Coop's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ikebana - Still Life]

More abstract.

In the centre of this piece, I can see a particularly mischievous and perhaps evil face, grinning outwardly, as it descends on something in the centre. I struggle, as I am unfamiliar with the term Ikebana, so I'll just pretend that I know what I'm talking about and move onto something that I'm a little more competent on.

It appears that you've used different styles to apply the paint. It is almost as if you have stippled the white paint, which gives a radically different texture to the piece, while some of the blacks almost look glossy - perhaps if you had made them like that, it could have been a completely different looking piece altogether?

Acrylic onto canvas? I'd love to know the methods here and that what the comments box is for, since you didn't tag it as such. I'd also like to hear what inspired you into making these pieces, as it would certainly help with my interpretation of them.

[Review Request Club]

Hacsev responds:

Abstract art is very fluid method of visual creation that allows people to have different interpretations of a particular piece. This enriches my own perception of my own work. Ikebana is the equivalent of flower arrangement in Japan. This word is the germ for each piece in this series. You are very keen in your observation of my technique, as well. I do employ both texture and wash to convey some sense of three dimensionality on the flat canvas.

[Hands]

Prety neat for pastels

Hmm, it's as if you've been on something like Photoshop to tidy this piece up after making the drawing, which for the art of the pastel, the smudge and the filthy hands that can cause such a mess if you put a hand in the wrong place, just seems ever so slightly wrong. This is not to say that I dislike the piece, just the method.

All of the different types of hands look fantastic here. The texture of the background and the way that the focus is at the base of the image offer a differing perspective. I personally love the severed arm that is being held up by a shorter armed person and the skeletal arm, potentially showing differing walks of life all trying to get the same thing.

The lack of fine detail is a nice approach, keeping it vague also assists the symbolism, as if you give the face any true identity, you could ruin that effect. The blank, almost lifeless eyes are the only part of her face that could convey any emotion, though you have stripped that bare, leaving only white spheres in there, that betray nothing of the feeling within the piece.

[Review Request Club]

Merol responds:

THANK YOU!!
I did use Photoshop, but only to crop the image, the way it looks here, it's the way the actual drawing looks (smaller, of course).
Yeah, it's a PAIN using pastels on little details. However, I just used pastels for the background, the girl and the hands were colored with color pencils, mainly because there were so many little details. Also, I didn't have the right pastels for some colors, like the girl's skin.

THANKS AGAIN!!

[Battery Point]

Frame it

I think that this piece needs to be framed and put on a wall, to show off the true beauty. Viewing it up close can only do the quality and the image harm. If you put it into a static situation, the brush strokes might give the piece more continuity.

Acrylic is a most difficult medium to work with and one false stroke can doom a piece, so you've done a good job here. What I'd suggest is with the image producing an appearance of breeze or wind about the scene, perhaps "comb" the greens in one direction or even have systematic breaks, where the stalks of vegetation are blown in different ways. This would also lead to colour changes.

The sea looks choppy, which means that the rocks look decent, though I would suggest that you make them a little darker, where they meet the path. Even with the spray over them, jagged edges of rock will show through and give you something to work with there.

With the proportions of the buildings and the trees, what have you got there? A church and a group of Sequoias? Perhaps thin the trees out and make the trunks less substantial there, for perspective. Would both buildings be the same colour, even down to the red of the roof tiles? Perhaps change that for a little more variation and throw in something to talk about with it.

[Review Request Club]

Joshsouza responds:

Hey, thanks for the review. I will be hanging this up on a wall in my vacation house in Crescent City next time I go there But all of the sea isn't in the picture for some reason and I didn't notice it until I uploaded it. The Building is actually a lighthouse, though. I might actually getting oil paints soon when I get enough money, but for now, I will just use acrylic since i am most used to it.

Since some of my acrylic paint is all gone like the important basic colors, I think my next piece will be done in artrage since I have been practicing and I can practice oils without wasting any real materials other than paper when I print it out. I have the iPad version with all of the functionalities of the desktop Artrage Studio Pro.

Sorry for getting off topic there but thanks a lot for the review.

[Prometheus]

He who bears the eternal burden

Ah, the joy of the name, being that of the legendary figure from Greek Mythology, who had his liver pecked out by an eagle every day. As for the abstract quality of the image, I can't really see anything that the picture would represent, but at the same time, I can see loads of things there that the picture can represent, which is what makes reviewing abstracts so difficult.

A good use of colours, with the red seemingly at the base of the image, possibly representing blood seeping out of the gaping hole where the liver once was. I can see that there is a lot f speed and violence symbolised in this picture (or is there?) and from my point of view, I wouldn't want to go and steal fire from the gods, before selling it to the humans, those greedy buggers!

Perhaps we need to know some more details about what paint was used, what sort of medium you were painting on and so forth - this doesn't look like photoshop - did you tidy the image up at all, after transporting it to digital format?

[Review Request Club]

Hacsev responds:

I think you got it! There's little I can add to your review. Sometimes the shapes or the combination of them tend to represent something visually, exemplified in the human profile, but I mostly aim for the emotional significance of the myth, hence the speed and violence.

[The Hills]

Not bad for a background

Don't get me wrong, I'm not slating it, saying that it's only good for a background, but I am trying to point out that you could use some additional detail in the foreground, to show focus and possibly even justify the nature of the rest of the image.

What you would put there could be a wide range of things. A boy asleep on his back, hat over his eyes and a stalk of grass hanging from his lips. A woman on a horse, riding over the ridge without a care in the world. Or, for a more grim look at it, an army marching on an opposing city, in the distance. Perhaps they are marching back, carrying wounded?

Still, aside from that, would the contrast in colour be so different, without hedgerows to divide the plant life? I was thinking more of a meadow look would have suited this. Granted, there would be shading work, but the clash of the yellows and the greens makes me feel a change of plant across the centre.

Still, a nice piece.

[Review Request Club]

Joshsouza responds:

Thanks for the review! Yeah, I should have though about putting more details into it but thanks very much for you constructive criticism.

[Tridimensional Theatre]

Shame you cut your name

There seems to be a slight error with the perspective here - As you're pretty much straight on to the cube, I personally believe that the sides should be a little thinner, allowing for the pyramid to be left as it is. If it's a theatre, perhaps you need to have the lights in front of the "performers" and therefore the shadows reflecting behind them? This could be 2 or 3 faint shadows, surrounding the main one, as a gang of spots would be brilliant.

It's a nice picture, but with one or two small pieces that I wasn't overly impressed with, I feel that there's still something else ready to be given here.

[Review Request Club]

MCarsten responds:

Haha, about my name cut, I just don't care at all, it was just the cut system from NG that don't take all the image.

"There seems to be a slight error with the perspective here - As you're pretty much straight on to the cube, I personally believe that the sides should be a little thinner, allowing for the pyramid to be left as it is. If it's a theatre, perhaps you need to have the lights in front of the "performers" and therefore the shadows reflecting behind them? This could be 2 or 3 faint shadows, surrounding the main one, as a gang of spots would be brilliant."

About the perspective from the cube, if you mean the blue-radial cube, maybe you be correct, the perspective should be better where the sides should be a slightly thiner from this, thanks for the great advice! About the lights, well, in this case, I did something like just a sun on the background but for more lights on the stage could be more realistic from these shadows, they don't look "true" with these long shades with a light in that part, again thanks for the advice!

"It's a nice picture, but with one or two small pieces that I wasn't overly impressed with, I feel that there's still something else ready to be given here."

Do you mean more figures on the stage? Yeah, just look at the reply I did to sixflab, this was because I didn't want to put other figures over the others, so the depth/arrangement would close the view to the others and as I liked it...

Thanks again for the nice review.
Respectfully,
SpyS.

[On the other side]

Apophysis?

Well, it looks like that program, since EchoRun uses them, but I need to see more about this before I give you more stars. Are you using the program by throwing randomness down, or are you actually manipulating them finely, taking the images and exporting them through photoshop to touch them up, or even to make complex images from two, three or more different fractals? I'd certainly recommend that you send a PM to EchoRun, to chat about this, as she can put you right with them.

Not a bad piece, with the way that everything is being sucked in towards the centre of it all. The colours may be a little basic and perhaps the circle could have been made slightly smaller, to give less "empty space" between the petal outline and the central pollen. I've certainly seen the flower, but I'm of the opinion that it needs more work.

[Review Request Club]

mindmaster123 responds:

Thanks for the review and try to see if I contact EchoRun

In regard to what you say never interested me to put anything on the site if I put something is because I work in that if you see my thread in the forum and uploaded many sketch art because I do not have to be on the quality portal and some complete works.

If I use gimp and photoshop

[Homersaur]

<3

Wow, that's listened to exactly what I'd said. Bravo. When I saw it on the forums, I thought that you were going to be trolling me with a "Homosaur", boy, how original that would have been.

You've given us a much better piece, the colouring is within the lines, the jeans have a waist band to them and you've made a functioning background. A shame that it was just a static image, otherwise I'd have been thinking of 9 stars.

The next step that you'll have to take is adding elbows, since I don't know anyone that would stand there with a bolt-straight arm, while holding food. Additionally, if it's a lizard (saurus), you might consider making it have more of a snout, as opposed to a humanoid face. Elongate the mouth out, possibly putting nostrils above the mouth for effect.

Finally, the collar looks a little small - there are the corners to it, but Homer Simpson's collar goes all the way around his neck, for the effect of it.

[Review Request Club]

up-a-notch responds:

thanks dude, should I do another inside the lines?

[Fulpasaur]

Similar to the Beaversaur

A few slight changes to the piece here, with the outline, but it does look like you've taken the base of the Beaversaur, then changed the arms, eyes, tail, mouth and then gone to town with the spraypaint. Changing the background was a nice touch and you have produced a better piece, by throwing a photoshop of the NG Tank logo on the shirt.

The jeans need a waist - they should come a little further up the body, so that the two legs are joined together. Perhaps extend the body a little, so that the T-Shirt doesn't get shrunk too much?

I've got the same old hang-ups regarding the colouring and going over the lines, as it really grates against me to see someone with talent not using it to their full potential.

[Review Request Club]

up-a-notch responds:

Well if you think I have talent...I shall add good color to my next piece :)

[Beavaticous Saurus]

Basic

Well, it's a crudely drawn dinosaur, with big teeth that would make its facial features look a little beaver like, but there was no beaver tail, which let this piece down.

The front arm that you've drawn here conjures up the image of the Beaversaur being highly camp and you're still plagued by the insistence upon colouring outside of the lines that you draw.

I'd highly recommend that you spend more time making the drawing sharper, getting yourself some sort of background for this piece and really concentrating on doing something that will add the "spark of life" to your work here.

[Review Request Club]

up-a-notch responds:

ok thanks