Coop's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sleeping with the Flying Fish]

Reminds me a little of Dali.

I think that I am reminded of the flamboyant Spanish surrealist by the presence of a balloon spouting flame, which is usually the other way around - the hot air balloon receiving a gout of flame, to keep it inflated. The persistent look of shock or perhaps fear on the eye of the balloon is a little disturbing, though I was amused by the birds becoming completely prepared by the roasting that they receive mid-flight. What would have made me even more amused would have been a chef trying to catch them with a butterfly net on the ground below, but that's another story entirely.

I loved the way that the fishy balloon has fins made from what look like scarves, flapping in the wind, as it moves on. The broken tether is a nice touch, as is the couple sleeping, oblivious to the cold air, the blast of heat not far above and generally anything else that is going on around them - such is the power of the subconscious mind.

I loved how the detail is lavishly highlighted in the flame, with the detail that you've given to the wings, as the feathers are just about to catch light - a simple black outline representing all that it needs to be, giving a great, harsh contrast, compared with the rest of the image and the softly blended pastels.

[Review Request Club]

Merol responds:

The look on the balloon's eye looks more like a lost stare to me, as if it is clueless about what's happening. I guess that's pretty cool, that it means something different to everyone (or so).

I like your chef idea, he could have been sitting on the edge of the bed, but I made this for the Emoticon collab on the art forum, and that could have deviated the picture even more from the theme. Mi emoticon is the sleepy one.

Thanks for the review!
By the way, there are no pastels here, just watercolors and a bit of colored pecil.

[A.T.T. Design Dossier: Artwork]

Design study / advertisement.

Hmm, an interesting way to plug your next step in the trilogy, I'll grant you. Perhaps some sort of additional annotations could have been put in, pointing out colours, fluidity of drawing and other features that are within the characters of your three pieces? I'm in two minds over whether or not this is successful as a way to advertise your upcoming new piece, but that's beside the point.

This piece gives little clue as to the backgrounds of these three protagonists and only reading the comics could really do that. I get the feeling that it shows a good deal of development of your style over the years that you've been doing this, though I'd like to see something in glorious full colour, as opposed to the few tones of a classic comic book that we see here. Still, classical pieces, such as "That Yellow Bastard" and various other works of the same type have gone down in history, so should be paid tribute, in a sense.

[Review Request Club]

Celx-Requin responds:

Yeah it's gonna be tougher to get steady publicity for the last chapter in the trilogy because it's going to be an animated film proper, therefore I can't release it to the portal until it's completely done.

At least this way I can let people who are interested some updates, until I get a chance to cut together a trailer.

As far as the colour thing goes, I consider "The sugar claws" to be my "coloured " segment,
I've played with the idea of doing a traditional coloured comic, but it doesn't really interest me,
plus after the trilogy is done, I think I am going to be done making cartoons and comics.

This is going to be my swan song, and I really appreciate the feedback !
Thanks,
- Celx

[Classic Pokemon]

Skillfully done.

There are still issues, such as you not using a full piece of white A4, which you can then fade the coloured background into. If you're drawn elements of this 50 times over, you have invested a lot of time and effort into the piece and, to be fair, you have been richly rewarded with this end product. You could have trimmed the picture down a little, to cut out most of the outside influence from the carpet, as that would have helped a lot. Perhaps lie it on a table, with a cloth on it, then take the picture there. You're taking it with a webcam, so why not badger your parents into getting a proper digital camera, so that your pieces can be uploaded in higher quality and detail?

I hope that you recycled all of the waste paper afterwards, young man. You do have reasons to be proud of this, so why not try and see if you can create something original, rather than fan art, for your next piece? This is a good way to progress, but from there, you need to take it to another level.

[Review Request Club]

JimmyTheCaterpillar responds:

Honestly, I have degraded a bit, because I didn't spend as much time on my other art as I did this one.

Oh, and yes.I did recycle the excess paper. Because I HAVE THE POWER!!!

Thanks for reviewing.

[Plea From a Crisis Suit]

Okay, so the Tau look like they shopped at the same boutique used to sell Storm Trooper Armour in Return of the Jedi and the Dark Angels Green looks a little too Emerald to me, but other than that, the essence of the piece certainly captures the moment well. From the little details, such as the "Temporary Techpriest", inscribed on the tool box, the roll of gaffer tape there and the smoke rising from the barrels, this is clearly something that you've put a lot of thought and effort into.

What really stuns me is that you're written a passage to go with it and I'm struggling to come up with enough words of a review, to compare to what you've written. Did you write the concept first, or draw the image and tell the story around it?

On the hyper-critical side of things, you could have made the background a little more involved, as a misty / cloudy skyline just doesn't do much, compared to the high levels of detail in the rest of the image. A distinct lack of blood was the other thing, as even though Space Marines wear this fantastic armour, they still technically have blood, or blood like fluids pumped around their systems, so losing it would look pretty cool, as well as dismemberment, by cannon fire, or just tearing from the mech, in front of the Commander.

Clearly a subject that you have a passion for, keep up the great work!

[Review Request Club]

Galneda responds:

I had considered poolings of blood beneath the space marines at one point, but I've already forgotten why I didn't do it; the black smudged around the Crisis Suit's foot was supposed to be a guide for the blood kicked up from stomping the marine underfoot.

What had started when I roughed this was just a Crisis Suit having a sort of a standoff with a Space Marine...then that became a Crisis Suit with his army behind him...then I thought, "Well, surely the Space Marine wouldn't be alone, so I gotta include them somehow." and what happened was a scene played out in my head where the Space Marines were either in midbattle or about to lose, and it would be a lone badass about to avenge the hell out of his fallen brothers.

So in short, the drawing came first, and before it was completed, I opened up the submit Art Portal page, and started typing. A couple of dozen edits later so I could fit the damn thing in the alotted "Author's Comments" section, and I added a few details to the work in progress to make it better match the story I impatiently jotted down. The last two details being the cloaked Stealth Suits and the two "stun missiles" sticking out of the ground.

I really do need to start drawing more original work, but the lore behind 40K is an interesting one. If I were to do it again, I'm thinking of doing Necrons next. :P

Much appreciated for the review! It's not the word count that makes it a good review, it's that it's honest, critical, and helpful...so thanks again, Coop!

[Ink Dragon]

Was the coloured effect ont he paper intended, or a side effect of the scanner? The way that there's an almost oily colour pattern over the white, as if with some damp ground and a drop of oil or petrol. It would be interesting to see how you created this, if it were intentional.

With this piece, the intricate level of detail does create a rod for your own back, as replicating this for each and every facet of the piece is incredibly difficult and the slightest mistake can be costly. By and large, this is not an issue, until you peer really closely at the underbelly, or flanks of the dragon.

How long did it take you to draw? The other thing I wanted to know was which came first - the inspiration to draw the dragon, or the border around it?

Normally, I tend to favour drawings that have colour, but in this case, I can certaily make an exception for this piece which transcends cultures and certainly gives a clue to things inspiring your life - Chinese (dragon's head), Nordic (the body) and Celtic (border) themes all belnding together, which need to be managed well to avoid unsavoury clashes. I don't think that there are such clashes this time, but be wary of this if you are attempting such things in future.

[Review Request Club]

EchoRun responds:

That slight oily effect was one of the tweeks I did on the computer. I cant remember exactly how I did it, but it involved, filters and a lot of messing arround with the propoties of that layer.

Yes, trying to keep up that level was difficalt, but once I had started on the head I didn't want to stop, I really liked it. The dragon came first, the boarder was created to finish it. :)

I will certanly watch my styles if I do this again. TBH, I wasn't thinking about it at all this time round, it was just "I like this, so lets do lines like this!" without even thinking where else that kind of line had been used before. Compleatly unplanned.

Thank you for the review. :)

[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 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

[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?