Would Love some Feedback

you need to learn how to define your lines. Everything kind of seems to mush together, or cut off abruptly, both when they shouldn't. Its an amazingly complex piece for your first try. Kudos on that.

Can you explain further? I'm still learning.. and not sure I completely understand what you mean.

Thanks
Bes

i think what she means is, while life doesnt have lines like cartoons do - thick black dividers, things do have defintion that looks like a line. does that even make sense? lol . I noticed it in the legs. i think it has alot to do with shading and color. put your hand on your thigh, your skin is the same color and theres no line around your hand but your hand doesnt just blend or morph into your thigh. (im obviously not wearing pants lol)

god i blow at explaining things! lol

for first atempt at something big and detailed you did good! better than my first attempts! heheh

yeah .. I guess what i tried to do.. is push my light and darks that i learned from dolling and i guess it had the wrong effect? maybe?

I dunno I look at it.. and i really don't see what you mean but then again i'm also having a major case of flu/head cold and its really hard to concentrate..

Sorry for being a nudge but further explanation from the dumbed down present version of me would be greatly appreciated.

Bes

Ok, i'll try.

the reason i was so vague is because you said light c/c. Honestly i can't give light c/c, but i tried. So dont wig out if this is too hard, its just my thoughts. I am no freehander whatsoever, but i've got a decent amount of experience in postworking and manipulations.

the first thing i noticed was the hair. Hair is stringy, not chunky / blocky / straight cut as you have in your image.

the second thing was the way the pants had no defining lines. If you look at a photo of pants, you'll see a very prominent line separating the legs. Your image lacks one. In this case, a black 1px line following the contour of the legs, would be plenty to separate it. Right now its like a skirt. it has shadows as if it was bent along with the legs, but its still one piece.

there's also a "shadow falloff" type effect for everthing. I noticed this mostly on your arm cloth, the edges aren't dark enough so that it looks like its actually wrapping around the arm.

i hope that wasn't too harsh for you, I'm just trying to help.

also, try experimenting with painting different shades of the materials, instead of using exclusively color dodge/color burn. While those tools are great, they aren't the key to creating your clothing. They just don't achieve the same affect as you would by handpicking corresponding colors for your folds and large highlights and shadows.

Nah its not harsh at all.. actually more what I was looking for.. and i think unintentionally you're vague answer came off more harsher then the second =p honestly don't worry about it.. I'm not the type with thin skin.. I think I see what you mean.. but Eve can tell you.. Hair has always been the bane of my existance.. and i can see it still follows me today =p

I appreciate you following up... I'll work on that if I get the nerve / inspiration / want to attempt it again =p

for the record.. though did use the burn/dodge tools.. I acually used a color palate quite a bit for a lot of the folds / highlights / shadows etc.

I'll relook at it and probably once i'm feeling better play more with the psd files ..

Only reason why i mentioned the light CC.. was feedback is always great but since it was my first attempt at this .. well I really didn't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire quite yet.. still testing the waters.. with the first attempt =p

Thanks again!

Bes

I think your hair has nice shape and shine to it, good texture. You could add a layer on top of what you have with some darker strands to seperate it up a bit so that it doesn't look completely like one piece. Maybe even add a few wisps going contrary to the main portion. It might seem too harsh when you add it so play with the opacity of the layer until it blends right.

Another darker shadow on the innner portion of pants would help define them or the line that Vex spoke of.

The boots and fur look really good. Just remember to blend the edges of some of those pieces slightly so that they look all a part of the same picture and not laying on top. Skin also sometimes needs this, changing sizes of pictures can sometimes make them pixelated and they need a little light smoothing to blend them into the background. I use my smudge tool on something low like 10% for that and just go right along the edge.

The fireflies are cool looking too :)

I don't have any more CC to add that hasn't been touched. :(
However,
MiKo0's got a nice cloth painting tut , even black so it would be a bit more helpful since you are working with dark colors :) http://www.renderosity.com/homepage.ez?Who=MiKo0&Form.sess_id=5981185&Form.sess_key=1141638262