Princess Mononoke Kodama

This is a very beautiful traditional work, but still has considerable room for improvement.
The technique is excellent and creates a great overall quality to this piece. And by that I mean, the coloring and shading are very well done. My only critique of the coloring would be the use of white. Value and color can be very strong compositional tools. Given that you are painting the white tree spirits on the dark background of the forest, the white should be used to add focus to your main subjects. However, in this picture, there is white just about eveywhere throughout the painting, making it somewhat difficult for the viewer to focus on one particular thing as the main subject. In future paintings, try reserving white for the purpose of creating contrast and drawing attention to important areas. Use it sparingly <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="391" title=" (Smile)"/>

Also, composition wise, I like how you placed the trees in this picture as they create the illusion of depth to the forest. However, the main problem with the composition (as I mentioned earlier) is that there isn't really a specific focus in this piece. The viewer's eye just kind of jumps all over the painting in no particular flow. To correct this, you should consider where you want the main focus to be before you start painting. In the case of this piece, perhaps just using a couple small groups of the spirits in one particular area would create better focus. Then, you can add little "easter eggs" of other much less central spirits faintly hiding in the background.

Overall, I think your work has loads of potential, you just need to work a bit on composition. I think it will really take your art to the next level! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="391" title=" (Smile)"/>