/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

If there is lineart, you have finished a black and white piece. You can add shadow or at least some ambient occlusion to make it more polished. A solid color background (the drawing remains white) can also add some extra good looks, but only if your silhouette is good.

You can also add solid colors to it. It will look more finished.
Maybe not even solid colors on everything. Just pick one color that is important (like the character's hair) and paint his hair and a couple elements in the picture with that color. Looks finished.
But let's assume you put colors on everything. You can then add some shadinrg, even a single layer of celshading will do. It's finished.
But then you can add highlights, extra layers of shading or highlighting... finished.

Not cinematic enough?
Add some color filters, gradients and stuff. Now it's finished.
How about some simple background elements? How about some foreground blurry elements?

You may decide to start painting over it. Blending the edges of shadow, or maybe even painting over the lineart and making it disappear.

Done? Maybe, you can add textures, render some areas better. Add details to the background. Add details to the foreground.

Is it finished? Well, you can probablly expand your canvas in a sensible manner and add more characters, more background, more narrative... it can go on forever. And it can be stopped during several stages.

Know what's easy? To tell when a drawing is NOT finished: when you have only one portion of the drawing with a certain degree of detail and it's screaming "the rest isn't as cool as this part!". As long as it's balanced enough, it'll look finished.

Is pic related finished? I'd say yes. Despite that grass on the lower left. Could it be improved upon? Always.

I was his patron for some time and I watched several time lapses, he always drew everything from scratch.

Maybe he traces sometimes when no one is looking for time constraints, but it's clear he doesn't depend on tracing for making even the most complex shit happen.

Don't you ever badmouth /ourguy/ Snatti again.