Does he have buttons for eyes? This piece is confusing on that part, because I look at it and think that if his eyes should be buttons, surely there must be four holes for the threads to go through in the traditional context.
MS Paint has never been a strong media for drawing. Unless you're really good, then you should be able to earn enough money to upgrade to something like Photoshop, Flash or something similar. I'd recommend Gimp, as that's free, if I recall. This will at least give you a feel for the tools available to the professional, even if you're still drawing with a mouse.
The best thing I can offer advice-wise is to zoom in, so you can get greater control over the cursor. When you've made it look decent, you can zoom out and see how it looks in actual size. This will take care of angular corners on round surfaces, like Timmy's jaw line and the jaw of his victim, which has an ugly thick black line around it, where you have corrected it.
With the black outlines, get them right, before filling, so you have the look you want, before adding colour to the proceedings. It will help you quite a bit. The next ambitious step you can take is to make the lolly a traditional red and white striped affair, so that you can show off you skills of putting uniform stripes in. A little margin for error is allowable, because of the manufacturing process, which helps you out ;)
The pure agony and despair that you've captured in the still for frame 5 here is the crowning glory of the piece. Had you done it with a human, there would have been a theatrical dive involved and Joe's friend would probably have plunged to his untimely death... or at least a nasty set of bruises and a stay in traction.
I love how simple the fairy wings look, though if you're going for a fairy princess look, I'd suggest that you add a bit more light and sparkle to them, which is easy enough to get going, using your program, no doubt.
The background is very functional and the cloud patterns that dance across the sky changed all the time - this was only let down slightly by the fact that there appears to be no difference in the tide line between frames 3, 4 and 6. I'd have expected some sort of wave to be forming, even if it weren't something like the wave washing over the beach and climbing slowly up the beach. Just something to think about there, even though this is just a few seconds long in real terms.
The art is fantastic, as usual and I love the background and scenery, which is now not quite so ambiguous, actually representing an office environment, with the notice board n the wall. These strips look fantastic, yet very simple, as far as the backgrounds go - draw the shape, fill with colour and add a few scribbles for detail, as necessary. The real effort comes with the construction of the characters themselves. Do you draw them separately and then import them onto the background, or draw the whole frame as one item, before colouring as you see fit?
Emotionally speaking, you can really put a lot into the features of the guinea pigs, making them show a wide range of emotions with just a few lines. Sure, this joke was a little lost on me (I prefer to say that as opposed to I didn't find it funny), but the drawing style is certainly impressive enough to make me anticipate the next cartoon with interest.
A great sense of humour required for this one, but I love the way that you've made it very appealing, by putting the Guniea Pigs there instead of humans, as that could be seen as slightly wrong, or in poor taste.
The way that you've given them a background, as if they are within a house of their own, yet it is ambiguous enough to perhaps be the home of their owner, with no furnishing visible for things like scaling, etc. A nice way to give background colour, but not to make the reader think too much into it.
I almost wish you'd do the artwork for the Gummi series of treats - the puppies, orphans, kittens, tadpoles and so forth.
Not a bad piece, with a good dollop of surreal symbolism attached to the whole piece, where it transforms from an optic nerve to tree roots. I think that you could do well to look at Norse Myth for further research, as Heimdall could be the best point to look at - guardian of the bifrost, with keen eyesight and hearing, who watches for the onset of Ragnarok and ultimately guarding Yggdrasil, the world tree.
Now, turning to the art, I'd suggest that the first place to make a change would be the meld between eyeball and optic nerve / root. Why not have the roots start off pink and flesh-like, becoming hard and wood-like a little way after they leave the eye? This would be a more potent transmutation and I feel that it would add greater significance to symbolism, if that was you initial intention.
The lens of the eye looks a little too pronounced - I know that this is correct in a scientific drawing, but there is an issue that the dome of the lens looks to protrude a little too much - rounding this off a little would still give a good impression within the image, I feel.
I think that with the level of detail on the helix for the tree trunk, you could have put a little extra into the leaves - you set the bar here and there is no detail such as the characteristic veins that run particularly down the centre of each leaf. In the small version, this is not so prominent, so not an issue, but when viewing the piece full sized, it become painstakingly obvious.
Overall, I like this piece and taking some of my advice will help you to become a better artist, I hope.
Interesting perspective that it links with Norse Mythology, I'll definitely look into that, thanks!
As for the coloration of the root-nerves, I think it would lend better consistency to the artwork if I kept it mostly wood-based, leaving the fleshy organisms to the eyeball alone. That's why I have a pinkish shadow beneath the roots to further imply that they are also veins. I think it would look unintentionally weird if the roots were pink (as opposed to intentionally bizarre, lol)
Perhaps the lens is a little too pronounced, and I think the color of the background doesn't do that effect any favors. I agree that it could probably stand to be rounded off a bit.
Put a little EXTRA detail on the leaves? I guess if I'm going to do it, I gotta do it right eh? :D
Because I couldn't do much better myself... and I don't like pumpkin, so why waste it?
Anyway, this is very similar to last year's Tall 'n Short. There's a distinct lack of ambition in this piece - making a Tetris scene would have been much better, as there's a lot of detail to something like that. I know it's based on SardonicSamurai's work, but that's still no justification for a pumpkin being carved like this. Last year, the joke was amusing, this time, it wasn't so good.
I suppose that I should give you props for straight lines, even though the level of the block on the right looks to be just a little higher than the rest. You could have used some sort of straight edge for that, perhaps a bucket, so that the pumpkin is lowered to the correct level, thus enabling the carving to be done, while also providing a handy line to use as your "ground floor".
Just with the skeletal face, you clearly still have a body to go with though, so feel free to drop me on the pile of potential suitors as well, who weren't the guy you were after.
Corny desperation aside, you've certainly made an impression on me with this makeup - the detail level is fantastic and all performed in front of a mirror, to boot! Clearly, you've had a lot of practice and the overall effect is quite creepy, but still looks the works. Have you got a costume to go with the rest? Do you intend to branch out into making kids' faces up at things like summer fairs, or even for Halloween parties?
I did do a little bit of face painting a couple years back at a community fair/shin-dig. Never again though. All those little buggers wanted me to do were tigers and spiderman... for EIGHT HOURS. DB
Anyway, thanks for the uplifting pick-up lines. lol
Okay, so this gauntlet seems to have a lot going for it in the way of forearm protection and finger protection, but there's nothing covering the back of the hand, except for a piece of rubber, which looks like it would be better serving the palm of your hand, to aid with grip, for example.
I know that there can be issues with providing some sort of robust padding there, as I wear heavily padded gloves while playing cricket. You've got a lot of room for manoeuvre, as the back of the hand doesn't move that much , except maybe at the joint of the wrist, which I'm sure you could work around. The two ways to look at going are extensions of the finger detail, or just a massive pad across the back of the hand.
As far as the aesthetics of the piece look, you may wish to consider increasing the curvature of the guard around the arm, as opposed to leaving a piece which looks like a triangular board strapped across the arm. Continuing your angular theme, you can certainly afford to add a little more detail to the top of the arm-guard, especially when you consider the fact that there is a nasty array of spikes on either side, which can be used as improvised weapons (or possibly that was your intention in the first place?)
Thank you for the detailed review. I kinda wish I used materials that could hold up to use like you described. Alas, tis' all for glamour and glab. You make some good points, and when I'm not being a lazy douche, I'll incorporate some of them when I (finally) finish the thing. When I do post the final product I'll be sure to include multiple angles so you can see all the little details. Thank you again for the review.
To make a pencil drawing, you need a whole range of the different compounds of graphite to really make an impact on the piece. That way, you don't find yourself applying lots of pressure to make the darker areas of the image, like the night sky.
The large patch of white that represents the webbing of the dragon's wing just seems to distract from the composition of the piece overall, as it's vast and central, so there needs to be a little more detail with regards to that area - something like fine detail of veins or even tears to the flesh, as that's a pretty common thing with artist's impressions of creatures such as this. Similarly, with a lack of detail of the night sky, perhaps a compromise could be reached, by moving the stars to where they would fit in better, as opposed to obscuring the dragon?
Yes, I'd like to see some colour for this, but it's something that we're not going to get - the bonus would be being able to see if the dragon were blue or white, as I feel it should be. That;s just the D&D player in me talking.
[Review Request Club]
I'm not sure at all about how you've decided to put a giant shimmering star between the wings of the dragon and the view - physically, it shatters the illusion, since I'm now thinking all manner of basic physics, to comprehend how something that could create a light like that could be so small and therefore so close. To me, it does not make sense.
I didn't have a pencil set back then. I'll figure out what the difference is between simply using lighter shades of graphite and applying pressure with a constant shade, skill excluded. Given the medium I was using, I doubt that the white streaking problems would go away entirely though.
D&D blue dragons spray lightning. Did you mean a silver dragon? And yes, that large twinkle is very dumb and should be ashamed of itself.
Thanks for having the balls to give constructive criticism where my friends and family have failed =)
I like the way that this piece shows a very symbolic representation of various parts of humanity, such as capitalism and politics, which both threaten to do a lot beneath the smoke screen that they employ.
I think that you could have had the man with his hands poised to grasp the world, as opposed to being behind his back - as he leans forward, it would make him quite unblananced and likely to topple forward, which the arms would counteract.
The suit is nice and open, though I'm unsure about the significance of a bow tie over a more traditional neck tie, which either a capitalist or a politician would use.
Good facial detail, the usual spiel about tidying up the lines from Paint, as opposed to photoshop still apply and I think you could stand to give this chap a few hairs around the sides, even if it still leaves him with a receding hairline.
Coop
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All 339 art Reviews
Rated 1.5 / 5 stars Nov 30, 2011
Not the best
Does he have buttons for eyes? This piece is confusing on that part, because I look at it and think that if his eyes should be buttons, surely there must be four holes for the threads to go through in the traditional context.
MS Paint has never been a strong media for drawing. Unless you're really good, then you should be able to earn enough money to upgrade to something like Photoshop, Flash or something similar. I'd recommend Gimp, as that's free, if I recall. This will at least give you a feel for the tools available to the professional, even if you're still drawing with a mouse.
The best thing I can offer advice-wise is to zoom in, so you can get greater control over the cursor. When you've made it look decent, you can zoom out and see how it looks in actual size. This will take care of angular corners on round surfaces, like Timmy's jaw line and the jaw of his victim, which has an ugly thick black line around it, where you have corrected it.
With the black outlines, get them right, before filling, so you have the look you want, before adding colour to the proceedings. It will help you quite a bit. The next ambitious step you can take is to make the lolly a traditional red and white striped affair, so that you can show off you skills of putting uniform stripes in. A little margin for error is allowable, because of the manufacturing process, which helps you out ;)
[Review Request Club]
Rated 4.5 / 5 stars Nov 22, 2011
Beautiful
The pure agony and despair that you've captured in the still for frame 5 here is the crowning glory of the piece. Had you done it with a human, there would have been a theatrical dive involved and Joe's friend would probably have plunged to his untimely death... or at least a nasty set of bruises and a stay in traction.
I love how simple the fairy wings look, though if you're going for a fairy princess look, I'd suggest that you add a bit more light and sparkle to them, which is easy enough to get going, using your program, no doubt.
The background is very functional and the cloud patterns that dance across the sky changed all the time - this was only let down slightly by the fact that there appears to be no difference in the tide line between frames 3, 4 and 6. I'd have expected some sort of wave to be forming, even if it weren't something like the wave washing over the beach and climbing slowly up the beach. Just something to think about there, even though this is just a few seconds long in real terms.
[Review Request Club]
Rated 4 / 5 stars Nov 21, 2011
Not sure I get this one...
The art is fantastic, as usual and I love the background and scenery, which is now not quite so ambiguous, actually representing an office environment, with the notice board n the wall. These strips look fantastic, yet very simple, as far as the backgrounds go - draw the shape, fill with colour and add a few scribbles for detail, as necessary. The real effort comes with the construction of the characters themselves. Do you draw them separately and then import them onto the background, or draw the whole frame as one item, before colouring as you see fit?
Emotionally speaking, you can really put a lot into the features of the guinea pigs, making them show a wide range of emotions with just a few lines. Sure, this joke was a little lost on me (I prefer to say that as opposed to I didn't find it funny), but the drawing style is certainly impressive enough to make me anticipate the next cartoon with interest.
[Review Request Club]
Rated 4.5 / 5 stars Nov 21, 2011
Just a shape
A great sense of humour required for this one, but I love the way that you've made it very appealing, by putting the Guniea Pigs there instead of humans, as that could be seen as slightly wrong, or in poor taste.
The way that you've given them a background, as if they are within a house of their own, yet it is ambiguous enough to perhaps be the home of their owner, with no furnishing visible for things like scaling, etc. A nice way to give background colour, but not to make the reader think too much into it.
I almost wish you'd do the artwork for the Gummi series of treats - the puppies, orphans, kittens, tadpoles and so forth.
Very funny, keep them coming!
[Review Request Club]
Rated 4 / 5 stars Nov 17, 2011
Where does the arrow point..?
Not a bad piece, with a good dollop of surreal symbolism attached to the whole piece, where it transforms from an optic nerve to tree roots. I think that you could do well to look at Norse Myth for further research, as Heimdall could be the best point to look at - guardian of the bifrost, with keen eyesight and hearing, who watches for the onset of Ragnarok and ultimately guarding Yggdrasil, the world tree.
Now, turning to the art, I'd suggest that the first place to make a change would be the meld between eyeball and optic nerve / root. Why not have the roots start off pink and flesh-like, becoming hard and wood-like a little way after they leave the eye? This would be a more potent transmutation and I feel that it would add greater significance to symbolism, if that was you initial intention.
The lens of the eye looks a little too pronounced - I know that this is correct in a scientific drawing, but there is an issue that the dome of the lens looks to protrude a little too much - rounding this off a little would still give a good impression within the image, I feel.
I think that with the level of detail on the helix for the tree trunk, you could have put a little extra into the leaves - you set the bar here and there is no detail such as the characteristic veins that run particularly down the centre of each leaf. In the small version, this is not so prominent, so not an issue, but when viewing the piece full sized, it become painstakingly obvious.
Overall, I like this piece and taking some of my advice will help you to become a better artist, I hope.
[Review Request Club]
The arrow is my signature "G"
Interesting perspective that it links with Norse Mythology, I'll definitely look into that, thanks!
As for the coloration of the root-nerves, I think it would lend better consistency to the artwork if I kept it mostly wood-based, leaving the fleshy organisms to the eyeball alone. That's why I have a pinkish shadow beneath the roots to further imply that they are also veins. I think it would look unintentionally weird if the roots were pink (as opposed to intentionally bizarre, lol)
Perhaps the lens is a little too pronounced, and I think the color of the background doesn't do that effect any favors. I agree that it could probably stand to be rounded off a bit.
Put a little EXTRA detail on the leaves? I guess if I'm going to do it, I gotta do it right eh? :D
Thanks for the advice and the detailed review.
Rated 1 / 5 stars Nov 9, 2011
There's a reason I don't carve pumpkins
Because I couldn't do much better myself... and I don't like pumpkin, so why waste it?
Anyway, this is very similar to last year's Tall 'n Short. There's a distinct lack of ambition in this piece - making a Tetris scene would have been much better, as there's a lot of detail to something like that. I know it's based on SardonicSamurai's work, but that's still no justification for a pumpkin being carved like this. Last year, the joke was amusing, this time, it wasn't so good.
I suppose that I should give you props for straight lines, even though the level of the block on the right looks to be just a little higher than the rest. You could have used some sort of straight edge for that, perhaps a bucket, so that the pumpkin is lowered to the correct level, thus enabling the carving to be done, while also providing a handy line to use as your "ground floor".
[Review Request Club]
Yeah, I agree. It was a lazy copout on my part. I gotta get my shit together...
Rated 4 / 5 stars Nov 7, 2011
Creepy, but I'd still ask you out :P
Just with the skeletal face, you clearly still have a body to go with though, so feel free to drop me on the pile of potential suitors as well, who weren't the guy you were after.
Corny desperation aside, you've certainly made an impression on me with this makeup - the detail level is fantastic and all performed in front of a mirror, to boot! Clearly, you've had a lot of practice and the overall effect is quite creepy, but still looks the works. Have you got a costume to go with the rest? Do you intend to branch out into making kids' faces up at things like summer fairs, or even for Halloween parties?
This could be the start of something great.
[Review Request Club]
Oh, you.
I did do a little bit of face painting a couple years back at a community fair/shin-dig. Never again though. All those little buggers wanted me to do were tigers and spiderman... for EIGHT HOURS. DB
Anyway, thanks for the uplifting pick-up lines. lol
Rated 3.5 / 5 stars Nov 4, 2011
Looks a little flat...
Okay, so this gauntlet seems to have a lot going for it in the way of forearm protection and finger protection, but there's nothing covering the back of the hand, except for a piece of rubber, which looks like it would be better serving the palm of your hand, to aid with grip, for example.
I know that there can be issues with providing some sort of robust padding there, as I wear heavily padded gloves while playing cricket. You've got a lot of room for manoeuvre, as the back of the hand doesn't move that much , except maybe at the joint of the wrist, which I'm sure you could work around. The two ways to look at going are extensions of the finger detail, or just a massive pad across the back of the hand.
As far as the aesthetics of the piece look, you may wish to consider increasing the curvature of the guard around the arm, as opposed to leaving a piece which looks like a triangular board strapped across the arm. Continuing your angular theme, you can certainly afford to add a little more detail to the top of the arm-guard, especially when you consider the fact that there is a nasty array of spikes on either side, which can be used as improvised weapons (or possibly that was your intention in the first place?)
[Review Request Club]
Thank you for the detailed review. I kinda wish I used materials that could hold up to use like you described. Alas, tis' all for glamour and glab. You make some good points, and when I'm not being a lazy douche, I'll incorporate some of them when I (finally) finish the thing. When I do post the final product I'll be sure to include multiple angles so you can see all the little details. Thank you again for the review.
Rated 3.5 / 5 stars Nov 4, 2011
Needs more pencils
To make a pencil drawing, you need a whole range of the different compounds of graphite to really make an impact on the piece. That way, you don't find yourself applying lots of pressure to make the darker areas of the image, like the night sky.
The large patch of white that represents the webbing of the dragon's wing just seems to distract from the composition of the piece overall, as it's vast and central, so there needs to be a little more detail with regards to that area - something like fine detail of veins or even tears to the flesh, as that's a pretty common thing with artist's impressions of creatures such as this. Similarly, with a lack of detail of the night sky, perhaps a compromise could be reached, by moving the stars to where they would fit in better, as opposed to obscuring the dragon?
Yes, I'd like to see some colour for this, but it's something that we're not going to get - the bonus would be being able to see if the dragon were blue or white, as I feel it should be. That;s just the D&D player in me talking.
[Review Request Club]
I'm not sure at all about how you've decided to put a giant shimmering star between the wings of the dragon and the view - physically, it shatters the illusion, since I'm now thinking all manner of basic physics, to comprehend how something that could create a light like that could be so small and therefore so close. To me, it does not make sense.
I didn't have a pencil set back then. I'll figure out what the difference is between simply using lighter shades of graphite and applying pressure with a constant shade, skill excluded. Given the medium I was using, I doubt that the white streaking problems would go away entirely though.
D&D blue dragons spray lightning. Did you mean a silver dragon? And yes, that large twinkle is very dumb and should be ashamed of itself.
Thanks for having the balls to give constructive criticism where my friends and family have failed =)
Rated 3.5 / 5 stars Nov 2, 2011
Good symbolism
I like the way that this piece shows a very symbolic representation of various parts of humanity, such as capitalism and politics, which both threaten to do a lot beneath the smoke screen that they employ.
I think that you could have had the man with his hands poised to grasp the world, as opposed to being behind his back - as he leans forward, it would make him quite unblananced and likely to topple forward, which the arms would counteract.
The suit is nice and open, though I'm unsure about the significance of a bow tie over a more traditional neck tie, which either a capitalist or a politician would use.
Good facial detail, the usual spiel about tidying up the lines from Paint, as opposed to photoshop still apply and I think you could stand to give this chap a few hairs around the sides, even if it still leaves him with a receding hairline.
[Review Reuqest Club]