Gimmick's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Miria]

Nice to see you got the tablet to work. Digital art isn't quite the same as traditional because there's slight differences (e.g. shading) but once you get used to it it'll look great. As it stands, it looks much cleaner than before, and I look forward to your future submissions!

Waterina responds:

thank you

[Eyeball Tree Helix]

Great

I literally can't keep my eyes off it (pun intended). I think you did a great job with this piece, and the fact you drew it with charcoal pencils and had it redrawn so that it could be put up on the portal is in itself a daunting task.
So, let's see! (Okay, I'll stop)

The tree itself is very detailed, with the individual leaves being shown clearly without any gaps or breaks, yet all of them can be seen without any being hidden almost fully behind the other. The varying colors show a single light source, probably from the top left corner, as leaves are brightest there and follow a gradient color to the right where it is a little darker.

The trunk of the tree, and the branches are all drawn very nicely, each of them wrapping the lower half on all parts of the eyeball, almost as if to show the blood vessels at the back of the eye, and the progression of a tree to an eye. (Is there some sort of subtle meaning here that I don't get, the conversion of energy from a tree which eventually passes to an eye?) The branches are mostly the same color, but some parts are colored abnormally, as if to show mutation, and the roots the "blood vessels" of the eye. Good job, I always found drawing a tree difficult.

The vitreous humor of the eye is faintly tinted with red on a normal white, presumably to show signs of life and/or strain. The rest of the eye is drawn nicely, but there's a, kind of "problem" with the cornea. I wouldn't exactly call it a problem per se, since I've found that this is entirely normal in eyes, but it's odd because this isn't what I normally see in eye diagrams. The "problem": the cornea's transparent, with a slight outline. Again, this ain't a problem, but it's just odd to me. The lens of the eye's also good, except if you're aiming for a touch of realism like you did with the cornea, then wouldn't the lens also be transparent? Just saying.

The background could use some work though, as others pointed out -- it's just a gradient background fading to black from white. Perhaps a skybox to just show that the eyeball tree helix is "floating" in the air? Or how about a cross-section of the soil, with the eye "planted" deep in the soil? There are many combinations to choose from, but this...rather dull background isn't one of the good ones, I must say.

All in all, a good piece of art, although I don't think I'd like it enough to get it tattooed onto my skin forever, like XsakuX said. Either way, a brilliant way to come back from your hiatus, and I hope you have many more dry spells, so that we can see more art like this :P

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Nice detailing of tree, eye
2) Subtle detailing of leaves & branches
3) Nice touch of realism in the drawing

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Dull background
2) [If aiming for realism] Lens should be transparent
3) [If not aiming for realism] Cornea's a bit strange

[Review Request Club]

Galneda responds:

I'm glad you really like it, eye have a ball with reviews this positive!...okay that was terrible...

The lightsource is indeed from the top left corner, and I wish I had reinforced that by shading the eyeball accordingly.

I suppose the meaning behind it is combining two perspectives of life into one...the organic breathing life with plant life, and by making it a giant eyeball, it sort of humanizes this peculiar, other-worldly tree. Mutation is definitely implied, but it was wrought more from clean slated creativity than it was meant to state a point.

The fact that it looks downward could be that it's looking upon us from above (a parody of God) or that it's looking inward into the planet (a parody of Mother Earth), but in all actuality, it's just something neat that I thought up that came to me in a moment of sobriety, perfected in non-sobriety, and drawn here half and half. It turned out looking pretty good, and I leave it open to interpretation; if you look for it you'll find it.

Hell, to make things even more confusing, I hid two faces in this. One made entirely out of leaves, and separately, two triangles to emulate eyes looking out from the leaves.

In the coloring process, I tried making faint red cracks and tiny networks of veins running about the white of the eye to emote strain or dryness. But after 3 tries it never came out right, so I gave up and left it to a simple red underline to the root to give it that illusion of life you speak of. I'm still happy that detail didn't go unnoticed.

The black outline is a comic-booky habit of mine inherit in almost all of my artwork, in any future iterations, I'll try harder to disclude black lines in things that are supposed to be transparent.

Yeah, the gradient was a last minute addition so it wasn't just a white background. Future recreations will have added complexity in the environment.

The tattoo comment, to clarify, was from a singular friend who enjoyed the charcoal canvas iteration so much he wants it tattooed. I threw that into the author's comments as a tribute to him :D

I greatly appreciate the detailed review! Thanks very much!

[Greek Heritage]

Nice

At first I couldn't see the people's faces, but they became a little clear in full screen view. I think you meant for that to happen; nice job, by the way. I don't see many bad things in this, unless I take a close look, so I'm awarding a 10 and moving down by 1 star every time I see a flaw. (Yes, it's that good)
*look*

Okay, so the middle one looks very serious, especially with his helmet on and his arms in the defensive position; kudos for that. The helmet is very detailed, at least that's what it is like from a full screen view. All's well here.

The people on the left and right however, look a bit unnatural. The one on the right's face is looking as though he's been having a couple of drinks lately, due to the slightly drooped left lip, and his left arm's index finger is a tad away from the other fingers, and it seems he's preparing for a photo shoot rather than normal business as usual. It'd be better to have an "invisible" camera, so to speak, so that they don't "know" they're being 'watched'. A bit more natural, please?

There's a solemn look on the person on the right's face, and no drooping lip there; however, the arms do look a tad unnatural, as with the other guy. I know he's meant to be staring at the viewer, but it doesn't have to be *that* obvious, does it?

The background vaguely resembles that of a blurred light source (in this case, I'm reminded of the sun) which gives the people an aura of ghostliness. Good job on that one.

There's no ground, so the characters are virtually floating, but I saw the response you gave ("It was meant to be more symbolic than realistic") so I'm not going to take that into account, but rather say that you did depict the "Greekiness" of the people.

All in all, a nice piece of art. Kudos to AnimaTechnica for the costumes! They look really good! The bodies are in proportion and done correctly, something I often struggle with!

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Good detailing
2) Nice costumes
3) Good shapes & proportions of bodies
4) Nice background

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Unnatural poses (except for the one in the centre)

[Review Request Club]

samulis responds:

Hey there,

Thanks for the detailed reply... this is exactly what I wanted to get. :)

Now I know I need to work on refining the poses so they are more realistic, sounds good.

Regarding the background, it's actually a shot I took in which the lens had been hit with a raindrop and the sun had just come out from a storm (you can barely make out the hill and the sky on the left-hand side as they had been blurred out), with a bit of additional blur.

I'll tell Anima Technica you liked his costumes. :)

Thanks again for the good review!

[Sitting By The Sunlight]

Nice

I see Nene sitting on a grave stone, "by the moonlight". There is a city in the background, and there is smoke from them. There are laughing pumpkins sprawled here and there, and a zombie's dead head on the ground.

I like the cartoon style that you used, and I can't find many a flaw in this art. I'll talk about what flaws I did manage to find, though. First off, I'll start with the zombie head and its arm: There's a zombie head that's drawn perfectly, except there's blood on the bone and a few more centimeters away. On its own, I wouldn't count it as a bad point, however, in this case, there's an arm there. The arm isn't what's a bad point; rather that there's blood on that, and it's right below the head. It sticks out, but since that arm isn't supposed to be alive, since I can see a small part of the arm cut off at the bottom, and it wouldn't move because it's cut off.

That's what I see, however, and I could be mistaking that arc at the bottom of the zombie arm for a sleeve; so I won't reduce any stars for that.

The pumpkins themselves are perfect, and have an eerie laugh carved onto them; there is no flaw in them at all, they're (like I said before) perfect. The only one off that I noticed is the one in the far back -- I couldn't distinguish between its face and its laugh.

The zombie face (I'm presuming that's...Pico?) is nicely drawn, with a dead expression with mouth wide open and blood splattered on it, with a -- transparent?? -- bone, presumably its neck cut open. Nene is smiling with legs crossed, albeit without arms. The factories in the background have smoke billowing in the background, or are they burning buildings? The stars are scattered here and there, but they're not twinkling, sadly, and some stars that should have been behind the smoke aren't.

These are all the things I liked in the picture. All in all, it was a very good piece of art! I wouldn't really call it "sitting by the moonlight" though, since the sun's already up, rather "sitting by the dawn", or something.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Nice rendition of Nene and Pico
2) Pumpkins!
3) Good detailing everywhere

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Stars aren't shining
2) Stars that are supposed to be behind smoke are in front
3) That arm could easily be mistaken for one lying irregularly

[Review Request Club]

ZombieMonkey responds:

I really appriciate this review, it was a great and REALLY helpful read. Now that you pointed out these flaws I definitely see them, annd see how I could have done better on them.

Thanks for the great review mate :D

[Knights]

Good

I like the scene, it shows the part before a battle starts. One thing I like is that this is in 3d, and is modeled very well. I can see a lot of detail has been given to the background, which is essential in a medieval fight, since the two warriors are presumably going to use more than just weapons to fight. So, let's see!

The grass is detailed, but it's rather static and stiff. Natural grass should be floppy and blow against the wind, not stay stiff, since that indicates that there is no wind and is not "real" grass. It especially doesn't make sense when you note that the flag on the hut is fluttering, indicating a presence of a strong wind from...let's see...the East?

However, the trees are more realistic; the leaves are drawn like they should be in real life, and the bark on the left tree is very closely matching that of a real tree. The trunk of the tree on the right, though, is a little too light and fat, which when combined don't show a lot of "realism" because trees with a fat trunk generally have a dark bark.

There is a viewing platform on the tower grouped with some houses, all that standing behind a rather thick castle wall and beside a hill. I like that the wall looks thick, even though it may have as well been thin. However, the hill next to it looks like a big boulder, rather than a hill, and a giant one. There's no grass on that, so I think it's most definitely a boulder. Correct me if it isn't.

The knight is holding a shield in his left hand and a spear in his right. Appropriate shade is given to the shield and emphasis to the spear, as well as the *ooh, shiny!* metal armor he's wearing. It would have been better if his knees were bent a little, and a little blurred, so as to show motion.

The other person on the right is holding a sword, although that looks like a white stick to me, since there's no sharp end and is almost literally glowing. The shield is especially large, which suggests that it's heavy as well; I can see the person's leather armor, which is also given a lot of detail to, behind the shield even though it's not normally visible.

The shadows, however, have an unreal feeling to them. It seems as though the people are standing on glass since half of the person's (on the right) shadow is to the left of him, even though the light source is one and the same. It seems as though there's an invisible person standing next to him, with only a shadow.

All in all, good, especially since I used iClone 5 before and found it a bit tough, even though it was designed to be easy. You could improve, though.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Realistic scenery
2) Good detail given overall

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Shadows are a little off
2) Grass is stiff and the flag is fluttering (what?!)

[Review Request Club]

samulis responds:

Hey there,

Thanks for the great review. Next time, I will try to focus more on making the grass look more real, although that is limited by iClone quite heavily. In addition, I'll take better note of realistic shadows and the like to make sure the render seems a bit more real. Thanks for the in-depth response, it really means a lot. :)

[Random Happy Guy]

Not bad...

But not that good either, like you said, not a masterpiece. The "random happy guy" has no nose! Neither does the other person have a nose! The person in the background can be understandable because he's shouting, but this guy...there's more than enough room for a nose to be placed in. It just looks kind of...off.

The "fists" that he's holding in front of his neck have a rather thick outline compared to the other outlines on the person, such as the eyes, or the ears. Talking about ears, they are drawn okay....but there are some random spots on his earlobe...and the ear ring? Is that ear ring fake? Because I can see a part jutting out that is supposed to be invisible, so that it seems as though it's being worn, rather than dangling on the same side and on the verge of falling down.

And the fire...I think you repeated the same mistake, no offence. There's this long smooth thing at the back of the character which for the life of me I don't know, but I'm just guessing it's smoke. It would've been better to put smoke where it was obvious, such as the fire that's actually visible.

And the door...there's a see-through panel that's a bit tinted; nice job on that, it seems as though it's a mirror partially due to the fire. Oh wait, it's a building? Or is it a door? What is it? If it's a building, the people are rather out of proportion compared to the building! The picture doesn't really depict that the characters are far away from the building, because it seems they just got out of the building, else they wouldn't be panicking!

The three teeth on the random happy guy are rather large, and the bite marks don't fit the orientation of the face. The one on the middle should produce bite marks that start up and move to the character's left, not the right. The others are okay, though.

The fists on the other person aren't really given detail too, and the first fist is thicker than the other's outline. There's a "bald spot" on the left of him, with a clean cut, i.e. there are no patches of brown hair there, just a clean skin.

Not bad, though, the emotions of the different characters are shown wonderfully, e.g one is in ecstasy, another is in panic. The backgrounds are also well drawn, as is the fire. (But it's more like lava...)

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Emotions depicted clearly
2) Backgrounds well-drawn
3) Fire drawn nicely

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Teeth marks aren't in the right direction
2) Outlines of some things are thicker than others
3) Ear ring looks as if it's dangling from ear rather than through them
4) Building or door?
5) Smoke or what?

[Review Request Club]

MisterTig responds:

Thanks for reviewing. Let me answer a few of those questions. Yes, the thing in the backgrounds is a building. The grey thing is smoke. The teeth on Random Happy guy are unrealisticly large, I know. I just did that to make him look stupider and well... happier.

The guy in the backgrounds has that bald spot, becasue thats his hairstyle. and you're right, i should have put the smoke somewhere totally different. the building looks like a door because half of it is covered with fire.

Thanks for reviewing.

[Run Gordon, Run!]

Umm..not bad, not good either

It isn't very nicely drawn to give justice to the scene that I picture in my mind when I hear "Can Gordon run fast enough to get away in time?"

Gordon seems as though he's walking, because his right foot's on the ground and his left foot's in the air, but it seems as though it's just being lifted slightly so as to give the message that he's walking, because you aren't going to have one foot just above the ground and the other on the ground when you're running; rather, if you want to achieve that, you could've slightly blurred the feet, with both of them far apart and having the tips of them touching the ground, with a duplicate of those feet at transparency 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and so on (the more the transparency the lesser visible the feet). And his arms are just that of a stick figure. Sometimes I get the impression that Gordon is just a stick figure with a bloated stomach and chest.

There's also a look on Gordon's face that doesn't indicate fear and panic, but rather being surprised, cool and calm. That's not at all what I'd be feeling if I'd had a piranha on a jetpack chasing me at high speed, would I? No, I'd be screaming my head off and trying to run the fastest I could at that point of time.

The piranha, which I assume is the species of fish chasing Gordon, is drawn okay. but what is that black thing near its "arms"? Is that an outline? I sure hope not, because the arms are WAY smaller than the said outline!

The expressions on the piranha and the person are switched -- the person should be having an expression of that of the piranha's, and the piranha should have a poker face. After all, it's not scared -- it's a PIRANHA!

The jetpack on the piranha, sorry to say, just looks godawful. It's literally two branches at the opposite ends of a wonky black stick with fire sprouting at the ends. Maybe you could've introduced exaggeration by drawing, for example, a jet engine? It isn't that tough -- two elongated white ovals with a slight gradient.

And the floor and the background -- if you look at the background it's slightly blurred, but not too blurred, and the floor? Bah! It's not at all blurred, as if it's just stationary! It's not a P.E class where you run on the spot, it's a person fleeing from a piranha on a jetpack!

Apart from that, the rest of the drawing's okay -- the cap's drawn nicely. But those points, which were the highlight of the image, just brought the whole thing down, sadly.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Overall okay image
2) Nice cap!

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Bad drawing of jetpack
2) Piranha's arm outline too big
3) Piranha's and Gordon's expression's switched
4) Background, floor not blurred enough to give sensation of running
5) Feet position doesn't show that Gordon's actually running
6) Gordon's a shirt short of a stick figure

[Review Request Club]

MisterTig responds:

Thanks for reviewing. The piranha isn't scared, it insane and demented and has its mouth open cause it wants to eat Gordon.

And Gordon is supposed to look like that. Hes just a character I made up that isn't really meant to look like a real person. Gordon also rarely expresses any emotion, either.

[Nice job, Ross Fenton! 3]

Okay

It shows a picture of Ross Fenton burning a body.There's not much detail to it and it looks a bit too cartoony and some parts consist of basic shapes that are just colored in with gradients.

For example, the table is just two rectangles stacked on top of each other, and have two rectangles inside them which contain yet another shape, the circle. It just looks as if it's staring right at me, and doesn't show the same "3d" effect as Ross and the other things; their shadows aren't visible either.

The fire is supposed to be a light source, and yes, you did a good job on the light part, but it's too small. A raging fire should have a larger radius of illumination, and here since it's just 550 x 402 pixels, it doesn't cover a lot. Try switching from linear to a radial gradient for a better effect, with just a tinge of black shadows here and there, like you did with the burning body.

Talking about shadows, there's a long black body that's presumably the shadow of the burning body...but what is it? It seems like the silhouette of the head of a dragon, or a dinosaur, or something...but it sure as hell isn't a burning body: it's too close to the fire, or rather in it!

The "tear" of the wall paint, or structure, or whatever that thing on the top-right corner is, is a bit smooth. Not that it's bad, but it's also not good, because if you have a tear in the wall, and you're trying to fill in as much detail as possible, then generally you shouldn't have a smooth area; go more for the rough, jagged edges, with the frame of the said "wall" not being basic shapes, but rather being jagged as well. Nothing's perfect, after all, and this comes under it as well.

The person isn't drawn bad, I can see the blood "spatter" on his forehead, with some gray stuff -- is it ash!? -- smeared on his face, with a look of surprise and agony clearly visible. Not bad, but if it were a real live person that's being burnt, then he'd be flailing his hands as he's trying to get rid of the ropes that bind him to the pyre, but if it were a dead body, then its head would just kind of stay, with the forehead hitting the edge of the pyre...I don't know, because the author comments say it's a body, so I naturally presume it's a dead body, otherwise it'd be called a burning person.

On to Ross Fenton. His expression is cool, calm and smug, slightly smiling, as he's presumably burning his arch-nemesis? I don't know; but if he were an evil guy, which I assume he is -- I've never heard of him before -- then he'd have exactly that expression, so good job on that. His shadows are also not visible, mainly because he's in the dark, but if he was then he'd appear a bit...darker than he'd normally be. His shirt is heavily lined with gradients, although it's not obvious at a casual glance. The collars are not the same; their gradient colors are in opposing directions, away from the general direction of the gradient of the shirt, which is really odd...I'd go for the front-most part to be light and the back part dark, but clearly it's light around the edges not the opposite.

The fire is drawn nicely, with strokes of flame swirling out as they rise in the correct directions; they also overlap any things behind them, and give out a white "puff" of something, maybe steam?

The plaque is well drawn, with appropriate decoration given around the edges, and a brief outline of black; there's even a shiny coat on the picture! Nice. However, in comparison to Ross Fenton, it seems as though it's placed very low, around hip height. Generally, they should be high up.

All in all, it's not a bad drawing; it's quite good, but it looks too cartoony to be true. There's detail given to important parts, which I like. Not bad, keep up the good work. Anyhow, there's not much space left to finish.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Detail given to body, fire
2) Nice rendition of Ross
3) Overall good drawing

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Desk didn't have 3Dish effect
2) Desk consists of basic shapes
3) Person isn't panicking enough
4) Smooth tear on wall
5) What's that shadow?!

[Review Request Club]

MisterTig responds:

Thankyou for reviewing. First off, I want to answer that qustion. I think I made a mistake with the "shadow" on the fire. Its supposed to be smoke. I must have put some effect in the that made it look like shadow.

The collars on Fenton's jacket... the gradients are facing the opposite way from each other because I wanted the collar closest to the fire to look brighter. Also, your review was helpful, and will certainly help with my future art submissions.

[Jigglypuff]

Well...

It looks glass-like, and too round. The legs are way out of proportion, with the face being way larger than the legs. The ears have a black hole coming out of them, and it seems it's an object-sucking-monster-of-death object.
Either way, it was okay...but considering it was in Sculptris, which WAS very easy to use...I'll give a 2 for the paint job.

Asandir responds:

Too round? Black holes? You don't know the Pokémon, I guess. You should look the Pokémon up in Google.
It has such black ears, and the Pokémon is round.