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[wolfenoctis]

Hi guys, finally got round to making myself an avatar:

Any Crits?

[Shrike]

Love it. Very stylistic. I think you could be pushing the boundaries of color a bit more, however.



Also, the background looks a bit like blankets. It's not an unpleasant look, but if you're trying to get misty clouds, I think you could have more distinction between sky and clouds.
Loving it!

[wolfenoctis]

Thanks Shrike
Like what you did with the eye and I separated the clouds a little (very subtle) I dont want it too obvious. Don't like the yellowish moon, want to go for a more silver feel:

[Shrike]

Nice! I like the added highlights in the tail. I'd push that further to have a few brighter spots that are very isolated to give the impression of silky long hair.

Looking at your clouds, it looks like you're trying to do something similar to this:



I was referring to the clouds being a bit more sparse to give the composition more depth, like this:

[wolfenoctis]

Yeah I was going for that foggy look, but it didn't work out so well, I tried making it more like your second reference. I think it looks much better thanks 

Edit: for some reason photoshop screws up my colors when I save, now its right


Update:
Changed the stance and redrew the clouds
I'd like your opinions:


Personally I like number 1:


What do you guys think? (ignore 4, its just a desaturated version)

[Ryumaru]

Really clean and well done, there still is something about that original " silver moon" palette. These new ones are also nice, definitely a matter of personal preference. I think artists get so caught up in complimentary color schemes as a default, but sometimes a near monochromatic can sing just as well if not better.

[Eiyeron]

(I should really start a real site)

I tried messing with Grafx2 and downscaling your palette. Unfortunately, I won't have enough time tonight to go more than just reduce the palette, but here some 8-gray/4-gray render of your avatar. (Specially love 4g).

I saw some grays that are really too similar to not being merged. I successfully reduced manually to 16 colors without changing too many details : only visible change is the moon colors.

Where the color just disappeared, you could try making some bubble dithering, noise based would add (IMO) too much granularity.

[pistachio]

Pretty cool avatar, composition works really well and you all know I like werewolves.

Some pointers: Shrike talked about the clouds being sparse but I don't see it. So what kind of cloud/fog is he stepping in here? It looks much more dense than any of the refs, could even be interpreted as some kind of dirt tunnel. I'd say you need to lose some detail around the edges of the picture which would draw attention to the wolf and make this picture easier to read as a whole:



Also got rid of some single pixels, messed with the lighting and posture to some effect and got the color count down to 8, which seems like enough with dithering.

[wolfenoctis]

The clouds are more abstract than realistic, I've also hidden 3 wolves in the clouds, they are all looking at the focal point:


I've also completely abandoned dither, adding a few more colors doesn't hurt.

@Pistachio: Ahh a fellow werewolf lover eh? Nice edit 

Overall I'm pretty happy with the piece as it is and will not likely change anything further, thank you for your comments and crits they are always valuable to me 

[Grimsane]

nice work Here's my suggestions, contrast is a bit on the neutral side (not necessarily an issue), some bolder (more saturated higher contrast) edits, they might be a bit too intense. and far right 8 colour simplification/bold version

I'm not sure how my monitor calibration is faring but hopefully it's not too dark,



also the left to are reduced to 16 (from 17 it seems) Pistachio's reduced it to 8 really effectively but definitely agree with your choice to go away from the dither.

I concur with Pistachio's crit about the border of the image being a bit noisy and detractive focus from the werewolf, his edit is more realistic and painterly in terms of lighting and form too, whereas mine was pushing the bold look, you have the dark emphasis outlines  which are particularly bold in the latest colours you just posted, which I pushed into the outer border and experimented with ways you could emphasis details.

// okay nevermind seems it was my monitor  here's adjusting it to what it was on before the calibration, but looking at your palette it looks good as is, so disregard my crits for the most part