Working on an undead battle mage, any critique is very welcome! I still have to learn a lot about human anatomy and proportions
I've used references for the head and the armor.

WIP 1
Did some proportion fixes already, I've made the head smaller and the right hand bigger.


WIP2


WIP3


Finished!


Part of the process:

I'm really not good with the painting at all. But I look at it here and his legs look really short. Maybe that's the angle of view (from above kind of), but it looks odd to me. I do like the blue fire though, that already looks kick a$$.

Wow BS!
Ripped me a smile! And is not the first time!
Recalling that the anatomical proportions should be different from human, it would give more identity to the creature. (Whereas it is not human)

Keep BS, now I want to see the completion of this work!

I agree with Ek22 about the legs. Here's a drawing of proportions that I use when drawing human or human like figures, that I found to be very helpful and so may you.

The image above is showing a method for visually measuring the figure. Most people are between 6-7 heads high. This model is 8 heads high because that looks more correct in a drawing.

Here's my initial thoughts. The fireball, cape, hood and face all work well. The body armour and boots look good too but need to show more of a shine. The creature's left arm appears to be too long, almost reaching down to the knee, which for me looks out of proportion for a humanoid type creature and the legs look slightly short. I would think they need to be at least the same length as the torso, if not longer.
It's a good piece of work.

The proportions Wallace has shown are what you need for fantasy art. They will make your character look taller and more menacing. If you ever do realistic art though, choose 7 heads high for your character rather than 8. I think you have done a great job anyway and I love the cold glow of that magical fire.

Thank you ek22, Akros, Wallace, Caz and Erisian!

I did some more proportion fixes, like the left arm and the legs, I think it looks a lot better already Thanks a lot for the critique!

baukjespirit: it's very impressive work, well done once again ! your second version looks entirely believable to me and i like the blue glow ball and blue glowing eyes. the armour too is very well made.

Your full size image looks great. Nice work.

Thank you very much AnMal and Wallace
I've added a new WIP!

Very nice! I think it looks a little short, but that's just style choice I think.
Nice work! I love the flamey thing in his hand. :3

One thing I liked a lot is the folds of the fabrics. It is done with some skill. I have very little skill with fabrics (I sucked!).

Well, forgive my very bad mouth (or hand) but I'm just about to say some very harsh things!

>There are some contradictory perspective clue in the legs. The left one we can see is clearly seen front on (like you are about three inches tall or so). However the raised right one indicates that the legs are viewed from a higher angle. Perspective can be a devil. I would advice you to have a model pose for you or you could even take a picture of yourself in the pose to see how it should look like... and hey it is not cheating. Leonardo and Micheal uses models for their works, why can't us?

>I think you make a mistake with layering the sword over the hand. It should not look like that.

>It also seems you are weak when it came to lighting. There is a strong light that comes from the flames but it illumates the character almost uniformly. I think you need references. Try looking in a mirror in a dark room while holding a candle, it would give you an idea of how such lighting situation should look like (essentially lots of parts will be in shadow and dramatic areas of light and dark). I made a render to see how it looks like:

I had liked before, the video reinforced this question.
Being able to see the brush dancing between light and dark shades, and creating depths and relieves to the sound of a great song, it was a pleasure to share.
The fire it fit nicely in the frame, emphasizing the contrast between fire and ice.
This creature could illustrate many of the stories of spells so popular nowadays.

It's sword arm has no thumb on it's hand, but its other hand does have a thumb.
BTW... Great video.

Love the lighting effects! That's really cool!