Knuckstrike's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Snail]

The most awesome drawing of Gary I've seen so far. In my entire life.

You can immediately see that it's not a rushed piece of art. What you often see with drawings of cartoon is that they are drawn in a really basic style. This is easy to do, as the cartoon character is basic itself. That is why I like it that you made a pretty realistic illustration of Gary.

The realisticness really works, as you can draw really well. I really love two things about your drawing style: the variation of lighter and darker parts in the snail, and the lighting. The variation between the lighter and darker parts is something you don't see that often as well. For some reason it makes it even more realistic.
About the lighting, I love how you put those small white light dots on the snail. It gives the impression that the snail is liquid, which is probably what you wanted to do with it.
I also wanted to say something positive about his belly. Because it is a bit more vague, it looks even more slimy. Nice work on that.

It's still not perfect though. For a snail, either a nature background or a water background would fit. At least not a white background. It's the only part of your painting you didn't invest time in, and because of that it draws the attention a bit from the snail. Just a basic background with lighter colours and the same drawing style of the snail would add to the picture I think.
You do have the mushrooms and grass though, so it's not that you have nothing.

The only thing I see on the stail that is a bit odd is the eye stick. If you could make the transition between the stick and his head a bit smoother instead of a straight line, I think it would be more realistic.

Still, an amazing picture. Definitely deserves four stars.

Review request club

Mabelma responds:

Thank you so much for your review. I appreciate both your kind words and your honest review, hopefully in the future I'll be able to get back to this image and add both a background and fix up those eyes. Thank you for commenting :)

[Gabriella]

Although not perfect, I can certainly see you've tried your best with this piece.

What I really liked, and especially because not many character drawings have that, is the background. It looks great, but doesn't take the attention of the girl. Also, the cast shadow of the girl is something you almost never see.
What I don't like about the background are two things. One: The name. If you could place that diagonally or a bit more down she wouldn't stand before it. What I do like about the name are the fond and the colours.
The second is the shape of the paint splatters. What you could do better with that is, instead of making shapes with them, make them all oval shaped or round. Now there are odd bits like the purple paint trying to avoid the blue paint and the red paint having the shape of a peanut with a flat bottom. Although it doesn't take away from the colourfullness and artistic feel of the background, it's still kind of odd looking.

I can hardly say anything about the girl, mainly because I don't know the human anatomy well, and because she looks basically perfect. Her face looks real, especially the eyes. That's a huge difference with how I make faces/heads :D.
The only negative point I can find about her is that some points of her body are too thin. Where I can see this the most clearly is with her ankles, which should be at least as wide as her upper arm.
I don't make this count too much in my score though, as you don't seem to aim for an incredibly realistic piece of are with this. For a character this would be fine.

These are some things I noticed about your piece of art. It's not too much, but I hope it's useful to you.
Keep in mind that, although over half of my review is critisism, I don't think this piece is bad at all. It's just that it's easier too say what's wrong than what's right.

Review request club

DragonPunch responds:

Well, you see, I am trying to aim for a more exaggerated cartoon style, hence the somewhat crazy proportions. I really take inspiration from Alex Ahad (look him up; he's got some really great artwork), which is emphasized in this piece. Thank you for your feedback. :)

[Classic Pokemon]

This is actually drawn really well.

I like original drawings more than tutorial-based ones. It originality. That doesn't mean it's not good though.
I like how you did the background. It's happy and colourful, but doesn't attract the attraction that would normally go to the Pokémon.

I'll just say something about each of the Pokémon. Know that I think each of the Pokémon is drawn good, there's no ugly one. All mistakes are details. And sorry if I spelt a name wrong.

I really like how you drew Pidgeotto. His posture is good, and his/her claws look really great. I don't know many people who can draw him/her this way. The wings look different from the Pidgeotto's in the series though. The feathers are a bit more square, and the lines separating the feathers should be a bit longer. This doesn't ruin him or anything, just a detail.
Nidoqueen is drawn good too, but with more mistakes than the rest of the Pokémon. That´s probably because she is the hardest pokemon to draw, with all her scales.

Nidoqueen´s mouth is a bit odd. The black in the middle is too square, you should make the gap a bit larger. Second, her ear shouldn´t be the same colour as her belly, but brown. Another colouring mistake is that her right boob should be yellow. Lastly, the length of some of her body parts seem too small. Her head shouldn´t be as large as her body. I understand that it would seem odd if one pokemon was half of the painting. So maybe you could put her on the far background, so you can draw her realistically large?
Pikachu is drawn nicely. Although his hands should have fingers, and his head shouId be connected to his body more, I forgive you because you drew the cheesy smile so nice. His small eyes are just too cute. And that while Pikachu is one of my least favorite Pokémon.
Ivysaur is drawn almost perfectly as well. The only thing I can find with him is that the dots on his body should be green/blueish and not red.
For haunter the only thing I would've liked differently is a bit more variationg in colour. Now almost his entire body is the same colour. But his shape is perfect, and his mouth is amazing.
Paras seems a bit sad, but ah well, he's probably always like that. I actually like that. (Not that he's sad, but how you drew him). The only mistake I see with him is that his back legs are a bit too big. But the rest is drawn well. Especially the mushrooms.

These are the "mistakes" I can see in your drawing. Though there are some mistakes, your cousin can certainly be happy if he gets this drawing. It's happy, colourful, and your best drawing yet.
A very happy birthday to your cousin.

Review request club

JimmyTheCaterpillar responds:

Thank you very much for reviewing my work. It means a lot. Really cool how you noticed all of this. Great job. Very helpful to me.

[Rebellion Festival Poster]

Graphic-wise this poster is executed perfectly. Giving the poster no colour but the guy in the middle and "rebellion festival" makes a contrast which gives life to the poster.

The man is really well drawn, as are the letters. The rough edge the letters have is along the lines fo the rebellious punk. Well done.
The rest of the poster looks like it's done quick and sloppy, but that doesn't matter. It gives even more of a rebellion idea to the poster. Probably also because of how rough the backgrounds looks.

Probably the only thing I would've liked differently is to give an idea what the rebellion festival is. I guess if you see a poster, you'll also want some information about when the festival is, and what it is. Maybe it's because I don't really like punk music, but I wouldn't have known this is a poster for a punk festival if you wouldn't have written it in the author comments.

Apart from that it's pretty much a perfect poster. I could've seen it in the streets, and think that's a nice poster. So good job.

Review request club

Decky responds:

Thank you for the review :).

The reason that there is little information on this poster is because the college project involved creating two posters. This one is the more graphically driven piece, the other has more information, such as bands playing etc.

[Ink Dragon]

I must say I know close to nothing about the different kinds of dragons, and the anatomy of them. I guess that's because of the lack of games that have dragons in them in my childhood.

Even though I know very little about dragons, I can imagine this being a great drawing. The scales look amazing, and the pointyness of basically everything about the dragon really fits. I also think that the difference in line thickness is great.

The fact that this piece of art has no colour makes it even more special. Because you made the dragon without colour, you made a picture that is different from most dragons.

The best thing about this picture is its style. You're really good if you can make shadows by just making some parts more detailed, which you did.

Basically the only thing I would've liked differently would be a more special boarder. It feels a bit simple compared to the detailed dragon. The fact that you made a border is good though, and if you would've made just the dragon would probably make me feel like there is something missing in this picture.

Review request club

EchoRun responds:

Yes, before the boarder it did feel that something was missing. TBH I was concerned that the boarder might be TOO complicated, instead of too simple; had it been too complicated it would have drawn the eye away from the dragon.

Thank you for the review. :)

[Just Chillin']

Amazing how much detail is in this piece. Things like the crack in the window at the back and the small texts on the machines ("no enemies"?) finish it.

Probably the best thing about this painting is how you mostly used the same colour group. This gives it a very chilly atmosphere already, without the water. The one or two things that have a different colour jump out of the painting. Nice use of contrasts.

Pretty much the only thing I can find which I would've liked to see different is more water throughout the picture. A puddle maybe somewhere, or some reflections in the water. It would give a nice effect.

Review request club

Lintire responds:

Thanks for noticing the details! Frankly the details themselves, the GUI displays, and the rain were all my biggest regrets - wish I'd have spent a little more time on them, but I was tired with the painting (most truly).

But yeah, I agree - a little more indication of water would have really helped the picture. Thanks for teh feedback!

[Surf's up!]

It looks pretty nice and colourful. Is it a real character? Because he could ertainly be one. I've never seen surf's up, so I don't know...

It's funny to see how you made an abstract illustration of a turtle. It fits the surf theme nice together with the bright and contrasting colours you used.
The face is drawn well. All aspects are clear, and I don't notice any odd looking things or anything like that. The eyes look cartoonish, which is good.

The only real negative point is that the abstractness gives a few things that look too odd IMO.
With that I mean the arms mostly. One arm is way thicker that the other. It must be four times as thick as the other in the starting point. That, and I don't like how the darker colour of the arm is overlapping a part of the lighter green of his right arm (on the left side).

That, and if you could make a background that gives more of a surf feeling instead of the dark red and it would be near perfect for me.

Review request club

PlusPlusKid responds:

Thanks for the review, I guess I should've added a backgrounds. Thanks for mentioning it! :)

[Celestia]

Cartoonish.

I think the simplicity of this picture doesn't take off from the fact that this still took really nice. Although there isn't much in this picture, what there is is still nice.
The cartoonish feeling this has looks really nice. Especially the sun is really in the same style as the graceful Celestia. That you used a pink shadow instead of black really adds to this picture. It makes it special.
Celestia looks almost like some kind of sticker, with the white outline and the plain background.

I think it would be nice to see the original sketch next to it, to see what improvements you made to it.
And indeed, the background is a bit odd. The sun is pretty basic, and some holy/castle background would finish this picture. A black background for a pony which controls the sun is a bit odd, especially with the sun in the sky.

You've probably heard a few of this commentary before, but maybe there's something in it you can use.
Anyway, I liked this picture, and what there is, is perfect. If you could add some things it would be even better.

Review request club

PinkRose11 responds:

Thanks for the advice! As for the background.. Im horrid at drawing them ;_; I need to get good at them before I add it. Thanks for the input!

[Vikings!]

Good atmosphere

The detail and the atmosphere in this piece of art are what attracts me to it the most. The atmosphere part attracts me because of the colours that are used: almost everything is black or red, which fits well with a scene of vikings burning down and looting a whole village.
That this scene takes place at sunset is a good choice. It's just light enough to see it, but still makes a dark atmosphere.

The detail is good in a way that I didn't find anything odd in the 3D-modelling, and that the reflection on the water is done nice. The burning houses also have a nice level of detail and realism.

I would like to see more vikings though. Now there's just two of them, and I'm not even sure about one of them if he's a viking. The vikings fighting are what would attract me to it the most, but there are hardly any.

I did notice an odd thing with the wind though: If you look at the sail the wind seems to blow, while the the smoke columns rise straight upwards.
Another thing is that there are too few smoke columns for the many houses that are burning.

tl;dr : A nice picture with good detail and atmosphere, but a few small mistakes.

Review request club

samulis responds:

Ya, my problem is that my program doesn't allow really more than five to seven characters (I could probably push it with 12 or 14). Ideally, I would have a good 25 vikings and a pile of dead guards, but that's really out of the realm of possible with a real-time engine like this one. However, I am looking into getting some super low-poly characters, even just static models, I can use as stand-ins.

The age-old solution for the program is exporting out alpha-transparent images of characters then using a flat graphic "planter" tool that allows one to randomly "plant" characters around the set... the issue is that you can't adjust lighting and well, they ARE flat. :P

I could have changed the atmosphere... next time, I will make sure my particle FX are fitting and working in conjunction with the flow of the image.

Thanks for the feedback,
-Samulis

[Roman Forum- Full]

What a work it must've been.

I have absolutely no idea of how a modeling program works, or how it does the modeling, but it seems like a load of work. The structure is pretty realistic, and the details are amazing. Even from a very close zoom it seems nice.

The floor seems a bit odd though. I can't imaging a forum like this standing on a totally flat and mirroring surface like this. If you put a few people here and there it would seem more realistic.

It would be nice if you made the roof tiles a bit more different from each other. It would be even more work, but now you can easily distinguish the texture. It's also a bit wierd on the edges, that the tiles are just cut off there. They also seem a bit too structured, nice and modern for a forum like this.

Review request club

samulis responds:

This was my most epic endeavor to date... it took at least eight to ten hours. However, I am sure others who are more experienced and have better tools could do it in half the time and twice the quality.

I did the mirroring floor as a more aesthetic thing... in my other render, I have a floor similar to the walls. I should have tried a blend map or two on the tiles so they appear dirty, but I'll try that with my next project.

Thanks for the review,
-Samulis