Distance isn't apparent

I think that from reading the note, I've discovered the real issue - you've not taken care to make the explosion distant from Ross Fenton. Some detail in the foreground, to imply that it's behind stuff could help you here. Search for perspective online and you'll see what I mean, hopefully.

It's a decent picture of Ross, but I've got to ask about the 1980s shoulder pads that he seems to have in his jacket. His eyebrows look truly massive, which is a worry for something like this picture. Put a little less emphasis and you'll see more results, as the face softens slightly.

Finally, the explosion needs some work. Writing "BOOM!" in the mushroom cloud couldn't make it any more tacky, if you tried. The use of colours was good, but I'd suggest that you use greys and browns for the dust, with a rippling explosion within, representing the fire beneath the dust.

[Review Request Club]

Explode

Well I wonder why he was walking away from there really. Also kind of bugs me why some people look at them even with shades on. Couldn't something get in your eyes and irritate them for a few hours due to the explosion? Same as your other one though, just seems to be lacking some details.

Overall, same as other. Could spend some time and practice drawing so that they look better and more detailed I think.

Review Request Club

Cool guys DON'T look at explosions...

I agree with Haggard...

This is great for a quick drawing buddy, but this is not portal material...
You really need to put a little more work into your submissions BEFORE you submit them; otherwise your work will never be scouted for the actual portal...

Take some time.
Practice, and patiently hone in on your craft; eventually you will produce amazing work.
BUT ONLY IF YOU PRACTICE

Things to fix:
- The explosion here literally has no detail... It says "Boom"... I rest my case
- This is the same detail-less character from before, and his clothing looks like a Windows 98 screen-saver template.
- The background is blue on one side, and black on the other...

Decent effort; work harder!
~Dj Sonik

-Review Request Club-

...

For a quick doodle this would be ok, but I guess it's nothing that would get you scouted for the art portal. The explosion doesn't look too good, in my opinion. There should be more smoke coming up.

The character on the left hand side looks OK, but he could use some more details as well. His clothing looks awfully bland. Also, there are some JPG artefacts on his red clothing, but maybe this happened during the uploading process.

{ Review Request Club }

The shading is a bit off.

The shading seems really wierd. The front of Ross' jacket is the brightest, meaning that the light must come from between the viewer's point of view, and him. That would mean, because the explosion is the light source, the explosion is smaller than him. And certainly not in the distance.

Ross looks pretty cool. His mouth is perfect for this painting, and so are his eyebrows. You could've reflected something in his sunglasses though, to make it a bit more detailed. His right hand seems very off too, it looks more like a pencil than a hand.
To make it a bit better, you could do something with his red jacket too, like buttons or a zipper at least.

It would be somewhat nicer too if something exploded. And by that I mean that now it's just a random explosion. It would be nicer if something like pieces of metal, or whatever exploded, flew around the painting.

You could've done something with the right of the painting too. Just making it black doesn't seem too realistic with an explosion next to it: at least there would be some light, and maybe something to see.