You have a fair amount of small detailing there that will make it harder to make the shading smooth and consistent. So lets forget consistency.

The jaw is good, but there is not enough shaded area down the neck. The forward ear needs to cast a drop shadow with curvature on the top right corner of the head (not too much, just show a drop shadow). I would add a small amount of body shadow in the front leg at the elbow joint, going up into the body hinting at a shoulder joint. The chest/midriff needs to have shadow. The hind leg needs to have a shadow line somewhere between image two and image three. The shadow needs to follow the contour of the tail. The shadow thins out unnaturally in the centre of the tail.

Now, you can always improve it with bounce light, but that is a new skill, and can only be added if you have enough pixels in the shadow area to use.

It screams for some highlights. Forehead. Cheek (curved upward around the contour of the bottom of the eye, and then a short downward curve at the back of the eye to enlarge the cheek to criminally cute proportions). The ears. The back and hind quarters. The top of the front leg (only a little). The front and rear paw/hoof needs a small glint.

The tail, wings, hoof fluff, and mane cannot be highlighted any further. It is normally wise to start with a slightly off white so you can push the highlights to white.

This image shows a lot of promise.

EDIT. Drop shadow is normally sharp edged (depending on how far the shadow is cast). Body shadow has a smooth gradient.


Edited by NotSure - 18 December 2007 at 1:53pm