#written critique

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Hello there! I was hoping you could look at my gallery here: http://chinara.deviantart.com/ As someone who wants to be a freelancer / get into the games industry, I was wondering what I should be focusing on particularly? Which of my skills need to be polished most, that stands out in particular? Thank you for taking the time to read this. ‘u’ Rock on!

Wow! I definitely enjoyed looking through your gallery! One thing that really stands out is that you’re experimenting with scenes and backgrounds, which is really good.

From what I’ve researched, freelance illustrators mostly focus on making the picture pretty. This will mean that you are going to have to dive into all aspects such as more environments, animal/creature anatomy, and so forth. I especially like this piece, http://fav.me/d8fsgfm, and http://fav.me/d8ng8pi, because you are playing a lot with light, which really pushes the artwork.

For gaming, tumblr user http://askagamedev.tumblr.com/ had some amazing articles for gaming artists, in one of his articles he quoted from Gavin Goulden (lead character artist on Bioshock Infinite) twitter which gave very stern feedback and key aspects for gaming artists. Take a look over it and see where you stand.

[critcorner]

1. Written Critique 2. Composition

Thank You!

Not bad, although you lines and background/perspective could use some work, but it’s something that you can practice just by drawing more backgrounds and from real life. I’ve just re-drawn the template your comic boxes here. Try to line them up better so it doesn’t look as messy and tilted. If you want a half-section broken off lower and half section broken-up higher, you should make that clearer (i’m talking about the first four panels). 

anyways, hope this helps, and keep practicing and observing other comics to see how they lay their page out, emulate their layout for a bit and get used to a more coherent comic layout. personally I'd even make the top section of the panels line up completely too so it doesn't look stilted and messy which the red-lined one still is a little bit.

Qinni

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Red Marked/ Written Critique

Anatomy and colour theory

I'm kind of new to digital art and colouring in general. So any advice on colours and shading would be extremely helpful. Also I have always been really bad at anatomy and getting body proportions right. I just don't know where to start to learn body proportions. 

jabber here! I really like the tones in this piece, it unifies it quite well. however, the colors are a bit saturated and while it adds a nice contrast with the skin, you might want to do some color studies of different skin tones. over all though the piece shows a lot of promise!

for anatomy practice I suggest life drawing or practicing gesture and doing studies on individual body parts. as for coloring techniques, I have to admit, the best way to find it is to try everything at least once. I have this tag right here with some stuff on digital painting, which might help a might touch bit c:

[critcorner]

So, this is supposed to be a piece of illustration, I tried to draw a scene from a book. I have a lot of difficulties drawing clothes and folds and drapes and making them look natural. Otherwise, I would just be glad if you told me what you thought of it and how I could improve it! Thank you! :-)

Hello :)~ I have a few anatomy critiques. I do like this though, and I think her drapes are okay and can just be a stylized thing rather than anything else. However, there are a few anatomy problems, especially with the male character.

Here's are the problem areas I'm pointing out here:

First off, his eyes are crooked; always make sure the vertical line of the face and the horizontal line make a T shape, whether you rotate it or not.  Second, try to draw the body under the clothing; right now, there's a bump int he shoulder area of the female character; and since there's no bump to indicate where the shoulder is, my first thought was that it was a little bit like the shoulder's where the clothing's bunched together there, even if you didn't intend for it to look that way. 

so here's a red-line on the overal pose and anatomy:

even after the male red-lining though, I'd say his whole pose is a little stiff. I think I red-lined his right knee a little too low, sorry about that. 

okay, so here's what this should look like after I put clothing on the naked characters:

when you draw characters with complicated clothing straight on without any anatomy-sketching base, it can be easy to get the anatomy off. note the male character's sleeve: because of the way it puffs out to the side, it's also better that after it bends at the elbow, it should continue to puff out. 

I hope this helps. :) overall, i like the colouring though, and her face is very nice :3. 

- Qinni

[critcorner]

Hello! This is an old idea from 2 years ago, redrawn. I noticed I understand a little better facial structure now, but I still don't know that much about shading and colors and how to choose which ones I should use...

I would be very glad to read a more general critique, too! What you think is best for it :)

From two years ago (if you want to see it too): http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb332/Dareedse/blue_zpsa57d483b.jpg

Hey, Qinni here,

It's not bad, and she's very pretty, but this lacks a certain source of lighting, and most importantly, the structure of the face still needs some more understanding and work; I did a simple structure guide to the face that might help:

There's also a certain variation of colours to the face; the face isn't just made up of all the same tone of skin. 

this is an exaggerated stripe of the colour variations of the face: the forhead area is more yellow-toned, the cheeks and nose area is reddish because that's where most of the blood vessels are closest to the skin (that's why your cheeks and nose get really red in the cold) (don't quote me on it though xD), and the chin is more gray-ish toned.

the variations are very subtle, but it's there, in any lighting, even if you've got the blue lighting there. 

Also, it looks a bit like you're using the burn and dodge tool, and all the blues are the same hue; If you put down the colours with a brush, the result will look a lot better. Don't have the light and dark contrast so much all over; have a few places where there's gray-ish, not just the neck, but also on the face. 

I think it's the understanding of facial structure that will help most of all, so study from photos or use a few drawings from good artists to practice (just practice, don't claim as your own). You can do these studies in black and white, and even better if it's with the pencil! Tonal structure come before colour. Once you have a good structure tonal-wise down, even if you don't have the best colours, it will still look fairly good. 

hope this helped :)

- Qinni

I'm very fond of the concept, but there are a few pointers that I think could really help boost the colors!

like Qinni said about the color zones on the face, if you add those her face will pop a bit more; and you can apply similar colors around the image to really pull it together. another thing that you might want to do is to vary the hues you use for the blues, more purple hues in the darker areas and greener hues in the lighter spots might just give it a little extra umph.

basically my suggestion is that you vary your colors a bit more to really give the piece more visual interest :D

-Jabberwock

[critcorner]

It's based off this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowyeow/8469596747/sizes/l/

I hope you like it, and thank you for doing these!! :3

the face looks great! the ratio on the face compared with the structure on its nose is very similar. I like the contrast between the wings the the fur, they look pretty good. I suggest increasing the contrast of the background to be brighter because of how dark the bat's wings are. I'd also work on the fur's texture outside the outline, but other then those it looks really good :D

-fearsome Jabberwock

http://gyazo.com/53baa672789d5b8ad5d953c52a6ef116

Hopefully this will help you see the differences in the body of the bat. There's minor differences between the images, but it would be good to fix the length of the body a bit. Also I suggest watching this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luJh1ASyzB8 Its a bit long, but it helps for you to draw in proportion when using photo reference.

- Xehhx

(I don't normally draw animals, so forgive me if it looks odd)

Here are some things that I've noticed.

When I first looked at your artwork I placed it next to the real photograph you've used. The body is way too long compared the the photograph. I placed red lines to indicate just how much more body length there is to the original. You also gave the bat a big belly! You can see that the real life bat is a bit smaller with a huge head.

I've also noticed that the head in photograph is more round, con-caving downward; however in your drawing your bat tends to kink upward, mesh with the ear then curves  back downwards. When observing real life photos with parts of the body hidden, try drawing a line to indicate the hidden parts (I drew a dotted line to give emphasis on where I think the head travels behind the ear.) I also noticed that the real life bat's right wind goes at an angle, but yours tends to travel down in a straight line.  Finally, when you compare the two noses, you will notice that your bat's nose is a bit smaller than the real life bat's nose.

Here I shrank the picture to match the actual size of the bat and tried to fix it's wings to match the real bat. I also marked the head and the ears to enlarge the bat's head. Since I shrank your bat, there's more room to add the rest of the clipped off left wing. I marked him more fuller and his head is more rounder.

I wanted to talk about the texture on the bat as well. I did this in Photoshop with given fan brushes that were already a preset. When mimicking fur like textures, you want to layer lighter and darker colors to give more volume to their coat. Here, the real life bat is actually fuzzy. You can make the fur appear to have more volume when you paint lighter colors first then layer on the darker colors with a fanned brush. 

I wanted to bring your attention to the nose of the bat (because I think it gives your bat a lot of personality to him.) I've made the nose bigger with pinkish insides, darker edges, with some highlights indicated. I also changed the iris of the bat too since it's completely black with a flared light in his eye. This gives a more contrasting look to your bat and the eye does not look lost in the picture.

Finally I wanted to talk about the background of your bat. You've stated in your blog post that you think you should make the background darker to have your bat to pop out more. The unfortunate thing about this is that your bat is too dark to be clashed with a dark background. If you noticed the rocks in the photograph, they are actually lighter comparatively to the bat itself. You will actually benefit more with a lighter background than a darker one.

And that's it! I hope this helps a lot!

-Tina

[mar-pascual-blog]

Responses to "Flux".

Last week, I had a written critique on a piece I titled “Flux” (you can see the piece here). Thank you, everyone in my class, for your feedback!

All of you reacted well to the smaller canvases and the blurred ambiguity of the work. Some longed for more figurative elements to go alongside the abstractions, just to create a more balanced composition, while others urged me to completely ditch the representational elements. Those who commented on the color palette brought to my attention the contrast of the reds (agitation/violence/roughness) and the blues (detachment/lonliness/stillness), as well as the androgyny of the pink and blue hues together. Some of you also wrote about the hair, being that it represented a mold within femininity which I struggle fitting in. Some also wrote about the hands and open-mouths representing either: agony/pain/hatred or arousal/ecstasy/pleasure. I realize that the more figurative pieces were more restrained in comparison to the abstracted ones, but that created a struggle. And that's along the lines of what I am trying to convey. Anyway, it's interesting that there is still a prominent division appearing again and again in my work, just that it isn't so literal as my paintings last semester.  

Here are some comments that stood out to me and felt were in likeness to Flux:

“At first, they appear abstract, but upon closer inspection are figurative.”

“The small little canvases are so reminiscent of snapshots from the size and intimacy... They dice up the figure, 'hiding' you even more."

“There is a search for the resolution of issues and complications of gender identity.”

“These pieces give me an overwhelming sense of sexual-self loathing, but at the same time, they are so soft and sensual, while also violent and anxiety-inducing. It makes me want to see more even though I know I am not allowed to/ you don’t want me to/ you don’t want to fully acknowledge yourself.”

 “The smaller canvases are successful because they are appetizers for a main painting. Each bite either too vague to tell or cut you off wanting more.”

“Some pieces are so abstracted, but at the same time, I’m getting a sense of hidden sexuality from them… but it isn’t about being 'sexy'. The work is pulling me in, but because its blurred, its also keeping me at a distance.”

“The subject is conflicted with the limitations of the human form. She is dissatisfied with her own vessel.”

"These paintings are lush, rich, and seductive, which I think is important to the content, that the body in conflict can be beautiful. You started out painting parts of your body that you don't like, now, some of those same parts have transcended into blurry ephemerality."

Overall, these comments were extremely helpful to me. It's safe to say that I will be continuing this self-exploration, so you can expect to see more of this kind of work from me in the near future. I'll be painting again soon... but perhaps not with so many canvases (sorry, David). 

Anyway, have a good weekend, everyone!