I'm struggling to find an online shop Europe based where I can find a large size block of Strathmore Smooth Bristol Board 300 series. It's a great paper for ink drawing but unfortunately here in Italy is quite hard to find. (Am*z*n sells smaller size of Strathmore then I need and above all it is the worst seller when comes to this kind of item unless you like to receive smashed corners blocks and tore sheets of paper ). I've found a UK based shop but due to Covid they do not ship overseas for the time being. Any suggestion will be very much appreciated.

Well in my opinion the weird limb thing is because you character looks like she is over extending her arms. Like (sorry english isnt my first language) her hands are pointing behind her but i feel like her right arm is supposed to be in line with her shoulder. And the left arm is ok but a bit too small, like too foreshortened. Mayby the hand part itself is too small.

Hello! it has an ok look but i have to say, it has some flawed proportions and construction. So i wouldnt shade it at all. The shading youve done looks ok but i would watch secrets of shading by Steven Zapata before doing more rendering. Overall, if i were you i would do this drawing again with more attention on the proportions of the body. Its not terribly wrong so not a big deal!

Omg. I love these practises and your work in general but this box s##t ruined me 😁. Suddendly i cant draw anything, i can only do these box men and BADLY. Propably have to keep doing them forever now.

So i noticed i`d twisted reality with the first arch :D had to try to fix it, did some other things too.

Really cool, gestural and also explains the figure really well. Dont have any critique to offer :D Maybe the last from the top row is quite messy?

Well i can try to help. Ill say things coming from my own journey. So first, the second one is much better. These look very quickly done, if you are working from photo references i would recommend spending a lot of time with planning and measuring. When beginning, it can help to really measure the photo and transfer it to your paper so you get a feeling for the relative sizes of parts of the head. Your own mind isnt allways truthfull and eyes and so on can feel bigger or smaller than they really are. For example the eyes and chin of the second portrait. Second thing that i think is somewhat lacking is the structure or three dimensionality of the portrait. Studying a plane head or some prokos head drawing tutorials can help you undestand the planes of the lips, nose and browridge better. What i would recommend is first, draw from a photo a realistic, very measured portrait copy. It should help you later when you study plane heads, or some other structural methods, to better form the model of a head in your own mind. The pencil choice i would use would be a harder pencil, an HB for example. Start with very light marks for the lines, when rendering giving it a light later of graphite and going darker every layer. And be very patient 😁

Nice job. The composition shows some really good decisions. The choice to make the background quite realistic affects the decision not to be "realistic" vs "what looks good" on the lion. That having been said, drawing lions from imagination is really commendable. I think some of the moves below may bring the contrasts into a cohesive whole. For me, I think that a little more time on the anatomy of the hindquarter, leg and the face of the lion would bring this to life. Aaron Blaise may offer some good reference in that effort. The dark shading in the middle of the body sort of bifurcates the lion's form, it cuts the animal in half, one might look at how that shadow could ease/lighten as it proceeds vertically around the body. remember that body is cylindrical/rounding while layering back, even in the shadows, look at how your own body looks as you curve to one side, it layers almost like a stack of coins or one ball resting in front of another. The rear of the lion may need more contrast with the immediate background, the wall is perhaps too similar in value to the lion's hind end. Well textured architectural background; make sure the perspective is consistent; the trees beyond in the archway and above the frontal masonry ruin may be too abstract and light, using as much detail there as you have in the masonry could help to push the lion and architectural ruin forward in the image. If you alter the rear archway to make it a niche instead of an opening, that could do a few things for the image, however, that may not work symbolically, if there is something you are trying to say with the opening. What a vaulted (half dome) niche would do visually is provide an opportunity to shade above the lion's head with darker tone to push the head volume forward in space. if you cut a little black construction paper in that shape you can test it first prior to drawing it . Again, darker trees in back above would also place the front arch in space more clearly. As it is, the open light zone above is difficult to discern whether it is a wall material change or recedes to something else. For me the 6B pencil/graphite stick is a really useful tool. I hope you find this perspective constructive and useful. Best,

Beatiful composition and picture. Things that I would look at and fix are mainly the biggest dogs legs and body, it doesnt look very anatomically correct even if the dog is overweight. White dog looks the best in my opinion but he lacks contrast and looks like overexposed photo but this is easy to fix and propably part of your painting process. The middle-ones skull seems off to me, so id look at it to. Overall this will be a beatifull painting. Backround i would leave as is, or work on last if it feels like it.

Heres a photo with a real camera. I did some small adjustments, havent had the time to paint because of work. Doesnt feel so off now, just incomplete and amateurish :) Too candy colored but i can only blame myself.

I just want to ask why did you paint oil on a watercolorpainting? Is the oil painting part large? Im pretty sure oil on watercolor paper is not archival, and the drying oilpaint will create too much tension on the paper so overall i wouldnt do it.

@Antii Kallinen Hi. I think there might be sometging wrong with the color temperature in the face. Since that part of the fur is quite low in value it should appear more like the color of the light, more yellow. I van see that you have done that a little biton the side, sort of as a rim light, but i feel like it is not perfectly consistent with the colors and values we can see on the body. Tge pectoral muscles of the dog, for an exemple, look fairly light and warm. And since they look like tgey are more or less at the same angle as the front part of the snout, this part should be light and warm as well (possibly warmer since it extends farther into the light) same thing with the eyebrows. The painting also has a lot of very dark values that you might want to consider toning down a little bit to keep them in only key areas. Picking a cold, greyish blue such as prussian blue for most of the shadows (in the trees area on the left for an exemple) and keeping the black for key areas only might help. Hope my explanations are clear and you manage to fix the issues :)

@Antti Kallinen Hi! The way I was able to see some of the offputting mistakes in your painting was by looking at the small preview before klicking on the Picture! That is something that can allways help with finding issues in Paintings. One of the things is the brigt grey on the dogs face that sticks out a bit too much. Maybe the furr really is that bright in the Photo but it really draws a lot of attetntion. The other is maybe a composition poblem. The Dog basically splits the image in half because on the left side of the backround you have a bright colorfull green and on the right side a much darkger and greyer green. Again Maybe that is accurate to the photo but I think that makes it look a little wierd.

I like them very much. One thing that bugs me is, on the first dragon you would not see the eyes on the other side, unles they are in a different spot on the head.

Made some additions, havent worked on this now, waiting for weekend so i have time. Ignore the dog hair stuck to her forehead lol.

Well i think your shadow shapes look ok, but it lacks in lighter areas. So either deepen the dark end and make a middletone for the skin, or make a lighter tone. But before that i think you should fix the shoulder area and face if you still can. Thats what i would try. Its got a nice feeling to it, worth fixing.