Hi Jan, for the textured brushes, I think they work really well from what I can see past the compression, especially the bright plants and the fur cloak and trees. The skin brushwork doesn't match which is a little jarring, I understand those are most likely the focal points and so you want them to be clearer, but it might be nice to have a smoother transition with the texture and looseness of the background, saving smooth clarity for only the most important focal areas around the eyes and mouth and maybe hands. As for the rest of the image, I really like the value structure and the softness of the background. There are a couple of compositional issues to my eye, it feels like 2 different (though successful) images with little connecting them. I think this is a couple of factors working together - the framing putting the main subject too far off-centre, the disconnected eye contact between the man and the two hunters, and the aggressive diffuse light and reflections on the main subject. While it does increase his contrast and make him more striking in isolation, taken as a whole I believe it displaces him from the scene too much. I did a quick paintover to show what I mean and what it might look like with those changes. - changed framing to centralise main character a bit more - decreased reflections and diffuse light on main character - a little more foliage added around the man's boot - changed boy's head angle - tried to adjust main character's eye angle by moving the like 6 available pixels around 😅 Hope it's helpful! This is a really nice piece and I think these edits would take it up that extra level, but it has many successful qualities regardless - including your textured brushwork.

Hey Jan, I think you did an interesting painting. I like the "yin/yang" composition, very cool. The problem is that if you squint, the figures in the shadows completely disappear. In stead of lighting the bushes next to them, you could have some dappled light hit the figures, especially the faces. The way you have it pulls focus away from your characters. Just a thought, hope it helps :)

Very interesting! I don't tend to textures much in my paintings, because they don't seem much controllable, but can be good for filling intricate details. Nice work you've done!