Experimenting with photoshop shading

[Chimaera]

Practicing shading and different poses, Malygos is supposed to look like he was falling, but the pose didn't turn out quite how I wanted it to.
I'm pretty satisfied with the shading and background, though, especially the wings. =D It looks kind of messy in places, though.

What do you guys think?

[Nubhorns]

Very, very nice for experimenting! :) I love the hints of texture - are you using different colors on low opacity, or dodge and burn? I think this would look really nice with some purples thrown in too, just to pick up the background a bit.

All I can say is that if you want to skip the 'messy'-type texture on say, the body, don't be afraid to beef up your brush size - a bigger brush can often lead to a softer, cleaner look. And don't be afraid to get dark shadows and light highlights - a softer look is definitely appropriate for some pictures, but I think this one would benefit from some dark darks and light lights so to speak, especially considering it's nighttime in this one.

All in all a very nice job. Looks lovely. :)

[Chimaera]

It's actually in the Eye of Eternity, so the sky always looks like that, but I know what you mean.
And I was using mostly small brushes on 100% opacity, but only with darker or lighter shades of the base colours. I rarely use dodge and burn, unless I'm trying to make something really shiny-looking.
Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely try some of it for the next thing I do. =D

[Sarayana]

Very nice! It definitely looks like he's falling, and it brought me right back.