First of all, I'm not sure whether I am right writing a critique for a picture as astonishing as this one or not. But I do it anyway.

Today I had the chance to see this piece in real life and stared at it for like 15min or more. Nontheless it was not enough time. You can look at it and think it looks great. But only if you stare at it, for more than just a moment (what a lot of people might not do in this community) you can see how amazing this work actually is.

While looking at it you are captured by hundreds of details, your eyes and your mind are so overstrained you have to close your eyes for a short moment to regather your view and thoughts. And then you can slowly look over it and take in all the impressions drachenmagier had put into it.
This illustration may bristle with details however you don't get the feeling it's too much. No, this artist has the nice ability to know when it's too much or when it looks empty.

The whole composition of colours, light-effects, shading ect. work together almost perfectly. With only few strokes at the right spot she creats an effect you ask yourself how the hell she did that.
And with that we change to technique. Not only for this picture but for almost all her works she uses a good repertoire of drawing tools (or even other things, I mean seriously she could even create something nice with dirt or something along those lines)
It's something you might only see if you have the picture right before your nose, but she uses a lot of different techniques, materials, colors to make these effects and the right paper. Seriously the paper felt like it was maltreated. And when you see how worn out this paper actually is now you know how much of work this person put in to create this piece.

The one thing that seems the most extraordinaire in this illustration may are the wings. A lot of people can draw wings, but I never saw a person who had the courage to draw always such special wings like dra does. With accessoires, forms, and way of function she let them look like something special and still they are only wings. It's nice to see that not everyone has turned to be run of the mill.

Here is how I rated this deviation:

Vision – Does the artwork present or reflect a point of view, theme or idea?

- Absolutely, this picture was an arttrade with someone, and all what I could read in the arttrade-partners they were more than pleased how dra permuted their idea.

Originality – Is the artwork fresh or new in its style, execution or approach? Is it something you haven’t seen before in its particular genre? Does it surprise you?

-Well actually it does not suprise me in the case that it is something I have never seen before. Not only in her works, but in other fantasy pictures too. Nontheless it's something new created out of things that already existed!

Technique – Was the artwork skillfully created? Does the artist exhibit advanced knowledge of the medium and/or bring special focus to the craft of the medium used.

- Seriously I can't say more to that than I already have. If it comes to this I don't know any other person who knows better how to use different techniques more efficient than drachenmagier does.

Impact – Does the artwork resonate with you or evoke strong emotions? Does it make you think? Does it blow your mind?

-It's kinda hard to say what it evoke in me or not. It's not like I'm a better person now after I saw it, or that it made me happy/sad or something like that. But it definitely astonished me. Especially that a wicked person like dra can create something so beautiful like this
Happily it didn't have blown my mind otherwise I couldn't have written this critique.

In the end this whole "critique" looks more like a pack of praisings. BUT! I wouldn't praise it like that if I thought it doesn't deserve it. This piece is a nice add to all the great works in this community, and actually deserves much more praise and attention than I could ever give.

drachenmagier, thank you for sharing your works. I'm sure a lot of other think the same as me and are happy to get a chance to see them...