Hey, @Grundini! Sorry to be catching up late, and good to know you already received helpful feedback from our fellows below! It’s great that you’ve taken the leap to start sharing your work (nicely done, by the way). I’ve taken a bunch of Schoolism classes myself in the past, but I didn’t take Craig Mullins’s, so I find it cool to see what kind of assignments you get to do in it. Overall, I think your paintings from the course look stunning! The army scene, in particular, it took me a while to realize it was your piece and not the reference. And the Sargent study looks flawless to my eye, beautifully done. The first portrait is a piece I find to be visually striking (to my taste, it is the best of the three). It’s stylized, so it leads us to not compare it so much with the reference and look more at the piece for itself. I think it works great in most aspects; the only area which I believe could use some more work is the background, I feel as if it is a bit underdeveloped. No sure exactly what could be done there, but I’d try experimenting and playing around with it a little to look for other ways of composing it. The second portrait looks really good too, although, when I look at its reference, I think the facial expression lost a bit of its uniqueness. In the painting, it looks like a strong severe expression, which is cool, but the photo reference has some quirkiness to the brows and the way he’s looking up that, to me, looks more like there’s a story being told, like he’s communicating with someone with the way he’s looking. Also, in the painting, I feel as if the area of the cheekbones and jaw could use a little more polish and softness - at least enough to match the quality of the soft edges you did for the drapes of the “crown” (is that how it’s called? Sorry) The third painting has a really good polish, strong composition and nicely defined head structure as far as I can see. In terms of likeness, I believe the jaw line could have been made just a bit thinner and more angled if you wanted it to match the model in the reference - but if likeness was not a goal, nevermind. :) For the long run, one thing I suppose you could look for would be perhaps to loosen up your brushwork a bit more. But take it easy, as this usually may come naturally over time and practice. In the paintings you did from imagination, I see there’s a lot of potential! I feel there’s a clear intention of design and storytelling in these images, and looks like you’re also being able to implement your knowledge of anatomy and form. This is all great, definitely keep it up! On the other hand, I think going for looser brush strokes would help make the overall feel of the work more vivid and expressive. And, mainly, see if it’s possible to start your planning of the painting by thinking strongly about gesture and composition - these two things are what I believe could benefit your personal work the most as next steps to focus on. Hope this helps. Keep up the good work! Best regards!

Christoper Beaven made some really good point and pretty much said out most what I was thinking,so I try to not repeat what he already said. On the first painting,I noticed the head is slightly bigger than in the reference photo(but I can't tell if you zoomed in on the face and this was intentional,so feel free to tell me below),though the overall painting itself is drawn quite well.The second painting I really like,I think you had a healthy mixed of soft and hard edge. On the third painting,while I agree with Christoper that you made too many soft edge (I advised making the nose and the mouth more hard) but I actually advised making the left side chin softer (Kinda like how Leyendecker does it in this painting)or atleast make the value closer to the neck.I also advised making the area of the light a little bit lighter,as right now the value is a bit too close to the dark area (Here's a David Kassan for example of lighter value) The fourth painting is also really good,the photograph you use remind me of an Ilya Repin painting,though the actual color pallete you use remind me of this Mikhail Nesterov painting (Below).I advised making the ground darker, more like in the photograph.Because right now the ground value is too similar with the sky and it also make too much contrast with men in black suits. On your personal piece I think the one with mace has really good anatomy and you did well on the structure of his armor and body, but I found the gesture a bit too stiff (though that one may be subjective)I advised looking up Frazetta and studying some of his drawing to get a more dynamic feeling (though doing gesture studies is also good) I don't have much to say on the final painting,except that it's slightly too much to the left (Again,very subjective) Well that's all I have to say,I hope it wasn't too subjective and it was somewhat useful.I apologize if it wasn't too good.

Hey great job in putting you work out there! I know its difficult sometimes but it can be invaluable. I like all the copies for the most part you were able to get the drawing correct and the colors spot on. In the color portraits there some lack of structure. That has everything to do with corners of the form. Steve Huston talks about that a lot in his book. I like the textural brushes you're using but the use of hard edges and soft edges on many of the paintings is not directed as well as it could be. The hard edges on the actors eyes is great but the rest of the face is too soft and it looses its structure. The photo of the soldiers has some wonderful depth with the line of men decending into the background with the officers having sharp edges. But you lose some focus in the officers by having all of them in sharp detail. I really like the black and white warrior swinging the mace its very consistent throughout but not much to say with you last fantasy piece. The composition is flat and not as dramatic as the content could have been. Other than that great job on putting you work here. You're very far along in the digital painting than many others I've seen and light years beyond me. Keep moving forward and creating!