Balance -- more Astra arts

[Astra]

Well ok as I passingly mentioned in Dray's commissions thread, Elano's and my first year anniversary is tomorrow. I was really having trouble figuring out what to do for him, as I am completely out of money at the moment. I thought about commissioning Dray to do a picture of our characters, but there were three main problems being that (1) I'm broke, (2) Dray has a very busy schedule and our anniversary is, you know, soon and (3) knowing Elano, even though Dray is vastly more talented than I am, he'd probably prefer something I did myself. So I set to work creating his anniversary gift. Originally, I had planned to do a picture of our characters and their dragons, but once I had finished the pencil sketch of Averone and Daraeas, the image went in a completely different direction. And now I have this, which I am quite proud of but I'm not sure yet what Elano will think of it -- I still may tweak it some, I'm not sure how I feel about the sunrise/sunset thing in the middle -- it looks a little rainbow and therefore feminine, but I cant think of a better transition between daylight and night :-\

This is probably one of my best artworks so far, as I put a LOT of effort into it considering I'm usually WAY too self conscious about my work to ever consider giving it out as a gift, but I still definitely need c&c so if any of you have some suggestions I'd be glad to hear them The actual photoshop file is much bigger for print quality and doesn't have the signature at the bottom:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/23085780/

Sorry for the deviantart link, the picture is still pretty big so I wasn't sure about directly linking to it here.

[GildedLilly]

I actually have three things to say- I hope they aren't too aggravating, as that looks kinda finished to me... But here goes.

One composition/stylistic choice issue: I, personally, think that the theme of the picture would be vastly more pronounced if the tails of the two dragons were intertwined, not just the lighter over the darker. I don't think this would be too hard to do, esp. if you did it with layers; just change one of the two intersecting spots. I would change the higher, rightmost spot, so that the lighter's tail would be curling around the darker's, and the darker's would be sort of going through the loop of the lighter's tail. Am I making sense?

One physical issue: The lighter dragon is missing an arm! She just has a "hand" with the wing-fingers, suspended in midair.

One composition/physical issue: You would probably be able to see the other wing, the one on the other side, at least a little.


Ok, that's it. I really like the feel of the picture, and feel free to ignore me and my ramblings.

EDIT: I just noticed- the tails make the sign for infinity! That's PERFECT for an anniversary gift.

[Astra]

Thank you for your comments. I think that the intwining tails is a good idea, I'll fiddle with it when I'm finished with my homework .

I'm not sure what you mean by the other two, though. The second wing is behind the other wing, though part of it can be seen between the neck and the wing that is visible, the rest is hidden. Any other way I tried to do it looked ... wrong. And I definitely don't understand what you mean ... she definitely has four legs, which last time I checked was the correct amount for a Danachian dragon. One of the back legs is severely obscured by the more visible back leg, but that's just because of how she's standing, and I thought I made it clear that the leg is there *scratches head* I've always had issues with legs moreso than other dragony parts, anyway. I'm sorry if I sound annoyed I'm not trying to I really do appreciate your critiques I'm just not sure what you're asking :-\

edit! I know! Believe it or not I did that by accident, and was really excited when it came out

[GildedLilly]

Yay for happy accidents!

I ment her wing arm, you know... I can't quite explain it, but there seems to be a missing part to that wing... I'm bad at explaining things.

And NOW I see the othe wing... >.<

[Astra]

Oh okay I see now ... I was attempting a new wing style there (usually they look more like the darker one) so it's no wonder it looks snarky. I'll see what I can do about it

But first I have to finish this evil lab report. Oy *sweatdrop*

[GildedLilly]

Well, good luck with both the lab report and the present!

I'm sure no matter how it turns out, he'll love it.