ArtsyCritiques

Art Critique blog dedicated to helping artist become better. Good Even.

[tortagnamgnam]

This is the lucky clover cat. reblog this in 30 seconds & he will bring u good luck and fortune.

[unclebabie]

THIS ONE!!! THIS IS THE ONE THAT WORKS!!!!!

I reblogged him the day i started treatment and 1. GOT TO MY APPOINTMENT ON TIME 2. FOUND A FREE PARKING TICKET SOMEONE LEFT IN THE METER FOR ME AND 3. GOT FREE STARBUCKS AFTER MY APPOINTMENT!!!!!

[cutedemonbabe]

I’m convinced bc I reblogged this on Friday, got hired at a job I had a million interviews for, went on a first date that went well, and got kissed a billion times so like hell ya to the luck cat

[artsycritiques]

I just need the luck

[artsycritiques]

The Empathy Drive (Comic Art Review)

It’s kind of strange how this juxtaposes with the comic’s color palette.

Yep... Not what anyone would expect from the title. 

The comic's colors are generally vibrant. The scheme is a crispy selection of pastel oranges and pinks. It gives the comic a warm fuzzy feeling although it strangely  juxtaposes with exaggerated, cartoony nature of the comic. To continue the characters and the background aren't very distinguishable. 

The both have similar color palettes which give off an illusion that the characters are virtually part of the background. (This is issue is mostly resolved later in the comic) Another noteworthy thing is how the color palette changes in service of the mood. Which gives the comic a sense of artistic direction.

On to expressions. The more natural ones seem are the comic's strong point. They're varied and plentiful. Although, the expressions occasionally devolve into smiley faces and simply enlarging the characters eyes.

 A key to expressive expressions (tongue twister)  is to exaggerate more than just one of the character's faces.

Also keep in mind how the features move in relativity to the face. It'll help curb how the detached eye-look.

To comics most intriguing artistic feature... it's animation.

Animation in comics are risky. If the animation is linear (as in on motion leading to another motion) then it is easy to miss the beginning of the Gif making the panel difficult to understand. This comic's gifs use more repetitive movements that easy to jump into no matter where the gif is.

The general animation of the comic is a bit sluggish (almost like a storyboard) , but it tends to speed up towards the more recent pages. The consistency is fine, but I'd advice to aggrandize the motions especially since the animations are limited. Despite that they were enjoyable to watch.

The comic's art is really nice to look at despite an mistakes in anatomy (most notably hands] or character consistency

 Separating the character into different shapes should help with this.  Anywho it's neat comic and I suggesting giving it a read.

http://edrive.webcomic.ws/comics/first/

[artsycritiques]

Those Days So Long Ago

Those Days So Long Ago Comic The art has an amateurish feel. There are mistakes but there's potential for a decent manga inspired comic. The most apparent mistake of the characters is their anatomy. Their limbs are usually too short and their necks are quite long. Additionally, the characters in profile tend to loose their features in exchange for a fleshy shape resembling their noses. TO continue the characters lack consistency fluctuating in proportions. To redress this issue the artist should create character sheets and notes to how the character is drawn. 

Additionally, the line art is very pixelated (increase the canvas size) also I'd advise using a more powerful drawing program such as Fire alpaca (free) or Paint tool sai (cheap but not free). They usually have more options for canvases, and tend to have less pixelation. Another issue are the speech bubbles are drawn messily. Using generated to shapes to create a speech bubbles would remove this issue. Furthermore the text within the bubble isn't centered and uses an I'll fitting text. (Bambot and Dafont are great websites for fonts) (here is some extra information on dialogue bubbles) 

 On TO the backgrounds. They're vacant. The only thing occupied in them is a faint color and a randomly placed prop. Backgrounds are usually difficult, but a nice cheat to drawing them is modeling your background in a 3-d program then tracing them.

 TO color choices. They're not great. There isn't a particular color scheme for any of the scenes nor is there any shading. Since the comic's style is manga influenced a nice cel- shade over the character will give them a pop. Click here for some nice color schemes.

    Finally, TO composition. This is a skill integral to creating a nice comic. Quite a few of the shots are flat, mid-level shots. They remove any possible depth from the art of the comic. As stated before using a 3-d programmer to create backgrounds is helpful. (A good program here). It can also help with angles and other unconventional shots. The artist should study shots and how they establish mood, tone and even character/story/world insights. While these aren't all the things this comics needs for nice art these are a few starters to fix their most prominent issues!

[artsycritiques]

I can’t get a butter milkshake anywhere else. (Why don’t I get any notes?) (Part 1)

None of my business, but found this in the tags so why not! @captainsartlog

Everyone on Tumblr desires some amount of success in their artist endeavors. Even I do. A lack of notes on tumblr could mean a myriad of things about your artistic abilities. It can also mean absolutely nothing. Although, I’d like to address this artist in particular to cite what is the reason for their lack of popularity. 

This is one of the first pieces I discovered on their blog. Honestly, this art work is generic. There aren’t many fundamental issues. The anatomy is alright... Despite the character appearing as if it may fall over at any gush of wind, it’s solid. The conundrum here is that’s uninteresting. One can quite literally hop onto deviantart or furaffinity or any other amateur art website and find an artist who draws similarly.  

There are so many elements that appear in other anthropomorphic  animal-centered artworks that it simply blends in. 

Out of general curiosity here’s another one of the artist’s pieces 

While fan art happens to garner attention from those within the fan art. One can practically obtain this type of fan art anywhere else. There’s nothing intuitive about the two characters drawn or their poses, or the colors. Not even the pairing is striking or intriguing. (Especially, considering that one of the writers shipped these two)

Edit: The drawing above is in fact to OCs rather than two of the canonical characters I thought they were. 

In the case of this artist... Their integral flaw is that they don’t garner any interest. Offer people art that they can’t find anywhere else. If it’s something that’s “...been done before.” give it a new insight or vision. 

Heart Attack Grill is not popular because it sells the same burgers and fries everyone else does. It’s popular because it’s the only place that serves butter milkshakes.

So get out there ,and serve some butter milkshakes.

[artsycritiques]

Clouds! 

Right off the metaphorical bat... The artist needs to have neater brush strokes. Many of the details of the painting simply blend into each other. Especially, that strip of yellow along the road. A way to achieve a consistent brush stroke is to simply render (Render is essentially where one smooths and details the image), and generally practice neater lines. 

Looking at the contrast it generally is very strong. There are the darkest darks are the lightest lights, but this doesn’t contribute to the composition of foreground  and the background. 

Ignoring the mediocre photoshop work... If the background is darker than the foreground it stands out more. (If the road is the focal point) If the clouds are you can increase the contrast on the clouds in comparison  to the ground.

To take a peek at the background foliage. It’s a bit messy. It looks somewhat like grass. A good way to draw grass is to layer it.

The lower the grass the dark the grass is, and vice versa. Or grass in the background is lighter or darker than the grass in the foreground.

On to the clouds. The artist seems to have the right idea with the colors. A nice variety of blues, tans and browns,but they are sloppily layered on top of each other. And smeared in with either a blur or blend tool. (Which I’d avoid for digital art generally) 

To paint clouds use cloud brushes or light low-opacity ones.

See how clouds colors aren’t solid. 

Well, I hope this all helps!

@artistwhocouldntthinkofaname

[artsycritiques]

Submissions are Open

I’m a bit tired of finding artist myself to critique so send me your art! I’ll accept pretty much anything that isn’t extremely NSFW. Also tag everything correctly!

[artsycritiques]

Looking at this piece... It looks as if she is inexplicably floating. An adjustment to her feet would make her look more grounded. Additionally, her tail looks as if it’s attached to her left leg rather than from her tail bone.

Also I’d recommend this artist use more confident strokes in her line work. And neater coloring and shading would help.

(No redraw this time because of broken tablet!)

[artsycritiques]

Artist Dump

Even if your art is technically okay, you can still have major flaws.

Case in point with this artist. 

At first glance it’s pretty solid. Cute. Simple. And Well-drawn for the artists’ age. 

But then the realization comes around...

All of the characters look the same...

I mean they all have different outfits, hair, and skin colors, but their facial features are all too similar.

They all have long, almond shaped eyes that have a bit of anime elements. (Bright, sparkly eyes) Their noses are short, puggish and usually darker or pinker than their skin. (I assume this is a result of the ‘tumblr noses’) The lips are regular sized and have a small indent. (Not the largest problem with the faces, but it becomes pedantic after awhile.) (Even the eyebrows are all the same!) Additionally, the character’s all have short faces, feminine faces. 

At the very least the artist varies her body types, but she is severely limiting herself by turning to the same faces. (She even draws herself like this) It’d benefit her tremendously if she started using different and diverse features.

Tutorial Below!

[debbietrash]

You wait until later and cry in the washroom, like a true art student.

my cold heart when talking about critiques (via knitpearls)

[artsycritiques]

This is  an interesting piece. From a cursory glance it seems okay.  Unnecessarily edgy, but overall okay… right?

A common error among artist who doodle animals. Her tail looks as if it is directly connected to her bum rather than her tailbone. So a slight adjustment improves the piece a bunch.

The skirt looks a bit unnatural bending at it’s sides.

Furthermore, her pose is a bit stiff and confusing. I emulated it and almost tipped over. Also the way her neck is turned is plan ole uncomfortable. Additionally her overlapping arm doesn’t seem to connect from anywhere and is just inexplicably floating.

On to the background. It obviously was slapped together last minute. There is some striped green cloud formation against a purple sky. and a scatter of a leaves.  Yeah. Have no idea where she is. Not a great piece. Shading’s nice though.

[artsycritiques]

This is  an interesting piece. From a cursory glance it seems okay.  Unnecessarily edgy, but overall okay... right? 

A common error among artist who doodle animals. Her tail looks as if it is directly connected to her bum rather than her tailbone. So a slight adjustment improves the piece a bunch.

The skirt looks a bit unnatural bending at it’s sides.

Furthermore, her pose is a bit stiff and confusing. I emulated it and almost tipped over. Also the way her neck is turned is plan ole uncomfortable. Additionally her overlapping arm doesn’t seem to connect from anywhere and is just inexplicably floating.

On to the background. It obviously was slapped together last minute. There is some striped green cloud formation against a purple sky. and a scatter of a leaves.  Yeah. Have no idea where she is. Not a great piece. Shading’s nice though.

[artsycritiques]

Giving bad advice to beginning Artist

Artist all have to begin somewhere, but it is harmful when the advice they receive is just plain terrible. 

Recently, I discovered an art ‘institution’ called: digitalartanddesign.org. It’s quite the egregious website. Although, I’d like to focus on their worst post.  Though, A bit of background beforehand : This website claims to aid beginning art students to improve upon their skills over a two semester period. This seems admirable, but it isn’t. Let’s take a look at their tutorial on painting digital self portraits. 

Not the greatest photo to show the results of your tutorial, but let’s continue!

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend turning your page upside down rather I’d advice fliping the page so you can see any facial asymmetry. (Which is definetly visible in the piece).

Wait a second. Pen tool? Burn Tool? Dodge Tool?One should avoid these tools at all cost. (At least when trying to create a cohesive realistic face.) 

Pen Tool rarely creates smooth lines and is a hassle

Burn tool doesn’t create nice shading just a slightly darker color

Dodge tool turns the skin a garish white rather than a brighter tone.

Even the paintbucket tool should be used sparingly. 

Line art! Line art isn’t super integral to creating a realistic self-portrait because in real life people don’t have outlines. (This ‘tutorial’ isn’t for abstract portraits fyi) 

The rest of the tutorial is okay, but it doesn’t really give good results. Most of the line art is pixel-like because of the poor chicken-scratch sketches. These tutorials should’ve taught people about form and sketching because many of these sketches lack proper form which is fundmental to art.

See the drawing is off from the start. If this tutorial were to add to how to sketch a face accurately. (Perhaps adding a grid of some sort) Then the result would’ve been much better, but I digress.

This part is minimalisitic, but I says to pic a color from some skin tone selector. Which limites the variety of skin tones. Honestly, create your own color palettes by incorporating background, hair and clothing colors. 

Here’s a mini tutorial on how to get better  colors. If you mix together the surrounding colors it mimics real life more because surrounding colors reflect on your skin.

Here are when some really crap tools come into play. There are a trillion ways to color skin, but this way ends up with plastic-y portraits with no depth. 

DO NOT DO THIS

Using slightly darker colors create skin that looks very dull and monotone. Instead mix in cooler coolers for a more vibrant realistic feel.

Instead of using an airbrush to paint on the shades. Use them to blend instead, because using it as a shadow makes the skin look oddly smooth. A better idea is to use a hard round brush to lay down the shades.

“Gracefully” Actually blend with the shades. This is lazy as balls. 

Ugh, just actually blend and create colors. That way you can actually create depth in the photo. 

Look how many colors this uses. And the tutorial just uses one. 

Yeah, this hair  looks like playdoh. As like skin there are a trillion ways to draw hair, but this isn’t the way. Hair should have a solid base, loose strands, highlights and darker shades, but the examples just look like someone used the liquify tool.

Why? Hair highlights aren’t scattered zig zags but follow a specific curviture of where light hits the hair. Also don’t use a straight up white or black. In the case of the photo above just use a variety of blues.  

Haha, don’t blend the hair just smudge it. No one will notice.

These people don’t know what looks good. From browsing the examples none of them know color theory. So they end up choosing a monotone color resulting in flat hair. 

In lieu of not wanting to be repetitive I’ll sumarize: Dodge tool. 

Not actually creating colors.

Do these nicompoops know what a focal point is?

Probably not. And since this the final part of the tutorial they just apparently just said screw it to the ears, nose, and mouth.

The bad line art rears its ugly head.

I admit to using this tool for eyes, but the placement is crap. The iris rarely touches the bottom of the eye. (Unless the eye is squinched)

Actually paint the iris. A gradient doesn’t give a realistic effect. Seriously, stop teaching people lazy habits.

Never seen an eye that looks like that. 

The remainder of the tutorial is just garbage shading of the eyeball and how to draw a pupil that looks similar to someone with severe brain dramage.

That ends this awful tutorial

This taught lazy habits and mistakes that are prevalent among younger artist. Every step was a way to cut corners rather than to create good art. I honestly hope no one paid for this abhorent advice.

Bonus Art: