Bounty Hunter Sakura

Hi Kev,

Since your latest journal mentioned you didn't get a critique for this I thought I'd give my two cents. Don't worry, I'll not 'rip it a new asshole' as that falls out of the category of 'constructive criticism'. Hope you find it helpful

Positive points:

You are attempting to draw things three dimensionally, in other words there are folds/creases in the clothing, parts like the man's 'collar' has the 3-d perspective, and the ropes and her boot straps are obviously sitting over the item underneath them. In saying that, the creases and fold are fairly nonsensical, some more study of how clothing sits on a body is needed.

There is a sense of 'weight' to the piece, Sakura is clearly sitting on top of the man and the shadowing underneath makes sense. The placement of shading over all is good.

Little touches like the graff drips 'pooling' on the ground show good observation as well as the drip of blood following the contours of the man's face.

Good use of triangle composition.

Expressions are good, her nonchalance and his pain.

Negative points:

First off, I'm personally not a fan of dropped in backgrounds, it feels 'stiff'. I'm terrible for not putting backgrounds in a lot of my own work so kudos for doing it in the first place, (and when I started using PS I was guilty of doing this very same thing) but perhaps draw it by hand yourself if you redo this piece. Also over all the characters get kinda lost beside the strong colours in the background, Sakura has a lot of pink in her outfit so maybe find a more contrasting colour for the bg so that she 'pops' more.

I think you should check out a few hair colouring tutorials, there are some great ones here on DA. There's just no real sense of understanding of where the light should highlight the hair and where it should be darker. Perspective on the hair tie is slightly off and the positioning of the goggles compared to a side profile seems slightly off.

Anatomy, the man's is quite good, though his boots need work. Sakura's torso seems slightly too short (and there's a slight trick of the eye, I think maybe not helped by the watermark position and the dark bg, that looks like her side is missing, I had to look closely to find her torso). The angle of her right foot looks wrong, perhaps her toes could point inwards resting on the man's shoulder plate. Perspective on the right forearm isn't successful imo. The gun perspective is a little off too. The descriptive lines in her ear don't make sense, more thought needs to be put into where they go.

The over all linework is a little 'scratchy' for my taste.

Finally I think the dog is too in the foreground. If he's head is tugging on the moustache his feet should be at the same level as the bottom of the man's head, or positioned in a three quarter view with his rump to the viewer.

The star ratings I've give are becasue:
Originality: it's extremely hard for anyone to be truly original and make their own definitive style in the world on manga.

Technique: for reasons stated above.

Impact: It could be as simple as making a contrasting background colour for this piece to 'pop' more.

Great job on this piece, and I hope you accept my opinion on it and find something helpful in what I've said.