simbalm

Thanks for the feedback on my feedback. Always glad to help!

Hey you! Here's my 100-watcher critique!
I admit I'm really not into the whole furry-OC thing so I may not be the best at giving you advice on this, but here goes anyway. You kinda asked for it <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/r/r…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="396" title=" (Razz)"/>.

Here's what I get of your purpose: you're trying to portray Lintegrisse's OC Silverbea in a cool way.

I think you achieve this pretty well. The picture looks overall very neat. The background is very cool and stylish. The quality of your lineart is really impressive <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/c…" width="20" height="20" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="60" title="Clap"/> It's very confident and clean and looks really professional. The flat colours also keep this very clean and professional; it reminds me slightly of old-fashioned cartoon style. I really like the glow effects on the hair and eyes; they're very soft and well blended and add a little sparkle of stylishness. The background is also very stylish. The colours make it very original. I admit it doesn't really remind me of the Milky Way or of a comet because the colours are so special. But I think it's a brilliant use of the colours present on the character to make an interesting background.

What could be better? Here's a few suggestions. They're just my personal opinion on what I would have done differently. Hopefully they'll help you appeal more to people like me. I'm not telling you that you're doing it wrong and what is the right way of doing things. I believe there is no such thing as a right way to make art. I'm just giving you my preferences and ways to please me.
First I can't help but ask if you meant this to look like a puppy. That's what I thought it was until I looked at Lintegrisse's reference sheets which suggested it was a lynx/cougar that could turn into a mouse. I'm not an expert in animal anatomy but I think this has to do with the way you drew its nose and mouth; it looks a little too long to me for a feline and not pointy enough for a mouse. But don't take my word for it. The only solution is using a bunch of references to get this right.
I also wonder what are the cloudy highlights on its body for. I find that flat colours give you a nice old-fashioned comic look but those highlights kind of contradict it. I also think this piece could have done with some actual shading/highlighting. In certain places like the raised paw, the lineart's colour is so close to that of the fur that it disappears completely making your picture hard to read. From a little distance, it's really difficult to make out the paw, and it looks like your character has no front legs. Remember to zoom out often when painting, this will help you spot this kind of problem. Concerning highlighting/shading, after looking at some of your other work, the advice I would give you is to go for harder brushes or at least give your shadows and highlights harder edges that will (in my opinion) fit better with your cartoon style. Soft brushes are tempting because they blend colours and make nice gradients on their own, but they are really un-stylish and look cheap (my opinion once more).
Like many people, I think you could also do with working on your originality and impact. To make your piece more interesting, try to tell a story/to convey emotion/to give a message. A great advice on story-telling I got was to make your characters react to something, interact. This will make something happen in your picture and create a scene. Though you may also want this to be just a portrait and not a scene. But in that case you may want to think about what you want to portray. What emotions, what aspects of the OC's personality? Here, to me, the pose looks a little bland and maybe a bit cute. Lintegrisse says her character doesn't like being called cute. She also says it's mean and bitchy and I feel like it would have been nice to feel that in your picture, maybe through the expression or pose. "Here's yet another OC portrait" is kind of what I thought at first. To avoid this and get a little more impact and originality, I think focusing on the personality of the OC and maybe even staging it in a little scene could really help.

Overall. I really like your drawing skills. Your lineart is excellent maybe even flawless. I think flat colours suit your style very well but maybe a little shading/highlighting could help with making volumes easier to read. Keeping the edges of your shadows/highlights very hard would suit your style best in my opinion. Also putting a little more thought into what your character and what you want to portray could help you with impact and originality.

Hope this helps. Cheers and keep up the awesome work!