GamerTheory's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Devil XV]

You could look at the head--if that's a head--in a few different ways, and all of them are unnerving. This is a solid, well-done picture, especially considering it's a study.

The light up top works really well; the shadows and highlights on the torso look great. However, once I get down to the abdomen and pelvis, it fells like, with that much light above, the shadow shouldn't be as dark as it is, especially when the spikes are partially highlighted. Looking at it a little closer, it may just be my monitor, but it looks like the painting style in that area is different as well. Was this intentional? Was the abundance of shadow intentional? That doesn't bother me as much as the shift in style, so I'm gonna say the shadow thing is fine.

I'm not adept at art myself, so in the end, your judgment is probably better than mine.

[Rogue]

The attention to detail in this picture is great to say the least. The 8 ball in the skull and the faded ghost behind the amoeba(?) are especially nice. The colors flow together well and, despite a softer style, manages to look a lot like Castle Crashers.

All the soft coloring draws my eyes away from the central figure though. If that's your intention, feel free to ignore this, but if not, try to draw out the focus of your picture more in the future. This could be done with slightly bolder lines or colors, or just moving some of the clutter in the background off to the side and keeping the eye-drawing stuff near the figure.

Erbmaster responds:

Thanks, I'll take everything into consideration :D

[smile M!]

The highlights on her armor look great and the proportions make for a very attractive character. Three things bug me, though:

The darker lines coming out of her panty thing look off-center considering the position of the clothing. Or is it slipping off?

Next, her boots look paper-thin. If that's intentional as a sort of parody of female fantasy armor, ignore this part of the critique.

You may want to vary your line weight--make your lines heavier in more shadowed areas and lighter in areas in the light. For example, since she's radiating light in this picture, the inner lines would be heavier.

[Frizzy]

Drawing traditional after a long time of digital always throws me off.

On this picture, her face is small compared to her hand (or her hand is big compared to her face). If you hold your hand up to your face with the bottom of your palm aligned with the bottom of your chin, your fingers generally go about halfway up your forehead. This girl would be able to reach the top of her head with her fingertips.

I wonder, why didn't you finish this? You could get away with cropping out everything below the clavicles and drawing her shoulders (which I mistook her hair for at first). Yes, the hand is well-done, but if that's there, shouldn't there be at least one arm as well? Or is this a famous artist's style that you're emulating that I'm not aware of (entirely possible--I don't know about too many well-known artists).

I've always liked seeing anime-style drawings with more realistic proportions, so I'm liking the size of the neck. The shading is nice, the hair is good, the face is proportional to itself, at least, and her hand is accurate.

bloominglove responds:

Thank you very much for your review! :D

I'm still very much an amateur with anything relate to proportion. Still a long way to go! :)

[The Valley]

The background isn't too bad, actually. What's bugging me is the line of the picture frame being exactly on and parallel to the straight depicting the side of his face. Generally, you want to avoid this unless it's unavoidable, and you know what? You could actually have fun with those picture frames. Say you moved them closer or him back a little and made him standing directly in front of an "employee of the month" picture with his face exactly where the employee of the month's would go.

Got off track there a bit. Anyway, next , his torso is long. I usually dodge this by making sure my character's wrists align with the bottom of his/her crotch. After that, look to his feet. His left heel, to our right, looks like it's about level with the middle of his other foot while his right knee isn't bent to accommodate.

Overall, I'm liking the color blending and the light/shadow, but the light source that's illuminating most of his face and neck doesn't look like it's hitting the rest of him. While on the topic of lighting, it looks like the light source is coming from the front, and yet his shadow is being fast in front of him?

The colors, the color blending, the light and shadow (for the most part), and the background are all pretty nice overall.

[First Commission Oil Painting]

Fine art indeed. I love seeing well-done realism on Newgrounds.

The kid in the back's hair comes off his head kind of a lot. Mentally draw the line where his skull is and check the hair. I may be wrong on this, though; I've seen kids with high hair before.

That same kid's left eye, to our right, is just a tiny bit higher than the other one. It took me a long time staring to pick that out, though.

Lastly, and I add a disclaimer to this one that I'm terrible with light and shadow, how is such intense red being reflected on the back kid's shirt? Does the front kid's shirt glow? Or is this some aspect of lighting that I'm not aware of.

It took me awhile to pick out those three tiny things. There may be more, but I'm not skilled enough to pick them out if there are. Awesome work, overall. You must have put a ton of time into this, and whoever's buying it won't be disappointed.

DonStracci responds:

First of all thank you! You made me see some things that I didn't notice! As you said because of the hair it looks like he has a bit too high skull I can manage to reduce that a bit when the current coat of paint is dry. For the eyes on the other one, you can notice that his ears are also a bit horizontal, it was meant to be done like this with the eyes, however as you said it could have been less high, I hardly can change that mistake thought, lastly, I will eventualy add some more glazes to darken the shirt refletion. Again, thank you alot to taking time to critique, really appreciated!
-Mat

[Brightened World]

That is one enormous head, isn't it? Regardless, you've got your horizon line aligned with her eyes, there are some really nice things going on with the lighting, and the background does a good job of setting the tone.

I see something that's bugging me about the way the background is done, but I can't place it, so I won't subtract any stars. It would be unfair to knock off points without telling you why. I think it might be something to do with the lighting clashing with the perspective, but I'm not sure.

My main problem with this picture is the size of her head, but then there's her hair. The way it's done, it looks like it's at an angle, falling and landing behind her dress, a foot or two beyond where it should drop. Granted, this is really hard to say for sure from the angle she's at.

Speaking of angles, I just noticed that she's sitting at an angle. Her shoulders are straight, but her dress is diagonal, like there's a ramp in the floor that she's sitting on.

In closing, I'd like to restate how much I like the lighting in the background, even if I can't identify what's bugging be about it. It'll dawn on me next week or something.