Overall

Vision Vision

Originality Originality

Technique Technique

Impact Impact

Caught my eye on your page as a really good piece of work. I am interested in dragons etc, so I see a lot of this type of thing.I love the water, it looks photographic. It splashes about so you can almost hear it!The sky behind the hydra adds to the atmosphere and looks fine for the piece.The hydra looks menacing; the eyes look seriously mean, glowing wonderfully! The choice of snakes' head shape rather than dragon's head adds originality and the detail of the scales around the mouths are perfect. However, the head on the right hand side seams to be a different shape to the rest. Where the others rise up on either side behind the eyes to create the distinctive snakes- head shape, that one does not and looks more worm-like.The lighting is very good, but I question some of the highlight directions. If the sun is behind the heads, then I don't see how it would be lit so strongly on the right hand side of the head/neck on the right hand side of the picture. Having said that the shading is generally very good, adding to the 3D effect and I love the change of colour of the light reflected off the sea, although it does look a little bright there for such a dark sky above. I understand that you want to show the shiny reflections off the scales and indeed, you probably wanted to show off that effective change in light colour, but down near the waves probably needed a bit more darkness somewhere, shaded as it would be from the light behind the hydra. In fact, slightly more darkness in the contrasting shades would have added to both the realism of the metallic/shiny look and added a little more to the IMPACT of the picture.This need for a little more strength of shade, together with rather sketchy scales left the hydra looking rather sketchy overall compared to the sharp, photographic water.The scales obviously take a hell of a lot of work and I admire your patience in getting that far with them. However, to explain what I mean by sketchy scales- the picture looks good on a lower res, though the eye can sense it just a little bit. However, for a picture to be available on higher res or posters, we can see that you started off with the fine scales going back over the head, but drifted into a multitude of quick curves that cross over each other. This wouldn't notice or matter in the slightest if only you got it right at the point where the small back scales meet the dorsal plates. One should overlap the other with a neat edge- I always draw the back over the front. This edge should show the round scales curve round over the plates on every one. If that edge was right, you would never notice the rest; as it is, the round scales look almost furry.I understand that the head/neck behind the rest should be more orangy/hazy, but I think the contrast is a little strong, It almost looks like one giant head from another animal far away behind.Overall, its great. If it wasn't, I wouldn't bother critiquing it.If you ever feel like drawing the dragon I write about, let me know and I will send you her descriptions from the unpublished books. As author I would have no control of the choice of artist should I get published, but I would love to see the Kiyala Imira brought to life in pictures and your work is more than worthy. Who knows - we might both strike lucky one day!Go Louise!