YWS Artistry Discussions

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1. 
   

   Zolen Admin
   Zolen Admin · Apr 26, 2015

   When you're a artist, a writer, a creator, you always want a review and SOME sort of comment on your stuff. Kinda why this site exist at all. So this is a place to do that, review the poster above you then post a single image so you get some helpful comments on it, make sure you wait till someone responds to your post before you post again.
   
   
   In exact listing here is what you do.
   1.) Make a review to the poster above you about the image they gave. This can be a small 2 sentence comment, or a 5 page essay with pictures explaining your thoughts on the above posters image.
   2.) Post the picture you want other people to talk about

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   make sure it is in a spoiler tag which can be done by typing [spoiler ] (without the space) at the beginning of what you want covered and then [spoiler ] at the end, but with a / before the letter s.

   . Give them some idea what you're looking for, or if nothing at all, say as much.
   3.) Wait for someone to respond to your post
   4.) LEARN FROM IT
   
   Now to get the ball rolling with a example of the posting image part.
   
   

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2. 
   

   Holysocks Creator
   Holysocks Creator · Apr 29, 2015

   Alright, it took me a bit to figure out what I'd post for critiquing when I did this. But anyway:
   
   I really like that, Zolen! When I first looked at it I felt that I wasn't going to be able to find something to critique about it.
   
   I have a few things now though to say. I like the first frame- everything seems just right. The second frame however looks a bit off to me. I feel like I want to see more of the Pokemon, but with this one you almost seem to be attempting the 'eye glaring at you' thing, but it isn't really working... partly I think because it's not close enough to us, and partly because it's a smaller eyed creature to begin with. The third, fourth, and fifth frames I like. They fit in their boxes nice, the Poke balls brake the piece up a bit - which is good - and the fifth really fills the frame well.
   
   The sixth is not quite as good as the others- I keep wondering which is the ear, and which is the horn ( I can see now ). It's like the sixth one isn't in as frightening a stance as the rest, I guess. The other ones seem ready for battle and he just looks like he's irritated at the thought of being in a picture.
   
   I can't see the seventh due to adds, but it looks pretty cool from here! Overall I thought this work of your was great!
   
   Next:
   
   

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3. 
   

   TakeThatYouFiend
   TakeThatYouFiend · Apr 29, 2015

   I take it you're using watercolours, no? Assuming this is the case, I advise that you got over this a few times where the colours need to be rich, like in the shaded areas of the heart, and the base of the flame. The main tendency with watercolours is to do kinda faded drawings, but this doesn't need to be the case.
   Around the edge of the heart, it's kinda obvious you drew it then painted it in. I recommend if you are gonna do this, do it in a light pencil. it gives a smother graduation of shading.
   In terms of composition, all the flames are coming from behind the heart. It might look better if they sort of partially overlapped and engulfed the top half.
   
   I felt really hypocritical writing that.
   
   Colour pencil advice please!
4. 
   

   Zolen Admin
   Zolen Admin · Apr 30, 2015

   Hm, outside my range of experience, you are far better then me at traditional art.
   
   Lets see what I can pull out regardless.
   
   Right eye seems broken up, damaged, and far bigger then the left. Which would be interesting, but it doesn't seem like your intent was a broken slightly over sized eye.
   
   The fad away points confuse me they are swaying away from the creature like he is suddenly going to become a large ball, rather then implying a body.
   
   Several of your defining points of shadow seem too smudged around the..muzzle? Snout? face that sticks out part? Either way, i think you need to sharpen a few of the lines or lighten some of the darker ones to match more.
   
   The colors that define the nose seem to be too big, almost making it seem like he only has one pointing out from the center, but I might be horribly wrong about that part.
   
   well to fit the theme of traditional artworks, here be one of mine, a charcoal work of a old laser cannon...thing.
   
   

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5. 
   

   Aley
   Aley · Jul 3, 2015

   Hey Zolen! Aley here to review.
   
   I think your charcoal work is nice, but a bit underwhelming. I really like that you managed to get the values so dark on the one side, and that the light side really seems to help balance that out You have a good balance to the piece and the range of hues is nicely displayed. I think the problem comes with the concept of the piece. You're working with the medium well, you have a good grasp of balance, but there's nothing really going on.
   
   To me, a piece of art needs something to focus on and a background to focus against. Right now, we have two things that are rather background oriented. You have the cliff-looking thing with the three spikes on the cliff, and the potential ferris wheel, and a white space. If you want us to focus on the pokey things, you're going to need to give us something more to work with about what they are. It's a bit too abstract to really catch and keep my attention for long.
   
   My suggestion for how to fix it would be to give us a recognizable shape somewhere that the pointy things are pointing so that our eye travels through the piece rather than just focusing on the pointy things. We need somewhere to move or we're going to look at that, say "Oh, okay, got it," and move on. You could do this by adding other objects in the dark area, making something pop in the light area that's a recognizable shape, or just by adding more gentle squiggly lines which are darker and in some sort of pattern to lead us into the spikey thing rather than just the few at the end of it which leave us hanging near the center of the piece.
   
   Also watch the composition. You're getting dangerously close to having something smack dab in the middle of the page which makes for a hard depth of field and tends to block a piece's motion through the entire thing and just leave people focused on the center.
   
   This is an acrylic piece.
   
   

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