Coop's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Barrett .50 Cal]

Pretty good

A pretty realistic drawing of a sniper rifle. I would call into question a couple of the details there, like the sniper scope appears to be looking straight at something obscuring the field of vision. If that's a laser sight, it might be slung slightly under the barrel of the scope, to increase accuracy.

Secondly, the magazine - shouldn't it be curved, to aid the soldier in removal and reload? It does looks quite nice and light weight, but it does appear that little bits and pieces are not quite accurate. There's no finger grooves for supporting the piece just in front of the magazine and I know that all sniper rifles don't come with the front mounted stands, but this might benefit from one.

Of course, I'd much prefer to see one in a combat situation, covered in camouflage, ready for proper action.

Like I said at the start, it's pretty good. Not bad, but a few little issues that I have. From an artistic point of view, I'd have changed the background from transparent, as it's difficult to pick out when you view it in full size, as it's dark, like NG's background.

[Review Request Club]

fallensoul289 responds:

Funny as it may seem that's supposed to be there. No the magazine should not be curved I had a picture for reference. Another thing is this model does not have a bipod and some snipers fire these in the prone postition. all the details are supposed to be there and are the way they are exactly from a picture. I'm all about details. Anyhow thanks for the review.

[Pancake]

Barely 3D

Sorry, but it's not really what I'm after in a 3D image on Newgrounds. I think that you've taken the time to come up with a decent looking pancake, except that it's got no detail to it, no pancake is ever perfect, the butter looks manufactured perfect and the syrup even dribbles in patterns that are "too nice" to be real.

You need a background for this - a nice little diner, where the waitress is friendly and helpful. Then you need to add a plate to it all, so that the pancake has some sense of belonging, rather than just being a single piece, with little juxtaposition.

[Review Request Club]

chesster415 responds:

Yeah, the pancake is too pretty. Like one of the food models you see on cheesy, restaurant commercials but with too much make-up. And, the lack of background seems to really bother everybody. Thanks, for the review.

[Goomba's Last Moments]

"Aaw, crap."

Not a bad little image, this one, though I would have to question why the Goomba has blue eyes - I've never seen a picture of a Goomba without either brown or black eyes before.

I love the shadows that you've put in here and the only way I can see this starting to look better is if you've put some effort into making the goomba look less two dimensional. The way that the image has been rotated and the camera moved, it's a really nice looking concept, but to keep it away from being more three dimensional is where you lose out.

A decent take on the floor, possibly requiring some sort of background of a sewer pipe, since we are in the mushroom kingdom, after all.

[Review Request Club]

chesster415 responds:

I gave the Goomba blue eyes because I thought it looked cuter that way. Black didn't seem colorful enough, and there's a lot of brown already. Blue brings the focus of the picture to the eyes. A three dimensional look might be pretty cool, but it's more of a cartoony look I was going for, although the floor could be adjusted. Thanks for the review.

[Jesbus MC8]

Lacking detail

I'm not really impressed with this piece - it's not up to your usual standards. You've done some decent work with the shading, which is a great way to go, but now you need to learn control of the pressure of your pencil over the paper. The face, in particular has different grades of shade, that look like you've been paining as if using a graphics tablet, while actually using a piece of paper and a pencil. Good work on the beard though, it almost looks like individual hairs.

There are great swathes of white that could have used detail - the gun for example, it needs some detail on the magazine, as they are usually machined to have grooves down them. A lot of the drawing has been brough backwards by the lack of background once more and the lack of colour certainly doesn't help at all.

[Review Request Club]

[madness combat 9]

Straighten up please

It's not a bad piece, even coaxing me to say as much as it is good, for a pencil based sketch based on Madness. I think that you could do with launching your own style, rather than just borrowing from this genre, as while the look is good, it's not your own style. Broadening your horizons will always be a good thing.

Again, we see the lack of colours causing issues here, as the piece is too light and airy for Madness, which is dark, violent and corrupt. Adding even a basic colur scheme here would make the piece so much better, giving a brilliant way of conveying not only the moods in the piece, but the feeling that something bad is about to happen to anyone stupid enough to stand in Hank's way.

When scanning your pieces, take more time to get it lined up on the scanner bed - it's not too well aligned on the left side of the screen. If you're drawing a comic book style frame, do that first, using a ruler, then when you put things in like the step, use perspective to get a better view. These little things make all the difference.

[Review Request Club]

[Jesbus watching over hank]

Colour would make this awesome.

Not a bad piece at all - I like the way that this is taken from Madness Combat 9, only from a different angle. Adding some colours and background detail would do such a massive boost to the piece, it's incredible. Face it, Madness just doesn't look good in white, as most of the characters in it are grey or darker.

Some shading in place of the absence of colour would have helped, especially on Hank and with Jebus' beard and shades. I personally think that when those details are added, you'd be onto a winner, but the colour would be the best possible option. If you're drawing by hand and scanning, head down to a local craft supplies and get yourself some coloured pencils - it would make such a difference, especially if you sketch lightly with pencil, colour over the top and then ink in the outlines afterwards. Have a go and see what you think.

[Review Request Club]

[Hail of Madness!]

Certainly one of the best

Well, that's the type of art that Madness Day is all about! I love the way that you've got the detail into this image, from looks of confusion and fear on the faces of the goons below (which is a very difficult thing to convey without facial expressions), the pieces of flying glass, the spent ammunition cartridges and Hank himself looking such a badass in all his glory.

I'd have changed two subtle details with this piece:

1) The walls don't seem so traditional 'madness grey' - perhaps a few changes in the shading would help. I know that the red 'sunlight' is affecting the ambient colours, but it still doesn't seem completely right.

2) The two goons on the gantry - one has an automatic weapon and the other has a semi-automatic at best. The guy on the right, as we look at it has bullet casings flying out at almost the same speed as the guy on the left with the gun spraying full auto. Perhaps taking into account the recoil would sort the guy on the right out, as the heel of the gun, where the magazine goes in seems like it's not quite right, as well.

I love the "Days since last accident" board - the only way to improve this would be to have a 1 hanging off the board, exposing the 0, due to the madness and mayhem that is taking place before our eyes.

[Review Request Club]

[Level 49]

Nice work

Well, this is certainly a piece that could class as a World of Warcraft fan art submission - have you considered sending it in to them so that you can get published there?

I think that your issue with the right hand isn't something to worry about, as it wasn't noticeable, until I read your notes on it all. The detail is good - sparse where it is not needed and not overkill where it comes into play. Lots of high fantasy elves tend to have leaf motifs crawling across their armour and shields. Perhaps this could have been picked out on the armour, to give a nice additional look. I would have worked with making the background look a bit more detailed, giving more shades of green and a more dark, mysterious tone to the piece.

I also think that she's wearing a little too little in key places - If she puts down her quiver, there is more than just a hint of nipple on show. Even in a comical sense, the costume would need to be practical overall. Perhaps a crop top style for the top and then the strap for the quiver between the comically oversized breasts, as this will then accentuate that look as well.

[Review Request Club]

LegolaSS responds:

well co-op, i like warcraft 3 so thats most likey where it came from... and i dont do art for money... not my style... anyway... it might not be noticeable but it really pisses me off everytime i see it... i wanted to do more to it but i was short on time... i wanted to keep it rather basic as i was still trying new ideas and taking tips from other artists... as for the background i added it as a quick background so that she wasnt just standing in the middle of a grey box... its my piece for the level collab in the art fourms... i have already altered the background so it doesnt stand out as much... i want the main focus to remain where its needed... as for the clothing... i see where your coming from... il keep it in mind for when i do proper pieces and not just blatenly trying to get more views :P

[Kinetic]

Nice.

I think that what we've got here is a very nice looking piece, but there's one or two bits that I'd like to bring to your attention for future reference:

1) The eyelashes look wrong - they tend to curl and separate naturally, but not go bushy and matted, as if they are in the style of 'bed hair' - just my observation, I suppose.

2) Perhaps a little more detail could be used on the finger nail above the ete itself - it looks as if the subject has a mutant eyebrow, which would be interesting in itself, but in this context is just not needed. Some work with the shading to take it away from the same colour / complexion of the bridge of the nose - as it's under the nail, after all.

I love the detail level that you've put into the eye, particularly the iris. I'm not a fan of the smudged effect of the whites, but you can't win them all, I suppose.

[Review Request Club]

KrevZabijak responds:

Thanks a ton.
I just wanted an in-human portrayal of the sclera. I like blending and smudging to give things an inaccurate feel in this spur-of-the-moment idea works, unlike my Gryphon or Where to? pieces.
As for his eyelashes, well, he is not well-endowed with gorgeous eyelashes so I embellished and went crazy with it. The first two drafts of his lashes looked too sparse and alien-like for my enjoyment. So, I ended up with this. (I love the highlights in them that echo the colour in his eye.)
Again, thank you for your detailed review, Coop!

[TriFlame]

Adobe Logo?

The 'A' in this image looks a lot like the Adobe PDF logo, which could lead to a lucrative deal with them - perhaps contact them about marketing and perhaps they'll want to use it. Can you convert apophysis files to .pdf files? I'm sure it must be possible :P

The piece is reminiscent of a firework, like you said - perhaps it could use some other 'firing angles', to make it look more like a fireworks display if you're pursuing that metaphor to the fullest extent.

Possibly could have used more variations with the colours, as I'd have preferred something more colourful than the traditional 'yellow-orange' flame of what people would say is most common in Western Fireworks.

[Review Request Club]

EchoRun responds:

Thanks.

I did try out other colour combinations, but this one was my favourite. I have my second favourite saved but I haven't rendered that one.

Sell it to Adobe? Nah, I wouldn't want to let a sneaky company like that use my work, I have principles you know. ;)