Mermaid creature set

[xxFuria]

I'm working on something that could be my first series of portfolio pictures right now (athough I'll probably decide that it's not good enough in the end, ekhm). I'd love to get some critique, and suggestions concerning the changes I should make. It's still a WIP, and hence it's not fully rendered, and rough in many places.



Here is a close-up on the face which is already fairly rendered:


And here sketches of the remaining characters from this set:


Thanks for viewing!

[Matthias Kinnigkeit]

Hey xxFuria! Till now the pice is really flat and not very interesting to look at. You really got to think about the forms of your creature when you try to set light and to render the forms. Actually the pice is missing much of basic knowledge that you need to catch up with. Understandment of shapes, colour affected by warm and cold light, anatomy,.. Search for some photoref and compare and analyze it. Furthermore the whole design is a bit boring till now, because the creature does not really have any texture or very interessting details. If u make a concept of this kind you could think about how this creature lives. Is it cultivated or just an animal like creature. If so how does it for example hunt or defend itself? Does it may have some special mimikry pattern on its skin? Stuff like that. Make research and check out resources to make your concept more interesting and believable. The basic idea is interesting but you didnt go to far with it. So work on your basics and you ll improve. Good luck!

[Artimatum]

Also your first image is too big..please resize

[Theeroos]

The first thing I noticed was her pose, it's very static and uninteresting to look at, but it also doesn't really make sense; why is she awkwardly holding up her arm like that? The way her face is turned with her back to us, isn't a very natural pose, normally when looking to the side like that we twist our torso much more, and what is she looking at anyway? Is she admiring her own hand? Her other arm is just dangling there oddly.
There also seem to be some issues with the anatomy, I'm hardly an expert, but her arms in particular don't look like very convincing arms to me, more like a piece of carton roughly shaped in the form of an arm. And is that lump growing under her armpits supposed to be a breast? I don't think we should be able to see it with the way you've drawn the back and shoulders.
Did you use a reference? I would also suggest to use a much more fluid pose, especially for a water creature.
I actually quite like the design myself, although it is indeed pretty simple, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing (:

[Stoat]

That view from the back with the head turned...very, very hard pose. I wouldn't like to try it with a human, let alone a made-up creation.

Number three looks kinda interesting (jellyfish?) and may be more doable. Part of wisdom is knowing what you can pull off at any stage of your development.

[fireblade]

i like the idea of melding human and ray form.

Forget about textures and colours for the time being. I'd like to see a dozen thumbnails of this creature at different angles before you commit to detail. This will give you a chance to explore more interesting compositions.