tells the story better. Fixing the woman's face will still leave the viewers wondering, "What's going on here?"

having taken so long to produce this image my objectivity with it is waning.

This is a great statement. Very true. Often when people spend so much time on a painting it's very hard to let it go and start over. It's a trap we all fall into now and then. But as you said, your objectivity diminishes. It would be wise to consider everybody's critiques, consider this painting a "learning experience" and let it go. Working on it some more won't help you.

I'm finding the digital tools way to much like working with real brushes the likes of which I never have used....

True statement. You should learn with the real brushes (or even a pencil) first.

Now on the other hand I get what your saying but I have not the digital skills to compose or rather "execute" an image the way I would do it with an airbrush.

Digital skills won't help you compose or execute an image well. Neither will airbrushing. Learning the fundamentals will.

From the work I've seen of some of the commenting artists they seem to have been taught oil painting techniques, yourself included. I am self taught so I can see why some are so offended by my work lol. Airbrush and shields are way different than working with brushes.....

While this is true, the fundamentals are the same whether you're starting from oils, graphite, digital, airbrush, or any medium. If your image is lacking in fundamentals, mediums aren't the issue.

If your opinion of my art/layout skills remains the same then I guess I really have no clue and no business calling myself an artist...Please let me know would ya?

Even if all of your other works, digital and airbrushed alike, were powerful and incredibly well done, it wouldn't change the fact that this painting is lacking in the fundamentals.

So am I there yet now or do you still think I should go back to school and learn how to draw, and yes I now it needs shadows below the hair etc....

I don't know about school but practicing your drawing traditionally would really benefit you.

That's all I've got for now, hope it helps!

[Lightship69]

There is a hell of a lot in there that I need to bear in mind as well Manlybrian, thanks for putting that up is all good solid advive and i would be amazed if anyone took offense.

TArnell I would agree that you put this one down to learning experience and approach the next few as a continuation of that process. I would also recommend that if you are serious about the learning process and improving your art then have a look in your local bookstore or "Amazon" for these two books by James Gurney "Imaginative Realism and Color and Light" they are absoloutely invaluable and have helped me a lot so I can only hope that they help you too.

all the very best with your artwork buddy.

[ikken]

dude you should really try out those charcoal pencils and oils/gouache/acrylics, whatever fits you better, before you jump into photoshop again
without PS and its scribbleforever liberties your errors will become much more apparent to you and hopefully you will see them quite early, and won't repeat in your future work
ps and stay away from reference photos until you've done your first several dozens pictures from life, otherwise you will be stuck in scribbleworld again.
copying a pre-composed 2d picture is deceivingly easy
seeing actual forms, volumes and the way light works on them is harder, but more important.

[TASmith]

Here's a good post by Stapleton Kearns on his blog that I think also relates to issues in your piece.It's regarding mystery: http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/...2/mystery.html

[TArnell]

Well...Thank you all for your "constructive" and "not so much "comments. You may take this as me being defensive ...but what ever! There is a big difference between critique and bash which some of you have learned and some of you won't ever by the looks of things. I'm not offended nor angry...maybe a little amused and surprised though. Most if not all, seem to think it/art should be perfect, I don't have time, nor do I want to argue with you pro or con.....But since we are all artists I'll assume we are also all non-conformists by nature..... I think you guys are missing a few things, and dwelling on others. If we did the same style work with the same tools the world would oddly be grey no matter what color it was......In actuality the world is bright, a very bright place, full of dark and oppressive thoughts and things. So why would you all encourage me to conform as alot of you already have. I wonder, have any of you perhaps heard of Damien Hirsh, Vargas, or an other obscure artist called Dali...(they would enjoy your comments as much as I have lol) and no I'm not comparing myself to them...just giving you a heads up. I have taken many points from your crit's (although you may not agree). But what keeps me interested is that you all seem to think that I should ditch the way I work and this image in general (remember I have been making a living at this for almost the entire time some of you have been alive, so as much as you'd like me to suddenly scrap what I know works. I'm not going too, and suggest "some" of you try to be more original with the look of your images as rules are like the "suggested retail price" not the law, as the afore mentioned artists could atest. You'll never pay the rent consistently if you don't!
Now to respond to some mindless recent comments to TASMITH: the lamp post to which offends you I say "phhht", layout and design school will allow you to understand it (its a liberty we artist take from time to time, but the only one I have taken in this piece) I do love your layout and pointers as it may help someone, but you have raised all the points I wanted raised by the viewer...it drew you in! Read the book! None of the images are borrowed or created from ref material....What kind of an idiot do you take me for, hanging crystal full of stove fuel out on the public street in a time when they were told let them eat cake? Its not finished so there are no fluid lines in/on it yet....Learn about slush casting (in this case brown ) glass....and you'll understand why its that shape! A little education goes a long way. Plague doctors didn't dress like this in that time period as someone pointed out earlier but at least you get would get that its part of the issue in the story and at the begining of the story they did...... What makes you think its magical, most every element exists, the castle is made up but based on my knowledge and expirience with stone work and construction....Atmospheric perspective? why didn't you just say smog (that's kind of a new invention and didn't exist then as much as it does today)...also keep in mind the wind is blowing to the right and I have yet to put the snow storm in but rest assured I live in the mountains and know what falling snow and snow on a tree looks like (am just not sure how to paint falling snow with digital tools without it looking like fluff). Life is generic and we/I am/are past this point in the image.

Yes this is a learning curve piece so to quit would be what a kid does "cause its just to hard, sniff, sniff" to make something good out of something bad! roflmao!!! If having a bad layout (or hard ass art director) to work with would make most of you quit I strongly suggest you give up on art now before you waste your life away chasing an il-conceved dream! The real competition will kick your ass! Art is not just about structure and form (that helps)...in fact thats the last thing that should be on your mind...Fantasy art is based in reality and originality not form, ergo the term "Fantasy"! And part of art is to keep them guessing by leaving questions and not putting certain things in on purpose. So by now you will have either bought the book and are in for a great read or you are on your way home to play video games and are never going to understand the questions I caused you to ask...lol (this is what I mean by "design school will teach you" way more than a course in illustration, if you can draw put in your 10,000's hrs...but know why to do what and when)

Ok on to the next expert....lol (don't you be offended )
If memory serves me "manlybrian" I asked what was missing or wrong as my objectivity was waning re: particularly her face! I suggest you refer to your dictionary regarding the matter of BASH & CRITIQUE because I did ask for the harshest critique and I did get some although I've had to listen/read alot of the latter first..... I realize I still have alot to learn and will continue to persue that which I do not know. But why would I answer all the questions if the point is to create them. (from some of your comments I strongly suggest design school for you to, just a thought). Also whats wrong with airbrushed artwork or even the look? Do you know what they were for and why they were invented? Or even to what end they have been used for over the last hundred or so years. I think not.... An airbrush was created to solve photography issues that are very difficult fix with a brush......Why was it adopted by so many artists past and present because an airbrush is just so damned versatile and in the right hands can easily produce any style brush stroke and its nature produces soft (kinda like my work, design school will explain that too). If you look around your world you will see much to the dismay of your art teachers that the world/nature is predominantly soft....and stylishly blended. If you had the eye for art you would know this by now. How can you tell the difference between man made and mother nature...One is soft and flowing and one is harsh and forced no matter what examples you choose..but since we are both artists and herding cats would be easier than trying to get a bunch of artists to agree I'll leave this part at that. But if you really don't believe me ask anyone that does search and rescue, dives for sunken ships etc... they'll reiterate what I'm saying. Life is soft and bright not hard and harsh...word for the day "Ergonomic". In the case of posters yes answer all the question you create, in the case of creating art for marketing (in this case a book cover), create questions and answer only some of them.
So this has been an afternoon I'll never get back, lol but if you spent the time to comment you get some of mine time back...fare trade I think!
If future comments have been covered before or its just "ignorance based" spouting off, I have an art director already and won't respond...... Since this is about learning, any one know any tuts or tech's for doing falling snow digitally?

[CRYPT]

amazing work man
i think you will become one of the best.

[Elwell]

Well...Thank you all for your "constructive" and "not so much "comments. You may take this as me being defensive ...but what ever! There is a big difference between critique and bash which some of you have learned and some of you won't ever by the looks of things. I'm not offended nor angry...maybe a little amused and surprised though. Most if not all, seem to think it/art should be perfect, I don't have time, nor do I want to argue with you pro or con.....But since we are all artists I'll assume we are also all non-conformists by nature..... I think you guys are missing a few things, and dwelling on others. If we did the same style work with the same tools the world would oddly be grey no matter what color it was......In actuality the world is bright, a very bright place, full of dark and oppressive thoughts and things. So why would you all encourage me to conform as alot of you already have. I wonder, have any of you perhaps heard of Damien Hirsh, Vargas, or an other obscure artist called Dali...(they would enjoy your comments as much as I have lol) and no I'm not comparing myself to them...just giving you a heads up. I have taken many points from your crit's (although you may not agree). But what keeps me interested is that you all seem to think that I should ditch the way I work and this image in general (remember I have been making a living at this for almost the entire time some of you have been alive, so as much as you'd like me to suddenly scrap what I know works. I'm not going too, and suggest "some" of you try to be more original with the look of your images as rules are like the "suggested retail price" not the law, as the afore mentioned artists could atest. You'll never pay the rent consistently if you don't!
Now to respond to some mindless recent comments to TASMITH: the lamp post to which offends you I say "phhht", layout and design school will allow you to understand it (its a liberty we artist take from time to time, but the only one I have taken in this piece) I do love your layout and pointers as it may help someone, but you have raised all the points I wanted raised by the viewer...it drew you in! Read the book! None of the images are borrowed or created from ref material....What kind of an idiot do you take me for, hanging crystal full of stove fuel out on the public street in a time when they were told let them eat cake? Its not finished so there are no fluid lines in/on it yet....Learn about slush casting (in this case brown ) glass....and you'll understand why its that shape! A little education goes a long way. Plague doctors didn't dress like this in that time period as someone pointed out earlier but at least you get would get that its part of the issue in the story and at the begining of the story they did...... What makes you think its magical, most every element exists, the castle is made up but based on my knowledge and expirience with stone work and construction....Atmospheric perspective? why didn't you just say smog (that's kind of a new invention and didn't exist then as much as it does today)...also keep in mind the wind is blowing to the right and I have yet to put the snow storm in but rest assured I live in the mountains and know what falling snow and snow on a tree looks like (am just not sure how to paint falling snow with digital tools without it looking like fluff). Life is generic and we/I am/are past this point in the image.

Yes this is a learning curve piece so to quit would be what a kid does "cause its just to hard, sniff, sniff" to make something good out of something bad! roflmao!!! If having a bad layout (or hard ass art director) to work with would make most of you quit I strongly suggest you give up on art now before you waste your life away chasing an il-conceved dream! The real competition will kick your ass! Art is not just about structure and form (that helps)...in fact thats the last thing that should be on your mind...Fantasy art is based in reality and originality not form, ergo the term "Fantasy"! And part of art is to keep them guessing by leaving questions and not putting certain things in on purpose. So by now you will have either bought the book and are in for a great read or you are on your way home to play video games and are never going to understand the questions I caused you to ask...lol (this is what I mean by "design school will teach you" way more than a course in illustration, if you can draw put in your 10,000's hrs...but know why to do what and when)

Ok on to the next expert....lol (don't you be offended )
If memory serves me "manlybrian" I asked what was missing or wrong as my objectivity was waning re: particularly her face! I suggest you refer to your dictionary regarding the matter of BASH & CRITIQUE because I did ask for the harshest critique and I did get some although I've had to listen/read alot of the latter first..... I realize I still have alot to learn and will continue to persue that which I do not know. But why would I answer all the questions if the point is to create them. (from some of your comments I strongly suggest design school for you to, just a thought). Also whats wrong with airbrushed artwork or even the look? Do you know what they were for and why they were invented? Or even to what end they have been used for over the last hundred or so years. I think not.... An airbrush was created to solve photography issues that are very difficult fix with a brush......Why was it adopted by so many artists past and present because an airbrush is just so damned versatile and in the right hands can easily produce any style brush stroke and its nature produces soft (kinda like my work, design school will explain that too). If you look around your world you will see much to the dismay of your art teachers that the world/nature is predominantly soft....and stylishly blended. If you had the eye for art you would know this by now. How can you tell the difference between man made and mother nature...One is soft and flowing and one is harsh and forced no matter what examples you choose..but since we are both artists and herding cats would be easier than trying to get a bunch of artists to agree I'll leave this part at that. But if you really don't believe me ask anyone that does search and rescue, dives for sunken ships etc... they'll reiterate what I'm saying. Life is soft and bright not hard and harsh...word for the day "Ergonomic". In the case of posters yes answer all the question you create, in the case of creating art for marketing (in this case a book cover), create questions and answer only some of them.
So this has been an afternoon I'll never get back, lol but if you spent the time to comment you get some of mine time back...fare trade I think!
If future comments have been covered before or its just "ignorance based" spouting off, I have an art director already and won't respond...... Since this is about learning, any one know any tuts or tech's for doing falling snow digitally?

best post ever

[CRYPT]

-if you say that you know what works. then why no one likes your image
-you need to learn the rules before breaking them
"Nobody’s going to care how much you can think outside the box if you can’t colour inside the lines."
-in order to be a great artist you need to study (study faces .perspective.anatomy.ect....)everything that can help making your artwork better
-and about originality everything is made it's just matter of tweaking and changing some little things do you think we have never seen a girl and a castle behind her ??
-a tut for falling snow ???
STUDYYYY
you cant learn to be an artist with tuts come on man you said
''If we did the same style work with the same tools the world would oddly be grey ....''
when your doing something from a tut your doing it the same way the tut maker did it but when your studying you are figuring out how to do it your way.


Sorry for my bad english

[littlebones]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect

[Naidy]

Yes, you are the next Dali.

[LAG]

best post ever

Indeed.

I guess i've been doing it all wrong.

"Yes this is a learning curve piece so to quit would be what a kid does "cause its just to hard, sniff, sniff" to make something good out of something bad! roflmao!!! If having a bad layout (or hard ass art director) to work with would make most of you quit I strongly suggest you give up on art now before you waste your life away chasing an il-conceved dream! The real competition will kick your ass!"

I make my designers start over when they give me crappy compositions. Trying to fix something that sucks is often a major waste of time and the result is not as good as if you started over. (which is a form of reworking your concept by the way).

A polished turd is still a turd.

[Pixelestial]

A relevant quote from Littlebones' above Wikipedia link: "in contrast to high performers, 'poor performers do not learn from feedback suggesting a need to improve.' "

In other words, please stop wasting your time here, people. There are plenty of others in the critique center who actually want to improve their craft. This thread should be locked or moved.

[shiNIN]

Pixelestial, I know what you mean but it is (well, was) not necessarily wasting time. The OP won't profit from the crits but I think quite a few comments are a fine read for a few of us, maybe I don't forget all the nice centences and will be able to say something similar when I criticize myself, English often comes into my way, not being my first language. And I learn more than just how to express myself in English, of course. I've learned very much thanks to Critique Center.

But after #42, it's really not much left to say. That post was quite... special. I like the idea of "life is airbrushed" the most.

[LoopyWillow]

I have been following this thread for a while, and all I can say in regards to the OP's giant response is: wow. Just wow.

[cedule]

here is an tutorial for realistic snow...
i always do hundreds of them and then take a photo which i paste in my paintings. the result will blow you away....just try it:



i actually learned something watching this video...yes!

[TArnell]

Thanks "cedule" I may just try that, but I'm going to try to find a brush (technique) and just try painting it/them first......

Again thanks to everyone who tossed in a helpful comment. Glad you all enjoyed my last post, I thought it would bring an end to all the layout comments......guess not....(herding cats lol)

And yes "LAG" a polished turd is still a turd, which according to most of you thats what this is( honestly, I don't believe I ever said it wasn't), the point was "to polish the turd" learning the tools...... In the future you'll all get a chance to chop up one of my layouts when I post a sketch. "littlebones" If I thought I was above reproach I never would have posted anything here in the first place! So I'm not sure where you were going with your link but funny someone sent you there at one time or another or how else would you know where it was, roflmao!

[littlebones]

Thanks "cedule" I may just try that, but I'm going to try to find a brush (technique) and just try painting it/them first......

Ahahahaha, this is absolutely amazing.



I seriously wasn't gonna say anything and just let it die, but it's too beautiful...

[Swamp Thing]

I said this now 2 times here

(

Why are you even still posting here if you can't take critiques?

/

If you want to stay with your current knowledge, again that is okay, but then this is the wrong place for you.

)

Now however, you still posted here. I then asked myself what reason you write text here continuously if you don't try to accept suggestions and critiques anyways(notice that some people registered in conceptart.org are maybe the best artists alive). I came to the conclusion, you are NOT amused by them NOR you are unbothered of what they say. You wouldn't frantically try to argue continuously, on how wrong everybody's interpretation on your skills was. That means, you are obviously interested in their oppinions. Trivia: You are not trying to respect and use their knowledge.

Anyways, if you drew for such a long lifetime as you already did by now, and still are stuck with no idea of the basics, I'm pretty sure nobody here will be able to get you at the point accepting your own lack of skill, because you obviously couldn't accept it from anybody else in the past 30 years of your live too, the time you drew what you want without ever trying to learn it the right way (the way every single artist that got populair learned it)

[Artfix]

TArnell how do you find work? Tell me your secret please!

[freiheit]

And yes "LAG" a polished turd is still a turd, which according to most of you thats what this is( honestly, I don't believe I ever said it wasn't), the point was "to polish the turd" learning the tools...... In the future you'll all get a chance to chop up one of my layouts when I post a sketch. "littlebones" If I thought I was above reproach I never would have posted anything here in the first place! So I'm not sure where you were going with your link but funny someone sent you there at one time or another or how else would you know where it was, roflmao!

I know the feeling, but when you're to far ahead and your problems are grounded in the first steps of your work, it's better to just finish it up and move to the next piece. If you don't, you'll get stuck in an endless circle of tweaking things but never managing to address the bigger issues because it'd require you to start over. I'm afraid some things just can't be fixed even with all the critiques and paintovers in the world.

Also, when you come off as defensive (whether you are or not), it's better to just step away from the keyboard. How you act here will have a big impact on who will be willing to help you out in the future. Generally speaking, you should never argue, defend or justify yourself after a critique, no mater how invalid you may think it is. All critiques aren't born equal, but all involved someone giving you some of their time for free; be thankful for every one of them.

As for the rest of you... Not to question your time management, but there's a lot of people out there who'd be thrilled to get some of your feedback, me included. xD

[LAG]

the point was "to polish the turd" learning the tools......

Let's try an analogy, then I am done. In the attached image. If you want to build A, you need to start with something like B. Only when you have B correct, do you want to start using other tools to apply drywall, siding, a roof, etc.

If you try to build A starting with C, then it doesn't matter how well you learn the other tools, because your building is flawed as a whole. In fact it becomes a waste of time and you may even learn to do some of it wrong, because you are compensating or working around the problems with the structure and foundation.

Obviously, you are going to do things the way you want to, I think you have made that clear, but why spend time digitally painting, etc. When there are serious foundational problems with your piece? These could be addressed and fixed when building your framework (drawing). If you show a willingness to learn when given critique, instead of copping an attitude and being defensive, then we will usually treat in kind. I think we all honestly want to help you out, but it doesn't come in the form of

One small edit: I see you are an airbrush artist by your DA and website. Some of your images there are far better than your digital illustrations (like your whale, and Hendrix murals). In those, you show some understanding of a few of the things we have been repeating here.

[hitnrun]

"What is wrong with the execution of this composition"

Composition is the layout of the elements on the page (file, canvas, whatever)

The ELEMENTS are not done well - and I think there's a lot in the comments about how to fix those problems if you read and stop being all "I made a living blah blah blah". If you did, good for you. I recognize and respect that. However, I disagree that the posted artwork shows the craftsmanship of a professional.

This is sort of a TL;DR reply, just in case you feel like STILL no one has answered your question.