James Gurney is an excellent artist to refer to for how to simply complex background. Check out some of his plein air painting videos.

Take a look at “Knights and Armor “ by A.G. Smith it’s a coloring book for kids but what I like about it is there are line drawings with no tone that depict various types and periods of armor . It’s great for reference to create your own designs. The book is a Dover publication and is available online or ordered from your favorite local bookshop

Another poster mentioned James Gurney, he painted the Dinotopia books, often made models of the imagined scenes to get the lighting and work out the composition, you may want to try that. There are inexpensive models available to use as reference figures. Children’s action figure toys spray painted grey work great too. You can usually find them at the dollar stores . Pose the figures and light them to create the lighting reference and then use other reference for details as needed.

It’s very well done. Perhaps some of the design elements around the neck detract from the face a bit and you could play with some variation in the edges to direct the viewer’s focus to what aspect you want to showcase. Some edges may be kept sharp others softened or lost. These are aspects of design though and subject to taste. You may also want to consider head placement on the canvas , is the head to large for the space of could it be better composed.

Two suggestions to improve symmetry 1) use a mirror to look at your work periodically or use your phone to take a snapshot and flip the image. Asymmetric aspect tend to show up when looked at with fresh eyes as with a mirror. 2) learn about and apply Reilly rhythms to the face they really help with getting the features to align properly, Bradwynn Jones does some excellent examples of how to apply the rhythm lines.

Hello everyone, I’m a hobby artist I’m on Instagram @JEFF_REID_ART below are some recent works

I am an oil painter too. I also enjoy other mediums such as charcoal and graphite

An excellent tool to help working from either a live reference or a photo is a knitting needle or proportional dividers. You use them to measure a reference point like the distance from the side of the head to the tear duct of an eye, make a mark at each point and use that as a reference to judge other points on the face. This is in reference to a portrait but the same applies for figure drawing. Once you learn proportional measurement the next aspect I’d suggest it to pay attention to the angles of lines connecting the reference marks you make from your measurements, then look at the negative spaces and the shapes they make, compare to your reference. Now think of the anatomy and the rhythms of the forms. This should help you build a solid image from reference.

I’d echo Jan D’s comments and add that if you want to blend and glaze oils are easier to work with, if you want to work in layers and quickly add new layers acrylics are advantageous. Fantastic work is possible in either medium . I’m my view oil allows a more laid back relaxed approach. I like to do an under painting in acrylics because it’s fast drying and then finish with oils. Remember oils can go over dried acrylics but not the other way around , never acrylics over oils.

I think there is an opportunity to increase the atmosphere perspective and sense of depth by lightening the mountains in the background, color shift them blue as the green wavelength is lost at that distance. Also soften the edges in the background. The figure in the foreground is the focus and should draw the attention. Consider increasing the saturation and contrast in the figures.