u/HoneyCatDoodle

Yes I know his anatomy is kind of weird, it was weird in the reference photo so I stuck to it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Trying to teach myself art. Would love critiques on my work and to be told how I can improve!

I know the cheetahs anatomy is a bit off, we don't need to go over that. Also both of them the backgrounds look a bit streaky but I promise it's just the lighting in the photo. In real life they don't look streaky.

Ive included the reference photo I used for the first one. The second one I didn't use a reference photo for directly.

I feel like I've got a good start going but the painting is definitely missing something. How can I improve this?

(Yes I know the background looks streaky. My phone does that to paintings in photographs. It is not actually streaky in person.)

Do people think if I submitted this in the professional category (no one goes and looks at the paintings in non professional) it would make it in?

I'm working on paintings to enter into the state fair to try and just get in (I don't think I'm good enough to win anything but I really want to make it into the show). Does this painting seem good enough to get in, or should I keep working and making better paintings to submit? Obviously always keep working and striving to learn more technique and make better paintings, but is this good enough in your opinion?

Edit: Also I promise the background is not streaky in person. It's a victim of bad lighting. In person it looks solid.

Here's examples of my past bab paintings. I can paint other things as well and negotiate on size if there's something you really have your heart set on being painted in my style! Currently I don't sell my work, so if you want a painting the only way to get one is through trading.

This is just a sketch marking out the facial features! The actual shading and details I'll add in once I finalize the sketch.

I know I probably should have shaded the leaves more, but I really wanted the cicada to stand out from them so I went with mostly just outlining them.