[WIP] Warrior

[Stefano]

For the new piece, check out how heather shield straps were actually bolted into the shield: http://www.shieldsandshoes.co.uk/I0183.jpg

I tend to restart my most problematic pieces a couple of times, so if you feel you've hit a wall after following other members comments, then IMO you should go for a new (similar) one.
The main problem with your previous piece was that the whole pose pointed to a game art approach (meaning a somewhat geometric, heroic and readable attack pose), but the sword in front of the face looked like a trace from an actual combat photo. I'm not implying you've traced, just comparing it to a sports photo... 

Anyway, if I may, I'll edit your second pic to show you things that IMO can be used to improve this particular pose.

[Kaczor]

That's todays progress:


I'll add the belts to the shield later Stefano, and I would really like to see your pic with some iprovements.

edit:
That's what i made to this point:


Hair still not finished. I wonder if I should add an extra color for them, and eventually to be used on the shield later.

[Kaczor]

Sorry fo the double post but it seems no one is visiting this thread and I just "finished" the work and need someone to see it. I dont know how to shade the shield properly and it looks flat but I think that I achieved some good metal effect. And the belts... hmm... so sleepy right now .

[Helm]

You are lacking one third of the value range you should have in your piece. There's no mid-darks and darks, it looks washed out. The sword-wielding arm's upper musculature is misshapen, especially the lump on the back of it. Those are the big faults I see now.

[saimo]

I dont know how to shade the shield properly and it looks flat

I'd rather say it looks "inversed": IMHO the brightness and the direction of the lines of the two halves should be swapped around.

saimo

[Kaczor]

Helm, do you want me to expand my palette by adding some midtones or "to be smart" and try it without making my palette bigger?

Saimo, I'm quite sure that the dark side and the light side of the shield are placed right.

[bengo]

Or you could just make a new palette, also, don't correct others on their advice especially when they're probably more knowledgeable than yourself. This piece is mainly suffering from bad anatomy, a bad palette, and a bad pose, the best thing to do would be to get some reference.

[Lawrence]

If the light is coming from the right (which it looks like) then I'd say the basic shading of the shield is actually more or less correct as it is, except I'd remove the vertical bright line.

[Helm]

Helm, do you want me to expand my palette by adding some midtones or "to be smart" and try it without making my palette bigger?

Both adding a few new colors, and stretching out the values of the current palette should do it?

Bengoshia, where do you get off talking to people like that? Here's a strike for you. Do it once more and you're banned. I will not hear anything on this on this thread, if you have something to say, PM me.

[TrevoriuS]

Anatomy wise my instinct tells me the hips are a tad too low, so make the legs look like they 'join' a bit higher under these wide clothes.

Now about the shield, it is perfectly flat as it is drawn now, but the shading tells me the dark half should be curved 'towards the camera' - yes that sounded weird but I think you can grasp what I mean. Perhaps try shrinking the dark half a bit in width to see how that turns out.

Further comments in this topic are all the rest you need to know to edit some more I guess  ,
Good luck!