Anything For One More Moment

I promised I would try to provide some meaningful feedback, so here goes!

This image does convey the sense of loss that many people would be familiar with when losing a family member. I think it's clever incorporating a visual element that is associated with the Emerald Dream, a piece of lore that strongly ties in with the Kaldorei lore.

The composition is very centered on the female, but the father's image is offset enough to give the image some needed asymmetry. It was also a good idea to crop the portal structure the way you did. One part of the picture is very distracting for me, however. The tree-like structure located near the top-right of the image is too prominent, and it reminds me of a head from the aliens in the movie of the same name!

The way the story is told is a bit risky as far as originality goes. I feel it's somewhat dangerous to use mirror-like device with the spectral-like figure, as it's a scene often seen in fantasy. However, the allusion to the Emerald Dream and the role of portals in the WoW universe is something that would be familiar to fans of that world, so in that sense, I think this is ok.

I like that you put more detail into her outfit and the accessories. Even a few small details can make a big difference, so good job here.

Ok, onto the technical stuff.

I like the colour palette and range of values (dark, light), which is something I think you're good with. I'm going to caution again about the use of blur and blend. In a picture like this where there's a large soft light source in a dark environment, an air brush-style application of colour is a good way to indicate a soft glowing light, which you did. I just think that too much of it, especially with blurring and blending can be detrimental in making the image look artificial. I find this to be the case in the green portal area and in Lunaire's hair.

I think the reflective light on Lunaire needs to be stronger, given that there is a giant glowing green object in front of her. Much of the overall colour palette for this image should probably be almost monochromatic given the light source.

Lunaire's face has a few awkward spots. Her eye is set too far up in the face if we're going to follow standard facial proportions. Her ear is also too far up and should be aligned to her jawline. Her father's ears are positioned much better and I think his facial proportions are also better. I have some problems with her hair. In addition to the blurring/blending mention above, I think you could simplify her hair instead of trying to suggest too much. Her hair also needs more basic shadowing. The backside of the hair should be much darker, for example. Try starting with large basic shapes of the hair first and work your way to finer detail in progressive stages, otherwise you could end up with a bad hair day (ha ha).

I think your picture does do an effective job of telling a story, and it should be something wow fans will be familiar with. If I could make some suggestions related to story telling, perhaps have a think about how you might tell this story in a different way. For example, maybe the use of some symbols or metaphoric elements might work. Another thing is that some viewers may not be able to determine the relationship between the two characters in this scene, especially due to the fact that most Night Elves generally look young. An element suggesting a father-daughter relationship might help, as well as add further interest in the picture.

I hope you found this feedback helpful!

(P.s. I hate hate hate having to assign stars for rating pictures in critiques. I think next time I'll just put my critique into a plain old comment)