Coop's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Mysterious Stranger]

Ziggy Stardust?

Certainly an interesting muse, this piece has a very pink look to it, complete with the flora and fauna of some sort of alien setting. I was immediately drawn to the similarities between your character at the front and David Bowie's alter ego, who seemed to come along with this sort of setting. I could quite happily have seen this as some sort of concept art for the album at the time, but we're obviously a little late for that.

The texture that you use on the rocks and plants (?) is certainly varied and interesting, giving rise to a lot of potential for recreating the local wildlife. I love the flowers that appear to be sprouting from the tree at the top left of shot - this sort of thing can really set a piece off and with the textures of the wisps of cloud ion the sky scene, you've managed just that.

If I were overly critical, more colours could have been used, particularly blues, to soften the image, which is just a little too pink for me at the present. I think you could add some, without damaging the overall impression of the piece.

[Review Request Club]

[Space Art Attempt Two]

The piece looks good - did you take down the first piece? I get the feeling that at some stage, I reviewed that as well and I seem to remember that most of the piece was obscured by the overzealous lighting effects. Still, that's been improved now and the piece has improved so much for that alone.

With the land layouts of Earth, I can pick out what looks like Africa on the right of the globe, but I'm unsure as to which land mass is around the equator on the left, there. Just a little pointer - if you're going to draw Earth, accuracy is nice, but not entirely necessary. Making rough shapes, to represent the land masses would have helped here, but that it a bit of nit picking.

I like the use of shading, but with the perspective of the sun, you would need to extend those shadows quite a bit, both on Earth and Mars, but mostly on Earth, just for accuracy's sake. I like that you've added various natural satellites. If you were to take another challenge on in the cosmos, perhaps you'd draw the four gas giants - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, since they are all very different subjects and they have very different looks to them. Drawing with the sun behind you as the artist's viewpoint, could give you different shading looks, but it's all pretty academic.

[Review Request Club]

DragonPunch responds:

These are original planets, not Earth and Mars (as you can see from a perspective point of view), just so you know, but thanks for the feedback!

[Wash Over Me Part 2]

Like a sledgehammer to the chest, this one hits hard. I think that the way that you portrayed this was kind of snappy and even with the buildup of the first part, shown earlier, it doesn't quite make a comic book for me. What about adding some flashbacks in there? The story of the better times, under the tree, as Hol alluded to earlier in the piece?

72 hours to create this is pretty spectacular though and it only goes to show just how capable you are as a comic book artist. The line work for the rain really does put one hell of a degree of shade on the piece and the way that you portrayed it throughout could make this a contest winner. I certainly hope that you place, because it's bloody brilliant.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of your other comic creations, because I'd really like to see what else you can come up with. Perhaps getting together with a writer could help to produce stuff, because usually two heads are better than one. Not that your story writing is substandard, but I think it could have benefited from being a little longer, though this may have been held back by the constraints of the competition itself.

As with the first part, making the comic look like a full spread of page 1 on the left and 2 on the right would have helped - just something to make it look more like a comic book and to not have to scroll too far down the page, to view it all.

[Review Request Club]

[Wash Over Me Part 1]

Wow, this stuff is deep. Considering the wait that you've put us through for your other comic, this one is quite dark and mysterious, so I love the way that it starts to build to something. A little spark of romance between the characters, but will it all work out? I can't tell for the moment, but I'd like to carry on reading, to find out a little more.

Talking about the "watery line" in the rain, the hyphen looks like an underscore, so I'd change that, so that people can see it properly. That's probably the only issue I have with the drawing side of things, because it's so well written and drawn, if I'm honest. Perhaps it could use a splash of colour, but with the rain, there is no rainbow, so therefore no colour. Perhaps when the rain stops, there will be colour?

I'd quite like you to abut one page to another, so that it looks like a proper comic book, as you scroll down - you can get the piece into five spreads, so that people don't have to scroll as much, plus if there's something massive going on in the comic later on, you can take up a whole two page spread, to maximise the impact of it.

Good work, keep it up!

[Review Request Club]

Aigis responds:

Speaking of my other comic, I actually started that a few weeks ago.

You can find it here: www.tartaka.com

[I TOLD YOU I WOULD IMPROVE!]

I don't think that the big head makes that much of a difference, to be honest. You've still got a good picture here and it all looks good. They hands and face seem in good proportion, compared roughly to my own, so there's no issue there. The hair may make the face look a little bigger, but that's an optical illusion, which we can work with.

The image of the girl herself reminds me quite a bit of Metroid (pick a subtitle, they're all the same), so if that's what you were aiming for, that's got to be good news. I'm not sure about them wearing heels in that game series, though... You've gone to town on the title, which I wish you'd have made relevant, so that people get some sort of idea from that about what the piece is supposed to be. "I TOLD YOU I WOULD IMPROVE!" is more of a first line of the author comments, as opposed to a title.

A lack of background needs to be marked down slightly and so does the large and flamboyant signature that you've used. Make it slightly less conspicuous and perhaps smaller, to prevent distracting the viewer and causing more focus on the actual subject matter.

[Review Request Club]

[Hulk Smash!]

The Hulk got caught in a car crusher, but managed to keep his arms and chest out of it...

Sadly, the human form has very little space for vertical straight lines like you've drawn. I think that there needs to be more work on symmetry, particularly around the trapezius (neck / shoulder) muscles, which wouldn't be bulked out with such a lack of symmetry, otherwise his neck would be pulled to the side at a very strange angle.

I'd suggest plenty more time being given to study of bodybuilders, so that you can add a bit of texture, through shading and also balance the piece out. the scribbles across the torso / abdomen would usually be hard definition, as opposed to nondescript lines from side to side. Form the pectorals and the abdominal muscles, plus the obliques, to really have that stand out. Then you can use a bit of shading on the arms as well, they look weird with nothing to shade them at all.

Finally the head - it seems too thin and stretched. I get the feeling that he walked into a bar and was asked "Why the long face?", before becoming quite angry. Bulking out the face would help, by giving something to be defined by cheekbones and so forth. The expression on his face is one of surprise, as opposed to anger, so changing the angle of the eyes, where the arrows of them point more towards the nose would help, as would making the eyebrows more of a straight line, pointing in a similar way.

The background is basic, but then so were the backgrounds of earlier comics - focus people's attention on the main character and it works well.

[Review Request Club]

PlusPlusKid responds:

Thank you, I'll try better.

[Surf's up!]

Well, it's an illustration...

I'm never one that is given to the idea of putting speech bubbles in artwork, unless that's a comic of some sort, which this would not appear to be.

The face looks good, with the shapes being used well and creating a good, if basic face for the turtle. I'm not sure about the hairstyle, favouring that of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, thought the surfer soul patch looks to have a good effect.

What is that white triangle at the bottom of the screen? Tell me it is not where the legs meet, as it's so far off centre, to look ridiculous. With how close it is to the bottom of the frame, you could probably do without it. The shape of the arms reminds me of Popeye and the torso looks poorly proportioned and formed. With how smooth the shell looks, more effort to get the figure right for the anthropomorphism (making it look more human) of the turtle's torso, spend more time there and look to reference images, to get the definition right.

The shading is basic and nonsensical at times - the torso could use a six pack and pectoral definition, to complete the illusion, which would help the design of the torso itself. Little things can make such a difference.

[Review Request Club]

PlusPlusKid responds:

The triangle is that string on swimming shorts. You know?

[Wizard]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Mark Twain. *applause*

Alright, first impressions aside, this is another fantastic piece that really catches the eye and presents a very definitive description / illustration of a wizard or a druid, as I saw him in the first place. Certainly a few things about him look pagan inspired, complete with the sun staff, though from the pagans I have associated with over the years, I think it would be more of a pentagram on the staff, perhaps making that a little more plain, than gaudy as well. Hell, it might not be pagan, so I'm not saying it should be changed.

With the art itself, the painting should extend to the edges of the canvas - an effect which I loved like in the norse village, thought the complaint about not extending to the edge of the canvas is the same. Some sort of frame, though a simpler carved wooden effect would do the trick, as opposed to the gaudy renaissance thing that I suggested in the viking scene would suit this better, I feel.

The colours used look natural and freely available at the time, so that's a sensible use of the palette, an easy oversight, with pieces that have an historical aspect to them, such as this. Keep up the good work and extend it to the borders!

[Review Request Club]

samulis responds:

Thanks, on the next piece I will make the image closer to the borders... I explained the reason why there's some blank space on the other review (the concept art is designed to look like paintings in an old book, so I can't give it a frame sadly). If you have any other ideas for this sort of scenario, I'd love to hear them, as I work by the eye, not books (I REALLY need to study art and design :/).

I tried to tone down a lot of the colors that the filter/program generated, but in doing so, some of the contrast was lost (well, this does happen to old paintings).

I was rather proud of the costume after I textured it. The character itself is a royalty-free template piece that I modified to fit the role, as is the mesh (structure) for the clothes.

[Suffer For Fashion]

While the name of the comic is incredibly long winded (The Amazing and Remarkably True Adventures of Kim and Amy is 59 characters long, for god's sake!), I'm still looking forward to the release, so that I can see what all of the fuss is about and why such a piece has made us wait so long for your development to conclude.

Right, onto the piece itself - three vastly different styles here, with Tomboy, French girl chic and emo too white to self harm all seeming to give their own impression on the piece. I think that they all have their own merits and flaws, so let's work from left to right:

Shading can be a benefit to making a flat design look three dimensional, but here, you need to create some sort of fold in the material and show how the ace of spades lies on her chest. Altering the shape of the spade through following the contour of the fabric would be difficult, but very rewarding. I Feel that I've talked enough about the rest of the ensemble in previous reviews of your work.

I see now why you draw most of your muses in trousers - legs don't seem to be your strong point. The outfit looks great and the expression of mild surprise on the girl's face could be attributed to the fact that she's managed to stand up on these legs. Some more effort on the knees in particular could combat this, as could a little definition around the calves.

Finally, emo dress sense being as it is, this is a particularly expressive emo, I would feel. The grumpy expression aside, I quite like the Rorschach blot test butterfly that appears on the eyepatch. It's a good look, but perhaps needs a little more fleshing out in the thigh department - I'm not used to seeing cartoons looking so thin.

The background is very basic, but whether or not that's you not wanting to give the game away, or just making conceptual art, I'll leave that down to you.

[Review Request Club]

[Just Chillin']

"Closing my eyes shut"? Yes, keep on doing that, your grammar will get better, too :P

That aside, this is a good effort, with some nice lines - I feel that the curves need more work, just to smooth them out a little, as without them, you will find that it makes the image look a little odd and unfinished. I like the look of a polished gem and without that effect, it doesn't quite have what it takes.

That said, the curves that you've added to the glass at the front seem brilliant, so you are capable of it. Try ironing out a few more of the detail issues, such as the screen stating "HACK STATUS -OK-", where it appears to be a trapezoid shape, as opposed to square / oblong. The writing on the second screen, "NO ENEMIES |-|" is either too detailed (I can read it) or not detailed enough (I can barely read it). If it is your intention for us to read it, then make it easier to do so, otherwise fuzz it out a little more, you don't need that effort on the detail front.

In the background, are all of the white / grey dashes supposed to be rain? I can't really tell, but it could be dust of some sort, that seems to be throwing me off. A little more of a clue in the detail (small piles of dust, or puddles of rainwater lying around would be a good clue here) would help muchly.

[Review Request Club]

Lintire responds:

Considered closing my eyes open. Didn't work. Had to clarify that.

I actually had to read that section on curves several times and actively compare it to the picture in order to really comprehend what you meant. That part about the glass up front really threw me off, because I considered the glass to be one of the worst things about the painting - completely out of whack with the perspective and whatnot.

Still don't if you're referring to form itself or just that the picture feels too static. Keep in mind that I'm not dissecting your review, I just literally do not understand what you're trying to articulate here. (although if its either of the aforementioned two, then I do heartily agree).

As for the details, totally had the same thoughts myself. Had I spent more time on them, they may have really carried the painting, but instead they made the entire setup seem cheap. Which is a shame. I really did just scribble in the two messages at the end, I was that over the painting (it took a while, my first real attempt at an entire illustration).

My handwriting made it unreadable. Damn shame.

The rain (and it really is meant to be rain) - I can totally see why that would be uninterpretable. Completely unreferenced, and making the whole picture a little... wetter would have really improved it. Something I'll have to watch out for, I guess.

Despite any fuddling around, I do really appreciate the feedback, Coop! Really is the kind of review I need, and thanks! My complements to the Review Request Club.