@Kikoe-Art-0 I love the warm colors, it gives off a happy calm vibe. One thing that doesn't make sense to me is that the grass and bushes are green and the tree has fruit on it, but no leaves. I cant tell what season it's supposed to be.

@nkdrawings The base of the ballerina and the way the girl's fingers overlap are looking a little flat to me. The desk's perspective is believe-able so building off of that, the bottom edge of that dancer statue would be more curved. For the ballerina part, you probably wouldn't see that darker part of the inside of her skirt, you'd be looking down at the top a little more. You would also see more of the tops of the girls fingers and her head would be in less of a strict profile.

Hey @SketchyArtish , I really like the detail you've put into the tree, all the vines hanging off it and the insects are a nice touch. Here are a few thoughts:

• The subject of the sentence is the salamander which is very small and partially blocked by the mushroom. You may want to consider changing your point of view to make the salamander larger and more of a focal point.
• The composition is feeling a little unbalanced with the big dark tree in the upper left and nothing with the visual weight to counteract it. Many of your 25 things are very small, consider varying the size of the objects and balance that tree with some larger things in the lower right - maybe some more larger trees to give off more of a forest vibe, right now I read it as more of a field.
• It may also help to engage viewers better if you could see the face of the squirrel and the salamander - people are naturally drawn toward faces and hands (even animal ones).

I'm @studiolooong - most active on instagram and dribbble

I really like #11, also the little teardrop shape of the mouse you're playing with at the bottom is cute!

Update my website this one is already done! I had a few days off at new year and put it to good use. Just finished it last night.

draw more full/partial backgrounds This was a goal I set last year and I want to continue working at. I want to keep building all the good skills that come with finishing a full composition.

get my online shop up and running current status: tumbleweeds

have a table at an art fair aiming for something around Christmas time

join a mastermind group I've been looking for a while. I would love to find a small group of people to talk with about my goals and bounce ideas off of.

get paid for illustration Last year I decided I wanted to pivot from design to illustration. My design portfolio was strong but my illustration portfolio was non-existent. I worked hard last year and came up with a body of work that I feel good about. It would be great if this year I could use the portfolio I built to get some work! (Not quitting my day job yet though )

1 new portfolio piece a month to keep things fresh!

@12before34 if you're looking for a very smooth line, in the future you may have better luck with hot pressed paper, the cold pressed paper has some toothy-ness to it that you're fighting against when trying to get clean lines.

A tip that may help with this piece is to use low-tack tape to create a mask around the part of the piece you're painting, that way you can be really aggressive with the paint all the way up to the edge and still get a nice sharp line when you remove the tape.

You may also benefit from adding a flow aid (not water) to your paint to make it less thick. This will help it blend a little better and the slower dry time will allow you more time to blend colors into smooth gradients before the paint drys. Using water will thin out the pigment and give you a transparent look but the flow aid is able to thin the paint without effecting the final color too much.

I agree with @kaitlinmakes's class suggestions and the comment on taking classes slower. I found it really helpful to take one or two a month and really focus on trying to practice the concepts taught, maybe even rewatch the same class multiple times. I signed up a few months ago so I've only taken a couple courses but the creative composition one is excellent and my favorite so far. If you're looking for content to just kind of have on in the background I like to turn on one of the critique segments while I work, I find it puts me in the learning/improvement mindset and the have some nice little tips sprinkled in.

Thanks so much @kaitlinmakes! I tried out a more patterned look for the grass, I do think it cuts down on the chaos and I tried to change the pattern a little to make it look more like flowers than just grass.