Anyway, here's the version that got to my portfolio:

very cool, def the best of the batch
i'd say what u need to work on r material definitions
cloth vs stone vs metal vs flesh... make'em more distinct

good point. in this case i was kinda uncertain what i wanted those materials to be.
i started with soft cloth type of material but later went in a more leathery direction.
for now i don't have time to improve this piece but if you have any references for properly defined fantasy clothing that would certainly help.


i decided to give hand painted textures one more try:
(WIP)



the axe was originally designed for purpose of illustrating a short book that my grandpa wrote. the book is in print right now, i'm curious how my pics turned out.

i spent a lot of time drawing those patterns on blades so i thought it would be cool to see it in 3D.

update:

wow, i like this very much

Love the monk character concept at the top of this page, that guy is a badass. Probably my favourite so far. Though you can see where you cleaned up the brush marks around the edges of his backpack, and those random, but subtle, remaining marks are little distracting (for me anyway).

thanks!
i cleaned that area up a little.
also, i added some details and did some experiments with color palette:



do you think it's an improvement, or is it too dissonant?
yellow kinda makes him look more tribal, i think colors of african art inspired me here.

The old version is broken! but on initial impression it looks like an improvement to me, I like the yellow. I can't pick out anything too dissonant (only maybe a few minor bits shading/shadowing that might be missing,). The colours look good together.

Yeah, I like it.

There's a really nice threedimensional feel about that monk character, impressive! Can't see the old version, but I like the color palette. The shadow on the ground kinda pops out alot to me, maybe it's too messy? Don't know tho, might be something else.

crap, the previous version was linked from my portfolio and i deleted it after uploading this one. it's fixed now.

good point about the shadow.

wow, very cool concepts
and the 3d items look awesome
keep them coming

The battle axe looks badass! Though I wonder if its only me but I feel that the textures on the grip is a little too excessive,kinda distract my eyes from the main focus which is the awesome markings on the blade.

^ you might be right about the grip. i'll experiment with it.

here's a concept that i made recently:
it's a paintover based on model, which was based on a much less detailed sketch.



the one on the right is an older version, i was going to keep it like this i but i thought it's kinda bland so i added colors. i dunno if that's actually an improvement though.

the latest progress on the axe:



probably final.
i added more leather stripes on the grip to break the monotony of pattern and tweaked few things.

final shots for portfolio:




until now i've been rendering it with 1024 texture, but it turned out that downsized 512 texture looks slightly clearer so i used it on this shot.

new characters:



poses are disgustingly stiff again, i can't seem to get them right.

Here's just some constructive criticism, feel free to ignore it though since you're way better than me. :P I think you should work on anatomy a bit, cause the proportions on a lot of your characters seem off somehow, also, the poses seem kinda bland. Now for the good stuff... I FREAKIN' LOVE YOUR ART MAN! I dunno why, but something about it is really appealing to me... You need to work a bit on your technique, but your art has HEART, which is way more important than skill... Skill can be taught, heart comes from who you are. Keep the art coming! I wanna see more.

Why would i ignore criticism? if it's valid then it's valid no matter who gives it.
So yeah, anatomy and poses are definitely my weak sides. i've been doing some 2 minute sketches using that online tool and there is some slight improvement.

and I'm happy that you find my art so appealing, it's always encouraging so see such comments.

anyway, here are latest WIPs on the female character (i dunno if it was clear that it's a female)

some new gun sketches:

Hey there is some really nice designs here! Keep at it

thanks!

new concept:


i think my postures/silhouettes are getting slightly better. looking at pic from post #41 i've been drawing feet with a weird perspective distortion.

ps: which boot design looks cooler? i mean left (bolts) or right boot (no bolts).

it's been a while since i last updated this thing.

some new guns:

I reallly love that axe you did!

If I have one crit about your stuff, although you make some awesome/beautiful details, I wouldn't put them all over the place! So your work is a little bit busy. I think your stuff would look super pro if you add in some areas of rest, for balance :] Keep it up, I like your work a lot

really awsome drawings and designs hope to see more

i think the last character has a lot more relaxed pose then the others. for me it helped a lot to push the pelvis forward wich gives more balance to the pose. made a pic to explain:


A has a good flow where as B looks downbent and hunched.

you also tend to have to short arms. the point where forearm meets hand should be able to reach under the crotch.

the contrast is also a bit to high. i would use more midgreys and save the black and white for deep shadows and highlights.

aside from all this i think you have supercool and original ideas and a very nice style. keep it up!