Your line quality is off. Its too one note and doesnt have any variation. The lineworks color also doesnt have any variation wither
#Any advice/critique?
deft tree
Style is made up of colors and lines. A lot of artists just dont think about the line part
timid mason
Another thing is the shape of her face and eyes(also falls under placement)
timid mason
So a few things. One her eyes in the ref are much more angular than what you did. Yours are more or less round. The face in yours is also a squished sharp if that makes sense. In the ref it’s more rounded and a little longer. Third the eye placement on yours is much lower. You’re doing well tho. Keep it up. Don’t be afraid to try new things in art. Who knows you may find a way to do things you like more than the previous way
craggy olive
This is a really good study. You nailed the simplicity which was the goal, so good job.
As for what you can improve based upon the reference your using (and improve beyond the reference), the ingredient that's missing is "interest" ..
I know! that's super vague and can mean a lot of things, but in this case, your reference has clothing, a charm in her hair, a background, subtle gradients in the eyes and hair, you get the idea. All of these elements make it interesting and let the eye focus on a bunch of different things. In your study, the only focal points are the eyes and the flower in her hair. I noticed the gradient you have in the face (the blush), good! but I couldn't find it anywhere else like the hair or eyes (use a color picker, its in the ref!).
Simple anime styles use gradients because it adds "depth" and appeal. It's an important ingredient IF you choose to use it. It's art, you don't have to use it if you don't want to.
Improving beyond the reference
Animations have 20+ minutes to tell their story, plus it would take too long to illustrate every frame, so they can get away with using a super super simplified version of reality. You, as an illustrator, have to tell a story using only ONE frame, so you can put more time into it to make sure your story is good.
Look at other illustrators and see how far they can take anime styles in just one picture. They use everything they can, color, lighting, backgrounds, texture, photo-editing, etc. Use your tools and push your one picture.
I don't do nearly a good enough job as other illustrators (especially in anime styles, not my thing), but I wanted to get my point across using your artwork as quickly as possible.
