We currently should be having a discussion to figure out how we can help users like yourself feel motivated to contribute more

The discussion is about getting good critiques at this forum. Part of that is creating incentive for experienced artists to contribute. The other half of that responsibility is on the person who is seeking feedback. Everyone is responsible for their own improvement, and knowing how to ask for advice and show appreciation for advice or opinions received is an important part of having a successful thread. There are behaviors that thread-creators should avoid: being vague about the direction of the piece or the areas you need help resolving, taking long breaks between responses, and abandoning a thread after receiving advice. This discussion should be about educating inexperienced artists as much as creating incentive for experienced artists. These are things the general rules and FAQ cover, but there will always be those who don’t read stickies or possess forum etiquette.

I think some good ideas have already been posted:
*wiki for hyperlinking key terms
*archiving solid threads with good general critique
*archiving solid threads that cover recurring themes (need help making a tree? A sword? Check the archive)
And for creating incentive for experienced artists:
*’thanks’ system (weighted as Atnas described)
Does the karma system here work? Or is it just rarely used? Are there penalties for abandoning threads (or asking how to pixel a sword)?

Saw this over on TIGSource, looking pretty good. Rendering is great of course, I agree with Indigo about the anatomy of the front arm, the creature seems like a solid quadruped than the forelimbs. I didn't pay much attention to the girl until I read the above comments. I agree that more of a neck would help, and perhaps a skipping/frolicking pose (or tugging at the rope or something indicative of her character). I don't know about putting her beside the monster, but further in front might be interesting (and make more sense as the current leash is a little short).

tried one from scratch
the stars suck but everything else turned out ok.

I feel like these are not working for me... am I supposed to be able to see all of these images and text without clicking the spoiler tags? 0.0

Did you try:

FYI I had to force refresh to get the new CSS, was showing by default before that.