Coop's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gauntlet Preview]

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]

MajesticBob responds:

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.

[[Pencil] A Field of Ice]

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.

Fooliolo responds:

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 =)

[Greek Heritage]

Skull motifs?

I love the almost sepia colour scheme that you've used for this piece - kind of like the way they did for the colours in 300, this really reflects the way that the greeks have been portrayed for centuries.

While the overall effect of the picture is pleasing, with the sunburst behind increasing the shade, but not diminishing the spectacle of the piece as a whole, the skulls displayed prominently on their skirts is a little strange. I've not heard of any sort of display such as this before and it just seemed a little out of place.

The subjects could have been drawn with weapons, I feel, because this was the way that warriors portrayed themselves back in that age - weapons ready, fine specimens of humanity that they all were. They have been pretty well depicted over the years, so plenty of research material as well ;)

The detail on the chest pieces was adequate, though it looked a little flat. I've seen other images of similar scenes and it is possible to see more "definition" on the chest plates, which were very proudly embossed with the musculature, to be on display at all times.

A hugely impressive piece, please give us more!

[Review Request Club]

samulis responds:

Thanks. The fellow who made the costumes (AnimaTechnica) does more of a fantasy look... using inspiration from historical characters and costumes. I myself make okay costumes, but nothing as fancy as his... I will send him your feedback on the costume... he may like to hear it. :)

I may try to do a more historically accurate render at some point.

[Dress to Impress]

Superman, Chainsaw and... Pocahontas?

Well, I'm not sure who we've got here - a inverse goth chick, with a monochrome Superman T-Shirt on, a goth / emo version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and some sort of princess, with the facial hair styling of a Native American princess.

To tackle each one separately, the left-hand character looks to have a little overbite, with the way you seem to have added the teeth as an afterthought. The pose is good, though I'm not sure whether she is trying to say "loser", or if she is showing off an imaginary gun - something that Superman really could back up :P

In the middle, the detail is impressive, with the headdress, the hair and the aproned front of the dress. I'm not sure about the makeup, but with the way that teenage girls dress these days, I'm not sure they are, either. The eye black on the cheek bones makes me feel that she's about to pull on some catcher's gear and squat down behind a plate in a game of baseball, which kind of ruins the effect of the princess / posh girl for me.

Finally, the most disturbing of the lot - ah, she has a set of stitches across her neck, as well. The black almost sunken eyes give the impression of either a complete lack of sentience, or the impression that she's going to hack off our balls and feel absolutely no emotion whatsoever. What more can you say about goth, because on that ideal, she really is no emo.

[Review Request Club]

Aigis responds:

It's Supergirl, Princess Zelda, and Sawyer the Cleaner.

[Bye Steve]

Sinister, yet progressive

Wow, what an impressive little piece, showcasing one of the most forward thinking minds of Silicon Valley. I love the fact that you've put a blue sky with clouds as the background, as it helps contribute to the symbolism of the rather sinister look that you've captured on his face.

The ever present Apple icon is the lasting sign of Jobs' legacy on this mortal coil and the look of a megalomaniac on his face certainly panders to the feeling about him from some of his rivals - particularly at Google and Samsung, since they had borne the brunt of his wrath most recently before his demise.

The outgoing side of Jobs on the stage, presenting his latest techno-wizardry to the masses and swelling the coffers of his company seems to be missing, when he had a smile on his face, likened to a child saying to a proud parent "look what I've done!" And it goes deeper to show the artist's feelings are marginal, but still ever so slightly anti-Jobs. What he has done for society by and large may be perceived to be good, or even great, but the practices employed in his twilight years may have been seen as a little heavy handed, as per some of his corporate predecessors.

Not even Jobs could change the way that Capitalism works.

[Review Request Club]

[MaryJane]

sex sells - why sell cannabis?

Hmm, not a bad effort, but a few questions are raised about the subject material and why the glamorisation of something like dope? Drugs like that don't need an image to help sell them and using an image of a young nubile girl with cannabis leaves protecting her modesty does little to stray away from it.

I'd have added some colour to the proceedings, as a pencil sketch shows very little of your talents - I'd love to see how you deal with shading the piece and giving us what we really want to see. Some sort of background would have been nice as well, because otherwise, it looks like a work in progress.

I'm not sure about the shape of her standing leg here - it's almost like you drew it and have had to bend her knee backwards. This might be because the image is twisted a little and you've tried to centralise the foot, where it would have been better suited to being left a little, as you look at it.

Looking at the picture, the girl looks a little out of proportion - study more women, I'm sure you'll find that when they are that thin, they aren't quite that big up top. This means there are two ways to remedy it - give her a little more in the curves department - hips and bum in particular, or lessen the cleavage just a little. Conversely, her face does look nice and you've certainly done a good job of that - did you have a model, or just photographs to work from?

[Review Request Club]

newbienalwayswillbe responds:

As I said before this was something for a client and she was supposed to be kind of mystical and ethereal. It was a character sketch so I didn't include color or a background. If I had truly put more effort into it she would have been posed better and I had no photo reference or model. I think you should look at more of my art though I am very pleased by your review.

[Some Weird Guy]

Size matters

I think that having one eye a lot bigger than the other, when they dominate the picture like this matters a lot. Yes, cite Picasso at me all you like but in this piece, you're clearly not doing an abstract.

There are flames in the background and a guy who looks like he has a sword shoved through his left eye socket. A little gratuitous, but I'm trying to see the meaning in it, though there is a certain degree of failure here.

Backgrounds with a lot of empty white spaces are a pet peeve of mine - even a wall that is painted white is not the same as a filled white screen on a computer. I'd suggest doing something with the shading there - paint a few shadows on there, or even some soot, since the flames are that close.

The head of the guy himself (I'll assume it's male, if it's not, I'll apologise to your model) seems to be a little disproportionate, with the hair stuck to one side of the head. It kind of reminds me of some of the hairstyles employed by Mandy Morbid - long and colourful on one side, shaved completely on the other. Still, the look of the piece says to me that you need to work a little on the detail and then see where it stands from there. If you get a picture worth a thousand words out of it, I think you'll be doing well, because I can't see it at the moment.

[Review Request Club]

MisterTig responds:

Thanks for reviewing. I thankyou for your tips and stuff. The white background isn't sipposed to be white, i guess I covered up the blue too much.

[The Tone Fulps]

Very well designed

Wow, what a great concept. I love the way that Pico looks like Bowie and that you've decided to give him a massive package.

While I'd have considered adding Weird Al's "I Remember Larry (and the Gnomes)" to the setlist, you've done a top knotch job on this, with massively 60s and 70s tones thrown in there, to balance things out, along with references to Newgrounds itself, with Darnell's Banjo having a clock face, Pico having a smoking shotgun and Nene's bloody cleaver as a guitar as well. The problem is that the band will sound crap, with three guitarists and no bassist (I know the Beatles did that, but that's beside the point!)

Should we be able to see a different colour of shade in that gap between the boards in the foreground?

[Review Request Club]

[Room 1]

Needs tidying

Well, if you're going to show this off as "art", you need to justify it - populate the room, put furniture in there, perhaps people and something that we could look upon as a spark of life.

I look at this piece and, because there's little else to see, I spot issues with detail - your lines aren't cleaned at the ends - some of them run over into the next area, after the intersection, where it should finish. This is a real downer for the piece, as it was boring already, but now it's boring and messy.

Sharpen up the lines, add some life and some detail, you should be able to get better with it.

[Review Request Club]

[Ross Fenton and the Explosion]

Distance isn't apparent

I think that from reading the note, I've discovered the real issue - you've not taken care to make the explosion distant from Ross Fenton. Some detail in the foreground, to imply that it's behind stuff could help you here. Search for perspective online and you'll see what I mean, hopefully.

It's a decent picture of Ross, but I've got to ask about the 1980s shoulder pads that he seems to have in his jacket. His eyebrows look truly massive, which is a worry for something like this picture. Put a little less emphasis and you'll see more results, as the face softens slightly.

Finally, the explosion needs some work. Writing "BOOM!" in the mushroom cloud couldn't make it any more tacky, if you tried. The use of colours was good, but I'd suggest that you use greys and browns for the dust, with a rippling explosion within, representing the fire beneath the dust.

[Review Request Club]

MisterTig responds:

Thanks for reviewing. First off, he doesn't have 1980's shoulder pads. And his eyebrows are supposed to be massive and his mouth is supposed to be tiny. When i created Ross Fenton, those were the characteristics I put into his face. And your points have been noted for my future submissions.