the original art is OK. I looked at the artist you were getting inspiration off of and i figure doubt why yours looks a bit off putting. Their art has lots of character behind it, you can tell their back story. Your character just doesn't have that with a gradient background and then a passive/dopy look on their face.

The style is heading in the correct way and the method is via matching the other artist is good but not perfect, possibly more highlights, but it may be the fact you have just a gradient background and nothing more.

Keep up the good work.

Disclaimer : This is constructive criticism intended to be used as a guide to help the artist improve. These are suggestions and I try to work off of the artist's current level.

Let's start with the ratings:

Vision: I can see good core elements in the painting such as highlighting/low lighting and use of the orange to add a bit more color. The artist created darker shadows in this piece than in previous pieces showing they are taking some more risks and trying to try some new techniques. Some of the vision is lost because of anatomy and roughness of the painting technique itself. If we're basing the character from the show (obviously transferring that style into a digital painting instead of a vector image) she seems to have a harsher presence instead of bright/happy and dare I say it "Derpy".

Originality: I'm not going to spend much time on originality simply because this is a fan art piece. Just because it's fan art doesnt mean it cant still be fun and the artist cant put a little of themselves into it, but creating fan art also means that the originality of the piece will go down. This is a simple 3/4 view bust with simple background.

Technique: Again, I can see the artist trying to add more depth by their shadow/highlight technique. I like the extra orange color used to offset Derpy's grey color. I think that the painting could be improved by smoothing out the colors to form a better gradient and brightening the image overall by creating a stronger light source. The artist should pay attention to anatomy (areas where improvement could be made are the eyes-making eye contact with the viewer might great a greater impact for the piece and also adding a more pronounced reflection in the eye itself as is the eye looks a little dead. The nose/mouth should be smaller if the artist wishes to stay true to the original style of MLP) I think that because the style looks like a mash up between a more realistic pony and the cartoon version...it's having a disconnect. I think it would help the artist to try both extremes (the definite cartoon version & a definite realistic version) and then perhaps try to make their own version.

Impact: I choose impact as an overall rating, basically the median between the other ratings. By making changes listed in vision, originality, & technique the impact score would go up. I found the piece to be overall boring, I would love to see a cleaner painting and a heavier focus on anatomy and style. I think the artist should definitely implement using more references both of the character and painting techniques and continue to go outside their comfort zone with their technique, doing this will help them grow as an artist and will produce more visually interesting and high impact images.

Here are some tutorials/references that I looked up. These may or may not be helpful, I tried to find ones that were closest to what the artist is currently trying to achieve.

A study on MLP anatomy : [link]

Reference for facial expression used in the artist's piece (Vector style) : [link]

Digital painting (SAI/Photoshop) may help with "fur" & shadow : [link]

Digital paining blending techniques: [link]

Common digi painting mistakes (I found this helpful as a check list) : [link]

One of the best color theory tutorials I've come across (this will help with adding multiple colors to create depth and visual interest) : [link]

Smoothing & Technique tutorial : [link]


I hope the artist finds this crit helpful and continues to grow and develop themselves! :3