First off -- I'm really confused about what's going on. Is the animal jumping over the man? If so, why? Is it attacking him, defending him, it is leaping over an attack? There's no visual ques to tell me what is going on.

Your directional lines are all pointing off the image so it is difficult for the eye to follow anything. Your sword is pointing up and out, the back leg of the creature is pointing down and out, the tail is out, the front legs are out -- there is nothing that draws the eye _around_ the image.

I would figure out what the scene is and rework the poses. I like the _idea_ but I don't feel it's executed very well visually. I could do a redline to show you my thoughts if you'd be open to it~

Oh well its a WOW (game) image, A feral druid jumping over a human paladin. If you notice their eyes they are fighting against each other. The druid jumped to attack but the human noticed just in time.
The sword will be leaving a light trace so it will be easier to know where its going.
A redline would be good! Im more troubled with the background though, did you check that?

oops sorry my comment sounded more in denial than I intended, meant to add a ".. maybe?" in the end >.<

I dont know if youre still going to do the redlines, but I changed the image a lot http://sta.sh/0jkgi20llh1
I hope it reads better now

I agree with quite a bit of kitsuia is suggesting. Currently i'm assuming there is a fight with Cat and man dude. The poses separately are really solid but together how they are it doesn't read too well what exactly is going on. If the two are fighting i would definitely have them facing each other and flip the Mandude the other way around OR move him farther to the left move your cat to the bottom right and have the cat looking up at the guy in a defensive stance. OR you could move the mandude to the far left and adjust his pose to be facing the cat. If they are in fact fighting they definitely should be facing each other. If the are fighting WITH each other to an unknown assailant I would at least flip the cat so Mandude and cat are facing the same direction, but i would also move them so the direction they are facing isn't leading the viewer immediately off the page. I would probably push the guy to the upper left showing more of his body and have his cat pouncing ahead of him, then you have plenty of room to play with the background to suit your needs. ALSO decide what you want to be the "Star" of your picture. My advice would be picking the cat or the guy and then use everything in your picture to point back to your "star" so it's the first thing the viewer notices. I can also redline if you'd like. Otherwise i really like the direction this is going just needs a bit of a push in the right direction. ;)

After reading what you said to kitsunia: I would simply change the angle of the Paladin's head to be facing the druid. Should read fine from then

Alright! Ill try that in a sec

As for teh background truthfully i work better when i can "play" with it a bit simply because it's easier to explain what I mean. For the most part it's pretty solid, just need a little bit of tweaking

Please do! ^^

This works better ? http://sta.sh/0gileq8c2gy

yes basically! http://sta.sh/01cwbaifiimc
this is REALLY sloppy but my main critique would be to adjust the body angle of the Paladin quite a bit to really push the "turning around" feeling I would bring his left(our right) forward and push his right shoulder back Then you've got good angles that bring you right back into action as for the background if you lighten up the paladins face and use the background(twigs flowers whatever) to point at the two you've got something really solid :)
I'd also maybe adjust the Druid's face a little more to face the paladin, dont need toooo much and really if you make the eyes really visible(glowing would be a really good option for this) and the pupils really obvious that he's looking at the paladin moving the face may not be needed.

I also moved one of the background trees so that is splits and crosses the two, it would be a subtle things but i feel it could bring the veiwers eyes back in the two.

Use backgrounds as your tool, make/do whatever you can to increase the action lines and point to whatever your star is. try to avoid "plateaus" when doing an action scene and use lots of diagonals.

I hope that helps D:

ahh this helps a lot! I cant find the tree you moved though?

Oh I was using those curves because of the background I have to use http://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/scree.....mal/478149.jpg http://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/scree.....mal/477815.jpg
But angles look definitely better yup

Thanks a looot for this! :D

Can still use the curvy bits to help you out!, just always keep in mind your action angles and have them follow it. Even in the pic you linked the artist used the environment to help point the viewer to the little house in the middle. Sometimes I find by "mapping out" the lines and angles that other artists have used in their pictures to help me think about what i want to do and angles I should use. Can be SUPER usefu;l to get you in the right mindset! Otherwise super happy that helped if you need any advice later down the road on this feel free to shoot me a message ^^

Now Im tempted to remove the pala all together >.< I really like the druid but the human is being a real pain..
The idea of the image is really open, I just have to include anything I like from the new Legion expansion of the game
Maybe including a demon hunter in a whole different position could work best ( http://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/scree.....mal/477761.jpg )

Sometimes the most frustrating pieces end up being the best ones in your gallery xD
Though you should go with whatever you enjoy doing. I've had a few ideas that i ended up scraping or reforming all together and ended up liking it a million times more x)
This is also why a lot of folks will start off with several thumbnails(something i very badly need to do more of xp)

thats true!
Yeah me too >.<

Well Im trying to give the pala a second chance and, instead of forcing their poses I just turned around as suggested in the beginning http://sta.sh/0ek9vifccm9
Its much more common though :/

heh dramatic changes but somehow I see this idea more enjoyable and less a pain in the ass http://sta.sh/01l6d0j388yh
What do you think?

One thing I've learned is not to worry about erasing stuff and starting over. i'd rather start over, which causes me to learn more anyways, then end up with a shitty piece. it sucks and can be incredibly frustrating, but in the end it's typically worth it.

I would probably say having the demon hunter charging in would be a bit more effective, as he is now he has almost no "action" in his pose.

one thing you could do to help get a little inspired(or at least it helps me with this kind of stuff) is put yourself in the mind of the characters you're drawing and even get up and pose yourself on how you think they'd react towards whats going on. Might help get your mind where the characters are versus worrying about where the piece is going. If you focus move on the rage you want that character to feel it'll likely show up in the piece.
So think to yourself If i was a badass demon dude and i saw this stupid angry cat thing threaten me How would I react?

Again I hope that helps D:

Ahh sorry for being so indecisive and spamming you with wips >.< Im trying with the pala again because I feel the fire sword can bring much more interesting lightsource and movement. So... http://sta.sh/0jkgi20llh1

xD don't worry bout it just glad I can help. Might be a bit sparse for the next couple days though bit busy with some stuff D:

DEFINITELY Stronger composition/feeling now! Good job getting those action angles in there too!
I also agree with the sword, i think it'll add a bunch of super fun bounce lighting <3

Im usually too shy to ask for help, but all this help has been soo nice! I feel Im learning quite a lot, thanks! c:

Never be afraid to ask ^^ If I have the time I'm always happy to help! I know thats the only reason I ever got anywhere!

Aww I will definitely ask for help more often! This has been so nice and helpful ^^

Feels good to be finally painting, I think I like it http://sta.sh/0xe477ygkbm

Ooooooooooooooo I definitely do! Tell you one thing: I do believe I smell burnt fur xD

Yep I thought it was clearer than it is it seems >.<
I imagined the cat to surprisely attack the human, but the dude notices right in time and charges. Thats why hes like turning around

I can see what you mean but a redline would really really help!

Yeah, I gotta agree with kitsunia on this one. Their poses really don't work well together. I mean, if you have to explain what's going on, then it isn't a strong pose. As it is now, they could be allies, they could be foes, or it could be that the feral druid is just jumping around behind an angry knight. I'd offer a redline for their poses, but I'll wait and see what kitsuina offers (I'm not great at fighting poses myself, haha). Thoooough, if I were to edit this, I would probably keep the druid as-is and just change the knight's pose.

Generally, it's a good idea to have the characters facing each other if they're fighting. I don't know if you've ever been in a fist fight before, but you shouldn't turn your back to your opponent. This is extra true if your opponent is using weapons.

But do you know who has made really good fighting pictures in the past? Sythgara:
http://sythgara.deviantart.com/art/.....sion-429138943
http://sythgara.deviantart.com/art/soaringeagle78-commission-428510099
http://sythgara.deviantart.com/art/.....n-fa-368730312

See how each picture has that circular composition that kitsuna mentioned, and it's obvious what's going on from a glance?

Other fighting pictures that I liked:
http://lehuss.deviantart.com/art/Ni.....ault-387785445
http://rajewel.deviantart.com/art/Final-Confrontation-314283583
http://comicreference.deviantart.co.....ound-217841918 - stock image, good for pose reference
http://syccas-stock.deviantart.com/.....ll-1-213857039 - 'nother stock image
http://katepfeilschiefter.deviantar.....phon-207564827
http://vampireprincess007.deviantart.com/art/Titans-99146462
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17730055/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15508826/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13728353/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7010038/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12886059/ - this is pretty much the only picture I can think of where the character turned their back to their opponent, and it worked. But it's a reference to a common attack in the show where the characters spin around with their swords.

Sorry for spamming you with links, but these are just inspiration for future images. Besides, studying what other people have done *does* help you come up with better poses on your own too.

I also looked at your background idea, but I think it's a better to sort out the characters first, since different poses *will* affect the composition.

Yup I want to see what she comes up with ^^
Hmm yup, but it wasnt intended as a "in the middle of the fight" kind of scene, but more of a surprise attack-fast reaction
I think Tidma´s redline can totally work though, and it goeas along more with what I had in mind

ahh fighting poses are hard, I believe this is one of my firsts >.<

I really like what Tidma did with this paintover:
http://sta.sh/01cwbaifiimc

It does look like a surprise attack to me. The only thing I'd recommend would be to move the druid to the left a bit because the picture is a little right heavy right now. But it also doesn't hurt to play around with the poses since you haven't started painting yet.

Fighting poses are such a paaain. I have a two character picture coming up and I'm having such a hard time planning the poses. It's not even fighting - it's just a lovely-dovy picture. |D

I like how it looks there, but when I tried to redo my sketch I wasnt really convinced, I guess Im forcing too much the poses and I cant get it right

Anyway.. I made a huuuge redo (as its a really free idea) http://sta.sh/01l6d0j388yh (a demon hunter instead of a pala)
This one looks more enjoyable for me to do, though it lacks the dynamic sense of the other :/
What do you think?

I like your redo, though I think it would look better if you kept the cat jumping instead of standing on a log. It would also be a bit cooler if you made the demon guy look more poised to defend against the attack.

Maybe something like this, but from behind? http://comicreference.deviantart.co.....tana-217837083

Or the third picture in this series (upper row)? http://archetype-stock.deviantart.c.....-Pack-81580027

'Nother idea: http://archetype-stock.deviantart.c.....ack-2-88110698
http://jaymasee.deviantart.com/art/On-These-Endless-Fields-7-315915953

Cool standing pose?
http://chirinstock.deviantart.com/a.....oad-9-64989370

I also like Dan Howards' dynamic artwork:
http://danhowardart.deviantart.com/.....-Tang-54890366
http://danhowardart.deviantart.com/art/GTFO-372806539

I'm not sure what type of weapon he's using, but it would be more dynamic if he were pulling out a weapon or preparing a magic attack or something. Even having him screaming at the cat would work too.

Youre a pro at finding ref images ^^ haha
Yesterday I was getting really frustrated, but Im going to give the pala another try because I feel the fire sword can bring much more interesting lightsource and movement. So... http://sta.sh/0jkgi20llh1

>.<

Ahhh, some links got broken for no reason:
http://sythgara.deviantart.com/art/.....n-fa-368730312
http://comicreference.deviantart.com/art/Men-fighting-on-the-ground-217841918
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15508826/

I don't know why that happened - all the links looked fine when I posted them, but it introduced spaces for no reason?