Katara for Avatar: The Last Airbender. I am open to critics, let me know your thoughts!
This is an old render, but I really like it. 
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Welcome to BA
This is very cool, you’ve definitely put your own spin on a heavily stylized character, and I think the result works pretty well.
As an avid ATLA fan with a Katara poster not far from where I’m sitting, I can say confidently that the “hair loopies” are too thin. See here, in a shot from the show, they’re wide enough to cover the entire iris and pupil of the eye. The thickness varies, since it’s hand-drawn, but they’re consistently thicker than yours.
It’s hard to say because of the lighting, but I think Katara’s skin is darker than you have it here. Lastly, I think the upper eyelashes could be thicker, or you could add some eyeshadow. It depends on the look you’re going for, I suppose, but she has a very prominent use of dark lines to accentuate her upper eye shape. (Speaking of eye shape, it’s hard to see at this angle, so I’m not going to say anything about that. If you post a front view, I’ll have more to say.)
Good work overall!
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Great critics! I appreciate it!
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Absolutely stunning, looks amazing!
For the “hair clips” they now look brownish, almost the same colour as the hair. I think in the original version the look more blueish metalic. I think that would distinguish them morre from the hair itself, now it blends together making it difficult too see what they are.
I’m sure you’ve improved more since this posting, and the thread itself is quite old but I still wanted to add to it.
lighting
looks great currently, but the face is missing a bit of direction.
as an example for light coming from in front of the character it should be cast to highlight more of
her important details, using studio lighting refs is a good way to improve this.
face
one of the things I see that will help with your lighting as well, is adding more defined face shapes.
the cheekbones, jawline, under eyes, eyelids, and ears all have distinct shapes when lit.
here is an example of using face planes, its important to get familiar with face anatomy and then tweak it to your own stylized look.
Her eyelashes could also use more volume so its easy to recognize at first glance.
Hair
as was said by others, the hair strands should be thicker, more volume. Moving it away from her eye which is a prominent portion of the picture is also a good idea as to not block an important area.
Composition
As katara is the main focus it would be better to see her centered in the image, unless it will be used for a banner or there is a lot going on the left, a square image with the elements rearranged would pop more. Her expression as well looks a bit neutral, if she’s looking toward a fire she might be squinting, or reacting to the intense heat. Her expression will tell its own story on what she’s witnessing.
edit for reference
I made a quick adjustment to show some of my points above.
I hope this helped a little for future projects.
Again I’m sure you’ve improved since this post, but I wanted to give some insight, it could be helpful for others in this section
