The Monk

Alright, I'll go for my first official critique and I'll try to be as fair as possible.

I'll go over the improvements I picked up first and then my personal opinion on the image last.

There is a lot to look at in this piece. There is something in the middle, the main point of this painting, and then an object to look at in every corner. The corner objects heavily divert my eyes off the monk. I think you could have left out the treebranch, and faded away the mountains with blur or something to give them more of a background feel than they have right now.

The image lacks some depth, which causes the monk not to pop out and it tends to take the viewers eye off him. You can add depth by bluring the background, desaturating the colours the further they get, and using lower contrasts on the far away pieces. Adding some air with a thin light blue layer is usually a safe way to do it.

The next step would be to add depth to the character. He seems a bit flat because he has irregularities in his shading. Actually, I think you don't have a set light source for this. You have highlighted his left shoulder, his armlet and his head like there would be some light above him, but the rest of the figure shows the sun behind the clouds. Pick one and keep it in mind. He also requires a bit more contrast. Some of the parts that are not getting hit by sunlight are quite flat. It seems your focus was mostly on the value of the detail but not on the value of the big forms. Adding more darks for more contrast would help a lot with this. The insides of his thighs can be a lot darker. Also the armpit on the right hand should be bright on the outside and not the inside.

Sorry if this came out too long, but I would suggest working with values and lighting a bit more to give the picture more form. For example: www.livestream.com/dylanpierpo…
I think this could help you out.

As a diablo 3 fan myself, I liked this picture a ton, and thats why I picked it. The tattoos and the detail, his menacing looks and the clouds. A lot of effort put into it. All it lacks is the 3d. I hope this helped <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="391" title=" (Smile)"/>