TheDyingSun's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Witch Girl]

I admit, I enjoy the flow of the lines, but there are things you can work on. Consistency in shading and establishing a consistent light source is very important, especially in the flat color shading(cell shading) that you do. The shading direction on the shirt and the hair are on two opposite sides, and with the hair, the shadow of the hat isn't cast onto the hair or face. While, it may be seen as destructive to put the face in shadow, it can be interesting depending on the contrast you use. The potion bottle needs shadow and looks out of place compared to the rest. The smoke could use a gradient to suggest more of a vapor. I don't know how to feel about the lining around the smoke either, I'll leave that to your own discretion. The color choice may be a little too bold overall but just remember to use different hues for shadows (usually, there are exceptions). You've been getting slowly better at anatomy, I would suggest still doing some form studies, which I have the materials if you'd like, they've been helpful to me. The connection looks weird and the head is too far off to the left making it look like she snapped her neck. A bit of a nitpick, but I feel like the cutoff at the bottom is too abrupt and harsh. A gradient disappearing into the background would be helpful. In summary, I have materials, which have helped me too with faces (and without it I wouldn't have done my Pico Day drawing), and I'm willing to show you them. You need to stay consistent , and I like the flow of lines. If you need anything, materials, more specific feedback, or techniques you can employ, feel free to ask!

[Low Battery]

I gotta say, interesting concept, but I think there needs to be more to the drawing as a white background isn't enough. The proportions are kind of weird as the legs and torsos are the same height or the torsos are LONGER than the legs, where the legs should be longer than the torsos. The child on the right also looks like a scaled version of a grown up man, that might just be me though. The hand placement isn't entirely natural either, experiment often and study and it should come to you.

Again, interesting concept, just needs better execution and more content.

P.S. I do see "minimalist" as one of the tags, but there are many ways to do minimalist art, and I think just a quick google search would help you get an idea of what exactly you can do with the style. It mainly focuses on adding detail where needed, and silhouettes and shadows. Have fun with it!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I can give you tips or elaborate on confusions you may have.

JoshuaSawtell responds:

Thank you for the feedback! My friends always tell me “Your art is great!” and never give me genuine constructive criticism so this is refreshing to me. Totally agree with you on the proportions. Looking back now, they do look weird and stiff. First time drawing characters holding hands from the back aswell so not 100% happy with that.
Again, thank you, and I’ll try and keep this in mind for the next few pieces!

[Best of Fairyary-Day 26]

Looking sweet overall mate! I love the hues used in the background, but I think the saturation could be toned up and the background somehow made to be more fitting with the character's stance. You have a good idea of muscles in the body and forms of anatomy, however, you have to brush up on proportions and some slight readjusting of certain limbs. The right arm seems to be a bit to low and possibly too wide for the character. The arms and hands are a bit too large as well. Just experiment with a transform tool until it looks right to help you get an idea of what I'm talking about. Also, don't feel like you're cheating by using references! They can be helpful in getting your first bearings of proportions, and I've even used them to polish up my anatomy. I still kind suck, but anyways, another proportion you might want to watch out for is shoulder width that is dependent on gender. Females have narrower shoulders, and guys have wider ones, research the ratios and look at photos and you'll start noticing this pattern. Try to clean up, blend, and sharpen your shadows. A lot of the surfaces in this piece are curved and don't have hard edges to their shading. This goes for the hair as well for using sharp shading. The straight hair of the fairy, in mind mind, shouldn't be straight, and in drawing doesn't look natural. Make it flow or have fun styling it! Hair that long shouldn't be that straight unless a whole bunch of logic, and hair gel, is holding it up!
I think that's all for now, because if I say anything else, it'll be an overload! So, do't feel scared by all of this, I go through this same thought process when I do my drawings. Just as long as your read this through and during drawings think about these little things every once in a while you'll get better. Experiment, and just try to apply things every once in a while. In essence, don't overload yourself. It takes time, so keep on drawing mate! If you have any questions feel free to ask, I know you're new around here, and there's a scouting system you'll ask questions about, so, if you need a friendly face to help out, you can PM me. So, welcome to NG!

BlindingWrath responds:

Thanks for commenting and for the follow!
I'll work on my colors and female anatomy like you pointed out, they are really weak areas on my art.
But I must tell one thing about the hair; that one was made straight like that on purpose to create a similarity with a comet, to work with that day's prompt. I'll try to get better at art so in a probably next time it looks more comet-y and more natural.
Again, thank you very much!

[Mystique Sonia (Hero 108)]

I gotta say, I love the shading in this! The use of hue shading and the darker shadow on the bottom half of the drawing. One of the issues that does stick out is, heh, the tounge! I just might have added a bit more shading or line around the tongue to help stick it out a bit more as it kind of melds into the lip. The only other issue is more of an uncomfortable extreme that I see. With the chest the slip looks like it's VERY low to a point where if the drawing was fully rendered to be realistic, I wouldn't be reviewing this because it would be rated A, if you catch my drift. Otherwise, everything looks awesome! I really dig how you use channel shifting to your advantage! If you have any questions or are confused on anything I said, feel free to PM me!

irri responds:

I actually did have that problem with the lips and tongue, the problem is that I wanted to stick to the main source of the reference I was using to draw this, but I didn't take into account that other references shown her tongue separated from her lips, so yeah, I'll try to avoid that problem in future work.

Otherwise that, thank you, I always enjoy reading your well-written reviews / criticisms! Being short or long. ^^

[Bomb-Berry Pie [Retro]]

Dang, you really nailed the effect! My eyes are making me think it's coming closer mate! Nice line work as well!

[Self-Portrait Surreal Painting]

I personally love the overall concept and you have excellent idea of form. You just have a few things to work on that would really make this pop. Making sure you use sharper details in area of interest would be helpful. As for the area of non interest such as the background it's helpful to still keep it clean. For this piece's background I believe the clouds being finished would help to add more. Creating more pronounce highlights and areas where other light sources affect a subject is very important as well. The lighting on the skin and beard has to be crisper. Overall, just make sure to focus on sharpness of the piece and not muddy up the details. Harder highlights will help with this along with not being afraid to use small brushes. In my personal experience, you can use a few circle brushes with pressure for size and opacity and come out with clean looking pieces. If you have any questions just ask. And you're almost there with you're pieces! Again, don't be afraid to use detail! Keep it up!

DaemmonArts responds:

Thank you so much for your comment and advices.
The next one I will try to make it better and remember your words.
:D

[Cranberry Sprite Waifu]

Along needs work in this, but I can say working with color and an attempt at making a visual focus is visible. However, the anatomy needs quite a lot of work, and even using references a bit here and there is a good introduction to it. I understand the font is hand-drawn, but not all of us are good at lettering, stick to the given fronts in your program and mess around with them from there. Take a look a real life shading to get a feel for how things really react to light. You need a cleaner set pattern as well. However, the graphic for the pattern aren't all that bad. Hope I helped, good luck! (Take it one thing at a time, don't overwhelm yourself, no one becomes Picasso in a night)

[darren's new year]

While I can see the underlying anatomy, the shading is not that to be desired of and more tones with sharper contrast might help. Try actually drawing the fireworks as well, while they make be difficult, use the current drawing you have as a reference, not as part of the full actual pieces. Overall, anatomy, shading, possibly color, and overall experimentation is needed. Good luck!

TVisDaddy responds:

so like, I never really get Critique// Constructive Criticism like this I wanna say thank you! it really means a lot to me when people tell me stuff like this! I'm always looking to get better and better ^^ thank you very much! I'll make sure to work as hard as I can to fix this ^^
(sorry I'm alil late I kinda just got Newgrounds hh i have no idea wtf I'm doing ;w;)

[ALIC-3]

Lovely perspective! The colors make things pop as well! However, I think you should add more detail to the head of the head of the person in the drawing. The drawings looks odd without a detailed main focus. But otherwise, you have everything nailed down quite well! Keep up the awesome work!

[[COM] Angry Beaver]

Pretty good on the technical side, however, I think you need to rework the forms on the face a bit. The mouth is a bit too far from the center, and the shading reflects this. The eyes are uneven in height which gives a bit of an uncanny feeling to the character making it look like it has a serious medical problem. The last thing to watch for might be balance in the character. While I understand the concept of chibi, making sure that the character has balance in this style is so much more stressed due to the head size and implied weight of it. Just keeping an eye out for general stuff like this is helpful. Keep up the good work!