Critique with render

[wicked cloak]

Looking for any critiques for improving this fanart piece (from Steven Universe). It seems about done for me.

[patent hawk]

Really lovely imo! ❤️❤️

[loud quarry]

This looks wonderful and has great vibes!

The S-curve of the ceiling rods, flowing from her finger to the back and back to the guy through the cabinet shadows, is captivating and draws the eye back in. It creates a strong connection between her and the guy. To emphasize this, you could accentuate the cabinet shadows to guide the viewer’s gaze back to him.
Adding shadows from the window rod and the ceiling pillars’ inner lips could give more depth and perspective lines, on a blue multiply layer. Also, use a soft brush to mask or erase shadow for TV light bloom.

the background has too much light or detail, making the values too close to the characters. hugs them and adds slightly clustered visual noise. darken, noise, blur or bloom for contrast/warmth.

Regarding the cup area: it’s darker behind her, but the cup area has similar values to her shadow. Adding a mid-tone between the bg and foreground could highlight the front better.

More 3D by adding missing shadows like his left foot and the cup, etc. her neck shadow sticks out n breaks flow.

Lastly, for fun, u already did it but u could try copying the lineart layer, and give shadow more colour too. the highlight on his lineart is beautiful. She has less contrast compared. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG8HqJmyisg one easy technique w no manual work.

Attached are some example ideas.

[wicked cloak]

I expected some critique, not an essay hehe. I will be looking into all of this, including the video. Thanks a lot, mate

[loud quarry]

Sorry haha it’s long, I got excited when I saw your piece and started testing my observation skills. However the changes should be fairly quick to test out n compare!

[wicked cloak]

yup. Worth it. Especially the lineart video

[loud quarry]

SO PRETTY!!!! amazing work im happy you added those final touches

10000% worth it!! i am super excited to try that video now as well haha

[wicked cloak]

tried it. Gave it to the character's lineart layer, but had the blur clip into the actual lineart, to keep it inside it, then reduced its opacity to 45%ish

improved it immediately

[loud quarry]

its really a massive impact for a simple change! works so well with everything you did stylistically and the glowing scene

very dynamic and popping yet so soft

looking at them side by side i do miss the blue sharpness up here, was giving cartoon nostalgia, maybe reducing the opacity of the change or starting it sharper and then getting blurred out with some hint of the pretty vibrant colour still left behind. up 2 u always lovely piece