A furry reference sheet – I’m looking to improve the format in any way possible as well as continue to get better with digital. Any and all critique is more than appreciated.
1. First impression
The first thing that impresses me is the colour. The vivid blue of the character is really standing out from the orange-brown background. The colour is well-chosen and neatly painted. I especially like how the artist painted the hair on the shoulders.
2. What do you like about this image?
The design of the character is very creative and interesting. The artist has done a great work in applying spider’s anatomy with human. I especially love the arms, legs, and claws; they are placed in anatomically correct area and clearly represent the trait of the character. The details on the body are also well-done. The tattoo design on the body is the great addition.
3. Is there something you don’t like?
Things that I don’t like in this image are the background and the text. While the background colour is a complementary to character’s colour, the gradient is a distraction from the main subject of the image. The circular gradient creates a focal point at the brightest spot and keep leading the audience’s eyes to that spot. It might be better if it is the linear gradient or plain background with minimal decoration.
For the text, I personally think it is too plain and uninteresting. Perhap the artist can add some decoration (like spider web), or tweak it a little (rotate it, put a shadow under it, etc) to make it more interesting.
4. What do you think the artist can improve upon? suggestions?
There are two aspects that I think the artist can improve upon. The first one, and the major one, is anatomy and proportion. It can be seen from this image that the artist has already done the decent drawing on anatomy in general, but there are still proportion issues in some places, especially on the limbs of the characters. My suggestion is to draw a basic figure. The basic figure can help shape the pose and determine the desired proportion. I have done the red line image of each ones and pointed out some problematic areas. (I hope it’s understandable, and sorry for my bad handwriting!) Anyway, I think it’s not too hard for the artist to fix and improve on this aspect.
Another aspect is colouring. This aspect is a minor one as the artist has already done a good job on painting. But there are some areas that need a little improvement. For example, I think that the cast shadow at the feet of the characters gives the wrong sense of light direction. The light on the character is from the front with no specific direction, therefore the cast shadow should be circle around the character and not a long cast shadow. For the shadow and highlight on the character, I find that the artist already possesses a good sense of colouring. Just keep on practicing and experimenting on painting with different light source will do you good!
Please rate from 1-3
Originality/creativity: 
Color scheme:
Overall Composition : 
Sam’s 2 cents
Honestly I feel like FF has done a great job on offering you some tips here. I really love the idea for a spider character. It really reminds me of a furry Beasties character (do you know what I am talking about, its transformers, there were 2 spiders I thought were cool). I think my biggest suggestion would be the colouring. When your shading with teh darker blue and the lighter blue it doesnt give as much depth. If you add a little bit of red to the shadows (making it a deep purple). I think it might really help create a more eye pleasing colour as well as looking more natural.
The fur, especially on the front pose is very nicely done. I get a nice texture feeling here. Overall I quite like it. Creative and fun.