Coop's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kinsei SBT Piece]

Level up!

Well, that's a pretty damned good piece of had drawn art I just saw there! Though I'm not quite sure what the background is, you've certainly gone to town on the production of the character. The detail is exquisite - from the strapping on the arm, to the occasional blemish on the leather strap for the sword and the creases in the clothing.

You've found a nice tone for the flesh and I think this is the crowning glory of the piece, as so many aspiring artists fail to get a decent tone for standard skin - it's either too pink, or too pale, but you've got the balance there, with a little orange added in places, which could easily be passed off as arm hair, judging by his hair colour in the piece :P

I think that there could have been more detail in the right shoulder, as it doesn't quite look buff enough for the rest of the body. I know that it's hiding behind the torn sleeves on the vest, but it might make more impact if there were a little more muscle tone detail there. The same can be said for that right arm - muscles that big tend to have bulging veins along them, so one or two, just for an additional insight would work tremendously.

Finally, I'd suggest something with the hair - it doesn't look realistic enough for me - you've coloured it as if it was one swathe of colour, in the same way (and colour!) as his shirt. Directional colouring can create the effect that the hair is actually composed from your pencil strokes, giving the impression of more hairs than are actually outlined.

Good luck with the sketchbook tour!

[Review Request Club]

Kinsei responds:

yeah, hair has always been an issue for me. Guess I should practice more then, huh...
As for the BG I was really out of ideas and didn't want to pull away from the original piece, so I just did something abstract.
Thanks for the Review, it's really helpful.

[Hyper warp]

CGI?

I'm sorry, I can't really rate this higher. It looks like what you've done is use a computer generated algorithm to produce the fantastic looking background and have then used your art program to write over it with text that can only be described as 'distracting'.

The text is not in keeping with the piece and the 'black hole' in the centre needs to be blended more skilfully into it. I would suggest that you take more time to blend the colours into the black, to make it look less glossy and artificial, almost as if there is some sort of corona around an object heading into this warp.

Other than that, the only suggestion I can make is to put more effort into your comments, so that you describe what people are actually supposed to see - conflicting interpretations can ground a piece, which is a shame from such a promising start.

[Review Request Club]

mikkim responds:

I would make the bullet look unartifical if that is what it was, but it is a bullet going into the warper, and also a piece of art that can be seen in different ways is a GOOD work of art, so this is a bad review.

[Chessboard #1]

Too much fog

While I like the three dimensional qualities of the board, it's not present at all in the playing piece, so you really do tend to fall down a little there.

I guess that you've tried to get the background sorted for perspective, but it doesn't seem to work very well, as the concentric squares are out of proportion, so they don't decrease in size at a uniform rate.

If you removed some of the fog from the piece, you'd have a more crisp looking finished piece, which might suddenly look better - tell me, is the chess piece a knight from the back, a rook, or something else? I'd have suggested that you gave it a shiny finish, as that's what these sort of playing models tend to be - finished in a gloss and well kept for games which are quite large in ceremony.

[Review Request Club]

XwaynecoltX responds:

Yeah I know what ya mean about the chess piece thanks for the review

~X~

[Palm Tree]

A few minor issues here

I think that there could have been a few minor changes to make this piece look a lot better. The addition of an ocean to the background would have completed the trifecta of sun, sea and sand. Perhaps changing the colour and / or the position of the sun would work wonders as well.

There is no shading, which is a big disappointment, to be frank. You need to have shadows in there, to add a certain degree of realism to pieces like this. The same could be said for indentations in the sand, where coconuts have fallen from the tree - they would not necessarily land perfectly 'tuft up' and some would roll a little way from the tree, it's how they spread over time, as trees.

I know that it's from back in 2006, but sit down and give it another go, I'd love to see what you can come up with :)

[Review Request Club]

[Checkerboard #3]

At the end of the tunnel

A nice piece, with great use of perspective and shading to bring a nice effect to the secondary border with the piece. I personally think that the frame that you put around it is certainly a good, simple effort and the best way to improve would have been to make the piece slightly bigger than a postcard.

The shading in the corridor / tunnel is good, looking at the way that the doorway would produce shaded areas, but it doesn't allow for perspective that way - the shadows would get closer to the wall and possibly even disappear altogether by the front edge. A nice set of stone effects across the whole of the piece, possibly leading me to believe that you could do with a greater variation in textures, just to give the impression of different materials used in the construction.

A marked improvement on #2 ;)

[Review Request Club]

XwaynecoltX responds:

Thanks

~X~

[Chess Checketboard #2]

Not bad

Not exactly the sort of clarity that I was expecting, but wouldn't it be something where the squares are the same dimensions? I know that you can cite perspective, but it doesn't quite work for me.

I'd suggest that you look at the shadows cat on the board, perhaps making the corner highlights only on one corner of the squares, rather than the way they fall on corresponding corners - it just doesn't seem physically right. With the shadows that play across the tiles, it seems that you've done different abstract patterns in each tile, but I would suggest that they are made more similar - just to show that imperfections in the piece would change the reflections, but not majorly.

I'd have suggested a shadow being cast by one side of the board, fulfilling the 3D effect and the border is quite nice. I'm not sure about taking up so much space with the title, though the signature is nice and well displayed.

[Review Request Club]

XwaynecoltX responds:

Hey coop thanks for the review i know what ya mean, to be totally honest this was just a test art piece i made several years ago when RG was up, my other ones are abit better

hope to ge more reviews on my ar stuffs thank you in advance

~X~

[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.