Quote - I would give My left arm to get meaningful and constructive criticism,  I have had little formal arts training but I believe I can learn..

On the other (missing) hand,  there are Many individuals using the gallery as a social network.
Perhaps these people should be using chat instead..    That opens another door,  whenever I go into CHAT there is never anyone there..

If One wants comment One must comment,  seems to be an unwritten rule here at Renderosity..

Oh for the love of all that is holy, I see what you mean! You're getting the same comments for the WIPs as for the Finals regardless of any changes you've made! I didn't spot anything constructive. Remembering why I don't post often to the gallery here.

Since you asked for it....Lighting, lighting, lighting.....then there's the posing....then there's the inadequate blending of ground and background in most of the renders.....and don't be reluctant to engage in postwork, all the good artists are doing it.

I highly recommend Digital Lighting & Rendering, 2nd Edition by Jeremy Birn

Critically study the lighting and composition of pictures that you find appealing and figure out how to replicate the effect. Hell, COPY the piece exactly for your own benefit while learning then apply the techniques you discover to your own original works. Perfectly legit so long as you don't post the copy.

Most of the Andrew Loomis books on drawing are in the public domain now and are a very good source for instruction on pose dynamics. By reducing the subject to sketches you can more easily see how the pose balances then you can apply the knowledge to 3d poses.

Develop a consistency of style within any individual work then you can break the rules; think Picasso, Dali, Monet, Van Gogh for examples all highly skilled at "traditional" styles before creating their individual styles.

Render in passes then composite the results in an image editing program. This gives more control over your postwork options and simplifies blending the background into the render.

Also do not post an image "hot off the presses", wait a few days and look at it again....you'll nearly always see things that you could do better and if you don't....that's when you post it as a WIP for other people to critique. (somewhere that you can get an honest reply)

I'll want that arm properly preserved and mounted if you don't mind.:biggrin: