Feedback Requested!!

Greetings, all. Things have been very busy in my corner of the world. Between lots of work and personal struggles, I have been doing everything I can to complete the revision process for The Rebirth Trilogy.

Cut the chatter, onto the art work! Below is my current WIP for one of the cover pieces I'm working on. I would very much appreciate some feedback on this piece :) The marching figures are indistinct because I turned up the opacity for full so that their color is fully visible. I have been turning opacity of each layer down to around 35% and coloring over the top of the "guide" layer, since just making the guide transparent was a mess. Any odd white/gray patches sticking out are visible portions of the guide layer and will be erased.

What I am looking for: Critique on the lighting of this piece, first and foremost. I am also open to critique on the positioning of figures featured on the cover. Any and all constructive criticism is welcome! If you hate it, I would appreciate it if you tell me why, as that is far more helpful than just saying, "This sucks."

I have uploaded the image in all it's huge glory so that details may be more easily viewed.

Thank you in advance!

Accepted cover concept - Path of a Hero

Here's the final cover concept for the redo of the second book in The Rebirth Trilogy - Path of a Hero. This is the copy I will be working off of as I create a digital painting for the cover art.

I would like to have a final product that is of high enough quality for a large digital print I can display on my wall, so it may be some time before this image is finished.

This cover features the character Terezom, the Hero of the god Kem. In the background is an army of mixed creatures, which has to do with a particular scene from the book. Let the coloring begin.

Hammerwing sketch

It occurred to me recently that I have never been very specific on what Laiuna ships might look like. I decided to try my hand at a sketch, and here is the good ship Hammerwing. You'll notice that it's very basic - seagoing vessels are a pretty foreign territory to me. Sorry if I offend any technical artists out there.

Blayde

Practice piece done (for now) I am getting more familiar with my new tablet, as well as the program Krita. This is the colored version of a sketch I did of one of the gods from my fantasy series.

On to book covers!

Here, Have a Griffin!

I woke up yesterday and wanted to draw a griffin. This piece was good practice for me with Krita, as I'm learning how to better use the tools available to me. This is the first time I've been able to do line art with the program, and it's pretty much required me to draw my lines backwards from how I'm used to inking them. It was challenging, but fun. I'm so thankful heavenly father has blessed me to be able to draw the things that are in my head.

About 3.25 hours. Done in Krita.

Character sketch 24

Here's a sketch that I actually drew a few years ago. This is a character that shows up in my current writing project. I have been looking forward to working with them for a long time, now, and I'm excited to finally be working on this book.

Don't mind all the smudges and debris in the margins. That's just my smudgy hand and the scanner making sweet music together.

Current screenshot - Blayde

In addition to redesigning the covers for my trilogy, I'm brushing up on my painting skills with a program called Krita. My long-faithful tablet finally gave up on me last month, and I've been very fortunate to get a new Wacom Intuous Touch. I figured that it would be a good idea to practice on something before I start designing what will hopefully be high quality cover art.

Here's a shot of my practice project. This is the colored version of a sketch I posted here. This is still very much in progress, as you can see.