In one of my recent critiques, I briefly discussed the benefits and drawbacks of creating a creature that doesn't exist in reality. Since the creature has no set anatomy that must be adhered to, an artist is to free to draw anything their mind can dream up, and the only limit is in their imagination. However, what often goes unmentioned about the limitless potential of imagination is that it's limited by what we already know, and imaginative drawings often modify and combine different aspects of things that are real in order to create something that only exists in the realm of fantasy.Another limiting factor comes into play when creating fanart, as a pre-established character design adds an additional layer of "reality" to the creature and limits how far the artist imagine before the character becomes unrecognizable. I find neither of these limitations to be a negative for the artist, as ultimately limits need to be set so the artist knows what to draw. By the time any piece of art reaches its completion, the maximum number of limits have been set anyway, and it helps for an artist to know as much about how the final product should look as early as possible.In the case of your piece, the character itself is a combination of a dragon and a horse. Based on some references I found of the character, you did an excellent job recreating the form of the creature in your own style. The biggest change looks to be in the way you drew the body, making it thinner and having it curve like that of a snake. The minor changes to the head reflect the snakelike design as well, as the obscured mouth, smaller ears, and narrower head shape all stand out as distinct from the original, establishing the sort of stylistic change that makes fanart special. More than just a faithful recreation of the character, it is an artist's reimagining, and it's exactly the sort of choice I love to see more than anything when someone draws one of my characters. Continuing with the idea of reimagining the character, the horse legs resemble that of real horses as opposed to the rounded tree trunks used in the style of the game. As a result, they are both much smaller and much thinner than the legs in her original design while at the same time showcasing more visible muscle. Since her entire body has been made leaner alongside the legs, these legs still look fully capable of supporting her.Because we base our fictional creatures so heavily in reality, a critic is able to look at a fictional creature and state whether or not the anatomy is "good". The metrics can be defined as both accuracy to the anatomy of the creatures it is combining as well as the believability of the creature as a whole. Your rendering of Tianhuo has this skillful portrayal of anatomy in spades, as the horse legs all have a believable and realistic bend to them, without a single one looking unnatural in the way it is stretching the muscles. It's interesting how the snake body so seamlessly flows into a strikingly mammalian posterior, and I think the legs and tail do great work in making the effect look believable.The pose you've come up with to present the character is nothing short of brilliant, as the body language created by the bottom half projects the classic image of a horse rearing up on its hind legs while the top half projects one of a snake or dragon curling downward, like it's wrapped its body around something to support itself. Despite these two strong projections of very different images, the strong line of action created by the body draws both of them together into a single pose, communicating a proud and majestic creature of the sort talked about in legend. And though I adore the consistency in using the off-color flames coming out of her nose to show the position of the head in the third dimension relative to the back, it does make me wonder why Tianhuo is sniffing at her own back. Perhaps there was a bug on it.The shading is another element that this piece does exceptionally well, as the only visible light source is the fire that makes up her mane, tail, and fetlock hair, along with the fire she's breathing onto her back. The parts of her body that light up are all based on these light sources, though it does appear that she wouldn't be left completely in the dark if these were snuffed out. I take that notion to mean there's some degree of ambient lighting here, given that the background has nothing but a subtle gradient to it. Perhaps the lighting would feel more grounded in a dark environment if the unlit parts were darker, though the trade-off would be that the character becomes less visible. Probably a matter of priority if anything.Though I can't read the lettering you placed on the left-hand side, I'd imagine it's spelling out her name and perhaps a description of her. With that lettering in place, I can easily imagine this being official promotional art for marketing the game to people who can read it. The form and flow are immaculate, the entire piece is easily readable, the pose is outrageously strong, there's very little overlap to mess up the silhouette, and the only real point I'd care to contest would be the logical question of why she's looking at her back like this. I'd say this picture could be better in the sense that different things or more things could be done to it to improve upon it. For instance, a background could be added to create a stronger sense of realism, drawing the reader in further. But in the context of rendering this picture as a skillful portrayal of the character based on an artist's singular vision, this is just about as high quality as I can imagine. Then again, maybe I'd just need to see something better first.Make the most!--