Forums → Art, Music, and Writing → Let's Critique! (or probably not)

I thought this was going to be a thread by Cen.

Anyway, shadows. The shadows are your problem. Compared to the rest of the image they seem too sketchy.

I thought this was going to be a thread by Cen.

Thanks for participating guys. I've got presents for your efforts.

For sapphics, a man pondering about strawberries:



For daleks, a grub boy trying to scare an otter:



And for Cen, an awesome beard man:

Not so good use of the light blueish white at the top near the ink, it looks like silver, but can hardly be made out besides a weird haze in the picture where it is.

For daleks, a grub boy trying to scare an otter:

I was going to talk about the beard man, but decided that was a bad idea. :P

Ok, let's see what we've got here...

The thing that primarily and firstly strikes me are the eyes/holes/whateverthoseare. They look very unnatural considering they're just circles filled with black. In real life, we don't have natural circles filled with black. Look in the mirror - even your eyes aren't filled with black. There will always be some sort of reflection from the inside, whether it be from some sort of material or whatever. Easy fix so long as you didn't use anything permanent. Erase the black and put different shades in where appropriate. I don't know what this is supposed to be exactly so I couldn't really tell you where.

The position of the thing is off. Stand back and you'll get what I mean. It looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I mean, sure, it isn't meant to be perfectly positioned in the middle and straight up and down, but surely whatever this structure is it doesn't lean that far to the right. Unfortunately, this isn't something that can be fixed easily without changing the whole thing up.

Yes, the shadows do look sketchy and unnatural. I'm not going to dwell on how to fix them though, because I assume you know how (or at least I hope you know how :P). Looking at some of the unpopular aspects of your shadow use, they aren't very dynamic, but I can see a shadow pattern like this used anywhere in the real world, which is a huge plus. If the shadows weren't so dang sketchy, I'd know how much brightness/darkness contrast is there, but because the shadows are sketchy I can't tell exactly. From the looks of it, I see a healthy amount of contrast though. The only area that might need a tune-up may be the space directly under the chin/nose on the head area. That could probably use some darkening. A softer pencil will do you wonders.

The, uh, hair/volcano thing is... odd. I don't know what it is. It just seems out of place. *Moves on because he can't think of anything else to say*

It looks like you tried to pose a basic, centered format, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but you didn't do it fantastically or anything. The shape isn't symmetrically accurate enough to pull a good centered look. The spikes on either side of the head don't correspond to the other side in terms of size, which is pretty distracting to say the least.

The bottom part is busy, and I don't have anything to say that isn't extremely specific. I guess the thing that stands out the most is the fact that the shadows make the details on the right side blur together in a blob fashion. Same deal on the left side - the lack of shadow (which is probably intentional and good) causes the detail to look washed out.

The background is strange. I... don't have anything to add there. I think you know what's right and what's off. Well, that and my fingers are just dog-tired from typing this post.

Sal gets a spook trying to wear a mask. Alas, the spook has no ears.



I'm really surprised yall don't know anything about The Shadow of the Colossus. Here is a nice picture. I wish I had this when I was working on my drawing.



The black volcano is the essence of a god pouring out of the blue seal. When you stab it enough times, it fully releases that portion of the god. Unfortunately, the colossus is fully dependent on that god essence to live. When it dies, the eyes go black.

The position of the thing is off. Stand back and you'll get what I mean. It looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Reton gets a squirrelboy holding a tiny dancing man trophy.

MOER COLOR!, do this either darken the background a bit with violets and purples, maybe a touch of blue (Bluuuuuuue sparkles O.o) use some more yellows and whites in the lighter areas of the colossus thingy. Use some dark yellows/browns, maybe some red browns in the creases, define the edges a bit more here and there.

Main problem has been mentioned it the lack of contrast and definition of the form, I suggest increasing the purple to yellow ratio because they are great at contrasting each other (O.O get a color wheel! and use it :P)

For Hec, a spoon in love.

I knew instantly what you were doing a drawing of. That's, what? The first colossus you battle? Think so.

The only thing that threw me off was the lack of vegetation 'fur' on it. As such, it looks super naked and one-dimensional. You already mentioned that you wished you had a reference photo when drawing it, so you know. Not a big deal really.

As far as the shadows go, it would have to be a very odd kind of lighting to have those certain areas in shadow. Light-source is in the upper-left behind the head it looks. So looking at it, I would think that the right side of the face would need a little more shading there.
I might be wrong on this, because looking at it know it might also be elsewhere. Hmm.

Eyes are fine to me, because when you finally slay a colossus, don't the eyes go dark? I think they do.

That's all I got right now.

That volcano guy that you drawed, didn't even look like a volcano.It looked like some kind of weird tiki dude with juice coming out of his head.Aldo, I like the squirel boy with the mask.You have a little problem with shadows, like others mentioned.The lips on the fork could be done a lot better, and I like the crack on the spoon.And I need to ask you, is that spoon a Redneck?

For Voidy, a crinkle fry covered in ketchup.



Gandalf gets a dingus fish.



@Voidy, it's the third colossus.

The third colossus has a strange placement for the eyes, doesn't it? In fact, the dark eyes in general throw it all off. Everything has a sort of dream-like depth and shade to it, but the eyes have no transition from the rest of the piece at all. It reminds me how when you draw a moustache on something in paint, it looks so positively in-your-face because there's nothing between the pure blackness of the moustache from the rest of the piece. The eyes also have a weird position on it, because of the position it's in. From the base of the neck things, the "camera angle" is moreso looking down upon it, but the eyes are glaring right back at the audience. It's like the face is tilted upwards, but the head shows no sign of tilting backward.

I still like the job you did with the neck shapes, though. It all looks unified. If it wasn't a colossus, it'd make for a neat looking building.