Critique for University Project

[Samanchnanch]

Hi I am a first year Games Design student and one of our projects is to take part in a challenge and upload our work.
I am doing this finished challenge from cghub
http:///forum/showthread.php?t=10677

I chose to create a piece for the Kingdom of Arran. There description from the challenge is:
"Kingdom Arran: This kingdom is the northern most of the three and thus their clothes include furs and padded material to keep out the cold of winter which can be bitter. The eat mostly fish from the large lakes which freeze in the cold necessitating the use of sledges and animals that can survive on meagre rations. They also keep small bird type creatures that give off both light and heat. They pray to a god that requires ritual sacrifices."

I have only done sketches so far but will update later with more sketches and then the actual piece. I just wanted to get this thread started c:
These are some settings of frozen lakes taken from references.




Thanks for looking!

[Samanchnanch]

Some bird sketches

[smuli]

These are some settings of frozen lakes taken from references.

I don't know what you mean by this. If you've referenced things like colors, mood and feel of the environments, that can be a good thing. I think composition however is best to design by yourself cause you want to be in full control over it.

Almost all the thumbs look like randomly picked views of pretty generic landscapes. My favorite at the moment is the center one because of the subtle mood of the colors and the fact that there's something on the foreground, giving a stronger sense of presence. Anyway, I suggest doing more thumbnails, trying to tell a story with the landscape and adding more interesting shapes to look at.

The bird sketches look wonderful, I really like the variety and the fluid lines on them! The coloring is pretty bold for a winter landscape, wouldn't be hard to hunt those things but on the other hand, along with a blue winter background, they can make a nice warm/cool contrast.

[TinyBird]

I agree with smuli, those are just randomly picked landscapes. You could at least decide whether the kingdom is a snowy wasteland, or more like a tundra or forestry area because right now your pics jump between two.
Also I personally would suggest you try something other for the fire bird than a recoloured bird of paradise/other exotic bird that more or less come off as generic phoenix critters. You have owls and stuff there too, why not try to explore that? Like little round sparkly goldcrests that make trees look like they're filled with Christmas lights etc etc... Especially since it a snow area, study birds that could live in those climates (grouses, tits, woodpeckers, crows), don't go straight into peacocks.

[Giacomo]

Tinybird sort of touched on this: those fire birds seem awful delicate and pretty to last long in a setting involving "meager rations" and "ritual sacrifice." I'd make 'em a lot more robust.