Keep exploring! I like the more active stance version with the sword drawn, but I think you can go further. Thumbnailing your idea is one of the most important steps. You can't do too many thumbnails before jumping into your illustrations. Right now you have a few varied poses in your thumbnails to show your character, but the composition, camera angle, and storytelling all read pretty much the same. For example your horizon line is in the same place for 3 of them. Try one looking up at the character from below like a worm's-eye view to make them look huge and heroic, or look down on them from a bird's-eye view to make it look like they're entering into a dangerous situation. Give your character an action like unsheathing their sword, or winding up for a strike. Make it active. Try as many different versions as you can so you can tell a story with your illustration. Here are a few free videos on cinematic composition, and visual storytelling, hope this helps! https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/mastering-visual-storytelling-angles-shots-and-camerawork-for-comics https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/basics-of-comic-composition https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/cinematic-storytelling-and-compositional-pitfalls

These are great studies! It seems like you got the hang of it. The only thing I would say is I would avoid outlining the value shape in ink (referring to your pear drawing). I feel like it's too harsh of a transition from a highlight to a halftone there.

Hi Michael, looks pretty good. First things I noticed: -Your values are really well designed the texture on the black wings looks beautiful -I think it represents the photo very well and looks like a seagull at least to me. Improvements - Comparing the 2 directly I can see the bird is tilted more to the left. - The wings on the reference is bigger on the photo respect to the body - Making maybe a previous study would be better to make consturction - I personally thing the background done with pencil is unnecessary Look amzing tbh, I'm jelous