Mrav i Azdaha

My first thought when I saw this: Who took L from Death Note away from his desk chair and put him with a dragon? I realize that Ryu is your OC (creating a necessary "so there" from most people), but he reminds me of L in this picture. A lot. I do hope I have not gone more insane than I already am; he looks more differentiated in the realistic picture.

Regardless, the first impression was more of a turn-off than I thought it would be. After all, it's still a dragon waiting to take a bite out of the pink thing that's wandered into his lair, right?

Except the guy looks very 'meh' about it. It's not the "wow, a real dragon!" reaction that you implied in your comments. It's almost like a scene from a cartoon in which Bugs Bunny gets roared at by a lion or tiger, but, even though the roar caused his skin to wrinkle, the rabbit ultimately shrugs it off. The dragon is full of excitement, but his prey is just...standing there. Yes, it's bold that he's looking it straight in the eye, but also a little unrealistic. (To be fair, it's TOTALLY in-character for L; he'd probably be going, "hmm...a dragon...how do I deal with this?")

The dragon itself is super-detailed. Worry not; the effort that went into the scales paid off! However, there are some things that make me go "was that really necessary?" The spinal ridge extending onto the snout bugs me, as do some of the little protrusions along the lower jaw. The horns are interesting, but I kinda wonder how such growths would have evolved (scaled on the bottom, chitinous on top? I'll have to think about that). It felt like there was just too much on the dragon.

So, reasons for my ratings.

Vision: Not a bad idea, but it feels like a case of 'good idea, meh execution.' I can tell that some sort of epic scene is trying to happen, but failing.

Originality: I'm torn on this one. The dragon-slayer motif is over-used, even with original characters, but it is a solid motif. I like how it's open; we don't know whether he will actually slay the dragon or not, especially since he is so unassuming at the moment. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/w/w…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Wink)"/>

Technique: While your style is exceptional as usual, the human barely paying attention to the dragon and looking a lot like L distracts from any magic that could possibly be in this scene. Looking the dragon in the eye is a bold move, but disrupts the potential excitement that could be in the picture. I could nitpick about tooth distance and other biological things, but they feel minor in comparison.

Impact: While L staring down a dragon is a cool thing to see, it is also a lot less exciting than one would think. The more I looked at this, the less I liked it. Such is the fate of a critic.

Overall: dA stars will probably score this a little lower, but B-. I can tell it's trying to be serious, but there is something almost funny about it. I am fairly sure that is not what you were going for.

Hope this helps!

(P.S.- I LOVE the word 'zmaj.'Related to the word for 'snake,' no?)