Hey again, =arvalis. It's always nice to see your work in my Messages. SINCE YOU ASKED FOR A CRITIQUE and I HAVE A BIG MOUTH, circumstances are RIPE FOR CRITICISM.

Yes.

COMPOSITION
You put the figure as much in the center of the page as you possibly could. It's a simple character illustration, it's not like centering him is this great sin. Still, I think you could have made the image more interesting by choosing to position the character on a third, and perhaps balancing it on the other side with some kind of graphic element in the background - the name of the character in interesting typography, something like that. *vert-is-ninja does a really good job of composing character illustrations with graphic elements.

COLOR
I actually really like the way you've chosen to color this. The flat, graphic feel with black, plus the EXTREME URBAN!!! neon green edge/rimlighting is very stylish, in my opinion. Maybe the scarf and skin could have used a little more of that, but I'm not complaining. The color looks +++ great.

ANATOMY
Everything looks like it's pretty much in the right place. The guy doesn't even have glamour anatomy; his proportions are unusually 'normal' for your work. The ONE THING I absolutely feel like I have to point out is Mr. Dude's face. His features seem kind of like they are floating in a blob of face-shaped flesh, not solidly anchored to the underlying bony structures. I assume you attempted to simplify features like the mouth for the sake of style, but it looks awkward and feels even flatter than the rest of the image - not in a particularly good way, either. His teeth don't curve inside his mouth. Perhaps it's the level of detail found elsewhere in the image that makes his flat teeth and very cartoony mouth shape seem stylistically inconsistent, it's difficult to say for sure. I think you could have done better on the face.

LINE ART
If I simplified this into a silhouette, I bet I'd still be really impressed. The shapes you created are phenomenal, in my opinion. I particularly like the jauntiness of the shapes of the far leg. It can be difficult to make the Converse Sneaker into an interesting looking shape, and I've fought with it on more than one occasion. I think you did very well with it, here. All of the line art is crisp, and it fits in very well with the color.

MISCELLANEOUS
Gradient taco background. I don't know how to feel about this. I don't hate it, and I can't really pin down a solid crit about it - so just take this as an opinion, but I think you could have done better. Less repetitive graphic elements or more stylish, urban, sharper repetitive graphic elements would have been more successful, I think. The gradient tacos are okay, I don't think anybody is going to beat you up over them, but it kind of dulls the 'cool' of the figure, and feels cheap in comparison.

Overall, I'm excited about a lot of aspects of this picture, and I know that flat color's not something you do too often (I think most people probably know you for your painting), but I think you do it well. Great picture, man.