Demon Concept

[Magentis]

Hey guys, any time taken to critique this piece will be greatly appreciated! Right now I'm quite lost on what to fix/work on, the skulls at her feet need further rendering; but there's something about her chest that seems off, although I can't quite pinpoint it. Advice on anything else will help me out a lot. I've never actually finished a piece of work so now would be a great time to start

Thank you in advance!

[ChristopherRyan]

I'm loving it. The pose is good. The only crits I think I can muster would be that the breasteses are the brightest spot on her, like a spot light is shining on them. Maybe adding more light to her head would even it out more or even lowering the contrast a bit on her breast area. And perhaps the size of the skulls shes standing on are a bit too big compared to the size of her head. Looks great otherwise!

[Venger]

Main problems are anatomy and posture.
Huge forearms! knees look to high and her weight is off, so she's leaning forward.
With a canted hip, her head should be in line with the supporting foot.
If in doubt, get reference - either photo, friend or mirror.
In fact act it out - see how your weight is spread, feel where your bones are.

This seems familiar? or maybe its a very common idea…

[DPFX]

Why isn't the light helping define the forms of the arms, horns, weapon, etc? The values are very flat right now.

Even taking intentional exaggeration into account, the anatomy looks unresearched. Not terrible, but off.

The rendering of the fabric elements is unconvincing.

What is the curved jagged thing she's standing on?

I'm not a fan of the costume being half refined and half tattered.

The silhouette is nice, but the composition seems a bit uninspired, with her more or less in the middle of the frame.

Standing on a pile of skulls is a bit cliche.

[Magentis]

Thank you guys for the feedback!

ChristopherRyan: You're right, I'll place more light on her helm and those skulls are in fact, huge compared to hers, thank you for mentioning them

Venger: I'm on it! It did seem like her overall silhouette was too straight and imbalanced, especially the lower part of her body. I've found some reference to work with. Thanking you for taking your time. I'm finding it extremely helpful I drew this up after watching some Black Rock Shooter, could be something similar to that? Although it is a very common idea, I do enjoy the theme, haha.

DPFX: Yeah, I'm fixing up the lighting for the next post. I understand what you mean about the fabric, it's too straight and orderly for something that's meant to be tattered. I'll even out the refined/tattered elements to her costume to make it more balanced. And yes, it is very cliche, I guess I want to focus on refining something that's a little more safe for me. I'll get around to giving my creativity a jog. Thank you!

[Magentis]

Alright it's been a while but I've been working on this - added weight into her pose and tried fixing up the anatomy and evening out the ragged aspects of her clothes so that it's not as clean on her torso

...I still need to work on the lighting, been experiencing some constant wrist pain so it's been a little difficult work on things

[moonskittles]

This looks much better!

I'm not a master of anatomy, but it seems to me her breasts are facing the camera dead on, while her ribs and hips are at more of a 3/4 angle. Her arm holding the scythe is lacking intention; she has so much energy in the rest of her pose and then that arm is just sort of chillin. I would give it a more firm grip (that scythe looks like it would fall right out of her hand!) and a more dynamic angle to the arm. Her legs look really long for her body (could be the style you're going for) and the shading on them I think should be darker on the inside, to match the lighting on her belly.

This is a very interesting character design and I'm looking forward to see what you do with this piece.

[Ahnem Mee]

In regard to the chest section - I suggest sketching the center line of the torso again on a paintover layer, and perpendicular on it draw the line that indicates where the nipples should go (one head-length below the chin, usually). Not that this line will not be horizontal. Think of the torso like a set of rounded boxes; I think you did well in that regard with the hips.
Right now the sternum seems pushed back rather significantly, making the chest look weird and tiny.

I'm sorry I cannot do a little paintover to demonstrate - no software for that on this computer.

I don't mind the stack of skulls really - if there's anything, I'd object to the huge scythe. I think I've seen that a lot more often. Even so, I think the composition needs it, and it's a better design than most, so there you go.

[fxEVo]

Nice concept so far, but due to her thorns, I feel like she is more on the devil of hell side, rather than death.
Death is quite unique, kinda neutral, no one escape him/her, evil or not.

[Magentis]

Mookskittles: These have been duly noted. I straightened out her arm and grasp on the scythe to match the rest of the energy in her pose and darkened the shading on her legs. Thank you for the critique! it's extremely helpful

Ahnem Mee: It's okay with the paintover, no need to apologize, I appreciate that you've taken the time to critique this I tried the outline method that you suggested to see where the nipples should be

fxEvo: I get what you mean and you're right, she's looking far too demonic, I changed the colour palette to suit that. Great description on death, thanks man!