I can't believe this is homework! (I just switched from engineering to art school).

[DinaCardillo]

This is the first illustration I did for my final project for this semester. It's an illustration for the Russian folk tale "The Frog Princess". I can't believe this is my homework now! (And I can't believe it's finally finished )

Any advice on what to improve for the next one in the project would be much appreciated!

[markscholey]

As you ask for what's wrong I'll dive straight in, what initially jumps out at me is the alignment of her head. The body is kinda 3/4 on, yet her head is in direct profile, this is wrong. We should also see the underside if her chin, at least a bit. Finally her closer leg should be longer than the far side, not the other way round as you have it. Enjoy the switch, art school is great

[Rinu]

First of all, the general anatomy of the characters is pretty good except for the head thing which markscholey already mentioned. Then I would recommend trying to work with bigger brushes (on the female character especially), you'll get a much cleaner look and better color transitions if you work from big to small brushes. I think you also have to much saturation in the shadows.

At last, I'd set the background more apart from the character in terms of values, maybe make those windows a bit darker or set them in a different lighting. The room itself is very dark, I think the whole image could benefit from just a hint of light on the walls and the floor, to see where the light is coming from and what materials the walls and floor are made of.

[arenhaus]

Add some light.

[Hexokinase]

My advice for your future pieces is to break down your figures into boxes, spheres and cylinders, and position those correctly in 3D space. Keep your horizon in mind and keep it consistent. Use references whenever possible (after you establish your gestures and composition of course) - even a large mirror will do.

[Stoat]

Ah. If I had a nickel for every time I wished I'd switched from art school to engineering school...

[DinaCardillo]

Hey guys! Thanks for all the help. I've been busy with midterms but now they're over so I can get to work on this project again. After reading your comments I decided that is was better to do two good pieces than ten bad ones, so I reworked it completely.

I can't decide which path to follow. I like the composition more with the crowd below her (also it's that way in the story, she's dancing in the middle of a crowded room when she transforms) but I think it might be too much for my level of skill.

Am I heading in the right direction? Is this any better than my previous piece, or am I making the same mistakes?

Again sorry for the late reply but midterms plus no internet connection in my apartment for about a month...

[DinaCardillo]

So I made some adjustments and started rendering. I fixed the proportions a little and then changed that white blob at the top - it was supposed to be a window but I started rendering it and it looked terrible.

So my first question stands, am I making the same mistakes? Please tell me I'm making a different set of mistakes!

Also new problem. I can manage to keep the picture "unified" at the beginning stages because I can see it all at a glance and work with big brushes as Rinu suggested, but what happens when I start putting in some detail? I'm lost! I rendered the face keeping the lighting direction in mind but when I zoomed out it looked terrible. What can I do? Am I missing some big thing here?

Thanks!

[cfhd]

I think you may need to use a harder brush. It looks quite blurry the way its done right now.