Hi, I saw your request for critique on the thumbshare.

First, great concept, and the demon mirror twin is beautifully executed. Her expression, pose, the colours are all well chosen, and the xray image-like view of her hand on the mirror is brilliant.

The blonde twin's hand on the mirror with the spell-lightning is dramatic, and very well done.

Here are a few suggestions which you might like to consider:

As the other critiquers noted, the blonde twin's expression distracts me, as not being dramatic enough for the rest of the scene, since she is clearly fighting back. I'd like to see more emotion (fear, anger, shock, or even cruel amusement). Her current expression looks like the moment she noticed the dark-twin (eyes just starting to widen in shock, mouth just falling out of a smile) where the rest of the scene (the blood from the dark twin's grip on her wrist has had long enough to flow down to her elbow) suggests it is some time later.

I'm a bit confused about the position of the dark twin's left arm. Her grip on the blonde twin's right wrist looks great btw, as does the suggestion of shattered glass on the mirror, but is her forearm fully through the mirror? It is difficult to tell.

The blonde twin's left upper arm looks too long (imho) relative to the rest of her anatomy - like her elbow would sit near her hips if you rotate it down to her side. Her left forearm is across her body to the mirror which looks good, but her right arm is stretched out more, and her right forearm isn't touching the mirror. I think the mirror would have to be more angled for that to work, particularly if her right upper arm is as long as her left.

One possible solution - My first impression of the scene based on her pose was that the dark twin had grabbed the blonde twin's arm, pulled it through the mirror and was holding it on the other side, so that the blonde twin's left hand was braced on the mirror as well as casting a spell, and her body is quite close to the mirror. If you put her arm through the mirror, I think it would work better with the way her arms are posed.

Given the dramatic lighting, I'd love to see a stronger suggestion of that greenish yellow light on the front of her gown. Perhaps a few darker shadows, too, particularly on her neck from the curve of her hair (I'd expect the shadows would be darker there and elsewhere on her skin).

I like the flyaway whisps of the blond-twin's hair, and I like the brush texture you've used for her hair, but I think it could be used more sparingly, for a more realistic and dramatic look. You can blend the under layers with a soft brush in several darker shades, and use your current brush and colour as a highlight, for example. Dianae 's hair tutorial explains it well: [link]

The bodice of her dress is very nice, but the skirt looks less finished in comparison. The skirt appears to be spreading out in wide shallow even falls from the bodice itself, which looks a bit unrealistic. Looking at some examples of dresses on dA, the material folds close to that tight a bodice could sit flat if the dress is pieced flat ([link]), or fall into small tight gathers ([link]) or larger folds (like this: [link]).

Hope these suggestions have been useful to you. Good luck with revising your painting!

Starting a critique always intimidates me, so I'll just jump in. I'm also making the assumption that you know how great this image is, so I'll just hit you with some nitpicking.

Frame - I'd slip another layer over the mirror frame for realism. The top right corner felt the most realistic for me, even if it doesn't really reflect true lighting. Speaking of lighting

there's some ambiguity of light source. The candle should be lighting her from the right-back, and the handlightning from the left middle front, but her dress (especially the white lace) and her arm and face appear to be lit from the front right, not front back candle. With the lighting as it is on the hair, there wouldn't be that amount of highlight on the corner frame. Perhaps this all could be solved by bringing the candles forward to stand right next to her arm on a stool or some other tall something. Light source ambiguity isn't the end, but it does affect realism quality, imo.

Her hand and the lightning. Generally, when there's bring light against which the hand is pressed, the skin is lit from beneath. Try putting your hand on a flashlight. You'll see how where there's less flesh, the light turns the hand red. That might be a finishing touch to add onto the image. Speaking of hands, the bottom right feels too square. She'd have to have farmers/ladle hands, and very severe ones to have that. I'd soften the curve slightly.

The trickle of black from the demon is wonderful touch, but unless she purposefully drooled, it's more likely that that drool would - oh hey, nevermind. Huh. I just tried it out and the image is right - it would slip out the center. (This is what I get for trusting vampire images and shows too much.)

By the way, that raised hand and the lighting there - absolutely fantastic!

Onward. If she is supposed to be freckled, I'd lay it on heavier. Right now, the faint spots on her cheek and shoulder appear to be faint discolorations and dots, rather than freckles. More and darker, I'd say. Heavier on and around the nose. Me, I'd not give her freckles unless you're planning to shade her hair a more orange/red/brown color.

I realise that because of the meaning, it might be intentional that she not look afraid, but it makes no sense, considering her posture and the attack. Though it could have been intentional, her eyes scream wariness and fear, but her lips and face looks relaxed. The viewer will likely assume a lack of skills here, rather than intention. The lips are what I think could be easiest change to express emotion.

Me, I'd try tilting the corners down and pressing the lips tighter together for the generic, I am upset feel. Or to pull the corners close and have the mouth slightly slack.

The next thing I'm seeing is that the darkened veins on the hand feel drawn on. I've no idea how one would fix that, but some tweaking probably won't go amiss. Focusing on that part of the image, the break in the mirror looks reasonable, even if fantastic, but her hand does not appear to go through the circle, but further back and higher than the hole. My intial impression, actually, was that the blond twin had slammed her elbow into the mirror, and I wondered why there was no blood there.

Only then did I understand that dark twin had slammed through and grabbed blond twin. Here I run into a bit of a realism issue (I know, I know, nitpicking over things you can't change!). See, I just acted it out. Say I was standing in front of a mirror and WHAM comes a hand to grab me by the wrist. Immediate response would be to straighten my elbow and take a step back, and then reach out and shoot lightening through the glass.

Now, perhaps the point is that because they're each other, she is drawn to the darkness and so doesn't struggle, but I wonder if there's anything you could do to make this clearer? A mocking smile on blondie's face? Orrr, pity there? Concern?

Moving on to the right, her dress felt like the least realistic part of the image for me. Mostly that was because of the very smooth line where it ended and background began. Also, on her breast, the skin line merges with the dress line, which means that the dress is skin-tight. With this kind of apparel, I doubt that's the case. The dress should probably protrude more. At the waist and down, like I mentioned, lighting could be tweaked. Also, there, the dress seems almost like an afterthought. And I'm not sure if it would be possible to line up the designs on the dress that perfectly when using several different kinds of material.

I don't know if this will be of any use, but it's the first dress tutorial I stumbled across when doing a quick dA search. There are probably many more out there.

And that's about it, I'm thinking. Running out of steam here, so I hope this is useful for this image and perhaps future ones too. Also, I can't stress enough that I like this image - it's clever, interesting, and I have a real weakness for all sorts of fantastical demonic manifestations. Especially those with another layer of meaning to them!

All my best and good luck with your art!