Guardian of the night

This is certainly a very impactful work, and well worth an in depth review. I only hope I can provide a fair and balanced assessment for you.

Vision: It is hard for me, as a viewer to know exactly what your intent in making this piece was, however, I would guess it was visual impact, and at that, you have exceled. This piece of art is very dynamic, and truly fascinating to look at due to it's complexities. It grabs your attention, and holds it.

Originality: I can only give a mixed rating for originality, because honestly, putting the moon princess in front of a full moon is not a very unique idea. I've seen it before basically, but rarely this nicely done. I really feel the strong style and visual interest overshadow the fact their piece is not a particularly new idea. In other words, thought it may have been possible to come up with a more original piece by moving her Luna somewhere else, it would not be nearly as impactful.

Technique: Now, for the record, I am a vector artist and this is clearly a raster piece, so I probably can't give as specific a critique as I would like, but here goes.

First off, it was in my mind a very, very good idea to make their piece monochrome, with a large white moon, it keeps the moon, and thus the darker colored Luna in front of it, the focal point. In fact I would say that generally, this is a very compositionally strong piece, with good choices throughout. I might personally have raised Luna herself up a tad bit more, so as to reduce the feeling of negative space on the left side of the moon, but I don't see that as a critical error.

Luna herself, however, seems to me to have a few problems. In order to farther strengthen the visual impact, I would recommend making Luna's armor brighter, providing higher contract with everything else and farter pulling the viewer's eye towards her. Contrast results in visual interest after all.

Also, there is a dark line as well on her closer forearm, I am an sure if it is meant to be shading, but it pulls attention from the rest of the work once it is notices, as it seems to be the only dark line like it on her entire form. I would recommend either working more of the color in throughout her body, or removing it, because currently the contrast it creates is working to negatively effect the impact of the piece.

Her wings, as well, seem to have small tangential lines coming off of the feather tips. I am not sure if this is a stylistic choice, of if they are tangents, but in my mind they do nothing for the piece overall and I would remove them. I do however, love the shading on the lower feathers.

Impact: This is where this work truly shines. While I may think it could use some small tweaks, the impact of their work is brilliant. The softness of the clouds contrast beautifully with the harsh style of Luna, and the bright moon is very, very attention grabbing. It stood out on my list of deviations from MLP, and I just knew with its fascinating look, I had to check it out. And that is, in my opinion, the mark of a good piece of art, that it grabs the attention of the viewer and pulls them in.

I thank you for sharing this work, and I look forward to seeing more from you of this caliber. I hope this critique has been informative, comprehensive, and an interesting read.