First Tablet Picture, any feedback?

[Diagrax]

This is my first drawing done on a tablet- Intuos 3 Wacom 6 by 8 inches.

My technique was to first block in the basic shapes and shading using black and white, and later up clean up the mess and move into details. Afterwards, I added a new layer for the color and also inserted the glowing ball before finishing up by adding highlights and shadows. (Darn .jpeg made everything darker. >_<)

I'm still in highschool, which has a very mediocre art program, so any any comments or critiques is both welcome and needed. :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/Drakolordx/Leo2.jpg

[EricT]

Its very good. I see a couple things that could improve imo

- The teeth should be more defined and have a sharper outline and no black outline for the bottom teeth. The gum would also not be a straight line from where the teeth appear

- The inside of the mouth should be lit since theres a ball of energy inside. The teeth could have some white light where the ball illuminates them. Right now theres more light in the bottom right part of the picture than in its mouth

- I think the sky is too purple. Perhaps it should be a bit darker and some of the stars should be more round instead of messy, especially the moving one

Really cool picture keep it up

[Jason Rainville]

To me the biggest weakness is the composition. You have to think about the main focus + areas of interest and how a person will view the pic. For me, the center of interest should always hover around or near the center (others will disagree, but the center is a safe bet usually)

Right now, the lion's face, along with all the magic he's puking up is the center of interest, yet it's crammed all the way up in the top left corner. What's worse, his face is leading us out of the picture! So instead of us looking all around the canvas to check everything out, we're jammed up in the top left corner trying to find a way out of the picture.

[Diagrax]

Both of you gave some good advice, thank you both very much for taking the time. :)

Eric, haha. Ashamed to say, but you caught me earlier being lazy with the sky, and this time I spent a little more time on it. Also, you were right about the teeth being too blurry and the fact that the mouth should glow along with the ball of energy, which I also altered. However, the "gum" is actually a lip. :) As with the color, the original is actually an unusual blue, but in order to be able to load the picture, I had to save it as .jpeg, which alters it. >_<

And Rhine, thanks for pointing out about the composition. I dragged the lion slightly more down and to the side to allow more focus on the actual face and give the piece a bit more space.

For some reason, something still bothers me about this picture, but here's the result:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/Drakolordx/Lion3.jpg

[nickmarshallvfx]

The energy you got into the Lion is really great (im not talking about the ball of energy, I mean his presence). Thats not to say the magic ball is not good, coz I think you did a great job on that too.
My main thing would be to say that the composition is better second time, but I would still like to see the canvas expanded a bit more to the left. I think that will improve the composition a bit more, and will give you a chance to work on a really stunning sky that still wont be crowded with your lion.
THat brings me to my second point. Try this tutorial for a great looking starry sky:

http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html

Hope that helps, Ill keep checking back for updates. Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

Nick

[Justin.]

One of the biggest problems I see is how the glow from the ball is ALL OVER him, when the ball isn't even outside his mouth. It's sort of hard to go into detail with words, so here is a visual, I hope I could help some!