★ RMA: Rate My Art

Alright, sorry for being late, this week we have


frenzyplant
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elcheeso
Self Portrait
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Andrew
an old art for articles picture
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If you don't want me and elcheeso spamming up this thread, get your submissions to me by next saturday so we can have some cool new art to showcase and discuss ^_^ I'm also working on getting permission from a couple excellent artists on DeviantArt
 
frenzyplant
Your lineart in general is very shaky. For example, the head feathers should presumably be round, but the lines are very rough. Same applies to the body outline on the right side (Ho-oh's right side), and other instances.

The body also looks off. I get the impression that Ho-oh is a hunchback because the neck doesn't smoothly connect to the body.

Look at this for example
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/...1Az6cHN9YJowrSqe6uLUd0mh_ahqR6f_b6R5oE1xqyFA7

The neck very naturally flows into the body. The position of the wings would change as well it looks.

There is also a bit with the underside of the neck. The lack of shading at the bent part doesn't give the impression that his head is actually going forward a bit.

Lastly, I don't really understand the piece as a whole. Ho-Oh looking down seems like an odd pose. It makes him look bashful / shy imo, which does not really fit the Legendary in this case. I would say that looking off into the distance would be more fitting.

Gotta get my flight, might add stuff about elcheeso n andrew elcheeso.is.a.creeper. Also returning to my tablet today so I'll work on my earlier piece.
 
I'm short on time this week, but I'll do this quickly anyhow.

So, Ho-oh's face is sort of off. In his official design, his bill has a more nuanced, angular shape with nostrils. His feet look rather odd as well, and you could try looking at references of real bird feet to present them more properly next time. I agree with V0x that your lineart is quite wobbly, and the best fix I can recommend is to get used to drawing much larger (2-4 times the size) and shrink the image afterwards before posting online. This way, it's harder to notice any small flaws. I like that you didn't copy an official pose and took a shot at your own. Ho-oh looks like he's contemplating something. I think it could be transformed into a very nice piece if you added a grass + daylight background and drew a little flower coming from the ground where he's looking. C:

I've gotta hand it to you: interesting choice of censorship. Now I know what people mean when they say "dickhead". I'm digging the touch of the glowing eyes, and that combined with the deliberately exaggerated, monster-like proportions reminds me of a minor Hollow from Bleach, what's-his-face... I don't remember, but it was Chad or Ishida who cleaned his clock. I don't really have much else to add, but yeah, nice toying with the proportions.

Needs moar jpg imo. Well, ignoring that, my favourite thing about this right off the top is Ferrothorn in the back, with his tendrils flying everywhere. He looks absolutely terrified, which is hilarious, and makes sense because he can't drive since he has no hands. Even better, the car looks like Sanic. Gotta go fast, so you can crash and die! Anyway, some might point out the inconsistency of the proportions as a flaw, but I'd say it goes well with the surrealness of the background. I like the fact that the composition was (most likely) planned by the artist and that the piece has a focal point: Venusaur, being in front, is the largest and thus draws the most attention. Solid work.
 
I've been watching this piece evolve from sketches and it is definitely going in the right direction. I have a feeling this is still in WIP (?) but if not there aer some aspects of the shading that could progress some more. For example, you have a heavy, dark shade for underneath the neck, and have a less dark but still bold shade underneath the fringe area, so obviously the light direction is somewhat above the figure, judging by the other parts of the piece, the top left.

First I think, at least thinking in a cell shading style, to have some shade on HER left side face, because obviously her face isnt 2D, also, the nose most cast a shadow to a miniscule degree down towards the right (This you obviously know from other pieces of yours.)

The highlights in the hair could be moved to a more definite area probably, because if the light is coming from the top RIGHT, the shading under the fringe may seem a bit off.
 
this is going to be less critique and more flowery praise :3

The style fits first gen well. It's got a ton of personality and the coloring style is cool because it flickers when i scroll down :) I've always been a fan of pixel-y style art and this is no exception. I'd love to see more in this style. Oh, one more thing is that when drawing detail lines such as all the little curves it's easy for me at least to get mechanical and automated, but you do a great job of leaving them randomly naturalized.
This piece is coming along really well! I love how detailed you've made the hair. The eyes and mouth are also very cute and expressive.
This piece is a joy to look at. From the crisp lineart to the Sugimori style shading, it's got it all. Here's a link to lagendarylugia's dA
A couple of stylistic notes: The artist uses black for the outside lines and a darker shade of existing color for inside lines.
The shading is minimalistic but very well executed and blended.
The pose and shapes are very active and appealing. Not much else I can say because lag is an excellent artist and really has this style down.
 
I don't know how to do the dropdown yellow bar thingies...but I do know about art, so here goes.

This first critique applies to nearly everyone that has art on here, including the three current examples. I've noticed that in the realm of fanart, very few artists even consider the ground area in their compositions. I usually see figures/creatures/items just floating in a white void, or as in the case of lagendarylugia on a solid color field. In your work the parts that are not the main focus are just as important as the subject you are illustrating. While it's simple to get excited about drawing a cool Pokemon and just rush it out there for the internet to look at, take a bit to really make it from a typical "lookie what I did" drawing to a "damn that's awesome" piece of art. Perhaps MegaSceptile is stalking through some undergrowth or tracking prey (assuming hes omnivorous). Set a scene, tell a story, set a mood...it doesn't take too much more effort.

Renosaur: Yep that's a Muk. More than one shade of gray would be welcome, but I'm not really sure what you were going for. Maybe it's fine how it is.

V0x: Cropping. It's a thing. I take it that you are practicing drawing characters in the modern Disney style and you are just starting out with digital coloring techniques. Good start, but even when it's a practice sketch/study you should put thought into the cropping. I know I'm a little nit picky, but why does the hair extend lower than where the neck cut off? If the hair goes lower, so too should the figure. Perhaps add the top of the dress/shirt or extend to the full figure. Don't be afraid to draw bodies. Drawing a good head is worthless if you can't draw the rest of a person. On a brighter note, I like the color palette and the attempt at adding hair highlights and lowlights. Perhaps try out some brushes in the program you use. Photoshop and Painter have cool options. You can google hair tutorials that turn out to be quite easy to get the hang of.

lagendarylugia: Good idea with the pose. Rather catlike. Not too reptilian. Most large reptiles are low to the ground and very sturdy looking, but this agile pose fits Sceptile well. If you don't have one, pick up a French Curve. You can use it to make the long swooping lines, such as his back and tail, more consistent and have them move more fluidly as one. It's a good idea to find the flow of motion in a piece or a figure and in this case it's wavy, like an S. I wish the abrupt downturn of his back would have been echoed with an abrupt upturn of the tail though. Here it looks like a sharp, aggressive line for the back, but the tail is this calm, soft curve. Also, good start with using color holds on the line work. It is a bit inconsistent though as some areas that were made dark green (the leaves on his elbows) while other areas that are the same thing were left black (leaves on the shoulder and tail). I'm also not too sure about the black outline around the whole thing. Keeping color holds on lines consistent and clear to understand really separates novices from pros, and you are right there on the edge.

To all three, keep making art and keep sharing it with people. Sorry if I am wordy, I majored in Fine Art and endless hours of critique does that to you :)
 
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tcrfelton I think part of what you mean is basically "draw more backgrounds". Your critique is totally legitimate and makes perfect sense, but from the perspective of someone like me, a pretty simple explanation is that characters are more fun to practice compared to anything else. Of course, that's no excuse not to practice anything else ever, but likewise, not everything that gets submitted to this thread is necessarily another "magnum opus". I certainly agree that pictures which depict entire scenes are the loveliest, at any rate. Also, for future reference, the tags you use to create the spoiler sections are [ hide ]insertcontenthere[ /hide ] without the spaces between the brackets.

Anyway my fear was that the next week of RMA would be over before I came back but that didn't happen so thank you jesus grandma

grimer or muk??? Either way, the lack of shading or colour suits this pretty well. Clearly, the emphasis is on the actual drawing itself, which is disgusting... well, I mean this in an entirely good way. Muk's just there in all of his slime monster glory. Or is it Grimer? Like, the eyes bulging in different directions and the goopy mouth and arm parts just really sells it. It's a cool cartoony and exaggerated but simple piece. If we want to get nitpicky, well the lineart isn't perfectly even everywhere and the "gray" colouring is really nothing more than just black and white dots, which isn't exceptionally creative and makes me kind of nauseous.

The first thing that comes to mind is that I was pretty sure that Anna's hair is redder than this... though I only saw the movie once and I'm not really a fan, so who knows. I wasn't sure if you were planning on colouring this, but more importantly, let's talk about contrast, or rather, lack thereof. It's obviously a WIP and it's a fine start, but as Regime mentioned, there are places which definitely could and should have stronger shading, especially on the upper neck just below the chin. It's both more realistic and more compelling to look at, strong lights and darks that is. For further confirmation of this, see page 1 of this thread when icepick rekked Bummer.

Congrats on the daring pose, I think you pulled it off pretty well. My main criticism relating to that is the fact that the legs/feet look cheaply drawn and not defined enough compared to the head and arms, and the xmas tree part of the tail is drawn too small proportionally if you check the official art or in-game figure and compare. I think that the colouring job could've used higher contrast, but it does look nice as it is by not using straight lights and darks but having the bluish highlights and yellowish shadow. Nice work.
 
ok thank you guys for your rates, I've left this open for an extra week so I'll go ahead and introduce Week 7 (week 8?) whatever:


brightobject
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Foxeaf on dA
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TeraVolt

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also adding this to the OP:

The Community Contributor badge can be given to anyone who provide good advice and solid critique to the submitted images and WIPs. If you feel you deserve a badge, feel free to contact Bummer or Zracknel with links to your posts or artwork, and we'll see if we've simply overlooked you or if there's still something preventing you from being badged.
 
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What medium is this? I must know! Conceptually, this is a real treat to look at. There are so many questions to ask: is this robot friendly or hostile? Who is this person? Where are they? The colouring is smooth and nicely done, but I'd like to discuss the composition. The dark silhouette of the figure is a stride in the right direction (and the long drop shadow is a nice touch). I'm a maniac for the rule of thirds, so imo, the horizon is too close to the middle of the canvas and it ought to be a little lower. It's confusing where the focal point is: it could be the figure and the spotlight, but the robot takes up loads of room and steals most of the attention. Judging by the darkness of the sky, perhaps the spotlight should cast some stark highlights onto the front of the robot while the rest of it remains in shadow.

Nice job with the soft, dream-like atmosphere and the lighting/light source. Sylveon's bow is on the wrong ear: it's meant to be on the left ear, i.e., its left, and our right if we're looking straight at it. I wonder if the lineart was really necessary. I almost feel you could've done this picture linelessly with a better result, since the work as a whole is so soft. In that case, there may not be enough contrast between the subject and the background as they're mostly light cream. The background elements don't really match up in quality compared to the subject, including the windows, art easels (?) and floor boards. For example, all of the lines on the window are pretty crooked. It can be a pain in the neck but try to spend a little more time on the background so that the quality of the whole artwork is the same.

Proportionally, the character's arm seems too long for his body, while the hand is slightly too small for the arm. I also think that his neck should show, at least partially. The sharp points around his elbow also don't look quite right. I'm guessing that the sketchy tidbits around the main subject are temporary, but nevertheless they're interesting and compliment the center image well. It looks like he could be glancing to the distance and having flashbacks, or the sketches could be all unrelated lol. If you're looking to colour everything in and finish the picture, I'd suggest extending his body to the very bottom so that he isn't cut off randomly or floating. Since your art is pretty stylized with angular lines and bold colours, I'd also recommend sketching in a variety of other drawing styles from time to time.
 
Let's do something different this time around
Featuring the art of Alex Grey

Wonder
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The Visionary Origin of Language
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New Man New Woman
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"Wonder" shows me what I don't have, which is the innocent wonder and contemplation of a child. After living so many years in a fucked up world it's hard to look at the moon and be innocent and child like again. Transparency and intensity is shown, things that adults tend to cover up in favor of hiding from their fears and the increasing dulling of the senses. This said, a child can bring these things to the table, something that should always be valued.

"The Visionary Origin of Language" occupies the popular myth that apes evolved into intelligent humans by way of psychedelic drugs such as mushrooms. Having not consumed mushrooms before there's not a lot I can say particularly, but having ingested/imbibed/partaken of other substances I can say that these kind of substances have a way of getting inside my head which makes me much more vocal, even to realizing and speaking my innermost thoughts. Every wave of hope and fear is taken into account and the only way to cut the edge is to talk about them.

"New Man New Woman" - This is what I hope for one day, to be aligned with another human being in such a way that our thoughts unify into the same piercing direction. The third eye is opened and the sub conscious is revealed to be beautiful in it's conception and accepted by another. In the picture the man and woman are burning with intensity and all nerves and muscles are revealed...wouldn't it be great to have this kind of intimacy with another person?
 
ok let's get this started again.
one picture this week, if you get one in to me in the next 24 hrs I'll put it up for this week as well
have fun :)


by WhyAxis
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Darn, I totally forgot about this thread... I'll even do the previous "week" to compensate! (it's late so these won't be long)

The lineart is smooth and definitely bold, and the extreme pen pressure (as a result of the thickness of the lines) comes off well. However, the colours could be a bit more vivid to match the look of the lineart. Also, the image resembles Volcarona's Sugimori art a lot, so my advice is to practice sketching out your own poses in the future. The sandy patch showing location could be neater but is nice too.

Granbull with man boobs what. Does he not lift??? I don't have much to say, but I like the colour choices for the building background and how that reflects onto the subject, in terms of the inner gradient and multiply mode shading. As per usual, your lineart is crisp and the only negative thing I could add is Granbull's anatomy may be warped too far, but this may be a matter of personal preference.

I like the determined stare you gave Beheeyem and the pose, but his body is proportionally too long. If you check the official art, for instance, one can say that Beheeyem is "two heads high", meaning its total height is twice the length of the head. The pencil crayon colouring could be smoother; try to take your time and colour in a single direction where possible to help eliminate the look of strokes.
 
WhyAxis - I agree with most of what princessofmusic has already said, but I have a few things to add about the pose. In regards to the pose, due to your use of proportions, it appears as though Beheeyem has its arms farther back then the rest of its body in the image. In combination with the darker shading on the chest and face, this distorts the perception of depth in the image. This could be corrected by a combination of foreshortening (by drawing Beheeyem's larger to imply they are closer to the viewer than the body behind it) and shading (adding darker shades to the shoulders and elbows would make them appear on the same plane as the torso, making the hands appear closer to the viewer as a result of the contrast created between the two shades.)

As an aside, practice applying less pressure to the paper as you draw. In a couple of areas, I can make out spots where you tried to erase, but due to the indention in the paper caused from your pencil, the remnants of the marks can still be seen. In some areas where the piece overlaps with the erased linework, this creates white marks that stand out against the color. Using lighter marks would help to eliminate this problem, and it should be something you consider moving forward.

That said, I dig the attitude you were going for with this piece, and I feel with a little work, it has the potential to be very solid. Be sure to keep at it and you'll see yourself improving in no time. +)
 
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