Just finished this after sketching the original and deciding I wanted to color it.


on an interesting note I have upgraded from abhorent line sketches to early 2000's Flash style apparently, seeing as how that has been the remark on how my work looks with my newer stuff, not sure when this happened.

..eugh.
It's very simple, bent in parts, and the coloring is just a 2-way gradient.
It looks way too smooth, and really, really ugly. Try uh, not using the gradient effect/shader/tool of any kind when you color.

Thanks for the crits and nice one on the teeth, I'll keep that in mind. I see what you mean with the shadows as well, they do look a bit blurry in places.

I didn't. the program I use doesn't even have a gradient tool, in fact I used the exact same method I used on the last image I uploaded here.

You know what I mean.
However you managed to shade that, don't use the same technique ever for anything unless you want it to look awful.

Oh god, the memories, all those castle defense flash games.
But yeah, the subtle gradient shading is really funky, kinda makes things look like plastic rather than wood or steel. Try using a harder brush or more contrasting values.

You certainly are a negative person, just saying.

No matter how it is framed you should take his advice, shading like that is an easy habit to fall into and a bad one to do.
Gradient shading (that is what it is, even if you didn't use a gradient tool) is both unappealing and unrealistic. You need to make sure you have a clear light source and make less use of whatever dodge/burn tool or transparent brush you have been using.

Yes but typically people aiming to offer helpful advice and not just be rude/trolling tend to actually... offer helpful advice, not say "it sucks, don't do it again."

Now im presuming Miggles didn't intend to be rude/troll but it would be nicer if when critiquing somebodies second colored drawing they have ever made to offer a positive alternative to the thing you have a problem with.

EDIT: on a side note would anybody care to help me figure out why the first colored image and the second one have a severe gap in quality? im assuming its because in the first one i actually had a light source that wasn't ambiguous.

Pretty much that, yeah.
Lightning makes a lot of difference.

Honestly the first one could have done with a lot more contrast too and what shading you have doesn't exactly make sense.
Everything on the body seems to be a curved plane even when it shouldn't be and shading with a white light source makes things look a little unnatural. Try shifting your hue at the same time as the luminosity.
You even have patches of light just appearing in the middle of nowhere!

Try and consider where contours would be on the body (such as between those plates you have that you have shaded as a single shape with outlines drawn across it) and shade there, and don't go overboard!

Flat two color shading beats gradient shading by ∞.

this is a good tip I suppose, the main issue is the skill difference required to make gradient shading look good, as you basically have to have a very good knowledge of how lighting, different materials, different textures, and contours work in the real world, more so then normal people would.