Night Fire 2

First off I have to say I like this picture. Overall the stances are pretty strong and the movement looks real enough. The cloth for both characters clothing turned out rather well as it has a weight to it rather than a painted on over the body look that many people do.

The lighting seems kind of bright considering the night time and a crescent moon but that is not a bad thing or a good thing it's just some people expect it- while others expect it to be darker. It's a choice you get to make but it does have to do with my next comment.

The effects for the fire is the biggest downside of the image itself. It isn't horrible but it could be much better. I think you want people to be able to see the hand behind it- as you usually do a great job with hands compared to many, but the fire being so transparent makes it look very weak and not much like fire at all(or an energy "aura"). Many programs (photoshop, painter, etc) have many different ways to create a fire look. One of the most common I see used is a gradient map. There are tons of tutorials on fire for realistic and anime style effects.

How the brightness effect that- during animation many times you may notice a scene gets very dark just before a big explosion- its because the most common style used for glows and lighting is done using Screen- which is most visible on a dark image (that and it has so much more impact going from dark to really bright than from bright to really bright). Light sources of all kind are most visible at night so a darker scene would make them pop more.

The highlights dont show a strong light source being really close and also like shadows, highlights will run along wrinkles and such in clothing, on the exposed side.

Take care Speedy and please keep up the great work ^_^