radiodark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dream time]

Neat work, but

1) I think you could really benefit from learning how to document your work properly- I doubt that the current images do them justice. Here's a tutorial that will show you how: http://art101.newgrounds.com/news/post/314936 .

2) You won't be able to be scouted until at least 4 of your works are marked public so that they can appear in the portal.

jim3 responds:

Thank you for the suggestions.

[Drug of Choice]

lovely but

This is gorgeous, and I really wish that that watermark wasn't there so that I could experience it properly.

Do you ever work with toned backgrounds? Most of your works I've seen so far feature tons of whitespace, which I sometimes feel is more of a default stemming from an initially white paper or canvas than a conscious design decision.

ShawnCoss responds:

I usually don't add bg's because I only focus on the subject at hand. But I am trying to get better at that and adding more atmosphere to the image

[G-G-Gordon Freeman!!]

tuts

I like the tutorials over at http://div.dyndns.org/EK/tutorial/ , but Kinsei's really the person to ask if you want a list of mighty fine tutorials. He's got an index of resources like you wouldn't believe.

Also, don't be afraid to ask your fellow art regs when you run into trouble.

[wild wonderful westvirginia]

hmm.

I'd love to see this piece (and a lot of your works) better documented- they look fascinating by it's hard to judge from the poor-quality photographs. By the way, if you're uncertain about how to go about photographing artwork, there's a really helpful tutorial here- http://art101.newgrounds.com/news/post/314936 .

[Dandy Lion]

Superb, but

Awesome job with a fun idea. My only complaint is the red ribbon on the cane- it's the only red thing in the work so it grabs a lot of attention (which i imagine you don't want it to get? unless it has some sort of symbolism i'm not grasping), and it doesn't fit with the rest of the color scheme. It'd be easy to fix, by making it a different color (brown or blue probably) or by making a few other things in the composition redder, like by adding red notes to the lion's mane and tail. Making the cane ribbon match the hair ribbon might be best.

Madame-origami responds:

Fair point, but I did choose the red on purpose to break up the tone scheme of the piece and to contrast the zebra print. Thank you for your input, though.

[Pandas]

Wonderful.

It's so great to see artists combining multiple medias like you have here. I love the color palette and the variety in textures. The only thing I'd add to is the pandas- I feel like they could use a little bit more modeling.

[Colin Firth.]

Neat linework, great progress

The problem you have here is that the face is set too low. You've made the opposite mistake from most beginners- most people look at faces and then draw people as if their hairline is the top of the head, which results in weird stretched out faces. You've managed to set the face too low- if you're looking at a head dead on, the eyes should fall halfway up the head- in this case the eyebrows should fall roughly where the that cresting curl of hair is on his forehead.

That said, it's great to see the values you've added to this piece the second time around- it's hugely improved. It's also great to see you drawing hair so wonderfully- a number of your pieces draw the entire skull shape and then sort of put the hair in as if it's growing from behind the head, rather than on the head itself. I'm delighted to see that you figured out how to avoid that here.

IloveNantes responds:

I know I always manage to make the forehead too large, thus setting the face in too low... :/ I've fought that for over a year now and I'm not too sure on how to improve that.

Thanks, though, and I'll definitely take your words into consideration unlike mister Hiryugouki. :)

[A girl with chestnut hair]

Awww

Don't be so discouraged. Learning the hard way what not to do can be just as useful as getting lucky and taking the right approach right off. Granted, your figure needs a neck and shoulders rather badly so it looks a bit less like a disembodied head floating above a set of disembodied tits, but bits and pieces of this show great promise, especially the eyes. The facial proportions are impressively fine- the chin could be more symmetrical the jawline could be softened, but usually facial proportions are what everyone ruins their pieces over and you show no signs of the usual mistakes. Keep trying and don't give up- figure drawing can be extremely satisfying.

Flashmovieboy responds:

thanks for the constructive criticsism, like they say, sometimes bad art is better than no art :D

[Trumpet Player]

scouting

Nice color palette. Make sure all your works are marked for public viewing- you can't be scouted unless at least four of them can show up in the art portal. Also, you might find http://art101.newgrounds.com/news/post/314936 useful- it's a tutorial on photographing artwork.

OscarMayerWinnr responds:

Haha, thanks, just now realized that pretty much all my pictures were not public and I could have sworn they were. Oh well fixed now and hopefully I will be scouted soon.