r/ArtCrit 6h ago

STUDY SERIES Study Series: Part 2 - Composition

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1 Upvotes

Welcome back to the Study Series!

Moving away from values and contrast, we’re moving into the next important part of your work – composition!

Composition is the way an artist arranges the pieces of their image to help guide the viewer’s eyes where they want it to go. A strong composition can be used to create a specific mood, tell a story, create balance, and direct attention to important areas of the piece.

For those commenting, think about where your eye goes first when you look at the image. Does it feel balanced or does the image seem to “lean” to one side? Are there any distracting areas or does anything feel crowded or awkward?

Let’s work together to create stronger pieces with composition!

REQUIREMENTS FOR POSTING

Please note that all general sub rules apply (no AI, no fishing for compliments, no giving personal info, etc). Only our post requirements are different here.

- Pieces must;

a) Be no more than 6 months old and/or

b) Must still be being worked on and/or

c) Must have the intention of being recreated.

- Works must follow our NSFW rules.

- Since no context is required in these posts, draw and paint-overs are automatically expected. If you don’t want these, say so.

GIVING CRITIQUE

Only critique the piece regarding the topic of the week. If the artist would like additional critique, they can make a post in the main sub. Critiques are still expected to be constructive and polite.


r/ArtCrit 15d ago

STUDY SERIES STUDY SERIES WEEK 1 - Values and Contrast

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6 Upvotes

The piece in this banner is Magdalene with the Smoking Flame Depiction by Georges de La Tour.

Part 1 - Value and Contrast

Welcome to our first week in the Study Series!

Our first topic is Value and Contrast!

When people talk about “value” in an art piece, they mean how light or dark something is, while contrast is the difference between those values. Having a strong difference in those values helps create a more interesting piece and draws the viewer’s eye around your image.

If you’re ever wondering what’s wrong, but you can’t quite put your finger on it, it’s probably time to check those values and the range between them.

Turn your piece black and white. If it’s in traditional medium, you can take a photo to do this. Where does the piece turn into one grey mess? Where does your eye go first? Is it the spot you intended? Are all your figures separate from one another and the environment?

Now you can go back, deepen any shadows, brighten any highlights, and make any changes you need to make the piece stronger!

REQUIREMENTS FOR POSTING

Please note that all general sub rules apply (no AI, no fishing for compliments, no giving personal info, etc). Only our post requirements are different here.

- Pieces must;

a) Be no more than 6 months old and/or

b) Must still be being worked on and/or

c) Must have the intention of being recreated.

- Works must follow our NSFW rules.

- Since no context is required in these posts, draw and paint-overs are automatically expected. If you don’t want these, say so.

GIVING CRITIQUE

Only critique the piece regarding the topic of the week. If the artist would like additional critique, they can make a post in the main sub. Critiques are still expected to be constructive and polite.

EARNING THE FLAIR

Participants who post their work and/or leave thoughtful feedback that is at least 2 sentences long and will receive the "Study Series Part 1" User Flair.

This is available through August 31st, 2026, until 11:59PM PST.


r/ArtCrit 8h ago

Critique please!!!

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38 Upvotes

I’m pretty happy with how this one is going, but I need help with the hair I feel like there’s something very off about it. Also, I’ve been trying to work on efficiency and stroke economy so any advice on that is welcome
I did use a reference however it’s of someone I know so I won’t share it on here for privacy reasons :3


r/ArtCrit 7h ago

First attempt at a side profile, trying to match my style !

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17 Upvotes

Ough im trying to actually practice but idk how to stylize the eyes, and how i could draw the lips more... not out of place? ... maybe thats a problem with my outlines or my coloring,,

With ref !


r/ArtCrit 57m ago

Is the perspective and anatomy good?

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Upvotes

I did not used refs, and I want to achieve a semi realistic artstyle, the characters are supposed to be 14 btw! Paint over is ok


r/ArtCrit 2h ago

Any way I can improve these drawings? (no reference, also second one yes I used a character reference because it is my friend's OC, the drawing was a gift.)

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3 Upvotes

I have a very specific artstyle, especially coming down to the hair and eyes, I would appreciate mainly anatomical tips or facial expression tips, also drawing mouths is kinda hard for me so far. I try to balance the size of the body compared to the head but lmk if I need improvement on that as well. ty!


r/ArtCrit 6h ago

How to choose colors that look good together?

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5 Upvotes

So I don't have much drawings fully colored so I'll just use this, but I have no idea how to choose colors that look good together, I'm confused on how others do it, I watch videos on YouTube explaining it, but I still have no idea, why do the colors not go well together and how do I choose them that makes the drawing looks much better?

And how do I study it? I have asked this a millions of times but I'm still confused on how to learn colors, ik i have to draw but I don't understood what to drsw that makes me understand colors or how it helps me, should I draw landscapes but how will that help? Or something else? What am i supposed to do to understand it?

reference is on the second slide


r/ArtCrit 20h ago

I'm trying to work on busy scenes in wide angle perspective

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81 Upvotes

Hey all, I'm looking for feedback on this drawing I did of a wide-angle shot of an off-road rally car I saw recently. Attached is the reference image I took. I sketched in the larger object silhouettes on paper, scanned that into my computer to compare against the reference and see how close my shape matching was, then erased and adjusted the shapes a bit based on the differences I saw, then finally started filling in detail till this point.

Main goal: Focus on accurate perspective, making things feel like they were planted believably on dashboards, center consoles, and the footwells of the vehicle. The forward vanishing point is the dot in bottom right of the windshield, there was another just behind the seat headrest.

Side Goal: Trying to add line weights generally on the lower right side of objects or when it was a hard/sharp edge. I didn't do any shading and very minimal texturing, but the goal was basically to have a light source somewhere above and out the driver side window.

Where I feel I'm struggling: I think I struggle drawing texture, like the paint chipping on the roll cage bars and also conveying the texture of the racing seat. I settled for a few contour lines on the seat so it wasn't just a blank silhouette. The footwells, insides of the doors, and roof feel like they don't have enough detail/texture and I'm stuck on how to do that. Apparently I also struggle not dripping coffee on my work too.

Inspirations: I really like busy and filled-in environments with lots of detail. I like Kim Jung Gi, Geof Darrow, and Dong Ho Kim. I want to depict environments and placed that are bursting with things to look at and feel "lived in", like the subject matter is deeply integrated into the world it's from.

Any and all constructive criticism is welcome!


r/ArtCrit 5h ago

From left to right: reference, my drawing, then me liquifying based on what “looks right”. My question is.. I draw with loomis method, but my faces always feel like they look “long”. But I do it according to the method so what am I missing here?

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2 Upvotes

r/ArtCrit 1m ago

What can I do to add more depth and to make the bottom skull more realistic?

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Upvotes

I did not use any reference image :)


r/ArtCrit 4h ago

Artist: CocoBug (me), Medium: Digital, Title: Untitled

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2 Upvotes

Designing a sorceress OC and can’t figure out how to do the lighting from her magic. Any tips to help me out?

(No reference)


r/ArtCrit 1h ago

Day 1 Concept Art challenge - Environment Thumbnails & Value Study. Looking for feedback on values and composition

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Upvotes

Hello!! As the title says, I want to get better at concept art, specifically environment art. I am doing a 4-week challenge where during the first week I focus on perspective, values, and photo studies! Any feedback would be appreciated!! attached reference and moodboard.


r/ArtCrit 22h ago

UPDATED WORK Took your advice and tried again

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42 Upvotes

I tried again to paint with a triadic pallette. I took your advice and also watched a few YouTube videos today. Here's how it's going so far! Do you all think this is a good direction so far for colour blocking, and do you have any additional advice for the redraw? Keeping in mind that it is a WIP.

Thanks again for your critique and helping me grow and learn as an artist 💞

Original portrait in second slide, reference in third slide :)


r/ArtCrit 12h ago

Any suggestions on how to improve the lineart?

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7 Upvotes

Drawing on ref, i attach it here


r/ArtCrit 3h ago

how could i have improved the colours? references attached

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1 Upvotes

the clouds photo is from a youtube video and the other photo is one i took.

feels like i used a lot of the same colours - ultramarine blue + black for sky and road, and also the shadow for the shirt and hat.


r/ArtCrit 3h ago

New to doing composition/value studies, any advice?

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1 Upvotes

Second day of doing studies of paintings I like. I'm an artist who mostly does sketching and lineart, never painting, so l thought it would be beneficial to finally do some as I follow a course.
Some were from yesterday, some were from today. For the value studies, I mostly stuck to 3-5 values, and for the coloured ones, I didn’t colour pick, used only intuition.
Just wanted some advice on whether I am doing this 'correctly'? Of course, as long as I'm learning something from these, I can't really go very wrong, but I do know that I struggle with making things actually legible and getting lost in details, overblending when I've messed up the larger shapes, making things too big when translating into the thumbnail size (saw an art teacher had their canvas much smaller than the reference so that’s what I did, are you supposed to keep your canvas the same size?), etc.

Advice on how I can fix my mistakes & what to actually concentrate on would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!


r/ArtCrit 1d ago

I try to learn anatomy perspective (with realism and semi realism)i using the action line,the sack body,loomis method,reilly method I feel like something is missing,in your opinion?

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18 Upvotes

I also included references to some of my realism sketches


r/ArtCrit 1d ago

This is a painted stork. Literally and figuratively.

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19 Upvotes

I painted this with acrylics, and referenced the photo at the end.
Took me 3 hours.
Squeezed the aspect ratio into my available canvas size, so my stork looks plumper than the one in the reference, including the neck and bill.

Also I feel like I kind of missed out on how to paint the fish it caught.
Please advice me on how I can make this better, basically give it a dreamier, ethereal look like the beautiful bird and waters they are, and also painting the waters is my biggest challenge (including the blurred trees in the background which I tried to smudge out a bit).

You can also tell me what I'm doing right (if any) haha, thanks in advance <3
Also is it any good to sell? Would anyone in the world buy something like this if I continue? If yes, then how much would you say it's worth? I'm in a tough bind rn and I have no clue as I'm just starting out.


r/ArtCrit 2d ago

Trying to learn reflective surfaces

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1.3k Upvotes

think maybe having a background might help so I could pull some color for the reflections. But otherwise what could I do to improve? These are done with marker/colored pencil. I used a reference for the balloons (googled letter balloons) and no reference really for the gold statue, just a picture of meowth


r/ArtCrit 1d ago

Trying to learn perspectives but I think the pose is off?

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7 Upvotes

I used a reference for the pose, but I still think something s off about it, but can't figure it out.

For the style I don't want my art to be stylised and not to realistic.


r/ArtCrit 1d ago

How to improve the bottom half of this drawing/ feels like it's missing something ?

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7 Upvotes

I made this in a rush for one of my literature creative projects based on the odyssey, it’s supposed to be calypso watching Odysseus leave her island. I couldn’t figure out how to draw the rocky shore so I just put a bunch of rock looking things(and also for the back horizon I was out of time so I just made it all black) . I know it looks super out of place and I really like how I used to look (second photo) way more than how it does now. Any suggestions/advice is very appreciated. I did use two references which are the two last photos.


r/ArtCrit 1d ago

Is this pose readable ?

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5 Upvotes

The anatomy is janky as hell (especially thay lower arm now im looking at it.. ill fix it later.) because I dont think I could ever find anyone able to bend this way for a reference. I'm.. going for a feeling. Feel free to critique my anatomy tho lol too. I js wanna know if the pose is actually comprehensible and makes sense tk the viewer, iygwim, before I go ahead with the colour


r/ArtCrit 1d ago

Need help making this pop/match the reference

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5 Upvotes

I drew the first picture digitally in procreate and it feels flat to me for some reason. I thought it may have been lack of detail but I like this gif of holli would. She didn’t need any dramatic lighting, so I’m thinking it must be something else? Any ideas? Please draw over if you can!

My reference is the second slide of Holli Would.


r/ArtCrit 1d ago

Self taught artist looking for critique and advice on some of my sketches

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5 Upvotes

Here are a few of the sketches I did in pencil this past year. I have been back drawing for just over a year now, been 7 years since I opened the sketchbook and finished it recently.

Some of the drawings were a bit rough at the start, but I did get into a flow and didn't close the book. I feel like I have the same "mistakes" in my pencil drawings and am stuck at this "level". Looking back at older drawings (not uploaded here) I have some of the same issues with shading things seem a bit off. I tried using more pencil types for the AVP drawing but it seemed a bit muddy or details getting lost in the shading. Then I over corrected with the Whitetail Buck and looks flat too. Any tips to improve or resources to read/watch and practice would be greatly appreciated.

REFERENCES see attached. Canadian Geographic magazine pictures of the Fox and the Loon. King fisher and the white tail buck were googled images on my tablet. Alien vs Predator composition was referenced from a googled image of a samurai fighting a demon and googled the individual creature to get their likeness, most images came from the AVP franchise.


r/ArtCrit 1d ago

Is this going somewhere, and what can I do to improve?

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8 Upvotes

This is only my second time doing a pet portrait, and first time doing it in abstract colours. Im looking for advice on how I can improve this (besides adding the background). I'm also wondering if this is worth perusing in your opinion. Tbh my husband laughed at it today, and he did say he laughed out of joy and he loves it, but I really wasn't going for funny so now I feel quite unsure if this is even anything good or worth perusing. I would like to hear honest and unbiased opinions from other artists.

Photo 1 and 2 are slightly different because I put the layers in a different order and not sure which one looks better. Reference photo in third slide. Thanks for your advice!