Critiques for "Ushiwaka - Fullbody"

It's quite a beautiful picture--the overlying designs of flowers are blended very gracefully with the blue of the water below, and the shading is absolutely gorgeous. I feel almost nasty nitpicking, but potluck it is . . .

The only critique I have to offer is that I think there's a weakness with the hands holding the flute; they appear flat and lifeless, with no real grace about them. (I myself have a huge amount of trouble with realistic hands. It really is a pain in the rear end, isn't it?) I think the beautiful coloring is disguising the anatomical issue, but not quite fixing it. The posture of the arms is also a bit static and flat. I think some time spent in front of a mirror, sketching, might help correct that.

But overall, those are minor issues. This really is a stunningly beautiful piece. Fabulous work!

Your telling me , =] Hands ar emy nightmare. I didnt spend much time with the original sketch either and I will work on that. It definetly needs to be improved. But how is the question. Maybe a good tutorial. Thanks for the feedback!