Vision: I can tell you weren't trying to get too adventurous with this picture, as you have stated before. This picture started out as a sketch that ended up being shaded for a more 'complete' look. Because of this, less attention was put towards creating a dynamic scene, meaning or a pose that creates more of an impact. This is a straight-forward, simple piece that doesn't claim to do anything more than what it appears to do. The vision of this piece gets three stars. Enough for what it needs, but nothing above and beyond. For a sketch-turned painting, there is nothing wrong with that.

Originality: Dragonesque characters have been done before, even if this is your unique character. Three stars because of the effort put into the little details of his character, such as his triple earlobes and bone ridge along his forehead. This is also a character you have maintained over a long period of time and who does not change drastically, creating a solid character that one can recognize.

Technique: For the most part, the muscle structure and facial structure have been done very well (the hand is rendered wonderfully!), but there are a few nitpicky elements I will point out. First, the muscles lining the rib cage are close, but not quite correct, as you have already pointed out. I make mention of it here because you asked for an in-depth critique on this artwork. Saying that it is alright for a humanoid character to have inaccurate structuring on only one aspect of his otherwise human body is basically making allowances for a weakness in your artistic ability. Asking for critique nullifies these self-given allowances.

For the ribcage, the muscle structure should have a more woven pattern rather than a wavy pattern that is shown here. The muscles should give the illusion of being braided, with muscles overlapping each other in y-shaped bunches.

The irises of the eyes are done well, but I have to ask if the irises should be glowing, or are merely red in color? Right now, it seems like his eyes are dead. If his eyes are glowing red, try to give the appearance of red light striking other parts of his face, such as his eyelids, eyelashes, eyebrows, etc. If not, then eyes should always have a reflection of light in them, as living eyes are kept moist by tears and will always reflect light- eyes that do not reflect light are dead.

The outer edges of the eyes don't quite match the realistic look you seem to be trying to achieve with the rest of the piece. They are rimmed thickly with black and with blocky, triangular eyelashes. Unless he is wearing extremely heavy makeup, try to give his eyes a softer rim, closer to flesh tone, and thin, wispy eyelashes will also help give more of a sense of realism.

This leads into the hair, for which my comment will be similar. The hair looks blocky and not well-defined in comparison with the meticulous detailing in his face and muscle structures. There is nothing wrong with the hair, it just isn't very synonymous with the realism of the rest of the piece. Try placing more strands in the hair, bringing out the depth of shades and how pieces of hair will layer in different ways, creating interesting highlighting and shading opportunities. Think of hair in a three-dimensional way, with layer upon layer of hair stacked in asymmetrical ways across itself. Try to visualize each layer, and shade the hair appropriately. It is not necessary to detail every strand of hair, but an equal portion of detailing should be given the hair as the rest of the piece.

The shading aspect to the skin has been very well done, with adequate highlights and shadows that are textured enough not to give the illusion that his skin is hard and shiny. Only a few minor critiques in this area. First, it seems that the light source is coming from the front-right of the picture by the way the skin has been highlighted. However, there is also what appears to be a strong secondary light source coming directly from the right, as there is a hard line of highlighting to the right on his skin. If the primary light source is from the front right, we should see some backlighting coming from the back-left, which does not seem to be present. Backlighting is essential in conveying depth and volume in objects. Also, because backlighting is reflected light, it is often not the same color as the main light source. Usually it takes on a predominant color in the background of a piece (in this particular instance, a medium rose hue). Doing so will place the character within the picture, rather than standing in front of it. However, you can use your secondary light source instead of reflected backlighting by placing it where backlighting would come from (opposite the main light source). Because this secondary light source is a source of light, rather than merely reflected, you can then make the color of the secondary light whatever you choose. This can make for very interesting light effects that really make an impact on the viewer.

My one other critique about the skin is the lack of hue variation. Shading the piece the way you have is perfectly fine- using monochrome shading and then placing a color layer above. However, when placing that color layer, try to give certain elements of his skin some subtle hue differences, such as a very slight rosiness to his knuckles, nose, lips and cheeks (etc), rather than simply laying down a flat color layer containing only one color (also be sure to contain the layer to just the parts you need to color- in this piece, the right piece of hair on his chest seems to be disappearing into his skin because the color is not differentiated). You can also achieve a nice effect by using a slightly different hue to shade his skin (warm tones for bright light or sunshine, cool tones for unnatural light or dim lighting conditions)

Regarding his armor and weapon, what is the intended material? If it is metal, some strong, solid highlights and backlighting is necessary to get the degree of hyper-reflectivity that metal exhibits. Also try to introduce some reflections of colors and objects that would be reflected (in this particular instance, putting skin tone in the metal itself as a reflection of his hand). You can also create some very interesting effects of metal reflecting metal, and highlights bouncing between the two. These suggestions aren't beginner-friendly, but if you're willing to experiment with light and metal, you can achieve some striking results if done well. You can shade metal smoothly, but I've seen some amazing results happen from loosely blocking in various shades of metallic tones, keeping in mind where shadows and highlights should go. Texturing such as small scratches or dints in the metal create an impressive effect.

If the armor and weapon are made out of a leather-ish material (which what seems to be the case here), definitely some rough texturing is needed and more highlighting and backlighting (although not to the degree of metal). Highlights on leather should be stronger than is present now, but softer and more gradiated than metal highlights.

Impact: Three and a half stars because there is quite a lot of detailing to the armor, weapon and various elements of the character design to enjoy. Generally, smart detailing will automatically improve the impact of the piece, whether that is subtle texturing to differentiate materials, interesting lighting effects, etc.