Can't wait for it ro be finished. This is very beautiful work.

This is fantastic. You really understand your media. Beautiful job, my dear. Beautiful job.

Wow, colored pencil huh? That's amazing. I mean you've even managed to create transparency and highlights with them. Amazing and beautiful.

Since you asked for critique, I'll give my input. I'm going to concentrate on the more problematic aspects of the image, since I feel it would be a disservice to you to simply highlight the good and ignore the bad. I also don't expect you to do any dramatic changes at this point, since traditional media doesn't really allow that. What I'm saying here is a suggestion for future work.

Now, obviously, things like texture, reflections and effects are great, so I'm not gonna go in to them. The problem here is construction (or the lack of). The general idea for the composition is very nice. Dark stone floor with a fluffy white tiger. It's a good contrast. The star focuses the eye to the figure nicely. However, if you observe the circle and star design, the geometry kinda falls apart. For example, the star is off-center and asymmetric. Now, this might sound like nitpicking, but what I'm actually trying to do is to illustrate the general issue here - proportions and perspective. The tiger itself is disproportionate. The head seems very large compared to the torso and the thighs "clip" into each other. The torso is rather asymmetric with the left side being much smaller than the right side (even considering the extreme pose here).

This fluctuation in proportion seems to be a recurring issue in your work. I feel that construction would greatly improve your work in this aspect. If you aren't familiar with the technique, Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing for all it's Worth is a widely recommended book on the subject.

Well, just my 2 cents; I hope I didn't sound too negative.

You hit the nail on the head! Construction. I have very much neglected that most basic skill and I know if i'm to take my work to the next level, that is what I'm going to have to work on.

When I started drawing again 22 months ago after a few decades hyatus, I was so anxious to start making pretty pictures again, I skipped all initial steps and jumped right into rendering. I had a very basic working knowledge of linear perspective and had never even heard of atmospheric perspective or pretty much anything else related to art in general. I was reasonably good with feline anatomy way back then but had never studied human anatomy in the least. Everything you mentioned, I had already recognized as a problem, The oversized head was pointed out to me straight off by my 16 year old. \

All my work up till this point, I have considered practice and experimentation as I have never done more than maybe 10 pages of practice sketch work (probably way less) and stepping stones to something better. I have realized I have reached a point where I am now going sideways. I've been telling myself for quite some time to make time to practice the basics but have battled the need to get pictures done, perhaps to make up for all the time I threw away.

I will look into getting the book you mentioned and get the learning process going again. ( I'll see about ordering the book today)

Sound to negative? Your critique is the most useful as it does its job and suggests how one can improve. It drives me nut when I see people go off with least bit of helpful criticism, and only want to hear "great job, very nice", etc. My 16 year old included.

So, many thanks for the help and I WILL work on my construction skills and don't hesitate to critique my work or others in the same manner in the future.

That's good to hear! Glad to be of help.

I think it is looking good. You do like strange/extreame poses and that will make things look odd t many. Proportion wise, it does look off, but when you take it apart, it is fine (in other words, just cause it looks off does not mean it is off! LOve the background so far, I am sure it will come out great! You might want to try some less dramatic poses for a while. This will help you to be sure you have proportions right and show others you DO know what you are doing with your figures! Just a thought!

I just replied to the post before yours and he actually is hit my biggest stumbling block, CONSTRUCTION. I have recognized the problem for a while but I am now going to take steps to improve in that direction. I look at this pic and it looks OK more or less but I also, like Tufted ears, see the flaws that detract from the overall look.

I also realize I try and overstep my skill level but I guess I do that on purpose to push myself. I will try to keep thing a little simpler for a while and actually that had crossed my mind a few times recently.

As always, thanks for the help. :)

ooh wow, loving the realism and color in this piece! Her fur looks so soft too :3

you are what i aspire to be.. this piece is absolutely beautiful

I thought I noticed something with the hip looking somewhat small by comparison...

But that's already been mentioned, and I hardly know enough about art to give you any truly useful comments other than I think for what it is it does look very good. Given the long break you said you took, I think it is still a solid work.