Luwano's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Middle-Eastern Santa]

I know I bothered you about the number of camels too much already, but just because you did that one so well. It looks like it's about to start moving any moment, since you chose such an optimally dynamic pose.

Style is such an awfully overused word that you'd deserve a new one, but until I found one, all I can say is, that I like your style generally and the style you used for this one. All these swirls one finds across the drawing add that little orientalic something that goes so well with the theme you picked. It kinda reminds me of Disney or Nightmare before Christmas without being unoriginal.

To cut a long story a little shorter: Love the colors, love the composition & love the whole thing. All it could use is one dozen more camels or two. :3

[Dreaming]

Cute idea, I like the concept you came up with and especially that you gave him goggles.

As for critique, I think what it lacks to be one of these enchanting dreamy night scenes is, above all, contrast. You used dark and desaturated colors, which makes sense cause it's night, but you need light to make other parts appear dark and you need some saturation to make the shadows appear misty. Otherwise they just appear dull to the viewers eye. If you'd google 'night scene' for example you'd instantly see what I mean.

So what is this babbling about? I'd recommend adding some hightlights, a moon maybe or at least make those stars 'pop' a bit more and and some blues or purples in the mix. The cloud needs some defining too, this is again due to the lack of contrast. The shadows are only slightly darker than the midtones and highlights are basically non-existant.

The text you added doesn't add a lot of charm either, maybe you'd be better off using your handwriting or use another font for that purpose.

Some resources for fonts:

http://art101.newgrounds.com/news/post/569368 (remove the empty spaces in the URL)

Am I saying all this to discourage you? Not at all, it's just because I like what you got here so far and I think you should build upon it.

I'd even say you could consider reviving your thread in the art forum for that purpose... just saying. :)

All in all a good idea, nice execution thus far, but could use some work still.

[Collaboration Breeze.]

That took a while...

It took a while until my mind understood that the tank is really infront of the people. Of course the hints are clear but my mind insisted on seeing it standing next to them. Things closer to the viewer have a higher contrast, once you get that it's so obvious that you can't see the tank next to them anymore. And of course, the fact that the grass is behind the tank is a good hint too.

Usually I would say you could move the tank a slight bit down so it's easier to make out that it's in front, but I see how the composition is so important and so strong in this piece that moving the tank might be a problem.

It took a while until I got what's going on overall. At first I thought 'Ok that's Pico and Nene in the back... probably... and the one guy wears Tankmen glasses... but who are those other two?'. And judging from Izzy-A's comment I am not the only one who asked himself that question. But then it struck me like a lightning bolt.

OF COURSE they represent the four portals! Guy listens to music, girl is an artist, gamer controls the RC tank and the other girl is filming it. Now that I got this this, I like your drawing even more. Trust me, I am not the only one who didn't get it, so it might be a good idea to give a bit of an hint towards it in the author comments. Although the title is a good hint already and helped me understand it.

Before I got the concept, I already loved the art. The color scheme is a pleasure, it's well composed and of course, it's very well drawn.

It also works good for an autumn month for the calendar, that was a nice decision and implemented persuasively.

Good luck for the contest!

Kuoke responds:

When an image is distributed, the chances of an artist statement to remain attached to it at all times is highly unlikely. I can only hope that others, like you, can grasp the concept without being told.

[The Old Digger]

It's a interesting take on the theme. You really got the old digger across, with his facial expression and his pose. You screwed up or at least didn't care for his anatomy, the right leg (his left) and arm are weird. But I never know what you were going for with your stylized drawings. You did a good job on the hand resting on the pickaxe handle.

What I like about your drawings, is that you can always discover something new when you look at it several times. That's also what makes them so hard to review. But the little extras you hide in your art make it even more worth looking at it.

Generally I like the definition in this drawing, I mean you can instantly make out what is what. :D

I love the stone! :3

Overall I dig your old digger pic!

ZaneZansorrow responds:

I wonder how I missed the anatomy issue with the legs, I even flip the image horizontally to see anatomy issue D:

This can be an easy fix-able problem just by adding in some fat on the skinny leg :)

[Beards Are Awesome]

Nice work here. I think the strongest part of this pic is the dead serious expression on his face.

There should be a little more shading overall. This leaves it looking a little flat. The dropshadow of the hair onto the face and the shadow of the nose are not placed properly and suggest a different lightsource than the other shadows you added.

I like your cartoony style, not only in this pic but generally, but I wish you would more often do detailed pics.

The caption goes very well with the facial expression.

Overall I think you did a good job, but it leaves some room for improvement.

Thanks for flooding with us! :D

Animarious responds:

I know the shading is my "weak spot", still I practice a lot and I hope I can make better pieces with better shading in the future.

This is the third flood I join, I wish more people would join to the floods.

['Positive' Space]

Wonderful

It is a beautiful drawing, I love the colors and I like the design of the space suit.

The only problem to me is, that the character doesn't really stand out from the background. Especially in the small view. If you squint at the pic (or you can try to blur it with an art program) she kinda gets lost in the background and the only thing that really stands out is the visor of her helmet.

I think that is due to the fact that you applied a proper highlight to the helmet. If you added shades and highlights to the rest of the body too it would really "pop out".

I think you did an awesome job on the background. At first sight, I thought you used water colors.

I also like the contrast of the flowing dynamic nebulas versus her rigid pose.

The hand looks like it could be wrong anatomically, but then again it could be the armor that is built that way.

I am not a fan of the white at the bottom, because it doesn't actually look like ground.

The title was a good choice to go along with the pic and a good play on words for this case.

Overall a great piece with wonderful colors and a nice idea, of course.

newbienalwayswillbe responds:

Thank you for putting a lot of thought into your critiquing. When I first drew the spacesuit girl it was kind of a doodle that got way out of hand when I started the background. Haha. I can't say I really disagree with anything you said either so, spot on, yeah?

[Sir Beerington]

Beer got manners

It's a kinda funny idea, but the drawing itself looks pretty rushed. You could have done more with it. Strange how the hand has outlines while the "body" has none. Most issues have been mentioned before, you could also have used a more suiting font. At least it made me smile a little. :)

[Beer Flooder]

Refreshingly fizzy

I love the dynamic that is going on here and the color palette is simply great.

What I dislike is that there are a bit too much undefined and blurry parts.

I can figure that there is some person/humanoid dancing and reaching out holding that beer bubble, but it's kinda hard to make out everything. I think you did well on the different bubbles and you did very well considering the short time you had.

All blurriness aside, looking at the pic is fun. You said it's a monster that can flood enemies with beer, but it really seems like dancing. Maybe a ceremonial dance to summon its awesome beer powers? ^^

You did a good job on the foreshortening and I like how you incorporated the icon.

Overall a great pic with a lot of energy, that could have used a bit more definition here and there. Well done!

[BeerFly]

Great concept

It's really a cool idea and as for the lineart it is pretty well executed. It would be even better if you added some shading or optimally even color.

Nevertheless, it's a good piece of art with an interesting composition.

I like how you managed to give the bottle a glassy look just using some thin pencil strokes especially on the neck, it comes across very well.

It would have been a much stronger piece if the background was not just plain white. I think some indicated stars or distant clouds would have done the trick.

The lines should have been a bit more cleaned up. There is for example a guideline from the bottle's top to the bottom and one crossing from the left wing to the right wing still rather prominent.

I like how you did the flames, especially the dented part where they emerge.

Overall it's a great idea with great lineart, but I would love to see this brushed up and completely finished someday. Or, since you probably want to keep this one the way it is, a new colored and shaded drawing based on the same concept.

[Drunkard's Delirium]

Difficult but good

It's the little details like the heart tattoo, the bubbles etc. that add up to something I really like. I think you did a good job with the lineart and it's a really interesting piece. I must admit, that I am not absolutely sure what I am looking at.

I agree with the others, that the colored items in the background are distracting, but I think it's ok for the green bottle and the reddened cheeks and nose.

I don't know why there is a cigarette hovering on his left, but I see it caused a fire. So that's probably part of the story of the drunkyard, which I don't really understand unfortunately.

All in all a good piece on the art side, but a difficult pic on the interpretational side. Or maybe I am just trying to overinterpret, who knows?

Well done!