As you can see, the illustration is not signed. It's not finished and I'm asking some help form Krita Gang Artists to help me improve.
Can you share with me some tips or additionals steps you'd had on my drawing ?

Thank you in advance for your precious advices !

EDIT 1: First Update with Kubuntiac recommendations. I'm playing with lightness and shadows. More lightning effects on the armor. I give him stronger legs too ! I tried another face, more in profile, but I was not satisfied so I keep the old one, I kinda like it for the moment. I continue to work on the illustration. Any more remarks are welcome !

My main criticism would be that the lighting on him looks very even - like a studio, product photo lighting. In reality the shading and shadows would be much more dramatic in that environment. I also feel that the pose lacks much perspective to give it drama. Having his head raised a little, so you could see underneath his jaw, and facing a little to one side so he wasn't quite so flat-on to the viewer would help. A bit more of a facial expression would add life as well.

Proportions are pretty decent, although maybe for this type of character his legs could be a bit thicker.I also wonder if a little more contrast and colour on the background would help add drama as well.

Anyway, that's just about everything I can find. Personally I think he looks great!

Thank you Kubuntiac for the remarks ! Well noted !
I'll come later with some updates !

Where is the lighting on his left side coming from? It doesn't appear to be enviromental as the jagged rocks don't show it. While i'm on the rock the right one is over lit from the lighting if it is landing behind the rock, underlit if landing on the rock.If it is hitting the rock the right side of the character should be brighter as well. Anyway my best guess for where the left side lighting comes from is the sword in which case the brightness is too uniform top to bottom.


Can you just post a reply with the changes instead of edit the first so we can see the progression.

Hi André,
I think if you want to improve it really, you have to take care of light. and shapes. so these are my two cents. Your shapes have to be interesting and regular or linear shapes dont work very well in this image with this dark atmosphere warrior included. Think about why the stones are there , are they monolits? ruind? , natural rocks, and then try to contribute the story telling adding them some little details. Rocks are not the main subject.
Also mountains on distance cant have these sharp edges. i have made them more in distance to achieve a better perspective atmosphere with 3 planes in the scene. Then i have retouch a bit the 1st plane ground. his feet is half away from the ground and these is not good for balance.

About lighting
more blue basically , and center the interest on the sword. which is the main subject. The pose indicates that, he is showing his marvelous sword, like "unmortals" absorving energy from a defeated enemy.

so here we go.


And this could be a result.

Wow ! Thank you for the help verbalshadow and Ramon !
I guess you both point out one of my commons mistakes, the lightning and shadow work !
And Ramon, you showed it perfectly !!!
I will try to apply your remarks, keeping the ligthning bolt (I am currently reworking it because it looks too cheap for the moment... )

One question, why did you chose blue color for the lightning ? Is that kind of logical because it's the night ?

Thank you again for your help guys !
And special thanks to Ramon for reworking my work ! It permits me to look it with fresh eyes !

Blue light is related to "night" asociation. tha fastest way to tell the brain that is Night scene.
Also fits very well with orangeish tones of the armour. They are complementary and gives more contrast between planes.

Next step:

Looking much, much better! The new lense flare on the top of the shield, needs moving or reshaping though. It's clearly a small, round flare. You only get reflective flares like that on a small, shiny, round bump. There's no sign of the shield having a bump like that, which makes it look out of place. If the flare is meant to be reflected from the lightning, then the shape of it would follow the contour of the top of the shield, where it is. It might make more sense if it was at a corner of the shield, like up the top or the right, just like the one you put at the top of his knee armour. Even there though, I would expect it to follow the outline of the shield more.

I wish I had time to do a mockup myself, like Ramon's, but I'm rushing to meet a deadline. Anyway hope my comment made sense!

By the way, that lightning looks fantastic!

Thank you Kubuntiac !
I think I'm getting closer to the end of that illustration. I'll need to find a title, what about "The King of the Hill" ?
Anyway, If you have new remarks, don't hesitate to share them ! I'm learning so much with this topic ! Thanks to all !

just added some rain for more drama !

I played a bit with lightness and contrast, I think illustration is finished now.
Thank you all for your help guys !!!

I have a small critique. Where the rain hits the ground the splashes are to symmetric. Way to evenly spaced. Second you should have a few drops that pass in front of our hero.

verbalshadow wrote:I have a small critique. Where the rain hits the ground the splashes are to symmetric. Way to evenly spaced. Second you should have a few drops that pass in front of our hero.

you're right, updated !