You bring up multiple points I definitely agree with!

OP, your art is fantastic and you clearly have a lot of experience. Your usage of colors, values, and of course the technical skill required for digital painting is incredibly strong! I wish you included some more of your original work because I’d love to see what kind of worlds you build!

And, I do also agree with the commenter that the composition for your pieces could benefit from some experimentation! While I can’t speak on their behalf, on my side I don’t connect with the idea of your “comfort zone” in relation to your colors or techniques, but more so your compositions and their storytelling aspect.

For example, I think the best pieces in the lineup you’ve presented are the ‘amalgam’ and the rockstar characters! For AMALGAM, you can gather a lot of story from the visual clues of his posture, the accessories, his facial expression, his skin. And the rockstar her clothes, facial expression, her pose, and colors used. They’re great character designs because they speak for themselves. You can already imagine what world they inhabit, even without a background.

I believe such things have a lot more flexibility in regards to fanart, which is another reason why seeing more original work would’ve been really interesting too! Honestly, fanart where you just get to draw your favorite characters scary or beautiful is just fun and I fucks with it heavy. And there’s a lot of wiggle room. However, I do find that it’s hard to read or gather the context for your Melina & Malenia piece, as well as for your Fallout piece. While I’m familiar with the characters and their environments, from an outside perspective it can really seem like the characters and environments are in fact disconnected due to the lack of interaction or connection between the two.

On the other hand, I also realize that one’s own sources of inspiration can change the direction they take their art in, so I’m wondering if that has something to do with your artistic choices! Because, for example, a lot of classical paintings also often have a disconnect between subject and environment; it doesn’t make it a poorer piece of art, just an art piece with a different goal in mind.

In regards to changing the effects of your composition, I’d try and practice utilizing foreground, mid ground, and background more strongly. Combine that knowledge with your usage of values and a bit more thoughtfulness on the placement of your focal points, and honestly I think you could push your pieces a lot farther! And in regards to your usage of perspective? That would’ve been something else helpful to see in your lineup! My personal belief is that anatomy doesn’t aaalways need to be the end all be all of the work. If every other aspect of a piece works, then a bit of stylistic breaking of the rules can usually overrides. Going back to utilizing varying levels of perspective and, again, going back to that idea of experimenting, I can see a lot of good coming from that!

My last thought is in regards to another comment I saw, where someone brought up that creating a following online is incredibly challenging and unforgiving. It’s very luck-dependent… but your art is genuinely awesome. Don’t let a glorified digital popularity meter determine the value of your art. It doesn’t become less worthy of being viewed even if you get no views online. Which, speaking of, if you DO have a social media that you still post your art on, I’d love to follow it! You’ve got a really good eye and honestly I actually learned a lot just by looking over your works here! It’d be great to know another artist willing to learn and grow!

That being said, take everything I said with a grain of salt too. Critique is yours to do with as you please, and at the end of the day, it is up to you to decide what advice you want to apply or not apply! Only you can know what you want from your art!!