General Critique

[Kitpup]

So I was working on this, working pretty hard, and last night somehow when I went to save a copy it saved OVER and, well... the short version is that I lost basically everything.

I figure I can still learn from this, even if I can't really work on it anymore.

I was going to make the cat's skin much baggier and give the elf a knife, anything beyond that, please inform me of and critique the hell out of.

[Kitpup]

Nothing from anyone? I know it's only a little rendered but something about the positioning, pose, anything would be helpful. Even tips for continuing to render, cause I get to this point and sort of flail.

[LordLouis]

Okay just some things I have noticed.
Both the arms of the elf are too short and too tiny; especially the left arm which suggest that it is directed towards the viewer. The hand has to be bigger to enahnce the perspective.

The elf is not really sitting on the creature; the legs are not bending enough, probably shadows at the creatures side could help a bit.

The elfs shoulder is.. well, messy. If you look at where the arms begin and where the torso suggests to end, you can see there is a huge difference (see attachment)

Also I do not quite understand why the elf is doing what it is doing- what does this scene try to express? Is a hunter facing his prey? You might want to clarify that to give the image more expression.

[alesoun]

Place your guy just behind the shoulders of the animal; you have him sitting on the weakest, least-muscled part of its body. People might not realise that consciously, but it will jar with them, and they won't know why.

And the horns above the shoulders? Take a moment. What happens to the rider if he's thrown forwards? Why are they there? Maybe if they're for defence they should point forward, or maybe they'd be better as wings? His knee would be right behind them in a riding position.

His left arm looks too short at the moment, but I'm sure once you work on it you'll sort that, but look at your beast. At the moment he'd do more damage to his rider than to any opponent, The bone spurs/spikes behind the stifle (elbow) would rip his rider's knees to shreds or rip his own flanks to shreds.

This isn't far enough along for me to crit the painting, but I sure as Hell wouldn't like to sit on that animal's back. Please give some thought to how it would move and why it has evolved the way it has.

Hope this helps.

[Kitpup]

Oh geeze, thanks Alesoun, I hadn't considered the placement on the animal. I'll consider the placement of the bone, but I rather like it as it is.

[clifFroth]

I would spend more time drawing and not worry about rendering yet.