Fairy Tale

This work is truly impressive, you've done an amazing job here <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/l/l…" width="19" height="19" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="577" title="La la la la"/> but upholding my complete honesty, I can't just slap a 5/5 on it. (I'd call it an 8.5/10 <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/n/n…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="334" title="Nod"/>)

Your execution is almost flawless, there's always nitpicking that can be done about how much detailing you did no matter how good you get, so I'm not gonna. (but you really may want to try increasing or somehow refining the detail in your work)

Somehow however, you managed to mess up your cast shadows a lot, suppose you thought you'd get away with it but the biggest giveaway is lack of cast shadow under the girls feet, there's also the matter of the cast shaow under the log she's sitting on, the cast shadow under it should be a lot darker. However besides the lack of cast shadow under her feet and the lack of darkness in the cast shadow from the log, you pretty much saved yourself from any issues by conveniently placing the light source in the middle of the image <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="366" title=" (Big Grin)"/> clever girl.

A second issue with lighting I notice is lack of definition of the girls torso, the light source is right next to her belly!!! the entire torso should be brightly lit, and even the back of her cape, you should be able to see her arm underneath the cape (and noticing this I see that the anatomy might be a little wonky, where exactly is that girl's right arm attached to? <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="594" title="Stare"/>) you tried to conveniently cover this upp by hiding it in shadow, but that area should not be in shadow it should be one of the brightest lit areas in the entire image, same with the underside of her hat, if the light is coming from the book as the rest of your image suggests that girl's lighting is ALL wrong. This is probably by far the biggest issue with your picture, however since the untrained eye basically can't see these inconsistencies because most people don't understand enough about how light works to see exactly what is wrong, the overall message/story of your image overwhelms this mistake enough so that people do not at any point stop to think that 'something's not right here' <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/n/n…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="334" title="Nod"/> so you again saved your own ass, this time by having a clear message.

You really should work on your lighting technique. As I said in my other review for you, if you want to study light, study light/photons and human vision instead of other artist's interpretations of light, other artists could be wrong, don't trust in them too much.

Your contrasts are however really well and strategically placed, forcing the viewers attention on the foreground (girl and cats) and drawing the eye away from the less contrasting background, but for my personal tastes I would have liked to see the background a little darker, I mean night is typically not this bright, this would further push the contrast of the bright foreground up, but this might just be a matter of taste.

Last but not least, what's truly the most lacking int his image is 'impact', how strongly does it convey it's message and emotions? Quite strongly in fact, but not as strongly as it should, most artists are very very far behind you in this area but that is no excuse to slack on it, I wish I could give a lot of insight into how to create a stronger impact but sadly this is something I haven't even begun to discover yet, but in my studies of art I have come to realize that the most important aspect of any drawing or painting is how strongly it conveys it's story, how strongly it expresses your thoughts and feelings to the viewer. And while you did manage to communicate the idea almost perfectly, an elf/fairy girl reading a story from a magic book to a bunch of less than enthusiastic yet strangely attentive cats (and a ninja bird) I am not getting any strong emotions from it.

That girls expression is rather plain, she has a "I'm reading a book out loud" expression, it conveys what she is doing but I have no idea how she is feeling, and the cat's expressions are all over the place and I think you could have done a more thorough job in thinking through how the cats are feeling and what they are doing, it seems like you were too focused on drawing the girl well to realize that the cats are also a major part of your scene, and the few cats we do see the faces of are not doing anything at all to convey your message, their expressions are all over the place and actually do not seem to match what they are doing at all. In other words, your idea is clearly conveyed which means strong impact, but your emotions are not, emotions are a lot harder to convey (so I feel your pain over this difficulty) but if you can communicate emotions through a picture, your impact will shoot through the roof.

And you know what, I said I wouldn't nitpick about detail, but I did find something I can point out, the cats as foreground objects are underdetailed, these 3 cats we see the faces of do not have enough detail in them, as foreground objects they should be detailed, they should just not be as detailed as your focal point (the girl) but detailed still, you should have shown them more love <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/n/n…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="334" title="Nod"/> which goes to meet with my last point of htinking through their expressions more.

You have succeeded extremely well in drawing out a scene, but you only succeeded in drawing what is happening, not how it feels. therefore your impact, while a notch above the vast majority of artists, is just not as strong as it could have been.

And seriously <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="594" title="Stare"/> work on your understanding of light!