Yay! I love good critique! You have no idea how long I've waited for good critique! I shall keep all of these tips in mind and thank everyone for the support.
whitenoisy is right. Your faces and heads are very good. In general, I think the base forms underlying your paintings and your proportions are solid. So, you've got a good structure to build on. The strongest pieces are the two close-ups -- the elf maiden (img #3) and the woman with the magic glow between her hands (img #5). This has to do with your surety in developing facial structure combined with your use of colour and value in those particular images, which is a little stronger than the others.
Again, whitenoisy is right about your brushwork. You're using hard-edged brushes, which is fine, but the way they layer over each other seems haphazard and careless in a way that's less "loose painterly style" and more "quick thumbnail style". You need to structure your brushwork a little more, working on making them more cohesive.
Also, you need to push your values further. Right now, everything looks a little washed out and muddy. It's not the muted colour palette that's the problem; it's that the darks aren't dark enough and the lights aren't light enough. As a result, the paintings look unfinished, more like an underpainting awaiting polish than a final look. I've done a quick PSD using your images to show you what I mean using some quick level adjustments to your images. You can find it at http://hdp.rocks/spownogowno01.
The other thing you might look at is your use of a straight black for your shadows and dark areas and straight white for your highlights and specular areas. There's not a lot of nuance there, which leaves everything feeling flat. Instead of a simple black, try a really dark hue instead -- a dark blue or purple (or even green) that's pulled from the same family as the blues, purples, and greens in your compositions. Do the same thing for the lights, keeping just a little of the hue in your white.
If you haven't already, take a look at The Color Course here onsite (https://cgcookie.com/course/color-course-understanding-color), particularly the stuff to do with colour shifting. It's eye-opening on how to really make your palettes pop without having to make everything cartoony bright. (I sense from your images and style that cartoony bright isn't your taste in your own work, and there's nothing wrong with that.)
If you're really looking to develop a loose painterly style, check out artists like Zac Retz (zacretz) and Marco Bucci (marcobucci) on ArtStation. Marco even has a YouTube channel that has a great series called "10 Minutes to Better Painting" that has some great tips in it about brush work, the use of lost edges, and similar topics. You may also find timvonrueden 's Soft Edge Brush Character Tutorial (https://cgcookie.com/tutorial/soft-edge-brush-character-tutorial) helpful in terms of an alternative brush style to experiment with. I'd also recommend just about anything Matt Kohr posts on CtrlPaint.Com (he has an extensive free video library on digital painting techniques) when it comes to learning ways to tighten up your brushwork and composition.
I think the bottommost image has the most life of any of the images you've posted here. There's an intensity in the woman's eyes that works really well, especially coupled with the higher contrast range you use in that image -- the bright light from the glow between her hands and the way that light reflects. It seems like your other pieces are lacking that level of contrast
Too, like whitenoisy said, I'm no expert, so take or leave my comments as you will. They're all intended in the nicest way possible. :)
First, i'm no master so take what I say with a pinch of salt. Most notably to me you have 2 main issues on most of these pieces, one being the use of soft brushes (or at least low opacity strokes) which has caused loss of form on some of your pieces. I would try a solid brush with 100% opacity. I hate using them myself but at least around the edges to make the subject stand out. Second issue is background. I would suggest it's fine to have no background or a more detailed background, but yours are somewhere in between. It's particularly noticeable in your first image. And although there is something in having a blurred background for depth of field I would still suggest spending some more time on background details. Apologies for such a long comment, all intended in the nicest way possible with the intention of helping. And to end on a good note, your work on faces/heads particularly is very good so stick at it! :)
Yay! I love good critique! You have no idea how long I've waited for good critique! I shall keep all of these tips in mind and thank everyone for the support.
Here's a better link to the PSD: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkIOVvCmaOXMi6VTniZ3g9HVu5RdOA
First of all, you're a brave man, posting art for critique. Kudos. I always respect that.
So, first, the good:
Now, where you might improve:
Again,
whitenoisy is right about your brushwork. You're using hard-edged brushes, which is fine, but the way they layer over each other seems haphazard and careless in a way that's less "loose painterly style" and more "quick thumbnail style". You need to structure your brushwork a little more, working on making them more cohesive.
Also, you need to push your values further. Right now, everything looks a little washed out and muddy. It's not the muted colour palette that's the problem; it's that the darks aren't dark enough and the lights aren't light enough. As a result, the paintings look unfinished, more like an underpainting awaiting polish than a final look. I've done a quick PSD using your images to show you what I mean using some quick level adjustments to your images. You can find it at http://hdp.rocks/spownogowno01.
The other thing you might look at is your use of a straight black for your shadows and dark areas and straight white for your highlights and specular areas. There's not a lot of nuance there, which leaves everything feeling flat. Instead of a simple black, try a really dark hue instead -- a dark blue or purple (or even green) that's pulled from the same family as the blues, purples, and greens in your compositions. Do the same thing for the lights, keeping just a little of the hue in your white.
If you haven't already, take a look at The Color Course here onsite (https://cgcookie.com/course/color-course-understanding-color), particularly the stuff to do with colour shifting. It's eye-opening on how to really make your palettes pop without having to make everything cartoony bright. (I sense from your images and style that cartoony bright isn't your taste in your own work, and there's nothing wrong with that.)
If you're really looking to develop a loose painterly style, check out artists like Zac Retz (zacretz) and Marco Bucci (marcobucci) on ArtStation. Marco even has a YouTube channel that has a great series called "10 Minutes to Better Painting" that has some great tips in it about brush work, the use of lost edges, and similar topics. You may also find
timvonrueden 's Soft Edge Brush Character Tutorial (https://cgcookie.com/tutorial/soft-edge-brush-character-tutorial) helpful in terms of an alternative brush style to experiment with. I'd also recommend just about anything Matt Kohr posts on CtrlPaint.Com (he has an extensive free video library on digital painting techniques) when it comes to learning ways to tighten up your brushwork and composition.
As a final (upbeat) note:
I think the bottommost image has the most life of any of the images you've posted here. There's an intensity in the woman's eyes that works really well, especially coupled with the higher contrast range you use in that image -- the bright light from the glow between her hands and the way that light reflects. It seems like your other pieces are lacking that level of contrast
Too, like
whitenoisy said, I'm no expert, so take or leave my comments as you will. They're all intended in the nicest way possible. :)
Cheers, mate. You've got good stuff to work with.
First, i'm no master so take what I say with a pinch of salt. Most notably to me you have 2 main issues on most of these pieces, one being the use of soft brushes (or at least low opacity strokes) which has caused loss of form on some of your pieces. I would try a solid brush with 100% opacity. I hate using them myself but at least around the edges to make the subject stand out. Second issue is background. I would suggest it's fine to have no background or a more detailed background, but yours are somewhere in between. It's particularly noticeable in your first image. And although there is something in having a blurred background for depth of field I would still suggest spending some more time on background details. Apologies for such a long comment, all intended in the nicest way possible with the intention of helping. And to end on a good note, your work on faces/heads particularly is very good so stick at it! :)