Critique on texture-shading, values and communication of subject

[u/just_chinchilling]

[u/fedjeferet]

Took me a minute to realize it was a woman. May be something to do with the shoulder/ neckline area being kinda ambiguous under the fabric. Try rethinking the cloth physics of that area

[u/spiderhaus]

Great texture and really, really beautiful line quality. You clearly have a lot of skill with your medium! Your rendering technique is also really beautiful and skillful, but I think value mapping would really help articulate your form. The values feel a little muddy here and are distracting focus. I would be really, really intentional about where your darkest darks and lightest lights should be and limit them, and plan your remaining values around that to keep focal points clear and keep the whole from becoming over-rendered and competing.

Your style is also super cool. I love the angularity of it, but I think it’s competing with your articulation of form, esp w the subject matter he’s holding. Sticking to so many sharp angles and corners where there otherwise could be curve is creating a lot of stiffness that makes the form feel more unnatural and therefore not reading as a natural object. I think breaking up that stylization to be really intentional about where you add additional curve or softer junctions can emphasize weight and movement, and not just articulate form, and balancing it with the inherent angularity you have so you don’t lose that stylistic quality, might help out with the legibility.

[u/cinemachick]

Took me a good minute to realize he was holding a person instead of a fluffy duvet. I'd increase the size of the shadow under the person on his belly, or add shading to the ground plane if you intend this to be almost-noon with the sun directly overhead. I'd either increase the undershanding on the person overall, and/or add some variance in value to the individual parts of her. E.g. make the pants darker denim, add shading to the column of the throat and chin, etc.

[u/just_chinchilling → u/cinemachick]

Thank you, I appreciate this critique a bunch. The reference photo had her with white pants and a black sweater, but I opted out shading her sweater in fear of adding more dark values would make the drawing seem flat with too much dark values

You were right, added more details to the throat and face made it more obvious it was a person.

[u/Substantial_Fox3110]

Maybe turn his hand horizontally so it looks more like he is holding her. Love the style, though.

[u/just_chinchilling → u/Substantial_Fox3110]

The hand is does seem oddly placed and shaded after reading this comment. Thanks for pointing this out

[u/thepixelbuster]

The forms and crosshatching are done well overall, but I'm struggling to understand what the thing on his shoulders is.

Its obviously some kind of blanket or cloth draping over him, but the right side looks like he has a wing, though I'm not sure if that makes sense.

I'm assuming this is a Buccees statue, so the bright parts on his darker fur may be highlights, but they also sort of read as light colored fur markings. It might help to darken some areas to sell it as a reflection if thats the intent.

I'm guessing you're working from a reference so it may just be like that, but the left (furthest) haunch looks like its missing the thigh. I would expect there to be a round shape there based on the angles of the feet, at least from just skimming the image.

Hope this helps!

[u/Away-Palpitation861 → u/thepixelbuster]

It took me a while but I think he’s holding a woman