Evil Fire Warrior - Finished Char Illustration - Needs Critique for Next Illustration

[Lychees]

This is a Character 'Selling' Illustration I made for a design class.
This is the first time I went through all the steps to create a character and
also the first time I made a decent Character Illustration.

I've had three days to paint this, so I didn't have any time to do any Material Studies.. The metal looks awful.

I tried to keep into acount the composition, colours, lighting and ways to lead the eye.
How do you guys think I did and why?

What could I improve for the next design and character illustration (Which I'm gonna have to have finished by monday)?




P.S. Backstory can be found in my latest Schetchbook post

[Stoat]

Wellll...he's looking off to his left, kind of at us, his arm is pointing away to the right, and the beam is angling downwards somehow. You'll better serve your picture idea if everything's lining up. Leads the eye, makes for more drama.

His body is completely obscured by armor, but I don't find the underlying anatomy plausible. I don't see how there can be a proper torso in there, or a proper right arm. Even with extreme armor, you need to start by sketching the body underneath.

On the other hand, the fire is rendered pretty well. I don't think the metal looks awful; it looks okay to me. I like the little smoky figures in the background. And if you lined everything up, I'd like the composition. And the yellowy/purply color thing you've got going.

[DPFX]

Nice colors. The facial anatomy isn't convincing.

[Lychees]

Wellll...he's looking off to his left, kind of at us, his arm is pointing away to the right, and the beam is angling downwards somehow. You'll better serve your picture idea if everything's lining up. Leads the eye, makes for more drama.

His body is completely obscured by armor, but I don't find the underlying anatomy plausible. I don't see how there can be a proper torso in there, or a proper right arm. Even with extreme armor, you need to start by sketching the body underneath.

On the other hand, the fire is rendered pretty well. I don't think the metal looks awful; it looks okay to me. I like the little smoky figures in the background. And if you lined everything up, I'd like the composition. And the yellowy/purply color thing you've got going.

Nice colors. The facial anatomy isn't convincing.

Thanks for the replies!

I shouldn't have to explain this but his right arm is amputated just below his elbow, and replaced by his sword. Still, I agree the shoulder looks awkward.
I tried to pull of a 'Golden Mean' (Mollusk-shell-ish) spiral composition with the detail on 1/3rd of the image (from the right), to highlight his face.

Any tips for the next illustration?


Soooo things I took from this for the next one are:

- Properly sketch out anatomy before rendering (don't be lazy!)
- Even more research about composition and leading the eye
- Do more studies for faces. (probably also need to sketch the anatomy better before I start to paint)